Golden West Swimmer Faces Test

Alex Beaver of Golden West College is nervous and worried. Last week, he was just nervous.

His concerns are about how well he will do in the most important meet of his life.

At the State Championships Friday and Saturday at Hartnell College in Salinas, Beaver will compete in the 200- and 400-yard individual medleys, the 200 butterfly and most likely be part of the 800 freestyle relay team.

He is coming off a strong performance in the South Coast Conference championship last weekend at Long Beach Belmont Plaza.

He set a conference record in the 200 individual relay (1 minute 54.29 seconds). He also won the 200 butterfly (1:55.83) and was part of the winning 800-freestyle team.

Beaver also appeared to have set a conference record in the 400 individual medley (4:02.88), but he was disqualified for jumping back into the pool to celebrate before all the other swimmers were done.

But such glee could almost be excused from Beaver, considering how far he has come to be a contributing member at Golden West.

Beaver is the son of well-known international swimming coach Richard Beaver, who has worked with the national teams of the U.S., Mexico and Italy.

Alex’s grandfather, Dave Beaver, is a member of the American Swim Coaches’ Hall of Fame.

Alex’s parents divorced when he was a child and he moved around a great deal. He was in 17 schools before passing the high-school graduate equivalency test at 16 and moved out on his own in Sacramento.

While growing up, he worked with several coaches and learned each stroke from a specialist. This made him a particularly strong medley swimmer.

He said he tried to stay in school but between working, riding his roommate’s jet ski and listening to music, he found it hard to get to class every day.

“Back then,” he said, “my biggest concern was having gas for the jet ski and enough CDs to listen to . . . Sometimes when I step outside of it all and look at my life now, I can’t believe how much things have changed for me.”

Beaver tried to continue with classes and landed in continuation school. It was there he decided he wanted to go to college.

With the help of his father, he narrowed his choices to Cuesta, Orange Coast and Golden West. Beaver liked the Huntington Beach area and selected Golden West.

He showed up in the summer of 1991 with three trash bags of clothes and no job, no place to stay and no specific plans.

But with the help of Golden West coaches Ken Hamdorf and Bill Jewell, he found a place to live, a job and got involved in the swim program. Beaver, who is being recruited by Cal State Bakersfield and BYU, will stay in Huntington Beach at least for the summer because he has earned a job as city life guard.

Beaver’s first season had its up and downs. He missed workouts once in a while and since he hadn’t swum competitively in more than two years, was slow in getting back in shape.

But according to Jewell, Beaver has been much more dedicated this season, thanks in part to financial help from his family.

But there are other reasons.

“He has turned into a really worthwhile person and a positive member of the team,” Jewell said. “He realized this was the end of the line and he would be out of chances after this.”

Baseball: Rancho Santiago, the first-place team in the Orange Empire Conference, can’t seem to get away from the second-place team. The Dons (28-6, 13-5) started last week in the second place but beat Orange Coast, 22-17, Tuesday to move into first place by a half-game.

Rancho Santiago came back to beat Orange Coast, 6-5, Thursday to open a 1 1/2-game lead.

Rancho Santiago travels to Cypress, which won three times last week to move into second place, for a game at 2:30 p.m. today. Cypress is 26-11, 12-7.

Rancho Santiago then takes on eighth-place Golden West (9-19, 3-14) Thursday. The teams meet at 2 p.m. to finish a suspended game that was tied, 3-3, after 13 innings and stopped because of darkness. The regularly scheduled game follows.

Orange Coast (21-15), Saddleback (26-10), and Riverside (25-12) start the week tied for third at 11-8. Fullerton (14-22) is in sixth with a 4-15 mark.

Signings: Anthony Livingston, a sophomore swing player from Cypress, has signed letter of intent to attend Cal State Bakersfield, Division II national champions in basketball.

Livingston, from Long Beach Jordan, averaged 12.5 points, 4.4 rebounds for the Chargers this season. He finished seventh on the college’s all-time career scoring list with 853 points.

Trent Burns, a tennis player from Golden West, has signed a letter of intent to attend Texas Arlington. Burns, from Marina High School, is 13-4 in dual matches this season.

Community College Notes

Kevin Clark, a sophomore infielder Cypress, set the career school record for doubles Saturday. Clark had a two in a 16-7 victory over Fullerton to give him 40. He had been tied with Troy Babbitt (1990-91). Clark has 24 doubles this season and needs three more to tie Babbitt’s single-season mark of 27 (1990).