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McKeever also is known as a coach who turns previously unnoticed swimmers into major talents, and talented-but-burned-out swimmers into Olympians and world champions. Current and former pupils include Olympians Dana Vollmer, Haley Cope, Staciana Stitts--and Natalie Coughlin, who credits McKeever with resurrecting Coughlin's swimming career and helping her to win five medals, including two Golds, at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Tall, lean, and tanned, 45-year-old Teri McKeever strides the pool deck imperiously, ash-blond curls tucked into a faded Cal baseball cap, stopwatch cords dangling from the pockets of her blue sweatpants. One hand clutches the first of her three breakfast Diet Pepsi's. ("It's like coffee," she says. "Just cold.") It's a fairly typical 6 a.m. practice at Spieker Aquatics Complex, except there's no fog, so the rising sun is lighting up the church across the street and the top of the eight-story Unit 3 dorms. Fifteen swim-capped heads lining the shaded north edge of the pool are turned in the direction of the coach as the swimmers rest between sets.
This is McKeever's laboratory, where dance class meets praxis. Here "Teri's ways" come to life in a blend of specific commands to move body part A to spot B, with other general orders to "take care of the water" and "wait for the water" and "breathe more life into your body."
- Excerpt from "Water Dance" by Eric Simons in the October (2007) issue of California Magazine
Regarded as one of the best swimming mentors in the United States, Teri McKeever begins her 18th year as head coach of the University of California's women's swimming and diving program. She ended her 17th season as the 2009 NCAA Coach of the Year after leading the Golden Bears' to their first NCAA team championship and becoming the first woman coach to be credited with an NCAA swimming and diving team title. She also claimed the 2009 Pac-10 Coach of the Year award after leading Cal to its first Pac-10 team championship.
McKeever has taken the Cal program to new heights and is often regarded in the coaching circle as the sport's influential innovator because of her unique training methods. Under McKeever's tutelage, the Golden Bears have produced five Pac-10 Swimmers of the Year, including three-time winner Natalie Coughlin and 13 consecutive top-10 NCAA finishes. She has amassed an impressive 141-49 dual meet record in her tenure with Cal.
Last season was the program's best ever. McKeever coached Dana Vollmer to a spectacular end to her college career, as Vollmer was named the 2009 NCAA Swimmer of the Year and Pac-10 Swimmer of the Year and won the Honda Sports Award for Swimming. Cal produced three individual NCAA titles (Vollmer in the 100- and 200-yard freestyles and Amanda Sims in the 100 butterfly), two NCAA relay champions (400- and 800-free relays) and two American records (400- and 800-free relays) and scored its most points (411.5) at the NCAA meet in school history. Nine Bears emerged as All-Americans and two earned honorable mention All-America honors after NCAAs. The Bears also won five Pac-10 titles (Vollmer in the 100- and 200- frees; Lauren Boyle in the 1650 free; and the 400- and 800-free relays). Another McKeever pupil, freshman Liv Jensen, earned the Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year accolade.
In 2007, Cal claimed five national titles, set three then-American Records at the NCAA Championships and boasted 10 All-Americans. The Bears also set school and Pac-10 records in the 200, 400 and 800-yard freestyle relays along the way. Under the guidance of McKeever, Vollmer set Cal dual meet records in the 100 and 200-yard butterfly events, while Boyle set a school record in the 1000 and 1650-yard freestyles. Additionally, Madison Kennedy, a newcomer to the program, flourished under McKeever and broke the school record in the 50-yard freestyle.
McKeever also enjoyed a second stint as an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic team in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Six of McKeever's pupils competed at the Summer Games and three came away with a total of eight medals, including the greatest women's swimmer in Cal history - Natalie Coughlin - with six, and Emily Silver and incoming freshman Sara Isakovic of Slovenia each with one.
The Cal coach is also widely renowned for her impact on the international scene. She was the first woman coach on the U.S. Olympic Swimming team and the first woman to be named head coach of the national team at a major international meet (the 2006 Pan Pacific meet in British Columbia). She also served as an assistant coach for the U.S. team during World Championship competition in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Other international coaching duties included assistant roles with the 2001 Goodwill Games and the 2002 Pan Pacific Championships.
In addition to those historical milestones, McKeever is above all proud to have trained the best of the best on the international scene. McKeever has helped guide Coughlin to 11 Olympic medals, including three gold, alumna Haley Cope to a silver medal and the entire U.S. swimming team to 28 medals, including 12 gold. McKeever also coached Staciana Stitts, who became the first Cal woman swimmer to earn an Olympic gold medal since Mary T. Meagher in 1984, when Stitts was a member of the United States' gold medal-winning 400-meter medley relay at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Prior to making her mark on Cal women's swimming, McKeever had strong ties to the Pac-10 Conference, both as an athlete and as a coach. A former USC All-American herself, she competed in the NCAA Championships meet all four years while at USC and helped the Trojans to four consecutive NCAA top-10 finishes. She earned All-America honors in both 1980 and 1981. As a senior in 1983, McKeever was named USC's Outstanding Student-Athlete. She worked as an assistant coach at USC from 1984-87, helping develop several All-Americans.
The Southern California product graduated from USC in 1983 with a B.S. in education with two teaching credentials (multiple subject, secondary life science) and also earned a masters degree in athletic administration in 1987. McKeever's father, Mike, was an All-American lineman for the Trojans' football team in 1959. McKeever comes from a family of 10 children (she is the oldest), all with varied athletic backgrounds. Sisters Kristi and Kelli Gannon were members of the U.S. national field hockey team.
McKeever found greater happiness away from the pool when she married Jerry Romani in the spring of 2007.
