Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 19, 1992 TAG: 9203190374
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LYNN A. COYLE SOUTH CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Not that she has anything against basketball. It's just that she and her swim team have felt ignored.
In its third season, the 56-member swim team - 44 girls and 12 boys - finally got some respect.
The fact that it's been an uphill battle - for media coverage, for funding and for spectators - hasn't stood in the way of the team's growth or success.
The girls went undefeated (10-0), and the boys finished 7-3.
In the Virginia State Invitational, which was open to all Virginia high schools, the Cave Spring girls' team placed fourth out of 44 teams.
The boys and girls won their first titles in the Roanoke Valley District meet against Patrick Henry and Pulaski County high schools, the only other schools in the district. Parents are working to start programs at Northside and William Byrd high schools.
Cave Spring faced bigger obstacles in getting a swim team going than did Patrick Henry, which has had a team a year longer.
Patrick Henry's team is funded through the athletic department's budget and even had funds for an assistant coach this year but never hired one. But, with only 20 team members - 12 girls and eight boys - coach Charles "Chuck" Braaten figured an an assistant wasn't really needed.
PH's only difficulty seems to be recruiting swimmers, and Braaten thinks that's because the team has had a new coach each year. He plans to put a stop to that by coaching his second season next year and recruiting this summer.
A Cave Spring parents' group, however, was told, "You can have your team, but you'll have to fund it yourself," when members approached the Roanoke County School Board, said Gary Goff, a parent.
The group became the Swim Team Family Association and held a swim-a-thon, staffed concession stands at football and basketball games and sold raffle tickets and Christmas trees to fund the team.
But, said Goff, now president of the Cave Spring Knights Booster Club, families still had to pay about $140 this season for suits and other expenses.
Parents also have supported the team by driving buses and serving as timers at meets.
But McCarthy said the biggest obstacle isn't funding, it's practice conditions. The school has no pool, so the swimmers practice at the new Gator Aquatic Center when it's available - 7:30 to 9 p.m. weeknights.
"That's real hard for kids who work part-time jobs," McCarthy said.
McCarthy has single-handedly coached the team since Day 1, and this is the first year the county has paid her a salary.
"There aren't very many sports who have 56 kids and only one coach," McCarthy said. "There aren't 56 kids on the football team, and they have several coaches, all of whom are paid."
Most swimmers on the valley's high school teams have competed in the Roanoke Valley Aquatic Association's summer leagues, which hold weekly meets. Some also have swum for the Gators or Marlins, who compete year round. The Marlins compete regionally and the Gators compete on a national level. Both of these Roanoke Valley teams operate under the auspices of United States Swimming, which sets standards and rules to assure uniform competition throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Priscilla Thornsbury, a seventh-grader at Northside Junior High School, is in her third year on the Gator swim team. And if her mother, Barbara, has her way, the Roanoke Valley District soon will have a swim team at Northside.
Barbara Thornsbury's efforts a couple of years ago to get a team going were discouraging, but she plans to try again this spring. She hopes to emulate Cave Spring's success, gathering signatures on petitions before approaching the School Board.
"We'd have to transfer Priscilla to another school the way it is now if she wants to pursue it," Thornsbury said. "It's sad."
Sandra Renick, one of the parents working to start a swim team at William Byrd High School next school year, is not optimistic. She said the parents need 100 signatures to present to the School Board and to raise $5,000. But when the group held a public meeting to see how much support there was for a team, only about 40 people showed up and some of those were students.
There will be another meeting Monday immediately following the 7:30 p.m. PTA meeting in the school's auditorium. "Unless we get some further support we'll have to table it until next year," Renick said.
If there is no team at Byrd next year, Renick will continue to work so that her 13-year-old daughter, Jennifer, will have a team when she gets to high school. But daughter Amy, 16, will be a senior next year, and Renick said, "If we don't do it next year, that just knocks her out completely."
by CNB