Officials

Steve Quan: A Public Service Kind of Guy With a Public Service Ethic

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Steve Quan on deck at the Palm Springs Memorial Weekend meet.

Steve Quan has been a fixture at meets in Southern California Swimming for close to three decades quietly working behind the scenes. His entry into the world of swimming was as a swim parent. He grew up in Southern California and earned an athletic scholarship for tennis at UC Irvine. He said his wife was the swimmer and she swam at Cal State Fullerton and Golden West. Her swim experience included coaching for Mike Dickson from Chaffey College and Hillside. Quan and his wife moved their young family to Steamboat Springs, CO where he worked with the local police department. The reason for the move was to be a ski family—not a swim family.

After several years, they returned to Mission Viejo where their adventure in swimming began on a Nadadores satellite summer league team 27 years ago. 

“You have to time,” his wife told him at their first summer league meet. “I have to what?” he asked. He said his wife had to show him how to use a stop watch. He said his first years as a swim parent “were chained to the grill for 12 hours a day. I never got to see my kids swim.” Once the parent in charge of the timing system moved on, he jumped at the chance. Fast forward 23 years, and that’s what where you’ll find him. He said when they joined the Nadadores, it was around the same time that Bill Rose took over as Head Coach.

He volunteered at every single meet the Nadadores held and volunteered at Olympic Trials in Long Beach as deck security. The team told him he couldn’t volunteer anymore after his kids had grown moved on from the swim program. From then on, he was paid to run the timing operation and maintain the equipment.

Quan owns his own timing system with touch pads and is hired by teams to help at their swim meets. He has worked at Sectional meets, the Janet Evans Invitational and age group meets, working at 75 meets per year. “Some meets are more fun to watch than others,” he said.  “People forget that meets are meets. It’s fun to watch kids as they develop through their swimming careers.” You can find him at meets throughout California and Nevada including at Mission Viejo, Bakersfield, Las Vegas, Pam Springs, and Santa Maria.

THOUGHTS ABOUT SWIMMING

“Kids want to quit when they reach high school, if they don’t feel like there’s a place for them. Teams that coach to the swimmer’s ability and goals are the most successful,” Quan said. “It’s hard to let kids know that swimming is a journey. Until you take the entire journey, you won’t know where it will take you. There’s aways a place to swim, even though at the time it may not seem to go well. And when you’re done, there’s Masters–and Masters means so much to many people.”

Looking back at 27 years he’s been involved with swimming, Quan said, “Swimming hasn’t changed that much. Coaching hasn’t changed.” What he sees as the biggest change is dryland and core muscle development. “It has to begin after puberty. Late high school and college is the time to develop.”

According to Quan, “parents don’t realize that there is no correlation between age group and what they do as adults.” His advice to newer swim parents: “Let children develop to whatever they aspire to be.” He mentioned that in his years as an age group swim dad, he never knew his kids time and that made him popular with the coaches.

Quan has never aspired to serve on the board of his team, but instead said, “I’m a public service kind of guy with a public service ethic.”

Quan retired in 2008 as a sergeant with the UC Irvine Police Department after a 32-year career. He foresees working on deck for many more years.

Janet Knoppel, from Swim Mom to Official “I’d do it all over again!”

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2012 Summer JO Officials

Janet Knoppel (second from right) wth the Summer JO Officials 2012.

It’s not uncommon for our officials to begin their careers as ordinary day-to-day swim parents. Another thing they all have in common—they like to stay busy.

According to Janet Knoppel, whose daughter began swimming around 1977-78, she didn’t like sitting in the stands gossiping, so she worked in admin instead. Then she moved into the position of starter and referee.

In 1983, she worked with Tina Martin at the dedication of the USC pool. Tina was instrumental along with Mary Jo Swalley in organizing and running the 1984 Olympics.

Janet’s daughter swam with Joe Mykkanen who was the brother of Olympic silver medalist John Mykkanen. She knows the Mykkanen family well because she has worked at many meets at NOVA meets, where the Mykkanen children are swimmers and mom Joanna is a coach. She said most Olympians she knows, like John Mykkanen and Janet Evans, don’t push their kids. Instead they ask, “Did you have a good time?”

According to Janet, “It has to be the kid’s decision to swim.” Her own daughter swam all through high school and started swimming in college. She injured her shoulders after two weeks and then did rowing and volleyball. Her daughter swam with the Arcade Riptides and Industry Hills Aquatic Club where Olympic gold and silver medalist Jenna Johnson swam.

Her daughter became a teacher and enjoys coaching, too. Her granddaughter loves the water. They had her in lessons before age two. They hope she’ll swim competitively, too—when she’s old enough.

Janet taught at Gladstone High School in Azusa and was assistant principal at San Dimas High. She’s enjoyed working at CIF since the early 90s. “I know many of the kids and it’s fun to watch their growth. It’s really exciting.

“As an official, the commitment is up to you,” Janet said. One of the things she enjoys most is “training officials and working hand in hand with them.” She has her National certification and said she learns a lot by mentoring. “When I work with an observational starter or referee, I ask what do you see? I teach them to see beyond the one lane.” Janet said she was happy to hear “one official say, ‘I’m so excited. I can see four lanes at once.’ ”

According to Janet, being an official “is not about finding fault, it’s being surprised when they do something wrong.”

At a Nova Grand Prix Meet Memorial Weekend, she was surprised to watch a girl from Stanford swim past the 15-meter line. The Stanford coach asked her, “You didn’t see that did you?” She said yes, she did. The swimmer came up and told the coach, “It’s because of all those underwaters you’re making us do!”

A bit of advice that Janet tells the officials she trains: “Coaches are the advocates of their swimmers. I tell new officials that this is their role. When they have questions, just answer them, don’t get into a confrontation. Once they understand what you saw, they will understand. It’s all about the kids. Without the kids, we could all go home.”

She explained why Southern California Swimming officials are so professional: “Officials from across the country may work only three our four meets a year. In So Cal, we work three to four meets a month. Plus, I work high school and college season. We’re on the deck a lot and have a chance to hone our skills.

“Southern California Swimming is the epicenter of swimming of course because of the weather. But we have great clubs and coaches, both large and small teams. We have great facilities, coaches and officials.

“Our officials nurture the kids. Ninety-five percent of us get to the level of the little kids. We get down physically on our knees to talk to them to tell them they did a really great job, but that they were DQ’d and explain why and wish them good luck.”

Mary Jo Swalley Leaves a Legacy of Children First

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Cecil Gordon and Mary Jo Swalley in Long Beach. (photo from the Richmond County Daily Journal.)

I talked with Mary Jo Swalley during a break at the Women’s PAC 12 Swimming and Diving Championships in Federal Way, WA where she was wearing one of her many hats in the swimming world. She was serving as an official, a role she’s held for years, as well as being the executive director of Southern California Swimming and vice president of USA Swimming.

Her swimming career began in high school when swimming was a mandatory class. She grew up in Antioch, CA and there was a state law that if a school had a pool, by their senior year, all students had to know how to swim. She said that at 5’ 11” she was an “aquatic type” and she taught others how to swim in high school. In high school, students tried different sports for six-week blocks of time. She said that rather than being competitive in a sport, the goal for the girls was to “learn the rules and socialize.”

In college, Mary Jo was one of the first 16 women to graduate from University of California, Berkeley Law School.

Eventually, she moved to Santa Barbara and when her son was three they got involved with swimming. The aquatics director for the YMCA lived up the street. Next thing she knew, she became commissioner of the YMCA. There were 28 teams and she was responsible for all their schedules. Among the biggest teams in those days were Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Glendale and Peninsula. The YMCA championships were held in the Belmont Pool.

Mary Jo mentioned that her son swam with Olympic medalists John Mykkanen and Dara Torres. When her son was older and transferred to SCS, Mary Jo soon became involved with the LSC.

In 1983-84 one of her best memories was working with Christina “Tina” Martin on the 1984 Olympics. She said her good friend Tina talked her into it. They stayed in a “roach-infested apartment and lived off of frozen pastries for a month.” Mary Jo was in charge of the ceremony and awards, while Tina was in charge of the venue. As Tina said, the experience was “life altering” and the highlight of their years working in the swimming world.

After more than 30 years as Executive Director, Mary Jo retired in December 2016. She began her journey running Southern California Swimming when USA Swimming broke off from AAU. Her responsibilities grew along with the SCS, which began with 6,000 swimmers in 1984 to 25,000 today. She described her job responsibilities as serving the board as needed and conducting the day-to-day business of running the LSC. The board itself is made up of volunteers. Her office was responsible for developing the website https://www.socalswim.org/ on an original Mac. Mary Jo handled everyday issues, including membership, scheduling, website, meet settlements and other duties.

Mary Jo said the biggest growth happened across the country with the popularity of Michael Phelps and that was true in SCS as well. She said the Eastern Section saw an increase in membership by more than 12%.

One of the changes she’s seen in swimming throughout the years is that kids specialize in one sport at a very young age today. They didn’t use to and her own son swam three days a week in the 11-12 age group and did just as well as those who swam six days a week. She said that trying a variety of different sports is better for kids overall.

She recalled one of the worst calls she received from a parent. The mom wanted to know where the nearest Olympic Training center was. She said she had been told that her children were gifted in swimming and she wanted them with the best coach and team. “I told her it was best to swim close to home. Then, I asked how old her kids were—they were two and three,” Mary Jo said.

According to Mary Jo, “The solution is to provide more parent education. USA Swimming Safe Sport needs to be used by the parents. If the parents don’t access it, the kids won’t know about it.”

In all of her years dedicated to swimming, Mary Jo’s legacy was always placing the needs of the children first. “It should be about the swimmers,” she said.

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Here’s a list of accomplishments and roles Mary Jo has held, from her bio on USA Swimming:

USA Swimming Elected Offices

Administration Vice-President
Program Development Vice-President
Local Administration Vice-President
Domestic/Age Group Operations Coordinator
Age Group Planning Committee
OIOC

USA Swimming Volunteer Contributions

Rules & Regulations Committee
National Championship Meet Referee
FINA Official
Registration Committee
Club Development Committee
Meet Director 6 National Championships
Manager 6 National Team trips
Awards/Deck Coordinator for 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games (aquatics)

Southern California Swimming Service

General Chair
Age Group Chair
Registration Chair 29 years
Meet Referee 32 years
Manager 30+ team trips

Contributions to Swimming Organizations

NCAA – Meet Referee (D1)
PAC 12 – Meet Referee
High School – Referee
YMCA Swimming Commissioner

Academic

AB – University of California, Berkeley – Political Science

My Commitment to You

Our top focus must always be our athletes from novice to Olympian, inclusive of the
diverse and disabled. A safe environment for every athlete, coach and volunteer in every
endeavor whether building the base, growing the sport or achieving excellence is
required. It would be my honor to continue to serve on the Board as your representative
and voice, to collaborate toward a successful future for our great sport.

Jack Argue: A Familiar Face Returns to the Deck

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Jack Argue jumped into officiating during the early days of his daughter’s age group swimming career during the 1970s and 80s. “Swimming is the most boring sport in the world to watch, except when your child is swimming,” Jack said. “As they get better, you watch them less and less.” He said there wasn’t a cap on how long a meet could last back then and meets could go on for 10 to 12 hours “and you can only read a newspaper so many times.” He soon discovered that he liked to stay busy waiting to watch his daughter swim for a few minutes.

Herb Hall is the person who got Jack into officiating when his daughter was about seven years old—his daughter Jennifer is now 42. His long-time involvement with swimming started in Hemet, which wasn’t part of US Swimming at the time. He became president of Hemet while his daughter swam there. They switched teams to Palm Springs Piranhas and finally to Redlands Swim Team.

Jack was instrumental in the planning of new pools in Hemet. From 1972 – 78 he was president of the Eastern Section. During the 80s, he was president of the Palm Springs Piranhas when his daughter swam for Head Coach Bill Pullis, prior to Bill’s leaving for Reno. Chuck Riggs was his daughter’s coach in Redlands. Jack’s roles in swimming included being the Officials Chair and a Vice Chair for Southern California Swimming. During this time period, Ed Ruth was the Chairman of Southern California Swimming.

Jack smiled when he reminisced about his days with Herb Hall officiating at the Junior Olympics in Barstow. He said the entire town got behind the meet and the meet would be played on TVs in restaurants throughout the town. He said it was an incredible time and he enjoyed driving Herb around town.

Argue explained that Mary Jo Swalley was the first Executive Director when Southern California Swimming broke away from the AAU and became a US Swimming organization. One of the big things Mary Jo did was take over the travel fund, which has flourished through the years. Under the AAU, there were no funds to send kids to Junior and Senior Nationals in those days. Once the organization of Southern California Swimming was underway, fees were taken from meet fees and put in a rainy day fund for the LSC. He described other roles Mary Jo was responsible for including membership, verifying birth certificates, coaches training, certification, etc. Most people don’t realize that Mary Jo has been in charge of 25,000 athletes, in addition to at least 50,000 parents, 900 coaches and at one time 250 officials.

When asked how things have changed through the years, Jack said there wasn’t as much interaction between the committees as there is today. The sections were autonomous and it was normal to only attend meets in your area until your kids reached the Junior Olympic level. You didn’t have San Diego coming in for a meet, etc. It was pretty much the same swimmers at each meet. Eastern Section went from Palm Springs, Vegas to Walnut. When they had a meet in Vegas, you wouldn’t get a lot of swimmers besides Vegas. In Palm Springs, you’d get Hemet, and Redlands, but not further away. Now there is more interaction between sections.

“Some teams are so big, like Nova with 900 swimmers, that if they sent some of their kids to a meet, they wouldn’t all get in, and neither would any other teams. So they hold their own meets.” Jack said the four-hour rule was passed by the USA Swimming and by people in areas of the country who didn’t have all-day meets. “We had to get creative of how to hold a four-hour meet with 25,000 swimmers,” Jack said.

He recalled an interesting story when there was a push to not let Janet Evans swim high school. “She’s too good,” the high school parents said, “It’s not fair for her to swim, she’s a world record holder.”

Accessibility of facilities is what makes swimming so huge in Southern California Jack said. However, Jack said the East Coast pools are newer and better. He said there is now a push to have meets in pools with seven feet of water and a lot of our pools in Southern California will be absolute. Unless it’s a brand new pool, it won’t be seven feet deep.

When asked about changes to the sport, he said it used to be that parents didn’t have a clue and were on the sidelines and the kids had fun. Early on, there were very few professional coaches where that was their only job. Most coaches were teachers or had another profession. As clubs got bigger they could afford coaches, and that’s been better for the kids.

“A lot of the camaraderie with smaller teams is gone. Kids didn’t jump from club to club. They pretty much stayed close to home. That’s different now.” Jack sites the popularity of the Olympics, the press and exposure that has helped promote swimming dramatically. “The numbers in USA Swimming will go way up during an Olympic year and then drop down until the next Olympics.”

The Argues became a swim family, first because his wife was a former swimmer in Pennsylvania, and then his neighbors had kids on a summer league team and suggested their daughter try swimming, too. Jack Argue and his wife returned to their home in Pennsylvania full-time, but after three years, decided the snowy winters weren’t their cup tea. We now have Jack back in Southern California on the pool deck as an official. They’ll continue to spend their summers in Pennsylvania, stay to see the colors of the leaves change and then return to Southern California and swimming.

Christine Martin: From Southern California Swim Mom to the World Stage

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Christine Martin on deck at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, while she was very active with SCS. (photo permission of Christine Martine)

Christine (Tina) Martin began her amazing swim officiating career as a typical mom. Like many Southern California swim moms, she signed her kids up for summer league and then onto year-round swimming. In 1973, when her youngest was five years old, she decided to get more involved. More involved is putting it lightly!

She became meet secretary from 1974 to 1984 and an official in 1982. She said during these years, there were few women referees and officials on deck.

Looking back on her career that includes officiating and leading So Cal Swimming, Southern California Aquatics Federation, Masters, NCAA and more, Martin said, “Our work on the Los Angles Olympics in 1984 was life altering.”

She and Mary Jo Swalley were two women in charge—at a time when few women were on deck.

“Mary Jo and I had a huge influence. We were known as Siamese twins. 1984 was a big highlight of our careers.” Martin said the Olympic Swimming Committee let the local committee run the show. She and Mary Jo planned, staffed, designed and managed the operating plans. “We were the ones who came up with and developed the concept. Our little group was able to put on the biggest show in town. No one gave us rules.”

In addition to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, their plans became the blueprint for future Olympic Games including 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004. In 1996 in Atlanta, Martin was manager of on-deck media for swimming and she worked directly with NBC. In 2004, she contracted to design and direct the overall competition aspect of the USA Olympic Swimming Trials in Long Beach, CA. She also wrote operations for Korea and Barcelona.

“My role in Atlanta was in charge of deck media (NBC-TV, World feed and other exotic media). I was also the backup French Announcer … was 1st choice until they found out what I had done at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles (Co-Chair Competition Committee; FINA Liaison; Assistant to Chief Referee; Manager of FINA Complex and a member of the venue management team).”

Martin said she stayed on deck officiating for 20 years and trained many of the officials we have today. Other highlights of her years in Southern California include serving as General Chair of SoCal Swimming and the Review Committee. She spent years organizing meets, including in 1983, when she was meet director for Junior Nationals and Nationals.

She recalls 2004 in Long Beach as her swan song as the Competition Director, principal designer and Member of the Executive Board. According to Martin, there was a staff of 400 volunteers and that event is recognized as one of the most successful in USA Swimming history, with more than 106,000 in attendance and millions watching on NBC TV.

She left California in 2005 for North Carolina and continued officiating with NCAA for Raleigh College, Duke, University of North Carolina, North Carolina State and Davidson. She retired from the role of official in 2008. She said most of her time she was a starter more than referee and she and Mary Jo were two of the first women starters on deck for NCAA.

Her grandkids are continuing the swim tradition with SCS at Rose Bowl. She’s very impressed with Jeff Julian as a coach and how his program is flourishing. She believes that a lot of the success in Southern California can be attributed to strong coaches.

While in Southern California, she taught courses for California Lutheran University’s MBA program and undergraduate classes in ethics for Pepperdine University and California State University in Channel Islands. From 2005 to 2009, she taught virtual classes in executive coaching for the University of Texas at Dallas School of Management.

In 2011, she immigrated to Ontario Canada, where she works as a mentor coach and consultant for businesses, entrepreneurs, executives and other professionals.

Ed Duncan: The Voice of the PAC 12

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A conversation with Ed Duncan,
Former General Counsel and Board Member of SCS and The Voice of USC and the PAC 12

In warm and sunny Southern California, our weather is perfect for swimming year-round, outdoors. That’s one reason why So Cal became a hotbed of swimming.

According to Ed Duncan, the voice of USC Trojan swimming and PAC -12 Championships since the early 1990s and former general counsel of SCS, “demographics are key to the success of swimming in our area.”

Speaking about swimming in the 1970s, Duncan said, “It was tougher for poor families to participate in swimming due to the expense and the heavy parental involvement. In addition, there was a lack of facilities in poorer neighborhoods. On the other hand, kids who grow up in the wealthiest households,wouldn’t put in the hours of hard work that were necessary to be successful in swimming,” he said. “That why swimming in Southern California was a middle-class sport.”

Duncan described the post-World War II boom which brought changes to Southern California’s economy. “Industries such as aerospace, hydrocarbon, and other industries provided high-paying, middle-class jobs. Areas such as San Fernando Valley and Mission Viejo thrived and had many middle-class families and good facilities supported by tax dollars.”

Parks and Rec departments were subsided by taxpayers, so Southern California became a hotbed of swimming. There were many great communities with facilities, schools, and park districts. In the 1970s, there was plenty of public support, which people don’t appreciate today.

Duncan and his wife Kathie became involved with SCS after moving to Southern California. Their kids joined a swim club in the Ventura area. Because of their swim backgrounds (Ed swam for Cal and Kathie for Cal Poly Pomona), they jumped in and got involved. Kathie, who Ed calls a “very capable stroke coach” most recently coached with CLASS Aquatics and once headed her own team, Maverick Swimming.

In his numerous roles with SCS, Ed became a part of the transition of the LSC from the AAU office in North Hollywood along with Mary Jo Swalley and Christine (Tina) Martin. Also, he was in charge of programs for the Coastal committee. He was integral in the restructuring of the professional board, which began as a volunteer organization, which hired its first executive director. He said the paperwork was significant. As the first general counsel, he attempted to attend meetings of each committee and put many miles on his car.

He discussed the development of travel funds for SCS. His daughter made a national cut, but the club couldn’t send the coach so he paid for the travel funds out of his own pocket. The board started a fund to offset travel fees for coaches from a portion of entry fees. The funds were allowed to grow in the market. The funds can be used to help offset travel expenses for swimmers or coaches, and clubs have a say in how they use their funds. According to Duncan, SCS pays out $200k to 300k per year.

In programs, Duncan said the board felt a need to balance age group with senior meets. So, they came up with the Zone meet, created for age group swimmers.

“Then Northern California backed out because they kept getting beat. The North American Challenge Cup  (NACC)  was created as an alternative,” Duncan said. At NACC, SCS athletes ages 11 – 18 compete against swimmers from areas including Canada, Mexico, Pacific Northwest and Central and Northern California and the Gulf.

Talking about the great facilities in Southern California, Duncan mentioned Industry Hills, which was state of the art in its day. Today, it’s a distant memory. Another great facility was built by Phillip Morris, who owned Mission Viejo. They understood that building infrastructure sold homes. More than a half century ago, they designed their community around sports and recreation to attract young families to buy homes. The Marguerite Aquatics Center, which opened in 1972, featured an eight-lane 50-meter pool, a 25-meter pool with a 10-meter dive tower and a shallow training pool for children. Home to the Nadadores, the facility currently has a $7 million-plus plan for renovations.

“One of the main problems facing swimming today,” Duncan said, “is the financial aspect of maintaining public entities. State legislatures don’t give money back to the cities. There are many shortfalls.”

Duncan talked about a little-known fact that the by-laws of SCS allow for athlete representatives. The provision is that athletes need to be a junior or senior in high school. “There is no specified amount of time, so they can rotate in kids. It’s an accomplishment, serving on board, and it will make you stand out on your college application.”

Another note of interest to parents of swimmers: Duncan said that swimming can be helpful for admissions into college. “Most colleges flag applications. All athletic departments flag, the music department has the ability. Most academic departments can also flag applications.” He noted that it’s very tough today for many middle-class kids to get accepted into the college of their dreams.“It’s up to parents to make inquiries.”

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Weyerhauser King County Aquatic Center, Federal Way, WA, home of PAC-12 championship meets.

 

Ed and Kathie Duncan moved from Southern California in 2015 and are greatly missed. Our swim community is what it is today because of the generous time and commitment of the Duncans.

January 2015 from USC Swimming: “Friday will also be the final meet for long-time announcer Ed Duncan, a retiring attorney and a former captain of the California swim team who graduated from Berkeley in 1966. He has been a volunteer announcer for USC swimming for the past 23 years.”