Swim team builds champs with integrity
When it comes to winning streaks, the Snee Farm Swim Team has put together a record that not many can rival.
For 22 years, the Mount Pleasant country club’s swimmers have walked away with the top spot in the Coastal Carolina Aquatic Association’s championship meet, known to most as the City Meet.
The streak is longer than the lives of every one of the 2,800-plus local youngsters in the league — and even many of its coaches.
Many years, the City Meet is a runaway as Snee Farm takes the title by a large margin. But in 2008, just 9.5 points separated Snee Farm from second-place Coosaw Creek Crocodiles, and after Coosaw handed Snee Farm one of its two losses in head-to-head competition earlier this season, some began to wonder if this is the year the giant goes down.
Still, when the final standings are read Tuesday after three days of competition, if Snee Farm is again on top, not many folks are likely to mind.
Class act
“I was one of the ones that loved to hate Snee Farm,” said Michael Walsh, head coach of the North Bridge Terrace Killer Whales since 1979. “Then I happened to sit next to (head coach) Jason (Kreutner) when the city meet was at James Island in 1995 and I realized he’s a class act and Snee Farm is not the Evil Empire we all thought. Sportsmanship, behavior and tradition are all-important to him.”
Kreutner, 40, a Snee Farm assistant from 1987 to 1989 and head coach since 1990, makes sportsmanship as much a priority as good swimming.
“We do talk about it,” he said. “If we only talked about trying to be good, we could never earn respect, and earning respect and keeping it is hard to do.”
In fact, Snee Farm has won the league’s Sportsmanship Award, which is voted on by other teams, five times since it was first bestowed in 2006.
“Most of his swimmers reflect his personality,” said Chris Accetta, president of the CCAA. “They show excellent sportsmanship, and a quiet confidence in how they conduct themselves at a meet. I have never seen any of his swimmers gloat over a win, never seen them be arrogant or snide. They just win with confidence and respect for their opponent.”
They wish their opponents luck before they swim. After a race, they shake hands. They don’t openly celebrate victories.
“In people’s weakest moments, they might want to react, but we have to remember that you’re going to be with those people for a long time,” Kreutner said. “The joy you get in being a poor winner is great for a few minutes, but you should always be thinking about your competitors and treat them with respect. The opinions of (Shadowmoss coach) Brad Blake and Mike Walsh and how other teams perceive us means the world to me.”
Even so, Kreutner admits there have been moments that didn’t make him proud.
“If I didn’t have those moments, we wouldn’t have anything to work on” he said.
Sticking together
The CCAA has been around for 44 years, and Snee Farm, which joined in 1971, is one of the oldest teams. The number of teams varies from year to year, as new neighborhoods join and others drop out.
Swim-team rosters often number 100 swimmers or more. With about 180 kids, Snee Farm is one of the larger teams in the CCAA, which is split into three divisions based on the previous year’s City Meet results.
Unlike athletic teams that include children of similar ages, swim teams can have athletes from 3 to 18 years old. Teens often become mentors to their preschool teammates.
“The cool thing about swimming is that we’re all together every year,” said Kreutner. “If you pull together an All-Star team, like an All-Star baseball team, then you go out and compete and it’s over and you all have that memory. But with swimming, being with the same kids every year, if they thought what you were doing was filled with anything less than integrity, then many of them would wander away after a while.”
At Snee Farm, the nine assistant coaches are all current or former team members.
“Everyone is on the same page as far as where we are going and how we’re going to get there,” said Bucky Buchanan, who joined Snee Farm in 1994 as an 8-year-old and is now an assistant coach.
Rough start
But things haven’t always been so hunky-dory.
Jason Kreutner succeeded his older brother Erik as head coach, and Erik inherited the team at one of the lowest points in its history.
Snee Farm won the City Meet from 1980 to 1982 and, craving another victory in 1985, allowed summer-only memberships to strengthen its ranks with faster swimmers. The tactic worked and Snee Farm brought home another trophy, but the team atmosphere suffered as long-time members felt the sting of being upstaged by better athletes.
The following year, the team returned to its policy of requiring members to join the country club, but participation by neighborhood kids plummeted and the team fell to 11th place at the 1986 Championship Meet.
In 1987, Erik Kreutner was named head coach, and according to the team’s history, “he established the principles upon which all of the team’s recent successes have been based. His focus on fundamentals, caring, fun, and competition for all swimmers is still maintained today. Erik’s concern for not sacrificing the long-term condition of the team and the swimmers (for short-term success) was his greatest gift to the team.”
Erik, who stepped down in 1990, went on to coach the Parkshore Piranhas from 1994 to 2008.
What: Coastal Carolina Aquatic Association Championship Meet
When: July 17-19
Where: Jewish Community Center, 1645 Wallenberg Blvd.
Number of teams in the Association: 23
Number of swimmers: 2,800+
Year of first Championship Meet: 1968
Years Snee Farm has won: 1980-1982, 1985, 1989-2010
Oldest league record: 7-8 Boys 25m backstroke, set in 1979 by Chris Matthews of Northbridge, who only swam in the league that year. Northbridge coaches have been trying to locate him and in 2009 wore shirts to the City Meet that said, “Where are you, Chris Matthews?”
Family with the most records: The Bohons of Coosaw Creek: Elijah (15-18 boys backstroke) and twins Jeremiah (13-14 boys breaststroke) and Micah (13-14 girls butterfly and breaststroke) all set records in 2010.
