Here are some highlights from our interview with Long Beach Century Club President Ben Goldberg at the Boathouse on the Bay. He has some big time guests lined up for this year and the meetings should be all-time! Long Beach sports is in GREAT hands.

FULL INTERVIEW

Q: Do they just let anybody be Long Beach Century Club President now?

A: I’ve been on the board for the last five years. It’s a progression thing. If you want to do some good work and they like the work you’ve done, you can move up. There’s a method to the madness.

Q: What’s the new Long Beach Century regime going to be like?

A: The club’s been around since 1957, but the new regime started with Gary Cohee in 2011. He came in and saw the landscape of a lot of older men and not a lot of women. The average age was between the 75 to 80 range. Cohee came in a brought in a lot of the young guns. Part of my focus this year will be to increase the membership from 300 to 500 and increase from 30 percent to 45 percent of women.

Q: What’s your favorite part about the Boathouse on the Bay?

A: We hold our weekly meetings here. You can’t beat it. The view is great and Sir John Morris is the most generous man in Long Beach. He’s the ambassador of ambassadors.

Q: Who are some guests you have on the schedule for this year?

A: We don’t have everything locked in, but we have some big names that could be coming down the pipe. We’re going to be getting some speakers that might fill up the whole restaurant.

Q: Have you ever donated a big check to anybody?

A: We give quite a bit of money. Every high school gets a couple grand a year for their programs. We give 25 grand direct to Long Beach State per year and we also give scholarships to kids from Long Beach. We give a little over $100,000 per year.

Q: What’s your favorite baseball team?

A: Dodgers.

Q: What’s your legacy so far in Long Beach outside of the century club?

A: I was born and raised here and I have two kids that were raised here as well. They went to the same schools that I did. I’m a commissioner for the Long Beach City Parks and Rec, I’m on the Marine Advisory Commission, and I was on the Community Development Commission.

Q: What do you do for work?

A: I’m a stockbroker.

Q: Do you use a manual or electric toothbrush?

A: Electric.

Q: Favorite cocktail?

A: Diet cranberry pomegranate and Ketel One.

Q: If you could be one animal what would you be?

A: Lion, of course.