MICHAEL DICKSON: I was first hired here in 1978.
And then I retired last year, in May of 2018.
So it was 40 years that I was here.
I still bump into young people who are no longer young.
But they recognize me because I haven't changed a whole lot.
I still have my beard.
And when I'm wearing my Hawaiian shirt everyday,
people say, Coach Mike, that's you, isn't it?
I grew up in the city of Montclair.
And we moved down here when I was about seven.
And my mother put us in swim lessons.
And I was an acrobat.
I did a lot of gymnastics-type activities.
The diving coach down there requested that I come out
for the diving team.
And I was also on the swim team at that time.
And I did that when I was a child.
And then I pretty much did diving from then on,
all the way through college as well.
I came here in 1967, just taking general ed classes
for the most part.
I was on the swim team.
Diving are two events of the swim program.
And so I was one of the divers that we had here.
And I was the conference finalist both years
that I was here.
I was a finalist at Southern California Championships
and then also qualified for the State Diving Championships.
And then I transferred to Cal Poly Pomona.
I graduated with a degree in physical education.
I was first hired here in 1978.
We've won several state championships in diving.
I've had swimmers compete in the Olympic games.
I've won the State Diving Coach of the Year Award,
as well as Swim Coaches of the Year.
I've got quite a few of those, because we've
won quite a few swimming championships under my helm.
I think part of it is just I'm not coming in and doing
an 8:00 to 5:00 job.
I was the Red Cross Aquatics Director for many years.
Being a CPR instructor, a first aid instructor,
teaching lifeguarding and WSI, you
get a chance to help people help others.
For many years, I've been the aquatic director
during the summertime, and I've run the summer swim
lesson program here.
And we work with anywhere from 1,800 to 2,000 kids
every summer.
Somebody'll bring in their child and say, yeah,
I was in this program when I was five years old.
And now, this is my five-year-old child.
I've had even a couple of third generation people
who've gone through the program.
That's fun.
When you think in terms of the thousands of kids
that I've had an opportunity to have an influence on,
I'm very humbled by that.
My goal as a coach was to get them into a point,
mentally, to become the best that they could be.