Baxter Moving On to Next Water Hole

By his own admission, Steve Baxter is not the type to do a lot of moving around.

When he graduated from UCLA 18 years ago, Baxter found his ideal job, teaching at Buena High and coaching the Buena (now Buenaventura) swim club.

The club, always moderately successful, has exploded in recent years, developing several teenage national finalists, helping turn Buenaventura into one of the top swim clubs in California.

So why would Baxter, a pursuer of stability, leave next month to become swimming and girls’ water polo coach at Clovis West High in Fresno?

Maybe because Clovis West, which boasts one of the top athletic programs in the state, has some of the best aquatic facilities to be found on a high school campus.

Buena’s cramped pool, wedged behind a couple of campus buildings, is the size of the warmup pool Baxter is inheriting at Clovis West.

“It really is one of the best complexes in the country for high school aquatics,” Baxter said of the Clovis facility. “The facilities are unbelievable. They attract 500 fans a game for water polo. Most colleges don’t even do that.”

Making the decision easier for Baxter, 42, was a desire to spend more time with his family. Coaching high school teams will be draining, but not nearly as exhausting as the countless hours Baxter and his wife, Anne, devote to Buenaventura.

Anne Baxter coached the age-group swimmers while Steve led the senior group, the high school and elite college swimmers who compete at the national and regional level.

During the summer, Baxter spends nearly the entire day dealing with his club swimmers, supervising two daily workouts during the height of training.

“My kids are at the age where I want to spend more time with them,” Baxter said. “I’m going to miss the heck of the kids I’ve had at the pool.”

That includes three swimmers--Rebecca Gilman, Erin Schatz and Nicole Beck--who competed at the U.S. Olympic trials in March and led Buena High to three consecutive Southern Section Division I girls’ titles.

“It’s going to be weird not having him here,” said Beck, who has been with Buenaventura for 11 years and with Baxter’s senior group for the last four.

Baxter has mostly developed home-grown talent like Beck and Gilman, athletes who have spent their entire careers with Buenaventura, but his reputation has attracted elite swimmers from outside the Ventura area.

Schatz attended Agoura High for two years before moving to an aunt’s house in Ventura to train with Buenaventura.

Liah Kim, from Los Angeles, moved into an apartment with her brother, without her parents, so she could train under Baxter.

“He’s like a second father to me,” said Kim, who will be a senior at Buena in the fall, “I’ve seen him more the past two years than I’ve seen my own father.”

Baxter will coach Buenaventura through the U.S. Senior Nationals next month, then move to Clovis in time for the fall semester.

Next week will mark the final competition for Buenaventura, as Baxter takes his senior group to a meet . . . at Clovis.

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Kim, Beck and others will get the chance to officially meet Baxter’s replacement Sunday at a team picnic to introduce Rob Mirande.

Mirande, 29, spent the last four years coaching the Palm Springs swim club.

Before Palm Springs, Mirande was at Saddleback Valley Aquatics, where he coached Chad Carvin in high school.

Carvin was favored to make the 1996 Olympic team in four events before a heart ailment forced him to retire last fall.

“I don’t know a whole lot about him but I do know who he is and that he’s got a good track record,” Beck said.

If familiarity counts for something, the transition should be smooth. Mirande’s wife, former Olympian Tracey McFarlane-Mirande will coach the age-group swimmers at Buenaventura, just as Anne Baxter did.

“The setup is so similar compared with Steve and Anne it’s kind of scary,” Mirande said. “This is a perfect situation for us.”