COLUMN: Will Schnur stay on top at Sheerr?

Is Schnur the answer for Swimming? There are times to slash and burn, but this just isn't one of them. The Penn Athletic Department is a few days away from announcing a new swimming coach for its men's and women's teams. Interim coach Mike Schnur is a candidate for the job and deserves the permanent nod. Schnur has infused Penn with a spark of enthusiasm and has successfully preached a winning attitude. Under Schnur's tutelage, the men's team compiled an overall record of 7-5, 4-5 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League. This was a profound improvement considering that the Quakers were 2-7 in the EISL in 1997-98 and 1998-99, the two final years of Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert's 17-year tenure as coach. The women's team was similarly improved under Schnur, ending its notorious 42-meet, seven-year losing streak in Ivy League dual meets in his very first meet as acting coach. Things are looking up for this traditional Ivy doormat. Schnur did a fine job this past year and has been hard at work recruiting new athletes since the season ended in February. Still, I can understand why some would think it makes sense to go elsewhere for a new head coach. Almost all of Schnur's experience in collegiate swimming came under the guidance of Lawlor-Gilbert. He swam for her at Penn in the mid-1980s and was her assistant coach for seven years in the '90s. He cut his teeth under her, and, by all accounts, you might call Schnur her apprentice. And I can understand why that fact might rub some the wrong way. Lawlor-Gilbert left an unenviable legacy at Penn. Although she was a rising star when she took the job at Penn -- she was the first woman in history to head up a men's Division I program -- she found mostly frustration in her later years at Penn. Over her 17 seasons, the Penn men went 65-118, while the women flirted with .500, going 115-124. The women's team never won an Ivy contest in her final six seasons, and the men were similarly uninspired in the EISL. These performances indicate that there was a systemic problem with the Lawlor-Gilbert regime -- one that Schnur had at least a hand in. This is no reason to deny the job to the interim coach, however. In his one season sans mentor, he got the job done. His athletes were pleased. Their times were down. All seemed right at Sheerr Pool. There was no sign of the athlete-coach conflicts that prompted members of both the men's and women's teams to petition the Athletic Department to demand the resignation of Lawlor-Gilbert in both 1994 and 1995. He pushed his team up the Ancient Eight ladder, and when he was called for comment last night, he was unavailable for most of the time because he was busy calling recruits who have recently received their acceptance letters. He's been committed, and he deserves to be hired. That said, I can see why it sometimes makes sense to purge a program of any vestige of a past, unsuccessful regime. A week ago, the New York Rangers gave their leadership the boot, firing floundering head coach John Muckler and front-office impresario Neil Smith. The rationale behind the ousters made perfect sense. After a third straight season outside the playoffs, the Rangers had had enough. They decided to clean house -- and with good reason. With an astronomical payroll, they had reason for ire. And when it comes right down to it, even if the Rangers start from square one with new leaders, it doesn't really matter -- they are, after all, the Rangers, a revered organization. For a team like Penn swimming, however, starting from scratch is infinitely more harrowing. Schnur has made progress. Let him make more.

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