Bill Snape was named the head swimming coach at McDaniel on Aug. 7, 2023 after serving in the same role at Gallaudet University where he was a four-time coach of the year and won three conference championships.
Snape led the Bison for eight seasons from 2004-12, guiding the men to back-to-back North Eastern Atlantic Conference (NEAC) championships in 2011 and 2012 and the women to the title in 2011. The two teams also combined to set over 50 school records.
Snape was a two-time NEAC Men's Swimming Coach of the Year in 2011 and 2012, NEAC Women's Swimming Coach of the Year in 2011, and Capital Athletic Conference Men's Swimming Coach of the Year in 2008. He mentored 24 first team all-conference selections, including four conference swimmer of the year recipients.
In 2012, Snape received his second-straight coach of the year accolade after leading the men to their first winning season since 1965 and second consecutive NEAC championship. Senior Brian Bennett was also named the Swimmer of the Year for the second year in-a-row. Meanwhile, the women finished third and freshman Alexandra Polivanchuk was named NEAC Swimmer of the Year after Carlisle Robinson earned the honor in 2011.
Snape served two appointments as the head coach of United States Deaf Swimming (USDS). He oversaw the national teams at the 2007 United States Deaf World Championships in Taipei, Taiwan as well as the 2011 World Deaf Swimming Championships in Coimbra, Portugal. That year, he was named World Swim Coach of the Year by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf as the US upset Russia for the world championship.
A former Division I swimmer and water polo player at UCLA, Snape spent three years as the Associate Head Swim Coach for the George Washington University men's team from 1986-89. He graduated magna cum laude from the Honors College at UCLA in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in history before receiving his Juris Doctor degree from George Washington in 1989.
Since 2007, Snape has served as Assistant Dean and Professor at American University's Washington College of Law teaching environmental and property law. He also still advocates on behalf of deaf athletics. In 2017, he successfully petitioned the NCAA to change the swimming competition rules to accommodate both visual and audial starting cues which benefit swimmers of all hearing capabilities.
Snape and his family live on a nine-acre farm in Westminster, where they grow a variety of crops and raise goats and chickens.
