Barrett named California Male Swimmer of Year
By Misty Volaski

Jeff Barrett's a humble sort of guy - which is fairly amazing, considering the 2001 Nordhoff graduate has just been named California Community College Men's Swimmer of the Year and is one of the top-ranked community college swimmers in the nation.

Jeff started swiming at an early age, about 2 years old, he said. But he didn't start swimming competitively until junior high. "Then I got more and more serious about my swimming," he said.

Jeff set numerous records for the Nordhoff swim squad, and is doing equally well at Ventura College, where he is finishing up his General Education credits. He's currently taking 18 units so that he can finish V.C. in two years. "That was my goal," he said, because "you can only swim for two years."

At the Community College Championships - where he was named Swimmer of the Meet - Jeff swam for three first -place titles: 100, 200 and 500 freestyle. He was recently named fastest community college swimmer for the 200 and 500, as well as helping his team win a relay event.

But getting all this recognition wasn't necessarily Jeff's intention.
"I just set personal goals for myself and achieve them," he said modestly. The awards and recognition are just a serendipitous consequence to achieving his own goals.

"I'm sorta like a big fish in a small pond," Jeff added, noting that there will be much more competition when he attends the University of Arizona in the fall, where he intends to major in English.

Jeff decided on UA because "Their program seemed like a very good fit. They're 11th in the nation. It's amazing how much support they give their athletes."

For now, though, Jeff is just content to train and hang out with friends until he heads off to U.A. in August.

When asked whether he might consider trying out for the Olympics, Jeff said, "I'm a long way aways from that. I'm just going to train and we'll see what happens when that comes around."

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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