IN LOVING MEMORY OF SHIRLEY L. SNYDER 1937-2004

The Shirley Snyder Memorial

This page is dedicated to the memory of Shirley Snyder. If anyone
has any photos, facts or stories about Shirley and would like them
posted, please email Steve Kilpatrick '68 at stevek68@wassonalumni.com

Please click on the links directly below this text to view the different
articles that have been submitted regarding Wasson's Shirley Snyder

Shirley Snyder helped many lives as Coach, Teacher // Prep Report:
Snapshot into the life of Shirley Snyder // Patricia Martinez - Class of 77

Shirley Snyder helped many lives as Coach, Teacher
By TIM BERGSTEN - THE GAZETTE

The story goes like this, but nobody knew if it was true until two weeks ago.

After the 1984 Summer Olympics, the year the U.S. men’s gymnastics team won the gold medal, a familiar face walked into Shirley Snyder’s office at Wasson High School.

Scott Johnson, a Wasson graduate who competed on that U.S. team, had come to visit his friend. In his hand, he held his Olympic gold medal. He placed it around Snyder’s neck.“You are the one who deserves this,” he told her.

So many others would also agree.

On Friday, Shirley Snyder died of brain cancer. She was 67 and taught physical education at Wasson for 40 years and coached girls gymnastics for 14 years, inspiring everyone who knew her. As she drove Snyder to radiation treatment two weeks ago, Chris Beyer, a former Wasson student and teacher, asked if the story about Scott Johnson was true.

She confirmed that it all happened that way and they laughed about the notion of Snyder keeping the medal, which she didn't. Snyder never coached Johnson but he was her student.

Snyder actually began coaching gymnastics early in the 1960s before the Colorado High School Activities Association sanctioned the sport. She taught herself much about the sport. “I was 15 and she was 25 and cute and had this pizazz about her,” Beyer said. “I was there the day she was reading out of a gymnastics book while one of the students was doing the trick.”

When the CHSAA sanctioned gymnastics in 1972, Wasson was an instant powerhouse. Snyder’s teams won 10 district titles, 151 dual meets, 15 invitational championships and the 1983 state title.“She wanted that championship so badly,” said Phyllis Jones, who taught with Snyder for 19 years. “She always believed the kids could win.”

When Wasson finally won the state title after 10 years, Snyder wept. Cindy Cole, who won the all-around title in the state championship season, said Snyder treated everyone the same.“I may have been the state champion, but I was just one of her 500 children,” Cole said. “She never took me into the corner to give me a pep talk. Her message was always the same to all of us, you are a human being and a lady first and an athlete second. She was motivating every day. She always had a smile and had a hug for us.”

Diane Paglia-Baggs, who was an assistant coach when Wasson won the state title, said Snyder changed her life.“She loved gymnastics, but she wanted to make sure kids were taken care of,” Paglia-Baggs said. “She changed hundreds and hundreds of people’s lives.”

Snyder retired from teaching in 2000. She was inducted into the CHSAA Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Colorado High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2001. She won numerous awards along the way. But her friends say she always gave more than she received.“She made me feel special, like I was the favorite one,” Beyer said. “I went to support Shirley when she received an award and I walked in and there were 40 others there who thought they were her favorite. It occurred to me that this lady’s gift was to make each person feel special.”

Snyder was diagnosed with brain cancer on March 14. Those close to her hoped for a miracle. On Wednesday, she slipped into unconsciousness.“She was such a strong willed person, failure was not in her vocabulary,” Jones said. “We were afraid she would go on fighting it. But her family spoke to her, gave her permission to die.”

She is survived by Donald, her husband of 39 years. They had no children. A memorial fund has been set up in her name at US Bank. Contributions may be made at any Front Range branch. The funds will be used to construct a monument for Snyder at Wasson High School.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0260
or tbergsten@gazette.com

Prep Report: Snapshot into the life of Shirley Snyder
Rocky Mountain News - April 15, 2004 by Steve Trivett

COLORADO SPRINGS - You learned all you needed to know about Shirley Snyder the moment you walked into her office at Wasson High School.

There on the walls were hundreds of baby pictures.

Snyder and her husband Don didn't have any children of their own, but all of those smiling faces belonged to her in a very special way. They were pictures of the kids that belonged to the kids that she taught and coached in a high school teaching career that spanned 40 years.

Snyder, who coached gymnastics at Wasson from the first day the sport was sanctioned by the Colorado High School Activities Association until she retired in 2000, died Friday after a brief battle with cancer. She was 67, a life full of love for kids and sports.

"She took kids that had enough talent not to hurt themselves and turned them into athletes," CHSAA associate commissioner Paul Angelico said. "She was such a great teacher. I watched it over and over for 40 years."

Angelico knows. Down the hall from Snyder's office, his picture is on the wall as a member of the Thunderbirds' Athletic Hall of Fame. She was one of Angelico's gymnastics coaches.

"She had such a way with kids from Day 1," said Angelico, who later coached against Snyder. "She would talk to kids in that little voice, but she always got her point across."

Case in Point

"She called me into her office one day and asked me, as the team captain, to talk to some of the other guys about the way they were doing the vault," Angelico said. "She was worried that somebody was going to get hurt because they just couldn't get up enough speed to try a hard vault without putting themselves into danger, and she wanted me to talk them out of it. The person she was worried about the most was me."

Snyder's coaching credentials - 151 dual-meet wins, 15 tournament titles, seven district championships, a state championship in 1983 - were enough to earn her a space in the Hall of Fame of the CHSAA and Colorado High School Coaches Association.

They also earned her the F. Don Miller Award, named for a past executive director of the U.S. Olympic Committee that is presented by the Colorado Springs Sports Corp. for contribution to sports in the Pikes Peak region.

"She made kids feel like they were the top of the world," said Tom Falgien, a director of the CSSC and chairman of the selection committee for the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame. "In my opinion, she was one of the best teachers I've ever seen."

And nobody got a closer look than Falgien, who taught with Snyder at Wasson before becoming her boss as an assistant principal and athletic director.

"There was never, ever a problem with her kids," he said. "She not only coached them to be quality athletes, she also taught them to be quality people. That's all you can ask from a teacher and coach, and Shirley did it better than anyone I ever knew."

But don't think Snyder was a soft touch.

"One day the grounds crew was lining the football field and Shirley called my office and asked if we could also chalk some firing lines for her archery class," Falgien said. "I told her, 'No problem.'

"The next morning, my phone rang again," Falgien said. "It was Shirley, and she told me the line was 7 inches off. Needless to say, the crew went out and did it again."

Ron Nighswonger is in his last year as Colorado Springs School District 11 athletic director. He first met Snyder when he was a student-athlete at Wasson. He later was a coaching peer and then her boss as the AD at Wasson.

In the early 1970s, many thought gymnastics should be dropped as a sanctioned sport. Snyder was the loudest, but most calm, voice to save the sport.

"The neatest thing about Shirley was that she fought hard for the things she believed in," Nighswonger said. "She was very vital to high school sports from behind the scenes. She never wanted the credit for herself; she did what she did for her kids and not for herself.

"She made people, especially her kids, feel important."

Patricia Martinez (Maiden Name), Class of 77

I realize that this very late, but I have been in and out of the country for some time. Coach Snyder was often referred to a "Q-tip" because of her thin body and full hair, but she made a real difference in my life.

I was a very fat student, and at the time we wore the hideous red/blue one piece gym suit, which while indoors I could take the dirty looks, but when it came to the outdoor sports, it just killed me to have to walk out in front of the auto shop to play tennis or anywhere else for that matter.

She saw how vulnerable I was and gave me permission to wear a plain shirt over the suit, not that it covered much of the weight, but the affect that it had on my self-esteem was overwhelming. She was tough when she needed to be, but when always there when you needed her to be, as a person and coach. I am sorry that I missed her passing.

E. Pat Bynum
Civilian Personnel Advisor



Shirley Snyder helped many lives as Coach, Teacher // Prep Report:
Snapshot into the life of Shirley Snyder // Patricia Martinez - Class of 77

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