PREPS & JCs : Santa Monica Names Replacements for Retiring Swim Coach Joseph

Stu Blumkin recently was selected the men’s swimming coach and Kiff Kimber was named the women’s coach at Santa Monica College, replacing John Joseph, who retired in June.

Blumkin, 43, has served as an assistant swimming coach and water polo coach since 1976. He graduated from Santa Monica in 1969, where he was a All-American in swimming and water polo. He attended Cal State Northridge (formerly San Fernando Valley State College), where he earned All-American honors in swimming and water polo.

Blumkin’s coaching credentials also include serving as an assistant swimming and water polo coach at Beverly Hills High, where he graduated in 1967, and as a varsity girls’ swimming and assistant water polo coach at Santa Monica High from 1974-1976.

Kimber, 33, was a two-time All-American at El Camino College and held the national-best time of 27 seconds in the 50-yard butterfly. She also was an NCAA Division I qualifier while competing at Cal State Long Beach.

Kimber was a part-time teacher and assistant for three years at El Camino College. She became coach of the men’s and women’s swim teams in 1983 and held the positions for five years. Kimber also will be a physical education teacher at Santa Monica.

Add water polo: For the first time in school history, the Santa Monica water polo team will have four women competing.

Lara Forman, Stacey Friedman, Marianne Kelly and Monica Lizarraga have played water polo at the club level.

“Women have competed in water polo at other schools, just not at Santa Monica,” Blumkin said. “They’re a very talented group. They can hold their own and I’m very pleased to see them involved.”

The Corsairs recently concluded tournament play at Mt. San Antonio College and Ventura. Sophomores Scott Garinger (15 goals) and Dmitry Liberman (12 goals) lead the team in scoring. Freshman goalie Jiong Zhang has 75 saves, including two blocked penalty shots.

Boys’ baseball: University High Coach Frank Cruz has been hired as an assistant at USC. Jon Beckerman, the Warriors’ junior varsity coach, will replace Cruz.

Cruz, 32, was 152-57 in his eight years at University. He guided the Warriors to Western League championships four of the past five years. Last season the Warriors reached the semifinals of the City Section 4-A Division playoffs but lost to eventual champion San Pedro. In 1988 the Warriors won the City 3-A title.

Girls’ volleyball: After dropping two nonleague matches, the Harvard-Westlake girls’ volleyball team rebounded to reach the final of the North Torrance High tournament Saturday at El Camino College.

Harvard-Westlake was defeated by Long Beach Poly, 16-14, in the final.

The Wolverines were undefeated in pool play, including two victories over Palisades High. They also beat Alemany in the quarterfinals and Marymount in the semifinals.

Harvard-Westlake junior setter Lindsay Powers and senior hitter Laura Wolf were selected to the all-tournament team. Senior outside hitter Meghan O’Rourke of Marymount was also selected.

The Wolverines will play tonight at Bishop Montgomery.