Football player presumed drowned

An 18-year-old high school football star from Moreno Valley is

presumed to have drowned off Huntington State Beach between Magnolia

and Brookhurst avenues at just after 8 p.m. Monday.

The disappearance of Drean Rucker is believed to have been the

second drowning death at Surf City beaches in less than a week and

the third this summer.

Rucker was reportedly swimming with a friend when he disappeared

underwater just after sundown.

Lt. Mike Brousard, lifeguard program supervisor for Huntington

State Beach, where Rucker disappeared, said it sounds as though the

young man walked into an inshore hole while wading close to shore and

was knocked down by a wave and pulled into the current.

According to eyewitness accounts, he struggled briefly before

being pulled down, Brousard said.

The 6-foot-2, 235-pound man was considered by many football

experts to be one of the top high school linebackers in the state. At

the end of the 2002 football season, Rucker was a first-team

selection on the All-CIF Southern Section and Cal-Hi Sports All-State

teams and named to the Super Prep All-American team at the end of the

2002 high school season. He was recruited to the University of

Southern California and planning to attend on a full scholarship this

fall.

City and state beach lifeguards from Huntington and Newport Beach,

as well as rescue teams from the Harbor Patrol and the U.S. Coast

Guard, have been searching for Rucker since Monday evening.

Lifeguards, who had left their station for the day, were called

back to the beach for the search.

It is the latest in a string of what city lifeguards have begun

calling “sunset drownings.”

Less than a week ago, a 22-year-old man drowned while boogie

boarding at Huntington City Beach after sundown.

On June 25, 14-year-old Oswaldo Jesus Ramos, disappeared while

swimming near Tower No. 2 at Huntington State Beach, in the water off

Bolsa Chica State Beach.

All of the lifeguards have noticed an increase in night swimmers,

Brousard said and called it “a product of the hot weather we’ve been

having.”

Brousard also attributes the increase to the warm water, which

draws people from inland to the surf. The ocean water temperature

climbed as high as 75 degrees last weekend.

“It’s been so nice that people come down [to the beach] even at

dark,” Brousard said. “It’s nice enough and enticing enough that

people think about going to take a swim. And if it’s dark, that can

be a fatal decision.”

Beach rescues have been unusually high this year. So far this

year, state lifeguards made about 2,700 rescues, almost as many as

were made in all of 2002. Brousard said he wouldn’t be the least

surprised if they broke the record number of rescues this year.

Although resources have dwindled, lifeguards are still actively

searching for Rucker.

“The common theme is the tragedy of the summer -- people are

coming down to the beach to recreate and then not going home at

night,” Brousard said.