Mission Viejo Nadadores Come Up Roses : Swimming: Long Beach native Bill Rose takes over as head coach and his wife, Siga, will serve as assistant for prominent club team.

Saying he wants to return the Mission Viejo Nadadores Swim Team to prominence, Bill Rose accepted the Nadadores’ head coaching position Thursday. The 49-year-old Long Beach native replaces Terry Stoddard, who resigned earlier this month.

Rose, a Modesto stockbroker who has been out of coaching since 1981, decided to return to the deck because he views the Nadadores job as a unique opportunity.

“I don’t think there’s a position in America that compares to the potential that Mission Viejo has,” Rose said. “Mission Viejo was at one time the pinnacle and I still think they’re terrific, but at the same time the challenge is there to take them back to the top, and it’s not that far.

“For me, and what I’m looking for in coaching, it’s a dream come true. I can get back to what I love to do.”

Rose has coached at the international level as part of Canada’s coaching staffs for the 1978 World Championships and the 1979 Pan American Games. He helped develop Mike Bruner, a double gold medalist at the 1976 Olympic Games and three-event qualifier on the ’80 Olympic team that did not compete because of the boycott.

From 1971-74, Rose coached the Pacific Aquatic Club in Stockton, and membership grew from 37 members to 235. As DeAnza (Calif.) swim coach from 1974-76, the club doubled in size, from 320 to 647. In that span, DeAnza went from going scoreless at nationals to finishing fourth, in 1976.

Rose also coached the Canadian Dolphin Swim Club in Vancouver, British Columbia, and two college programs, University of the Pacific (from 1968-74) and the Arizona State women’s team, which placed in the top five nationally under his direction in 1980 and ’81.

Rose’s wife, Siga, the Nadadores’ age-group head coach from 1981-86 and the current age group coach at Tiger Aquatics in Stockton, will be a Nadadores assistant coach.

“It’s a good tandem,” U.S. Olympic team assistant coach Jon Urbanchek said. “Siga is one of the best age group coaches in the country.”

Siga Rose, 43, founded the Surfside Swim Club in Manhattan Beach and has coached at Lakewood Aquatics (with former U.S. Olympic team coach Jim Montrella), Huntington Beach-based Golden West Swim Club and Beach Swim Club (with Urbanchek).

“With Siga and the rest of the staff, the total emphasis will be on stroke work,” Bill Rose said. “It will be the middle name of the program.”

Rose takes over a program that won 18 combined (men’s and women’s) U.S. Swimming National Championships under Coach Mark Schubert from 1975-85 and one title, in 1986, since Stoddard took over.

Unlike Schubert, Stoddard did not have the full financial support of the Mission Viejo Co., which founded the club in 1968. It has decreased funding over the past three years, and its financial support (except for free use of the swimming pools until Dec. 18), ends Sept. 1.

Rose will be paid by a board of directors, but clearly he is in charge.

“I made it very, very clear to them that they are hiring me as a total professional; therefore I’m running the show,” he said. “They are needed by all means and are in position to take directions, not to give orders. I’ll make sure they’re happy to take directions.”