Pirates pooling talents

Like coming home to find a candlelit dinner already prepared, the

plates filled with food on an immaculate tablecloth, so is the story

of this season’s Orange Coast College men’s swim team.

“A pleasant surprise,” David Salo said.

Salo and Don Watson co-coach both the men’s and women’s teams at

Coast and have reason to be excited as the two teams leave today for

the state championships, which begin Thursday and continue through

Saturday on the campus of Diablo Valley in Pleasant Hill.

This season has been extremely successful on both fronts. The

women’s team dominated its Orange Empire Conference competition at

the conference championships, completed Saturday, while the men

finished second to Palomar.

An undefeated record along with an OEC championship are some of

the benchmarks reached by a talented OCC’s women’s team, thus far, as

it looks to win its first state title since 1997.

Freshman Sherry Tsai, a member of China’s national team who came

to the United States to train and decided to attend school at Coast

soon after, has taken the community college world by storm. She

seemingly sets records every time she competes.

Tsai, OEC Co-Female Swimmer of the Year -- with freshman teammate

Kimberlee Frith -- set three conference records at the three-day OEC

championships. Frith won the 100-yard freestyle in 52.78.

“Any time you pick up an athlete like that, it makes an immediate

impact,” Salo said of Tsai. “She is so versatile and kind of the

anchor to our program.

“We have a good group of kids, a lot of freshmen. That should make

us strong for the next few years. Other athletes in the area are

looking to be part of the success of this past year. We’ve gotten

back to what Watson has developed in the last 20 years.”

OCC women’s swim teams have won 12 state titles, the first coming

in 1984. Seven came during the 1990s. Watson coached from 1981-98

before returning this year after going on sabbatical.

Salo -- an assistant on the U.S. national team which will compete

in the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain in July -- joined

Watson as OEC Co-Coaches of the Year following the women’s 752-point

outburst at the OEC championships -- 227 more than second-place

Riverside.

Defending state champion Diablo Valley should provide the OCC

women with their toughest competition at the state meet, Salo said.

The nucleus, though, is there for Coast to dethrone the defending

champs.

“We have a team that will hopefully dominate for awhile,” Salo

said.

“The [men] have exceeded all expectations throughout the season.

The guys are in a good position to be in the top five in state as

long as Don and I do our jobs.”

Salo, the Irvine Novaquatics club swim coach in his third year

with the Pirates, acknowledges the men don’t have a lot of depth. But

they have received strong performances from whomever has been in the

pool.

“Tyson Beamer has done a nice job and Billy Jolly has done

everything I’ve asked of him,” Salo said. “Roger Wong has been one of

the most important legs on our medley relay team and Matt Henry, in

the [200] butterfly, has stepped up from last year.”

Salo approached Jolly, a member of Coast’s water polo team that

finished fourth in the OEC in the fall -- during water polo workouts

one morning and asked if he would like to swim in the spring.

“He has got good leadership qualities,” Salo said.

Jolly and Beamer swam with Billy Swanson and Paul Frankenberger on

the 400 free relay team that won the conference crown in 3:10.61.

Newport Harbor High product Mitch Probert was swimming the

breaststroke earlier in the season, but Salo and Watson put him in

more distance events as the year progressed. The result has been

successful.

Probert qualified for the state championships in the 500 and 1,650

free. The sophomore finished fifth in the 1,650 free (17:41.02) at

the OEC championships.

“It was a big shift in what we were focusing on with Mitch,” Salo

said. “He might not have made the state meet if he swam the

breaststroke.”

*

Sophomore Erica Nicholson, a first-team all-conference and

All-Southern California selection in water polo, will continue her

playing career at UC Irvine next season, according to Mike Giles,

OCC’s women’s water polo coach and swimming assistant. Nicholson

amassed 43 goals, 10 assists and 35 steals as Coast (29-9) finished

fifth in the state last season.

The sophomore was a two-year starter, including an undefeated 2001

season (35-0) that resulted in the program’s first state

championship.

She finished seventh in the 100 free (56.06) at the OEC swim

championships last weekend.