CHARLOTTESVILLE — A Navy SEAL, competitive open-water swimmer and a radiation equipment specialist walk onto a pool deck.
There’s no punchline here.
This isn’t a joke, this is quite a successful combination leading the Eastern Hancock swim team for the 2019-20 season.
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Eastern Hancock High School athletics director Aaron Spaulding was looking for a new coach. With a growing family and more time needed to be spent at home, former head coach Derek McCormick stepped down.
Spaulding wanted to keep a good thing going.
“The last 10 years the program has really grown and been competitive, and I didn’t want to lose that,” Spaulding said.
Last season, the Royals had their first-ever state qualifier in Martina Romano.
With no open teaching positions, Spaulding needed to go the route of a lay coach, a coach that does not teach but holds a job outside of the education field.
Spaulding hired Chip Sunier, a 72-year old former Navy SEAL and 37-year veteran of the Indiana State Police Department, as his head coach. Sunier, whose grandson, Joey Blocher, is a first-year swimmer on the team, came with a lot of experience.
He was a Combat Diver for the Navy, part of its underwater demolition team, a precursor to the SEAL teams. After four years in the Navy in the late 1960s, he joined the Speedway Police Department before becoming a member of the ISP. He was a member of the SWAT team before becoming the department’s dive commander for 30 years.
He led. He taught. But, he hadn’t coached.
“You name it, I’ve taught it at the police department, but I’ve never coached,” said Sunier, who was overly impressed when he stepped on to the upper deck entrance and viewed the Eastern Hancock pool. “Coaching is a whole different animal.
“I’m liking it. The kids are great, but if I didn’t have (the assistant coaches) I couldn’t do this.”
Sunier said both Mike Dolence and Jay McDaniel raised their hands in offering to lend a helping hand at a parents meeting. Both have children on the team. Dolence’s daughter, Hannah, is a freshman. McDaniel has two children on the team, Matthew, a sophomore, and Cora, a freshman.
Coach Dolence is the vice-president of operations for Pride Investment Partners, in Greenfield. He is also a former collegiate swimmer at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. He still trains and competes in open-water events.
He was also a former assistant to McCormick.
McDaniel’s full-time employment is as a radiation equipment specialist for St. Francis Hospital. He works on MRI and CT machines when they break down.
“It’s a three-man job,” Sunier said. He added that Dolence is the practice coach and McDaniel is his “techy’, handling a lot of the team’s computer, scoring programs and timing boards.
“They have formed a pretty good team together,” Spaulding said. “It’s worked out well. All are doing different things and it has made for a good mix.”
It’s definitely working out. The boys’ team is coming off a victory in the school’s annual Eastern Hancock Invitational, held on Dec. 14, which included six schools.
The girls’ team has just four swimmers, all are freshmen. What they may lack in numbers, however, they have in talent. Three were individual winners at the invitational. Hannah Dolence won the 200-yard individual medley. Cora McDaniel was victorious in the 500 freestyle and Olivia Bourquein took the top spot in the 200 freestyle.
There are 11 members on the boys’ team. They won seven events at the meet, including the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays. Matthew McDaniel was a double-winner in the 200 IM and 500 freestyle. Ryan Dagley won the 200 freestyle. Luken Edwards was first in the 100 freestyle and Aaron Surberg was the blue ribbon winner in the 100 backstroke.
The future looks bright with just one senior, Nick Edwards, who was part of the relays, on the entire squad.
“It’s been a lot different than it was last year,” Luken Edwards, a sophomore said. “We’ve worked a lot more on technique this year, including underwater filming. We’ve never had that at Eastern Hancock before.”
Sunier, through some help from a friend with the police department, donned scuba gear and filmed a three-hour practice under water. Dolence broke down the video and had individual sessions with swimmers to go over their strokes.
“In your head, you think you’re doing this perfect swim stroke, but then when you look at it on film, it’s not a perfect swim stroke you are doing,” coach McDaniel said.
“What I like is, the kids are willing to learn,” coach Dolence added. “We have a pretty wide variety of kids, some that have swam in club, some that are conditioned and are ready to go and others that have never swam competitively before.
“We’re focusing on the little things and it all comes together at the end.”
The team is learning a lot and, according to coach Dolence, it is a lot more than retaining how to do the proper swim strokes. It has a lot to do with the training and experience from the head coach.
“His background isn’t swimming and he’ll tell you that straight out,” coach Dolence said. “I see when Chip coaches them and provides input, he’s coming from a whole different level than swimming. His stuff is more life-lesson, which I totally support.”
Sunier talked about sharing to the team about failure, noting how the team bounced back at the invitational after being disqualified in the meet’s first relay race.
“One of the things I learned in the service is failure is not failure. Failure is a learning experience,” Sunier said. “Some people say failure is not an option, but failure is reality. It’s not a fail. It’s a mistake, a glitch, a bump in the road.”
Wise words from a wise man.
“It makes this team so much more well-rounded,” coach Dolence added. “Swimming is part of high school athletics and kids are learning to be faster in the pool, but part of Eastern Hancock is community, giving back and being a good citizen. Chip comes in and delivers that day-in and day-out.”
It seems to be working. Like they planned, it’s all coming together.
“The main thing for me is,” Luken Edwards added. “I want (coach Sunier) to support us and encourage us to keep trying and getting better as a team. I’m seeing that happening.”
