July 13, 1999

Fourteen current and 13 former UCLA athletes and coaches were selected to compete for the United States in the 1999 Pan American Games, which will take place July 23-August 8 in Winnipeg, Canada.

Current Bruins competing in the Pan Am Games are men's soccer players Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Shak, Pete Vagenas and Sasha Victorine; women's soccer player Venus James; softball All-Americans Christie Ambrosi and Stacey Nuveman; men's volleyball players Adam Naeve and Brandon Taliaferro; and water polo stars Coralie Simmons and Catharine von Schwarz.

Also participating are men's volleyball assistant coach John Speraw, women's water polo head coach Guy Baker and volleyball statistician Eric Daly, who will serve as team manager for the USA men's volleyball team.

Other notable Bruins competing are softball Olympic gold medalists Lisa Fernandez and Dot Richardson and 1996 water polo Olympian Dan Hackett.

The Pan American Games are held every four years preceding the Olympic Games. The Pan Am Games consists of all Summer Olympic sports, plus some non-Olympic sports, since they serve as an Olympic-qualifying event for many sports. In terms of the number of sports and athletes, the Pan American Games are second in size only to the Olympics. An estimated 5,000 athletes from 42 nations will compete in 41 different sports at this year's Games. The United States will send approximately 750 athletes.

UCLA's 1999 Pan American Games Participants

Sport                   Athlete/Coach                    Hometown
Baseball                Dave Roberts                     Oceanside, CA
Women's Basketball      Denise Curry (assistant coach)   Aliso Viejo, CA
Men's Gymnastics        Steve McCain                     Houston, TX
Men's Soccer            Carlos Bocanegra                 Alta Loma, CA
                        Steve Shak                       Cerritos, CA
                        Pete Vagenas                     Pasadena, CA
                        Sasha Victorine                  Carmichael, CA
Women's Soccer          Venus James                      Oakland, CA
Women's Softball        Christie Ambrosi                 Overland Park, KS
                        Jennifer Brundage                Irvine, CA
                        Lisa Fernandez   
                        Stacey Nuveman                   LaVerne, CA
                        Dot Richardson                   Orlando, FL   
Men's Track & Field     Mebrahtom Keflezighi (10,000m)   San Diego, CA
Women's Track & Field   Andrea Anderson (4x400m)         Long Beach, CA
                        Shelia Burrell (heptathlon)      Reseda, CA
Men's Volleyball        Adam Naeve                       Los Angeles, CA
                        Trong Nguyen                     Rosemead, CA
                        Tom Stillwell                    Northridge, CA
                        Brandon Taliaferro               San Clemente, CA
                        John Speraw (assistant coach)    Los Angeles, CA
                        Eric Daly (manager)              Los Angeles, CA
Women's Volleyball      Kara Milling                     Colorado Springs, CO
Men's Water Polo        Dan Hackett                      Irvine, CA
Women's Water Polo      Coralie Simmons                  Hemet, CA
                        Catharine von Schwarz            Annapolis, MD
                        Guy Baker (head coach)           Fullerton, CA