Team History
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
Amador Polar Bears
Swim Team
Jackson, Ca
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