News

SANFORD, Fla.- There is no need to sugarcoat it: the 2021 season was not kind to the Seminole County Snappers. 

In just their second year of existence, and their first “normal” season after the COVID-19 pandemic impacted how the FCSL played in 2020, the Snappers ended the year 9-21, 10 games behind the first place and cross-stadium rival Sanford River Rats, and the only team to not qualify for the playoffs. 

But that was last year’s team, and the 2022 Snappers will look radically different. Between a new coaching staff and all new players except one, this year’s squad is ready and capable of making some noise in the Florida League.

The new leader of the Snappers is Matt Swiderski. Swiderski was the assistant coach on last year’s league champion Leesburg Lightning. Swiderski says winning last year was one of the greatest feelings and he wants to experience that again. He believes this team is capable of not only making it to the postseason, but winning the league championship.

As stated earlier, only one player returns from last year’s team: Blake D’Arville (St. Johns River College). D’Arville spent all of last season in the bullpen, specifically as a closer. He appeared in 12 games and finished eight of them. D’Arville logged 20 strikeouts in 22.1 innings. This season D’Arville is looking at transitioning to the starting rotation and being one of the main guys on the Snappers' pitching staff.

One of the new faces joining Seminole County this year is Drew Howard (Rollins). This is Howard’s second season in the Florida League. Last summer, he played for the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs, who made it all the way to the championship series, before losing two games to one to the Lightning. Howard led the Diamond Dawgs in walks last season with 20. This gave him an OBP of .449, which was the second highest on the team.

A few other new faces this year include Keanu Jacobs-Guishard (USF) and Spencer Rich (Clemson). Swiderski is really excited about both of these guys this summer. Jacobs-Guishard has been reaching out to Swiderski every day leading up to the season and is ready to go out on the field and tear it up for the Snappers. Rich has previously played for Swiderski at Daytona State during the 2021 season where was a Junior College All-American and Mid-Florida Conference Player-of-the-Year. He hit .438 with 10 home runs, then transferred to Clemson. He will be a big bat at the plate for the Snappers this season.

 This year’s Snappers team will be very different from last year, and they are looking to take the Florida League by storm.