Lightning in a Bottle

3/13/2019

By Laura Hamlin Weiler ’00, Head of Community Engagement

Two generations of Sneads team up to fulfill lofty dreams

To coach your child is a gift. To coach at your alma mater is fulfilling. To win a state championship is momentous. To win two state championships in four years is remarkable. To watch your child go through the recruiting process and commit to your college alma mater is exciting. To do all of these things with both of your children? That’s catching lightning in a bottle.

Margie Vaughan Snead ’85 has always gone beyond convention. She came to Trinity in 8th grade and set girls athletics on fire — staring in soccer, basketball, field hockey, and lacrosse. Snead was All-LIS in field hockey, soccer, and lacrosse; a two-time high school all-American in lacrosse; and captain of the soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse teams. In her senior year, she was named MVP for all three sports. She also won Female Athlete of the Year and the Founders Award, Trinity’s highest athletic award.

She matriculated to William & Mary, where she was a two-sport athlete in soccer and lacrosse. She was a two-time All-American in lacrosse and a regional all-academic in soccer. She was captain of both teams. After college, she made the US women’s lacrosse national team. In 2012, Snead was inducted into the William & Mary Athletics Hall of Fame.

She returned to Trinity in 1998, initially coaching girls soccer with Page Mauck. The next year she moved to the girls field hockey and lacrosse programs as well as working in the offices of development and alumni. She juggled those jobs along with motherhood of daughters, Annie, born in 1998, and Sally, born in 2001.

Never one to slow down, Snead took newborn Sally on a spring break lacrosse trip to Florida when she was only six weeks old. That was just the beginning of Sally’s athletic career at Trinity.

Fast-forward seventeen years to this fall, when the stars aligned for the Snead family in a way that not even Hollywood could have scripted. Snead coached Sally ’19 to an undefeated season and state championship in her senior year. She had coached Annie ’16 to the school’s first state championship in the fall of 2015, her senior year.

Meanwhile, this fall at William & Mary, Annie, a current junior, played with Trinity alumnae Christie van de Kamp ’16, Ella Donahue ’17, and Hallie Larsen ’18 to drive the Tribe to a historic field hockey season. William & Mary finished 2nd in the Colonial Athletic Association regular season, then won the CAA championship in overtime to give the team their first ever CAA championship. They advanced to the NCAA tournament, where they won their first round game in overtime, and then lost in the next round to eventual champion University of North Carolina. Annie Snead made 2nd team All-CAA, 2nd team All-State, and 2nd team All-Region. She also broke the 43-year-old school record for assists in a season.

Margie Snead and husband, Billy ’82, a Titan alum and great athlete in his own right (soccer, baseball, football, and wrestling), put major miles on their car traversing the I-64 corridor between Richmond and Williamsburg. And yet through it all, they managed to be present for all of Sally’s special moments as a senior. Next year their job gets considerably easier with Sally joining Annie at William & Mary.

How did this magical moment in time coalesce for the Snead family? When did they realize that this was a possibility and how did they get there? While they all have different responses, the common themes that emerges when talking to each of them are the importance of hard work, believing in themselves and their team, setting goals, and trying to enjoy the journey along the way.

In talking with Annie, she said that winning a state championship in field hockey was not a dream of hers in childhood. Both she and Sally were travel soccer players first, playing at a high level until 8th grade. It was not until being selected for the U.S. Field Hockey National Futures team in seventh grade that Annie Snead first thought, “I want to win a state championship.”

For Sally, that dream was born in her eighth grade year as she watched Annie (then a junior) play in the state championship. Though Annie’s team lost to Norfolk Academy in the final, Sally was inspired to experience a championship for herself. She entered Trinity the following fall and became a part of a team on a mission.

“Mission” is the apt word to describe the 2015 team’s approach to the season. Annie said of the group, “we sat on the turf after losing in the final in 2014 and we committed to working as hard as we could to coming back and avenging that loss.” Margie echoed the same sentiment, “That team was so motivated after the 2014 season where they had done everything right and still lost. In the 2015 season, they were so focused and businesslike, with the goal of dismantling teams and earning that state championship.”

“The ’18 team, while being very hardworking and focused, was joyful in all that they did, not just focusing on a state championship. This team embraced the daily joy of friendship and hockey and togetherness, which ended up being their most potent weapon,” said Margie.

In the same way that each team had a different personality that required different coaching, Annie and Sally are two different athletes. Annie said, “My mom did a really good job coaching Sally and me and treating us as different people and different athletes.” Sally echoes that sentiment, and all three Snead women credit Billy with balancing family dynamics.

“If we did not have his support system, we could not have done the things we have done,” said Margie. “He gives unconditional support to all of us. He is the one who takes care of things when we are out of town, and he packs a mean snack cooler!”

“My dad is always the one who supports you no matter how you play,” said Sally. “He just loves watching us play, and he is so invested in every game. He is the first to hug us when we win, and the first to buy a cake when we lose.” Fortunately for the Titans, Billy bought no cake this season.

In further parallels, Sally Snead was named the Richmond Times-Dispatch All-Metro Player of the Year this fall, an honor Annie won in her junior and senior seasons. The sisters will unite again next fall at William & Mary, a reunion that is sure to excite Tribe coaches and fans.

With the dust settled on an historic fall for their family, what memories are crystalized from those state championship experiences?

For Annie, the feeling of togetherness of the team the night before the game and the excitement to realize a goal years in the making stand out. For Sally, she loved assisting teammate Abby English’s goal, and then receiving the assist from Abby to score (Abby was also a member of the 2015 championship team, with sister, Grace ’16 who was a senior captain. Abby will join Grace at Georgetown next year.). Margie felt excitement and relief that the team had finished the season undefeated. “I was so happy for them that it ended the way it was meant to end. They had done everything right, and I wanted to see them reap the benefits of that. They had cared for each other so much along the way that I wanted to see that honored.”

One could make the same statement for the Sneads in their final “family season” as Trinity athletes. For all of the ingredients to come together as if it were destined to be — what beautiful moment for a Trinity family.

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About “Connections”

Connections is a regular online column, written from the first-person perspective of Laura Hamlin Weiler ’00, Head of Community Engagement:

In this space, I have the privilege of sharing stories of Trinity students, alumni, and faculty and staff who are carrying our mission beyond the boundaries of campus. Many of these stories might not make the headlines, but they will illustrate how every member of the Trinity community has a unique path to discover, and the ability to make an impact on both the Trinity community and the world beyond.

I am fortunate to have been a part of this community since my own adolescence. I have been a student, a teacher, a coach, and an administrator, and in these roles I have witnessed the school’s growth and evolution through the years. We have grown in size as well as spirit.

Stories here will capture how seeds planted at Trinity have taken root and flourished into full-grown passions. You’ll also read stories of those in our community who bring their gifts from outside to help us learn. At Trinity, we seek to develop lifelong learners, and stories here will illustrate real-life examples of that beautiful symbiosis.