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Team History
Swimming, Swimmers & Polar Bears
Amador County has a number of sports activities available for our
children. In spite of our rural situation, almost any sport that
city kids participate in is also played here in the country. I want
explain to the readers of the Amador Ledger Dispatch why I think
that swimming is one of the best sports in which a young person can
get involved. In the process of writing this piece, I also found
out a lot more about swimming in Amador County than I knew before
and the historical aspect of the sport here is very interesting. I
should start by being up front and unabashedly admitting that I am
a promoter of swimming in general, and of the Amador Polar Bears
Swim Team in particular. My opinions are my own, but I can tell you
that they are shared by many parents in Amador County and
innumerable families all over the state. I have enjoyed many other
sports over the years, as a participant, a spectator and as the
parent of athletes. My high school and college participation in
tennis, football, crew and most enjoyably, lacrosse, will always
bring back fond memories.
But after moving to Amador County in 1979 and finding the Amador
Polar Bear Swim Team for our daughters, I have come to the
conclusion that there is no better sport for kids from the age of
four through 18. Both my daughters have loved their involvement in
volleyball and soccer. But as their father, I see swimming as the
best all-round sport for their physical development, the sport that
they can participate in with virtually no risk of damage to their
developing bodies. It has been said that when you’re swimming
you are exercising every muscle in your body. It is also a sport
that you can participate in for your entire life.
The way for kids to get involved in swimming is through the
experience of swimming competitively under the USA Swim program and
organizations like Polar Bears. My mantra about the Polar Bears and
the competitive recreational swimming program that our team
competes in goes like this: I have found no other sport that allows
5 year olds to compete on the same level as their 18 year old team
mates. When my youngest daughter won a race, a host of kids from
5-18 years old were rooting her on and congratulating her for her
efforts. Her winning was just as important to the team as the top
18 year-old male swimmer. I have found no other sport where boys
and girls were competing in such an egalitarian way. If there is a
better venue for demonstrating gender equality, I don’t know
where to find it. The total involvement of the parents and other
family members in carrying out a meet is phenomenal. At least 60
parents are involved in running any given meet; they time races,
act as stroke and turn judges, start races, operate the computer
program for keeping score, run the snack bar, monitor the
ready-bench, act as the announcer and perform a number of other
jobs. The organization and pure volunteerism impressed me when I
took our oldest daughter to her first meet. Then, after the season
was over and we went to league championships, I saw the whole
process happen seamlessly over two days with 7 teams, over 1000
kids and hundreds of parents. Unbelievable!
The origin of competitive swimming in Amador County dates back to
about 1965. The best information I have is that the Amador AquaJets
Swim Team was started approximately 37 years ago by Mr. Sherm
Chavoor. Sherm was the owner of the Arden Hills Country Club and
gained national fame as the coach and mentor of Olympic Gold
Medalists Mark Spitz and Debbie Meyer. While Chavoor was coaching
swimmers at his Arden Hills Country Club in what was then the rural
part of Sacramento, he took note of a promising young swimmer whose
name was John Richard Rauh. When Rauh’s family moved to
Amador County, Chavoor decided that a competitive swimming program
was needed to keep Rauh swimming. Chavoor saw great potential in
Rauh and started the Amador AquaJets to give Rauh an opportunity to
hone his skills. Sherm sent his assistant coaches up to Amador
County to monitor the team at the Sutter Creek High School (now
Amador High) pool. John Rauh’s sister, Beverly, also swam for
the AquaJets and after she married John Steele, their children
subsequently swam for the Polar Bears. Sometime in the late 60s or
70s, the AquaJets ceased to exist and competitive swimming took a
break in Amador County The interest in swimming resurfaced in the
form of the Ione Marlins and the Amador Water Buffaloes. Mr. Bob
Marmorstein, a teacher in Pine Grove, took over the summer swimming
program in Sutter Creek and the Water Buffaloes fell under his
direction. This was pre-Prop 13 when the summer programs for kids
in the county were well funded. Marmorstein coached the swim team
for a number of years and eventually brought his son Art into the
swim coach profession. Art inherited the job of running the team
and at one time had such a large following that the Polar Bears had
an “A Team” and a “B Team.” It was during
the mid-80s when the Water Buffaloes changed their name to the
Polar Bears.
The next Polar Bear coach was Ms. Julia Sierk and she was the
backbone of the program for 15 years. Julia started as an assistant
coach under Art Marmorstein in 1985 and eventually inherited the
program that Sherm Chavoor planted the seeds for many years before.
Julia is a truly professional coach and when she wasn’t
coaching the Polar Bears she worked as a physical education teacher
at Argonaut High School. Two years ago, Julia and others initiated
the Argonaut and Amador High School swimming teams. From the first
season of our involvement I was amazed at Julia’s ability to
inspire the kids she works with. Julia has an ability to dredge
team spirit from the least enthusiastic young person. Or she can
calm and control the most energetic swimmer and channel that
child’s energy in a constructive and team oriented way. The
team is the thing and every Polar Bear knows it. Each individual
swimmer also has their own goals for improvement and they all know
that their hard work leads to team success. Good sportsmanship is
also emphasized to such a degree that I always hear from opposing
teams’ parents that our kids are the nicest and most
sportsmanlike competitors they’ve ever seen. A dictum of
Julia’s is that the kids must swim hard and then congratulate
the kids in the adjacent lanes, no matter what the outcome of the
race is. I know that Julia and our kids have been great influences
on other kids from Galt to Sacramento to Dixon. Julia has recently
taken the position of Assistant Principal of Amador High School and
will not have the time to continue as the coach of the Amador Polar
Bears. She will continue to be a supporter and give the team the
benefit of her advice as a volunteer.
The success of the Amador Polar Bears over the years has been
variable in terms of the number of winning seasons. Any team is
going to have their gold medal seasons and their time at the bottom
of the ladder. I would guess that the number of winning seasons
have been more than the losing ones, but every year is a winner in
the minds of the kids involved with this team. A consistently large
percentage of our high school age swimmers are on the Argonaut and
Amador High School lists of honor students. Most of our high school
age swimmers go on to attend 4-year colleges. Ask Matt Andrae of
Andrae’s Bakery in Amador City how important the Polar Bear
team was to his development. Ask any parent of the Polar Bear Team
or any of our competing team parents that know Carrie King what
they think of her (you won’t believe the accolades). Then ask
Carrie what the most influential activity in her life was.
Remembering the 1994 record-breaking 15-18 year old freestyle relay
team of Carrie King, Eileen Andrae, Sara Routt and Erin Leary still
brings tears of joy to my eyes. They were girls that I loved and
valued as role models for my daughters. Then there’s Josh
Cazadd – a great swimmer who went off to attend Virginia
Military Institute, came home to operate a business with his
brother and as an assistant coach continues to be an icon in the
eyes of our younger team members. Art Marmorstein is currently a
professor of history in South Dakota and he remembers Athena Cazadd
as a great young lady who he enjoyed coaching.
Those young people are the heirs to a tradition of good
citizenship, morality and sportsmanship that earlier swim team
members passed on. Peter Garibaldi and Bernie Quinn are two former
swimmers that Beverly Steele cites as stellar influences on her
children. Bernie Quinn’s mother Martha, has been the pool
manager for the City of Jackson for the last 26 years. Bev Steele
reminded me of Katie McClellan and the Coombs girls as examples of
the some of the best citizens that Amador County has produced over
the years. Jenny Bennett, Cheryl Kohlman, Chantal Thomas and
Caitlin Metzger, current holders of the 15-18 free-relay record,
are the heirs to the girls that came before and the little ones on
the six and under relay team will be the role models for kids yet
to be born. The fact that I could list twenty or thirty great kids
off the top of my head is a testimony to the success of the
program. There are tons of Amador County kids that have been
profoundly influenced by the Polar Bear experience and swimming in
general. And our team is not the only swim team in the area. As
previously noted, the Ione Marlins have a proud legacy and have
done great things for a lot of our local athletes. The Amador Polar
Bears will continue to be a positive influence for the children of
Amador County and I strongly urge all parents to look at swimming
and the Polar Bears when considering a sport for your
children.
La Madrona Ranch/FRM At Whiskey Flat, California 13944 Irishtown
Road, Pine Grove, CA 95665 (209)296-2221/296-1569
Mr. David Hudson, Editor 29 August, 2002 Amador Ledger-Dispatch
P.O. Box 907 Jackson, CA 95642
Dear Mr. Hudson,
Enclosed is an essay for your consideration under the category of
“Guest Commentary”. The essay contains of 1726 words,
excluding the title. As I write this cover letter to you it just
occurred to me that I could also provide you with black and white
photos of Josh Cazadd, Matt Andrae and the four girls in the 1994
relay team that I refer to in the article. When the Dispatch did
not have enough reporters to cover local youth sports I acted as
the Polar Bear photographer and gave the Dispatch my film for
developing. The Dispatch staff then chose the best photo from the
film I submitted for publishing in the paper. The Dispatch was then
nice enough to give me the negatives back and a contact sheet of
the photos. Let me know if you want me to bring the pictures in.
Another angle might be to take some current photos of Josh, Carrie
and Matt to publish along with the photos of them of 8 years
ago.
Thanks for your coverage of the Amador Polar Bears.
Sincerely,
Steve Q. Cannon
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