Sharks an early merged success

As Phil Donihe stood pool side on the first day of practice for the 2017 summer swim season, he had one main question in mind: Can we do this?

As 250 boys and girls from all age groups hit the water to begin practice at the Fort Oglethorpe pool, there were a lot of doubts about whether a Catoosa County experiment could work. Merging the Ringgold Tiger Sharks and the Fort Oglethorpe Marlins created the Catoosa Great White Sharks in the Chattanooga Area Swim League.

“It was a big challenge for us in the beginning,” said Donihe, the head coach. “We decided early on, when all of this came to be, that we had to meet every challenge as an opportunity.”

As the practice on that first day got underway, one onlooker still had her reservations about the combined teams.

Beth Chappelear is a part of the Ringgold Tiger Sharks’ royal family, for her aunt was Martha Denton, who years ago managed the Ringgold pool and started the Tiger Sharks swim team. At one point it was said that Denton taught all of Catoosa County how to swim.

For Chappelear and her cousins, spending time at the pool with Denton and the Tiger Sharks “was just what we did every summer,” she said. “We didn’t know anything different.”

Chappelear swam for the team for more than a decade, and when she became old enough, she began teaching and helping the younger swimmers. She was head coach of the Tiger Sharks from 1995 to 2003. She has two sons who swam this year on the combined team.

The pool and the Tiger Sharks legacy held many memories for not only Chappelear and her family but for the entire Ringgold community. So when the city of Fort Oglethorpe approached Ringgold team officials about creating a much larger county team, the request was met with a lot of questions and hesitance.

“Initially, I was really, really disappointed,” Chappelear said of the merger. “The Tiger Shark name was something that I never thought that we would lose. I always thought that my kids would forever swim with the Tiger Shark swim cap, and so (the merger) was really a disappointing thing for me.”

And while it wasn’t an easy decision, it was recognized that the merger would provide many more opportunities for Catoosa County swimmers.

Uniting to coach the new county team were Donihe, the Fort Oglethorpe coach, and Jackson Barker, the Ringgold coach.

“There was a common vision and common goals, and our strengths really complemented each other,” Donihe said. “It was amazing that we were both able to really work together, and I think it was a huge benefit to have both the Ringgold head coach and the Fort Oglethorpe head coach come together.”

The Great White Sharks went undefeated in winning the CASL’s White Division in their inaugural season, and while that was nice, Donihe said that wasn’t the team’s most important achievement.

“I think it was very important on a lot of levels, but I think our record, the scoreboard, the White Division championship, our performance at state, those were not the most important things,” Donihe said. “It was the process — the process that we sat down and planned through before the season.”

That process included individual improvements in the swimmers. In fact the Great White Sharks were able to send 44 athletes to the state meet with 77 remaining for the 58th Annual Bill Caulkins City Meet this past weekend.

But now what? The 2017 season is over. The Catoosa Great White Sharks swim team has been established. A successful season is in the books.

Now the team sets it eyes on the establishment of a year-round program, which, according to both Donihe and Chappelear, would be exceptionally beneficial to the Catoosa County area. And while a yearround program was not the initial goal of the merger, it made its way to the front of the plans rather quickly due to the need for a year-round facility in the area.

“The demand is overwhelming, with no fault to Catoosa County, but there is a shortage of opportunity,” Donihe said.

Contact Tori McElhaney at sports@ timesfreepress.com.