Beach Crew Buzz — September 2025
The September Pull:
Recruitment, Leadership, and Legacy
The September edition highlights fall recruitment, our men’s and women’s presidents, upcoming events, the alumni race and dinner at the Long Beach Yacht Club, and a look back at the 1978–1979 crew. Thank you for reading and for your continued support of the program — we’ll share more on fundraising in the October edition.
Fall 2025 Recruitment
A special thanks goes out to our officers and varsity teams for their incredible work recruiting so many new athletes. The Week of Welcome is one of the biggest events on campus, with hundreds of clubs competing for attention, each with their own tent and table. While most clubs stayed behind their booths, our varsity athletes took to the sidewalks, stopping potential recruits and talking up the program.
The coaches joked that they weren’t even needed at the event — our athletes had it covered! Thanks to their efforts, we recruited over 70 athletes, with 56 showing up for orientation on September 6. By our first practice on September 8, those new rowers were already learning in small groups on ergometers and dock boxes.
The energy from both varsity members and newcomers was electric, and the coaching staff is ecstatic at the turnout. Much gratitude goes to our officers who helped plan, set up, and teach the fundamentals of rowing. With over 70 rowers now on the team, we’re headed for an exciting season. As Steve Meckna, class of 1980, used to say: ‘The Beach is Back!’ On behalf of the coaching staff — thank you, team!
Meet Our Presidents:
Vaughn Popp and Ruby Bogonovich
Vaughn graduated from Huntington Beach High School, where he was the starting quarterback all four years and also competed in track and field as both a shot putter and a sprinter. In his senior year, he was selected to attend the FBU Top Gun Showcase in Naples, Florida, featuring the nation’s top quarterbacks, and he capped off his high school career by playing in the Dream All-American Bowl at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
Now in his third year at CSULB, Vaughn is pursuing a double major in Finance and Accounting. He joined rowing as a freshman, where his novice four took 3rd place at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Championships and finished 5th at the American Collegiate National Championships, a race that featured 33 boats from across the country. Last year, his varsity boat placed 4th at WIRA and went on to win the B Final at ACRA with the 5th best time overall. As his coach would say, ‘Vaughn is the student-athlete any coach would love to have on his team.’ On behalf of the coaching staff, we thank Vaughn for his leadership of the men’s program.
Ruby Bogonovich is a second-year political science major at Long Beach State with a concentration in Law, Politics, and Policy. She grew up in San Jose, where she danced for 15 years, six of them competitively, and also pole vaulted in high school while serving as ASB secretary for three years.
Ruby has now been rowing for four years. Her dad had long encouraged her to give the sport a try, and one summer at Los Gatos Rowing Club she finally did. What began as a way to stay busy quickly became a passion, and she even balanced rowing with dancing throughout high school. By her senior year, she was rowing a quad at Youth Nationals, which she calls an unforgettable experience.
When Ruby came to Long Beach, she knew she wanted to keep rowing. Her first year was filled with highlights, including placing third at the WIRA Regatta as stroke in a double with fellow CSULB rower Mia, and finishing fifth in the nation at the ACRA Regatta in Tennessee as stroke of the novice four.
Rowing has given Ruby a strong sense of community, team bonding, and competitiveness that extends beyond the water. Now serving as President of the Women’s Beach Crew, she is excited to lead the program forward into another successful year. Her coach, Meghan VanderBeek, describes Ruby as a standout athlete on and off the water, bringing grit and shaping the culture of the team.
The Undefeated Season
Class of 78-79
Coached by Bob Whitford and Steve Adler, the 1978–1979 teams produced some of the finest rowing CSULB has ever seen. I know, I know — some of you will argue your crews were just as good, maybe better! But how many of us were invited to race at the IRA National Championship against the likes of Harvard, Yale, Brown, Washington, and Cal? With Dave Stuver at stroke, the crew easily won the Cal Cup at the San Diego Crew Classic in both 1978 and 1979. The 1979 boat went undefeated through the season before falling to UCI in the Western Sprints final.
As Dave Stuver recalls:
“At WIRA, we were leading at 1500 meters when one of our guys caught a crab that nearly stopped the boat. It was brutal, windy conditions in an afternoon final on Lexington Reservoir in Santa Clara. Right before the race, two vans pulled up with the Cal Varsity-8 crew inside to watch. Coach Whitford had rowed at Cal, and with both of us undefeated on the West Coast, he’d been talking a little trash that we were faster. Sadly, we never got to race them head-to-head, and I think we disappointed Bob that day.”
“On the other hand, that race in Newport was one of those moments where everything just clicks. As rowers, you don’t get many of those races where the boat feels effortless. We were trailing Irvine most of the way, and at 1500m I told our coxswain to shift the stroke rate down two beats. Suddenly, we clicked — the boat flew. We took it back up at the end and blew past Irvine for the win. I’ll never forget that feeling. We still talk about that race to this day. Ask Bob Drury.”
Upcoming Alumni Event
We’re excited to see so many of you planning to race or attend the Naples Island Collegiate Rowing Challenge and Alumni Race on November 15. In October, we’ll reach out to those who expressed interest in racing to finalize lineups. A few alumni are hoping to row in an eight, so if your boat has room, we’ll help fill spots. We’re also asking all participating alumni to contribute $50 to the program to help defray this year’s travel costs. Just three regattas — the San Diego Crew Classic, WIRA, and ACRA — total nearly $40,000, and your support makes those opportunities possible.
Beach Crew Alumni Dinner – Long Beach Yacht Club
Later this month you’ll receive an Evite with details on time and cost for the alumni dinner, which will take place at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday, November 15 — the same day as the regatta.
Join us for an unforgettable evening at the Long Beach Yacht Club following the regatta on November 15! The night will feature dinner, music, and a lively silent auction — a chance to reconnect with teammates, celebrate our shared legacy, and support the future of Beach Crew. Space is limited to 100 guests, so keep an eye out for the Evite later this month and secure your spot early. Proceeds will go toward purchasing a new boat for both the men’s and women’s teams and strengthening our endowment. Let’s come together to make this a night to remember and keep The Beach moving forward.
