Sam Colangelo has been there from the beginning -- the start of an organized high school swimming program in Harford County. Sixteen years later, Colangelo and his wife Judy are one of three married couples coaching teams in the county league.
Joining the North Harford pair in this category are Jeff and Lisa DeMott of Bel Air and Ted and Marianne Smith of Joppatowne.
"In 1978, I was at North Harford and Kevin Fleming was at Bel Air, and we were charged by Al Cesky [supervisor of county athletics at the time] to draw up a swimming program for the county schools," Sam Colangelo said.
"There was some pressure [on administration officials] to get the thing going. We put it together, even designing the score sheets and lane cards still in use, and he put it all in the works. The first season was 1979-80."
Edgewood dominated the early years, winning the first four team titles with Joppatowne and Bel Air having strong teams, too. John Carroll and C. Milton Wright accounted for all the titles between 1984 and 1990, and it has been all Bel Air since then.
Colangelo had been a high school swimmer in Pennsylvania and DTC continued his interest while teaching and working with Red Cross programs. He stayed close to coaching by attending clinics, and was an obvious choice for North Harford when the county program was instituted.
Coaching at North Harford became a family operation during the last 10 years, as the couple's two children became old enough to help.
"In the beginning, my wife helped in the background, and then the children gave her an opportunity to get more involved. At first, the children would come because they could swim afterward, and then we started putting them to work," Colangelo said. "Our son didn't swim in high school, but our daughter, now a senior at C. Milton Wright, swam one year and was on the volleyball team."
The Smiths, Pennsylvania natives, have been involved with teaching and coaching for years. Ted coached tennis and volleyball while teaching at Overlea High School, then went into administration during a 30-year career. He was the assistant superintendent of Baltimore County schools when he retired about five years ago.
"Then I could recycle to what I wanted to do in the first place -- teach and coach," he said. He has been Joppatowne's coach the last five years, and his wife for the last four. Her background includes a stint as the first coach of the Joppatowne Swim Club, in 1969.
The couple was involved, too, while their three daughters swam competitively. Last summer, Marianne coached the Fountain Green Swim Club, many of whose members are swimming for C. Milton Wright High School.
Unlike Wright, Joppatowne has no 12-month swimmers and is short on numbers, but the team has done well in spite of these drawbacks. "We tell them their objectives are to improve their times and have fun, and they do," Marianne said.
Jeff DeMott, Iowa-born and educated, swam in high school and in U.S. Swimming programs, then became interested in weight training while pursuing an advanced degree at Iowa State and remaining on the coaching fringes.
A job phaseout brought him to Harford County several years ago, and he currently teaches at Harford Tech. He renewed his coaching interest in swimming with involvement at Bel Air and with area recreation teams, and was named head coach at Bel Air three years ago.
Jeff and Lisa DeMott -- "I swam when I was younger, then kind of got roped into this after I started doing his paper work" -- have extended two Bel Air streaks. Not only have the Bobcats won four consecutive county titles, but the team is undefeated in dual meets for the last seven years, 107 competitions.
The DeMotts have candidates for future Bel Air teams, but it will be awhile. "Our children, two boys and a girl, are 5, 3 and 1," said Lisa, "and the 5-year-old has already started swimming."