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JOHN C. COTEYThe former Clearwater girls coach also was a player on Dunedin's Class A state championship team in 1966.
Rod Snyder, a longtime Pinellas County teacher and star of Dunedin's only boys basketball state champion team, died Sunday of an apparent heart attack.
He was 54.
Mr. Snyder was a 6-foot-2 all-state guard as a junior in 1966, the year he was the top player for the Falcons' Class A state champs. The team was 13-11 in the regular season, but came on to win all seven postseason games, including a 61-42 win over Hollywood Chaminade for the championship.
Mr. Snyder, in his first varsity season, scored 23 points in the title game.
Nicknamed "Hot Rod," he averaged 14 points as a senior and was named all-state again. After graduating he attended Western Carolina on a basketball scholarship.
In 1972, he tried out with the Chicago Bulls but was cut, and played professionally in Australia while also touring with an all-star team. He also tried out and was cut by the New Orleans Jazz in 1973, the year he started teaching in Pinellas County.
Mr. Snyder began coaching in 1979 at Dunedin Middle School, and was an assistant at Clearwater under former boys basketball coach Rudy Coffin. In 1986 he began coaching the Clearwater boys junior varsity team, leading it to a 77-9 record in four seasons. He then became head coach of the Clearwater girls team.
He was named the Pinellas County Athletic Conference girls coach of the year in 1991, and was 20-6 the following season, his final one.
"He was very passionate about the game, as a player and a coach," Coffin said. "He was also very knowledgeable."
Mr. Snyder remained active as the director of basketball at the annual Pistol Pete Memorial Basketball Camp, which he helped start in 1983. The camp is held each year at Clearwater Christian College.
In lieu of flowers, Mr. Snyder's family asks for donations to the Rodney K. Snyder Memorial Basketball Fund Inc., to provide scholarships to needy students at the camp.
Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Friday at the Palm Harbor United Methodist Church, 1551 Belcher Road.
- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.