Dennis Miller and the Sudley Seahorses have not lost a meet since 1999.
The sign that trumpets the fact that the Sudley swim team has gone unbeaten since 1990 does not face the entrance to the Manassas club’s pool. Instead, it’s angled toward the water, all the better for the current Seahorses to remember who they represent, and perhaps for opponents to remember who they’re up against.
“When I’m doing the 25 butterfly, I look right at that sign when I’m done,” said Mia Caracciolo, 10, who has scored more than 141 points for Sudley this season. “That’s the first thing I see when I get out, and I want to keep that [tradition] going.”
“I want us to have that success now,” said Annabel Bergeron, 8, who is fourth on the team in points.
That sign might be a focal point of the Sudley pool, but for all its successes — 78 consecutive victories — Sudley is a bit of a contradiction. It’s in a high-traffic area and sits across from Manassas Mall. But it is obscured by trees and there are no signs on Rixlew Lane that indicate the club is there.
Assistant coach Don Regenbogen said on his first visit years ago he drove past the unmarked turn three times.
Yet swimmers keep finding Sudley, and Coach Dennis Miller, in his 41st year at the club, keeps developing them into Prince William Swim League champions.
Other than coaches and swimmers putting the time in, two reasons Miller cites for the extended winning streak are having particularly strong swimmers in the specialty strokes and being able to hang on to their older competitors.
“The expectations are definitely high, but it’s really rewarding to be on a team that’s just so good,” Emma Nowak, 14, said. “It’s kind of hard to describe. The bar is set very high here. I don’t want to be part of a race that loses the meet.”
Melanie Sherrill (10), Sam Pomajevich (11), Cameron Smith (10), Bergeron, Bobby Sherrill (11) and Kenny Poague (13) have been among the standouts this season, as the team’s top six point scorers.
“This pool has a long tradition of swimming, and the parents and the club are committed to the swim team,” said Miller, 59, adding that the club has 350 families but the swim team has 357 members. He is also the general manager of the facility and president of the PWSL.
The Seahorses had won their five meets this season by an average of almost 642 points. But for the first year in a while, there might not be any team records set this season.
“You’ve got to be fast,” Miller said. “You’ve got to be really fast.”
Miller, who without prompting can recall the five-point loss in 1998 and the six-point loss in ’99, both to Ridgewood, believes the gap between Sudley and the rest of the league is closing because of the larger developments built in the Gainesville area, many of them enthusiastic about having swimming clubs of their own.
“I tell them if they start swimming it’s really going to help their community, because they’re going to have something that bonds them together,” Miller said. “And I think they’re seeing that. It’s no doubt what bonds Sudley together.”
Miller jokes that the Seahorses are like the Yankees — “loved from within and hated from [the outside].” The question is whether their dominance inspires opponents or discourages them.
“That’s definitely pressure to know that everybody’s out there to get us,” said Jillian Fritsch, 11. “You kind of have to just go into it hoping that you do your best, and your best is what you get.”
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