THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604030562
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Shwante Snead's addresses have ranged from Osan, Korea, to Biloxi, Miss., to Norfolk, but her home has remained the same.
Anywhere she can find a basketball court. A soccer field would be nice, too.
The Maury High senior and the Eastern District's most dominant athlete the last three years is accustomed to frequent moves, thanks to her dad, Air Force Lt. Col. Charles Snead, who teaches at the Armed Forces Staff College.
Born in Fayetteville, N.C., Shwante lived in Japan as a baby, then Korea, Mississippi, Fairfax County and finally, in the military housing off Terminal Boulevard in Norfolk. Now, probably Virginia Tech-bound in the fall, Snead is in her last semester of high school, and she's going for a double-double: soccer and track.
``I guess you could say I have a lot of energy,'' says Snead. ``At first I was hesitant to do both, but I've wanted to run track since we got here.''
Commodores track coach Walt Green wanted her, too. You need only look around the Sneads' living room to see why. In between a wall of eclectic international treasures - ornate Korean vases and tasseled wall hangings from the Seoul Olympics among them - are Snead's trophies. They surround a singular basketball inscribed with her name in calligraphy and a February date that marks Snead's 1,000th point.
Snead, an All-Tidewater selection for both basketball and soccer since her sophomore year, has picked up honors for MVP and two Lady Commodore awards for leadership. Maury basketball coach Lamont Walker regards her as among the school's elite. ``She stars in everything - track, soccer, basketball.'' he said. ``I can say from my dealings with Maury she is one of the best female athletes we've had.''
Green, who has started her off in relays, is grooming her for the 400-meter run.
``The reason I know she can run the 400 is she's strong and she has guts,'' Green said. ``That's one thing you can't coach.''
Guts, as Green calls it - or aggression, the word soccer coach Robert Mayer uses - stem from a history of playing street ball in whatever neighborhood she happened to live in. At 5-foot-5, nobody was going to run over Snead.
``People may think I'm playing mean,'' she says, ``but being aggressive, that's how you have to play. You have to. Especially if you're smaller, they think they can push you around. You have to show them they can't.''
She played soccer first, as a 5-year-old, but older brother Cornelius and her dad helped her discover the hard courts. She joined an AAU team in northern Virginia but left that behind when the family moved to Norfolk her freshman year.
``When I first got here, I hoped I could play jayvee,'' she says. ``I went out and tried out and the coach told me I'd be playing varsity. Then he said, `You're going to be my point guard.' ''
It was a whole new role for a kid used to playing shooting guard. ``My ballhandling when I got here was OK,'' she says. ``I had to learn to work better with my left hand and being aware of what everybody else has to do.''
She's carried Maury offensively, often playing the entire game and averaging 17.6 points as a senior - third-best in South Hampton Roads - to go along with eight rebounds and 3.5 steals per game. If there is a knock on her skills, it is the lack of a jump shot, which she says is a misperception. ``I have a jump shot,'' she says. ``But if defenses let me drive to the basket and get a layup, that's my first instinct. You get more points by layups.''
Defenses have trouble keeping up with her speed. In track, she runs the first leg of the 4x100 relay and the anchor of the 4x400. Already, she's picked up a medal for first from last week's Conn-Madden shuttle-hurdle relays.
``I see her breaking 60 seconds in the quarter,'' Green said. ``She's a good runner because she runs smooth.''
Her footwork helps in soccer, too, where Mayer says, ``She attacks the ball at all times.''
The athletic success used to spawn a letter a week from Division I programs, but scholarship offers have not been forthcoming. Still, Snead, with a 2.9 GPA, remains optimistic about her chances as a basketball walk-on at Virginia Tech, where she has already been accepted.
``I've watched them on TV and think I have a chance to play there,'' she says.
Snead's can-do attitude will no doubt help in her career - either in medicine or physical therapy.
``She's a striver,'' says her mother, Annie, noting her daughter's knack for details. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Maury High School's Schwante Snead is an athlete for all seasons.
by CNB