Woodbridge Adopts Goal: All for One, and One for All

Their bodies were willing. Their minds were able. Their times were sufficient.

But their unity was suspect.

Halfway through the 1993 season, members of the Woodbridge boys’ swim team stopped, checked out the lane lines and felt something was wrong with this pool party.

As Andrew Lazenby and Tunch Doker, senior co-captains of the 1994 Warriors, saw it, something wasn’t quite right, and they approached Coach Dan Gaines with their proposal.

The heart of the problem, they felt, was alienation between club and non-club swimmers. Why not, as a goodwill gesture, bring the two camps together?

“Tunch and I spoke to Dan about needing more team unity,” Lazenby said. “We felt all the other teams would be stronger against us because they had more (unity) than we did.”

The bringing together of the two sides started with a meeting, during which each group aired its feelings about team togetherness, or lack of it. Soon afterward, club members--most of Woodbridge’s club swimmers belong to Novaquatics--began to meet with the non-club swimmers twice a week to give lessons.

Gaines said the actual lessons were “incidental. The fact that they were there made all the difference in the world to the younger swimmers.”

Us and them became we.

“There used to be a sense that the club swimmers were more elite,” Lazenby said. “But hey, we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the high school swimmers. By showing we cared about them, we get along much better. We’ve had some fun picnics, done things outside of the competitive life.”

Within the competitive circle, it’s hard to find anyone who isn’t picking Woodbridge to medal at the Division I Southern Section meet this May, on the heels of the Warriors’ 1993 fourth-place finish and with their returners.

The swimmers’ expectations are equally high.

“Everyone’s goal is to win CIF, win league, win every invitational, go undefeated,” said junior Dawson Hughes. “Everybody’s talking about it. There’s a lot expected of us.”

Those expectations surfaced as early as 1991, when Hughes was an eighth-grader, and Doker was already looking into the future.

“I remember taking to Tunch back then and he was saying how good our team would be his senior year,” Hughes said. “My freshman year, we had all the same people we have now, they just weren’t as fast. Then, we got Derya.”

Speaking of Derya. . . .

Much of the exposure--you could say ruckus--that has surrounded Woodbridge the past two years has centered on Turkey’s Derya Buyukuncu, the swimmer Doker was partially responsible for in bringing to America.

As a 1992 Turkish Olympian, Buyukuncu was already an established swimmer. But after he set a national high school record in the 100-yard backstroke last season, one would think he’s Woodbridge’s lone athlete.

“He’s done a lot for our team,” Doker said. “Most people hear Woodbridge and they think, ‘Oh, that Turkish guy.’ It’s not just Derya who will win a meet, it’s the whole team. But he has won a lot of recognition for us.”

The Warriors, though, seem to understand that publicity for Buyukuncu means publicity for Woodbridge.

“We don’t feel overshadowed by him,” Lazenby said. “We respect that he’s here. He’s one of the top swimmers in the United States. Having him at practice gives us someone to chase, so it’s good for everyone.”

Last year, most team members paid attention exclusively to junior and senior nationals as their big meets. This year, the section meet is the event of the season.

“We hope it’s our big meet,” Doker said. “Knowing that we have a good chance to win, we’ll have more confidence than last year.”

The Warriors have other motivating factors. Teammates Hughes, Lazenby, Doker, Sean and Mike Moore and Ethan Yotter have been swimming together for as many as eight years. Those left want to make sure they go out in style.

But they are painfully aware that teammate Sean Moore, a vital link to their section championship hopes (in the 100 breaststroke and the 200 individual medley) won’t be around come title time.

Moore, a member of the junior national team, will be in Paris representing the U.S. in a dual meet.

“That’s going to hurt,” several team members echoed.

Boys’ Swimming and Diving at a Glance

Other Top Swimmers: Division I--Dan Batten, Capistrano Valley, Sr.; Grant Crosby, Corona del Mar, Sr.; David Hay, Foothill, Jr.; Brendon Herlihy, Santa Margarita, Sr.; Brian Heifferon, Servite, Jr.; David Katz, Foothill, Jr.; Aaron Lehr, Dana Hills, Jr.; Paul Liegeois, Marina, Sr.; Jim Lowe, Tustin, Jr.; Spencer Miller, Marina, Sr.; Blaine Morgan, Marina, Jr.; Steven O’Rourke, Marina, Jr.; John Peterson, Santa Margarita, So.; Adrian Strezlow, Corona del Mar, Jr.; Cory Tague, Edison, Sr.; Frank Tsai, Huntington Beach, Sr.; Jake Yokota, Capistrano Valley, Sr. Division II--Carlo Franzia, Sunny Hills, Sr.; Tim Haney, Los Alamitos, So.; Eric Ploessel, Los Alamitos, Jr.; Seann Schiele, Sunny Hills, Sr.; Ray Schmidt, Katella, Jr.; Division III--Steve Fedor, Kennedy, Sr.; Josh Huey, Trabuco Hills, Sr.; Casey King, Brea-Olinda, Sr.; Charles Malki, Trabuco Hills, Sr.; Tim Martin, Kennedy, So.; Tad Murphy, Brea, Jr.; Mike Van Nostran, Trabuco Hills, Jr.

Other Top Divers: Division I--Mark Boesmiller, Edison, Sr.; Shawn Thomas, Edison, Jr.; K.C. Tudor, Capistrano Valley, So. Division II--Aaron Jenkins, Sonora, Jr.; Scott Phemister, Sonora, Sr.; Gary Revere, Sonora, Sr.; Sean Rooney, Sunny Hills, Jr.

League Favorites: Century: Villa Park; Empire: Los Alamitos; Freeway: Sonora; Garden Grove: Kennedy; Orange: Brea-Olinda; Pacific Coast: Laguna Hills; Sea View: Woodbridge: South Coast: Mission Viejo; Sunset: Marina.

Key Dates: Southern Section Relays, March 12; Foothill Swim Games, April 23; Southern Section Divison I and II preliminaries, May 12; Division III preliminaries and Division I finals, May 13; Division II and III finals, May 14.

Notes: Division I--Last season, overlooked Marina snared the section championship from Mission Viejo, a team gunning for its 16th title. Marina, which didn’t have an individual champion but qualified a swimmer in every final but one and whose 200-yard free relay upset the Diablos, pulled it off, 186-152. But the Vikings lost Matt Braun, Jon Kenyon, Jason Klick, Brian Akian, Phillip Steuber and diver Ernie Higbee (second), an extremely heavy graduation toll. . . . Division II--Sonora, Freeway League runner-up to Sunny Hills, came within a wing and a prayer of the section championship, largely from the efforts of graduated Jernej Seljak and Jay Judson, but the Raiders still have a strong core of returners.. . . . Division III--Brea-Olinda, winner of four consecutive Orange League championships and eight of the last nine, expects another top finish. “First,” Coach Dave Wright said. “If we don’t, we screwed up or something went wrong. Very wrong.” . . . Defending Pacific Coast League champion Trabuco Hills is strong in the butterfly, individual medley and sprint events, but weak in distance and breaststroke.