Where are they now?

The H. Del Beekley Rowing Foundation has honor of being supported by a long history of athletes that have donned the Red and Black to compete as SDSU Oarsman. After meeting countless alumni at events and hearing their stories of life during and after crew, we decided to take on the task of regularly posting some of the stories to answer the question “Where are they now?”

If you are an alumni of the program, we’d love to hear your story and document it here for other alumni and our future oarsmen to celebrate. Send your story, along with a picture or two over to info@beekleyrowing.org mailbox, and one of the board members will get it formatted and added to our ongoing story that answers the question, “Where are they now?”

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  Dennis “Denny” Coates (1961-62)
  In 1960, Del Beekley led the effort to restart the rowing program at San Diego State. Back then, the team would row out of the 1891 Rowing Club at the foot of 5th Avenue, San Diego Bay. I showed up for the first meeting in a coat-&-tie. Del got me on a rowing machine then told me to report for practice the next week. If I remember correctly, we worked out six times a week – 5 regular practices and a Saturday morning endurance run to the salt pile in Chula Vista. Every so often we would row west and […]
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  Where are they now? – Levi Imbuzan (2012-2017)
  Born in Romania, Levi immigrated with his parents to the United States in 1998. His heart was set on joining the Marine Corps since he was 12 years old, but his dreams were dashed when his parents refused to sign the paperwork to allow him to join at 17. Not yet possessing the cognitive abilities to decide to wait one year, Levi set himself to taking the ACT and SAT, and applying for any and all colleges in the last month applications were open. Secretly hoping to be accepted into San Diego State, his (new) dream finally came true and […]
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  Where are they now? – Bernard Aparicio (2011-2016)
  Bernie rowed as a lightweight under coaches Brian Robison, Derek Snyder, Doug Perez, and Toby Johnson. His years at SDSU were sleep deprived, and are now a fogged out memory. However, one of his earliest anecdotes at SDSU involved this lack of sleep. One day, after a killer evening erg, he fell asleep on a bench outside Tenochca. That was his bed for the night, and 4:30 in the morning his teammates woke him up to go to morning practice. Henceforth, the crew team claimed his dreams and soul. While at school, he worked harder, not smarter. But his discipline […]
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  Where are they Now? – Glenn Schweighardt – (1973-1974)
  As a 5th year senior at SDSU in ’73/’74, it was my last year to get a Varsity jacket. As a Community College transfer, I sat out the spring semester so I could start in the Fall of ’71 with all the other new students. Tennis was my primary sport at the time. However, my JC did not have tennis and the Athletic Director would not let me start a program, hence my tennis career took a nosedive – other than me teaching private lessons and entering SoCal tournaments. Fast forward to the Fall of ’73. My roommate, who I […]