Page 8 July 5, 2018 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Aquatics Swim Club Going Strong
Story and Photos by Gregg McMullin
El Segundo has been home to Olympic
water polo and swim teams in the 1950s and
1960s. El Segundo High School has produced
numerous CIF Southern Section boys and
girls water polo and swim champions. The
dominance in the pool can be traced to feeder
systems like the aquatics programs at Urho
Saari Swim Stadium.
The swim stadium was named after the
legendary coach who helped guide water polo
and swim teams to 18 CIF titles, including
12 in water polo and six in swimming in
an illustrious 36-year career. Coach Saari
had a vision of how a successful program
should be run. During his time as a nationally
recognized coach, he instituted a feeder
system that included an aquatics program that
helped train future L.A. County Department
of Beaches Lifeguards.
Over the years a number of feeder programs
have been started, including Alpha
Aquatics. It was founded in the fall of 2014
by two-time Venezuelan Olympian Coach
Octavio Alesi. From the start, his goal was
to provide high-quality swim training with
an up-to-date philosophy to youths interested
in aquatics programs. In four years, Alpha
Aquatics has established itself as one of
Southern California’s top USA Swimming
clubs. Home to national- and internationallevel
swimmers, some of their athletes have
gone to compete at various universities/
colleges (Fordham, Loyola Marymount, Cal
Lutheran, and Dartmouth). It is thought that
this swim club will be another feeder program
to El Segundo High.
Alpha Aquatics thrives to positively impact
the swimmer’s experience in the water regardless
of level. In the process, every member
will have an equal opportunity to succeed
both in the pool and in life.
Twice a year, Alpha Aquatics hosts an
intra-club meet to give the athletes a day of
friendly competition. With nearly 70 locals
participating, the following athletes stood
out with multiple first place finishes in their
respective events (age is highlighted): Jason
Pierce (8), four first place finishes (freestyle/
backstroke); Jasper Shimon (9), three first
place finishes (breaststroke/IM); Sora Koike
(9), three first place finishes (IM/freestyle);
Sofie Szigeti (12), three first place finishes
(freestyle/breaststroke); and Devin Bernardin
(12), two first place finishes (backstroke/freestyle).
Kent Nishida (12) won the butterfly/
freestyle, Giovanni Wheeler (12) had two top
finishes (freestyle/butterfly), Evan Yoo (14)
had two first place finishes (breaststroke/
freestyle) and Katrina Mortenson (15) won
the breaststroke/butterfly.
There are three groups for training: Racing
Development (ages 6 – 12) serves as an
introduction to all strokes and basic training
skills. The Juniors Group (ages 9-12) works
intensively on technique, participating in local
meets and Junior Lifeguards competitions
while preparing for the Senior Group. The
Senior Group trains for local-, national- and
international-level swim meets as well as high
school season and Junior Lifeguards. For more
information, contact Coach Alesi at oalesi@
gmail.com or visit www.AlphaAquatics.net.
El Segundo Little League
All Stars Update
The El Segundo Little League 11/12 All
Star teams have been playing in the District
36 playoffs to start their march towards a
successful tournament run. The All Stars
defeated Lunada Bay 14-4 to punch their
ticket to the District 36 Championship Game
at Brett Field on Saturday July 7 at noon.
The 10/11 All Stars lost a heartbreaker
to Manhattan Beach Little League 3-2. It
was their first lost in the tournament, but
they rebounded to defeat beat Rolling Hills
9-4. Aaron Newman got the win, going three
innings and allowing two runs. El Segundo
got timely hitting from Grady Lubs, who went
2-4 with a two-run double. Sean Mossman
went 2-4, Reed Abrams 2-3, Ethan Ayler
1-4 with a double, and Ryan Zarneke 1-2.
Newman got support with great relief
pitching from Reed Abrams and Ben Lee,
who each threw one inning. Porter Robbins
came in with the bases loaded and one out
in the fifth and got out of the jam. Porter
threw a scoreless sixth inning to seal the
win. The 11’s played again on Tuesday. It
was an elimination game for the chance to
play Manhattan Beach Little League again.
Catching Up on a Couple Former
Eagles Playing Baseball
You’d be hard-pressed to find another
community in America with baseball roots
tied to organized professional baseball as
much as El Segundo. In 1932 George Myatt
graduated from El Segundo High and in
1933, he signed a minor league contract. In
1936, playing for the Boston Red sox affiliate
San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast
League, Myatt was being scouted by Red
Sox manager and future Hall of Fame player
Eddie Collins. Collins liked Myatt enough,
but instead came away marveling at another
player. His name…Ted Williams.
Myatt went on to play seven years in the
Major Leagues and immediately went into
coaching/managing at the Minor and Major
levels after being released. Myatt’s last affiliation
with a professional team was as the
third base coach for the Philadelphia Phillies
in 1972 after 58 years in pro ball.
When Lars Nootbaar signed his contract
with the St. Louis Cardinals, he became the
54th former El Segundo High School athlete
to play pro baseball. And with it, he extends
the streak of 84 consecutive years with an
Eagle alum in professional baseball.
Nootbaar was assigned to the State College
Spikes of the short season Class-A New York-
Penn League. He has been playing one of the
corner outfield positions and has the second
most at-bats of the outfielders on the team.
Another former Eagle, Sean Emery, is
making a name for himself playing in the
Palm Springs Collegiate League. The PSCL is
considered one of the top showcase collegiate
leagues in the nation. Games are played at
9 a.m. daily during the seven-week season.
Emery, who plays for the California Grizzly,
is the team’s third-leading hitter at .354 -- just
four points behind the team leader. Emery
is first in at-bats, second on the team in hits
and second in slugging percentage at .500.
For his efforts, he has been selected to play
in the All Star game. •
The Alpha Aquatics Swim Club held its summer intra-club swim meet that attracted big crowds.
Sean Emery is hitting .354 for the California Grizzly of the Palm
Springs Collegiate League. He played in the All Star game yesterday.
Fire Marshal Carver from front page
all intents and purposes died. Carver became
one of several hundred thousand Americans
who experience out-of-hospital sudden death
cardiac arrests each year.
Since that time, Carver has survived five
other “events” in which the pacemaker/
defibrillator that doctors eventually installed
after the initial incident had to shock his
heart back into rhythm. “I would probably
be five times dead [if I didn’t have one of
these],” he said pointing to his chest. “But
I wouldn’t have gotten past the first time if
my son didn’t know CPR.”
Carver’s story remains an inspiration for him
to continue emphasizing the importance of CPR
training, which El Segundo highlights during
the annual springtime CPR Saturday as well
as through an in-house program. He helmed
the first event back in 1995 and continued to
do so annually (other than one year) until this
spring when he turned leadership duties over
to paramedics Adam Kruse and Mark Lees
who also conduct the training. Though Carver
was on-hand for the proceedings, he stepped
back to allow others to get more involved.
“I’m hoping to retire in a couple of years,” he
said. “So this is part of the succession plan.”
It will be a big set of footsteps to follow
once Carver does wrap up his career with the
El Segundo Fire Department. His tenure here
began in 1991, but the story goes back much
further. The Hawthorne native and Leuzinger
High graduate already knew for sure as a
teen that he wanted to become a firefighter.
After spending several years in the Explorers
program (for those between the ages of
15-21 interested in fire service careers), he
worked at several odd jobs before landing a
firefighter position at Northrop in Pico Rivera
as a firefighter dealing mainly with medical
calls and some industrial blazes. Thankfully,
there weren’t many of the latter, but he did
once have somewhat of a close call trying
to extinguish a flaming shredding machine.
Upon arrival in El Segundo, Carver started
out as an inspector for eight years and then
earned the promotion to principal fire prevention
specialist. He rose to his current
rank in 2006, overseeing the Fire Prevention
Division with two full-time staff members.
Responsibilities include conducting annual
fire inspection programs for all commercial
(especially high- and mid-rise structures
as well as factories) and multi-residential
buildings, reviewing technical plans for all
proposed construction, inspecting any new
construction and tenant improvements, investigating
fires to determine origin and cause,
and handling public outreach and education
programs. For a hectic stretch of time, he
also managed the City’s CUPA program
(hazardous waste and environmental safety
regulations). “They eventually hired someone
else to handle that,” Carver reported. “I was
really busy for a while.”
Especially in recent years, Carver has seen
advances in technology that make continuing
education paramount to keep up with new codes
and equipment. “The job is becoming more
technical every day,” he said. “For instance,
there used to be three types of sprinkler heads.
Now there are 20. And now you have smoke
detectors, CO2 detectors and heat detectors
all in one unit. You can’t test things like you
used to. You need special devices.”
As commercial activity increases in town,
Carver also looks over plans and meets with
those who want to develop properties. Promoting
fire safety is a critical element of every
conversation and a big part of what he feels
makes his job most rewarding. “It’s important
to educate people in doing the fire-safe thing
in either design or actual application,” Carver
said. “It really makes a difference.”
The topic of making a difference inevitably
found its way back to CPR, as Carver
urged local citizens to get training to learn
to react quickly during the early stages of a
medical emergency. “Everybody I tell about
what happened to me, I can see that they’re
affected by it,” he said. “If spreading the
message can help save even one other life,
it’s worth everything.”
In fact, Carver’s tale came up recently
at his son’s wedding when the best man
recounted the events of that night in 2010.
Minutes later, there were very few dry eyes
left in the room. “I was crying, my wife
was crying and I had to get up and give a
speech next,” Carver said. “Later on, one of
the bridesmaids came up to me crying and
thanked me for being willing to talk about
it. If my story tells you nothing else…learn
CPR, have your family learn CPR so you’ll
know what to do. Most times when a person
has a heart attack or cardiac arrest, a family
member is there.”
When he finally turns in his badge in 2020,
Carver will leave as the longest tenured prevention
employee on the civilian side in El
Segundo history. He already knows he will
miss the camaraderie of staff that he considers
“family” and a community that has been
nothing but supportive. “I’m just happy to
still be here and will continue to try to help
people for as long as I can,” he said. •