Goebel Gets Lesson in Humanity

Soccer player Cindy Goebel’s off-season was far different from that of most athletes.

Besides training for this season, the UC Santa Barbara senior spent two weeks last December saving lives in a Third World country.

During Christmas break, Goebel traveled to Honduras with her mother, brother and boyfriend to provide relief to victims of Hurricane Mitch, which had struck in October, killing at least 10,000 throughout Central America. A premed student interested in joining the Peace Corps after finishing school, Goebel looked at the trip as an opportunity to gain valuable field experience.

What she got was a lesson in humanity.

“It was amazing,” she said. “[Honduras is] perhaps the poorest country in Central America and everything [many Hondurans] had, they lost. But when we were there, they wanted to give you everything they had. They were very grateful for the help.”

After seeing the destruction on the news, Goebel’s mother, Peggy, felt she had to do something.

Peggy Goebel and her husband, Dick, had served in the Peace Corps in Honduras from 1971 to ’75. They were there during other hurricanes, but never one as destructive as Mitch.

“I told Cindy in casual conversation that I was thinking about going, and she was gung-ho and it just got rolling from there,” Peggy said.

“We decided that would be our Christmas. So we took our Christmas fund and used it for this trip.”

In little more than a month, Peggy, Cindy, Jeff Goebels and Ron Chambers, Cindy’s boyfriend, collected $30,000 worth of supplies from hospitals and companies in Santa Rosa, the Goebels’ hometown. A local bishop donated their plane tickets and a local parish raised enough money to rent a truck.

Once in Honduras, the group was able to use Peggy Goebel’s knowledge of the country to get to some of the smaller interior villages, which most of the international relief efforts were unable to reach.

The group lived in grass huts, eating beans and tortillas, bathing in buckets of cold water. They visited hospitals, where they donated medicine and equipment. They tended to children, many of them bloated and starving, at orphanages. They set up village clinics.

“We’d set up tables in little barrios and within minutes, 100 people would show up,” Peggy said.

They were able to give basic physical examinations, but some of what they saw was beyond them.

“The part that was frustrating was that so much needed to be done and there was so much that I couldn’t do or touch because I was not qualified,” Cindy said. “It’s encouraged me more to go on and become a doctor.”

The four even saved a man from probable drowning on the way back to a village. His truck was caught in a river, the water nearly up to the steering wheel. With Jeff driving the rented truck, they were able to tow the trapped truck to safety.

Now Cindy is back in Santa Barbara, serving as captain for the third consecutive season on a team that is 3-1 in the Big West. And on a team that is under its third coach in four years in Paul Stumpf, the captain’s role takes on added importance. In her first three seasons, Goebel started all 57 games in which she played.

Although she admits a future in soccer is attractive, a career in pediatrics is more likely, thanks in part to her trip last Christmas.

Luck was with two Southland women’s soccer teams Sunday, as Long Beach State defeated Boise State, 1-0, and Pepperdine defeated Northern Arizona, 2-1. Both game winners came on own goals. . . . After going 1-1 each last week, the UCLA and USC women’s soccer teams moved in opposite directions in the NSCAA poll. The Trojans (7-3) dropped from No. 7 to No. 14, and the Bruins (8-2) moved from No. 9 to No. 8, the highest ranking in school history.

In men’s soccer, No. 6 UCLA got a goal from Martin Bruno in overtime to defeat Loyola Marymount last Wednesday, 2-1. In the loss, Lion freshman Arturo Torres forced overtime in the 68th minute with his ninth goal, a school record. Also, three Bruins, junior defender Carlos Bocanegra, midfielder Pete Vagenas and senior midfielder Sasha Victorine, are among 15 candidates for the Missouri Athletic Club player of the year award, the Heisman of men’s soccer.

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The ninth-ranked UC Santa Barbara women’s volleyball team pulled off perhaps the biggest upset of the season, sweeping top-ranked Pacific, 15-10, 15-6, 15-8, Saturday at Stockton. The Gauchos’ Roberta Gehlke had a match-high 27 kills and 20 digs, two days after a career-high 38 kills and 22 digs in a loss to No. 5 Long Beach State. Gehlke was named the AVCA Division I national player of the week. . . . In the first weekend of West Coast Conference play, Pepperdine defeated defending conference champion San Diego, 15-9, 15-9, 12-15, 15-9, Saturday at San Diego.

COLLEGE DIVISION

The Cal State Dominguez Hills women’s soccer team upset No. 3 Sonoma State on Friday, 2-0, avenging a 3-2 loss in last season’s regional championship game. . . . No. 18 Cal State Bakersfield tied Sonoma State last Wednesday, 0-0, despite a 25-10 advantage in shots. Two days earlier, led by California Collegiate Athletic Assn. player of the week and goalkeeper Nicole Jennings, Bakersfield broke the school’s consecutive shutout-minutes record of 480 minutes 19 seconds. . . . The No. 25 Cal State San Bernardino women’s volleyball team got 32 kills from CCAA player of the week Jamie Lynn Liefveld as it defeated UC Davis in five games Friday.

Best of the Week

MEN’S WATER POLO

UCLA vs. Long Beach State at Belmont Plaza, tonight, 7

An improving Long Beach State team, which nearly upset USC this season, gets a shot at the top-ranked team.

NorCal Tournament at Stanford, Saturday and Sunday

Three weeks after winning the SoCal Tournament, the Cardinal hosts a similar tournament, with most of the nation’s top teams participating, among them USC, UCLA, Pepperdine, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount and UC Santa Barbara.

CROSS-COUNTRY

Long Beach State Invitational at El Dorado Park East, Saturday, 9 a.m. (men), 9:45 (women)

Long Beach State hosts its annual cross-country meet against teams including No. 18 UCLA and Loyola Marymount at the site of the Pac-10 meet later this month.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Redlands at Cal Lutheran, Wednesday, 4 p.m.

Cal Lutheran is the only undefeated team in SCIAC play at 5-0 in the conference and the second-place Bulldogs, 4-1 in the conference, will be looking to end Cal Lutheran’s 49-game conference winning streak.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Stanford at UCLA, Thursday, 7 p.m.; at USC, Friday, 6 p.m.

Off to 4-0 and 3-1 Pac-10 starts, respectively, the No. 9 Bruins and No. 17 Trojans host the conference favorite and sixth-ranked team in the nation.

Loyola Marymount at Pepperdine, Saturday, 7 p.m.

The Lions and Waves face off with conference implications on the line, Pepperdine already having defeated defending WCC champion San Diego.

FOOTBALL

La Verne at Pomona Pitzer, Saturday, 1 p.m.

After opening with three victories in the SCIAC, La Verne gets a tough nonconference game against the 4-0 Sagehens.