MIKE STARKWEATHER

Steve Virgen

Be it volleyball, golf, swimming or basketball, Mike Starkweather has

always loved to coach, on any level.

When he does coach, he invests a lot of his time, so much that his

other work sometimes takes a hit. He had to quit working at building

his own insurance business to devote more of himself to the boys swim

team at Corona del Mar High in 1984.

Starkweather sacrificed for the good of his athletes and for the

sake of winning, attributes he learned from his club swim coach, Don

Gambril, who also coached Starkweather at Pasadena City College and

Long Beach State. Gambril was also the head coach of the U.S. men’s

Olympic team in 1984.

“He was truly an inspiration to me,” Starkweather said. “He was

the one who got me going with coaching. I could see how much of an

impact coaches can have. I really wanted to mirror that man. He was

phenomenal.”

Starkweather, who competed in swimming and water polo in college,

coached basketball, volleyball, football and track and field at

Lincoln Intermediate. When he moved over to teach at Corona del Mar,

he never thought to coach swimming, until a motivational encounter

with Gambril.

The former Olympic coach mailed a thank you letter to

Starkweather. The note read, “Thank you, Red Rider, for helping me

reach my goal.”

Starkweather, who had the nickname Red Rider because of his red

hair and his focus on distance freestyle events, kept the note

framed. His reaction was to coach the boys swim team at Corona del

Mar.

“I thought I would do it just for a year,” Starkweather said. “It

ended up being 15 years. We won several league championships and

three CIF [Southern Section] championships.”

Starkweather also received various coaching awards from his

colleagues and publications in California. He said he took great

pride in the athletes he worked with and he was also excited to be a

part of the contributions that went into building the swimming pool

at CdM.

In 1997, Starkweather made the transition to coaching the boys and

girls golf teams. He had always enjoyed golf and wanted to build a

winner for the Sea Kings in that sport. His wife, Janelle, helped

make the changeover to a smooth one by coaching the junior varsity

teams.

At first, Starkweather, the latest honoree of the Daily Pilot

Sports Hall of Fame, coached solely the girls golf team. But former

boys golf coach Paul Hahn asked Starkweather to take over his team,

too.

When the Starkweathers would take their girls golf team to the

Newport Beach Country Club, they would split the squad into four

groups so the players would not interfere with the members on the

course. Hahn took notice and thought Starkweather would be the best

man for the job.

For the past three years, the Corona del Mar boys golf team has

won the Pacific Coast League title.

Starkweather has always had the desire to win and to compete. He

was an All-American swimmer at Pasadena City College. He also played

water polo and continued at Long Beach State. He was on the 49ers’

team that went to the semifinals of the first NCAA tournament in

1972, when UCLA defeated the 49ers.

Throughout his life, Starkweather was also a lifeguard. He worked

for 30 years and then retired. He said he wanted to devote more of

his time to his wife, teaching and coaching.

“I love the kids,” said Starkweather, who is in his 33rd year of

teaching in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Starkweather, 55, lives in Fountain Valley and has two children.