Golden West’s Success in Water Polo and Volleyball Is Almost a Given

By making Golden West’s water polo or volleyball teams, athletes are under more pressure than those on other campuses.

The reason in each case is the long tradition of winning.

Golden West’s water polo team--coached by Ken Hamdorf--has won the last six State titles.

Albert Gasparian’s volleyball teams have won five of the last seven State titles, including the last two.

Hamdorf spends very little time talking about the past success of the program, which also won five consecutive State titles (1978-82) under current Athletic Director Tom Hermstad.

“We have banners painted in the gym and out in the pool deck,” Hamdorf said. “The kids already know about our past. My biggest job is to reduce that anxiety by putting all the pressure on performance.”

In fact, Hamdorf says his 1988 team, which finished second in the State to Long Beach, was his favorite because it improved so much from the start of the season to the end.

This season, Golden West has gotten off to its typical start, winning the Ventura tournament Saturday.

The Rustlers outscored four opponents, 73-17, including beating Neukolen of Germany, 10-8, in the championship game.

The Rustlers got a two-point goal from Gabe Wyatt with 16 seconds left to break an 8-8 tie. Andre Doria Araujo scored a two-pointer to tie it with 1 minute 49 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

The Rustlers take part in the Cuesta tournament starting Friday.

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Volleyball: Gasparian spent his summer working as an assistant coach for the U.S. women’s team, which finished fourth at the World University games in Fukuoka, Japan.

“It was awesome,” Gasparian said. “Ninety-five percent of the coaches in this country have no idea how good that level of volleyball is or how hard they practice.”

Gasparian’s commitment to the national team kept him on the road for about six weeks and while he was gone, he said he had some nightmares about what was happening at Golden West.

“I was afraid I wouldn’t have a team or they wouldn’t want me,” he said.

But assistants Mike D’Alessandro and Karen Jacobsen kept things running smoothly and the Rustlers are ready to start the season Saturday with two matches at College of the Sequoias.

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Football poll: El Camino, which beat Rancho Santiago, 30-23, Saturday, remains the top-ranked team in the weekly Southland Poll.

Bakersfield (1-0) is second, Long Beach (1-0) third, Los Angeles Valley (1-0) fourth, Palomar (1-0) fifth, Cerritos (0-0) sixth, San Bernardino Valley (1-0) seventh, Rancho Santiago (0-1) eighth, Moorpark (1-0) ninth and Mt. San Antonio (1-0) 10th.

Orange Coast (0-1) plays its home opener at 7 p.m. Saturday against Cerritos while Golden West (0-1) is at Pasadena (1-0) and Saddleback (0-0) plays at Long Beach.

Saddleback’s game will mark the head coaching debut of Bill Cunerty. Golden West’s Dennis Dixon made his debut Saturday against Long Beach and the Rustlers lost, 42-12.

Fullerton and Rancho Santiago have byes.

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Cross-country: The Orange Empire Conference holds preview runs Saturday at Central Park in Huntington Beach. The men race at 9 a.m. and the women at 10 a.m.

The meet will offer an early indication of which teams will be favorites as the season unfolds.

The teams return to the course Nov. 3 for the conference championship races that help determine which teams go to the start tournament.

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Blow out: Only the closest followers of college football would be aware of the local significance of Tennessee Martin’s 97-7 victory over Bethel College of Tennessee last Thursday. Martin is a Division I-AA team and Bethel is an NAIA college.

In the last couple of seasons, Tennessee Martin has recruited in Southern California and has a handful of local players, including starting quarterback Todd Mather (Orange Coast) and wide receiver Cal Daniels (Golden West).

Mather completed his first 11 passes and finished 11 of 12 for 182 yards and two touchdowns. He didn’t play in the second half.

Daniels had touchdown catches of 11 and 16 yards. Craig Reynolds, also from Orange Coast, is the Skyhawks’ starting middle linebacker.