While the Cal Golden Bears came up short in their upset bid of arch-rivals Stanford, their efforts were enough to earn head coach Teri McKeever the CSCAA Women’s Division I Swimming Coach of the Year.
This is McKeever’s 5th award, having previously won in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2015. On each of those prior occasions, Cal came away with the team title. This year, they were runners-up, finishing 37.5 points behind the two-time defending champions from Stanford.
The last time that this award was won by a coach of a non-team-champion was in 2014, when Stanford’s head coach Greg Meehan won the award in spite of his team finishing 2nd to Georgia.
The Cal Golden Bears won 4 events and put up a fight for the team title in spite of losing World Record holder Kathleen Baker from last year’s team, who turned pro with 1 year of eligibility remaining. This is Cal’s 3rd-straight runner-up finish.
Mckeever is one of two women to ever win this award. Dorsey Tierney-Walker shared the award with David Marsh in 2007 when the two were co-head coaches.
Cal’s 2019 Event Wins:
- 200 free relay – 1:24.55 (Maddie Murphy, Katie McLaughlin, Amy Bilquist, Abbey Weitzeil) (NCAA/US Open/American Record)
- 400 medley relay – 3:25.24 (Amy Bilquist, Ema Rajic, Katie McLaughlin, Abbey Weitzeil) (Pool Record)
- 50 free – Abbey Weitzeil, 21.02 (NCAA/US Open/American Record)
- 400 free relay – 3:06.96 (Isabel Ivey, Katie McLaughlin, Amy Bilquist, Abbey Weitzeil) (NCAA Record, US Open/American Record pending ruling on Abbey Weitzeil‘s elbow wrap
Women’s Swimming Coach-of-the-Year, All-Time
- 2018 Greg Meehan, Stanford
- 2017 Greg Meehan, Stanford
- 2016 Jack Bauerle, Georgia
- 2015 Teri McKeever, California
- 2014 Greg Meehan, Stanford
- 2013 Jack Bauerle, Georgia
- 2012 Teri McKeever, California
- 2011 Teri McKeever, California
- 2010 Gregg Troy, Florida
- 2009 Teri McKeever, California
- 2008 Frank Busch, Arizona
- 2007 David Marsh and Dorsey Tierney-Walker, Auburn
- 2006 Jack Bauerle, Georgia
- 2005 Jack Bauerle, Georgia
- 2004 Gregg Troy, Florida
- 2003 David Marsh, Auburn
- 2002 David Marsh, Auburn
- 2001 David Marsh, Auburn
- 2000 Jack Bauerle, Georgia
- 1999 Jack Bauerle, Georgia
- 1998 Jack Bauerle, Georgia
- 1997
- 1996 Steve Collins, Southern Methodist
- 1995 Jim Richardson, Michigan
- 1994
- 1993 Jim Richardson, Michigan
- 1992 Richard Quick, Stanford
- 1991 Steve Collins, Southern Methodist
- 1990
- 1989 Richard Quick, Stanford
- 1987
- 1986 Richard Quick, Stanford
- 1985 Richard Quick, Stanford
- 1984 Richard Quick, Stanford
- 1983
- 1982
“Coaches have to watch for what they don’t want to see and listen to what they don’t want to hear.” ~ John Madden.
“All coaching is, is taking a player where he can’t take himself.” ~ Bill McCartney.
Teri McKeever should return her Coach of the Year award. She should do so because, at the 11th hour, she failed at everything at which a college coach needs to succeed. She failed her school. She failed her program. She failed her athlete. She failed herself.
Competing with an injury only yields one result: more injury. And every coach should know that. So, at the 11th hour, Teri McKeever had one job: take Abbey Weitzeil out of the pool.… Read more »
Canadian Swimmer – I would question your premise to assume that Abbey Weitzeil was at risk of more injury by swimming. In an interview with Coleman, Abbey said that the doctor said that there was no more risk of further injury than there was before she jammed her arm – that it was only a matter of pain tolerance. Are you proposing that you have more insight into Weitzeil’s injury than the doctor that examined her?
I am sure the team doctor had more insight into the injury than Canadian swimmer, but I am not sure that a team doctor cares about the health of one of the athletes.
Yes, Braden, I would definitely be inclined to question the competence of a medical authority that gave any advice that sounded anything like “Just go ahead and play through the pain, kid, you’ll be fine.” It’s a head scratcher. Reportedly there was an MRI scheduled for today in order to probe for soft tissue injury. Have to say I’m surprised that any doctor would clear an athlete to resume training, much less compete at a championships, when all the tests hadn’t even been completed.
Regardless, my comment wasn’t about the doctoring, but the coaching. And I stand firm in my opinion that there was no upside to swimming Abbey Weitzeil given her obvious distress and the fact her continued participation… Read more »
California would have won the title if certain Canadian swimmer had decided to swim for Cal instead of Stanford. I get the impression that Stanford recognizes that their top swimmers are likely to be LCM swimmers first and SCY swimmers second. .
Or if Darcel didn’t scratch, that would have also boosted their chances, though if she scratched for personal reasons as mentioned earlier, wishing her the best with whatever might have arisen.
Keep talking! Let’s see what Abbey and Katie do this summer at Worlds and then we’ll talk!
Not a conspiracy, just clearly the coaches did not want Meehan to win 3 in a row. That has been the trend recently in conference meets too with swimmers and coaches.
But why not give the award to someone like the coach of Louisville, instead of someone who had already won the award four times?
Well deserved in my opinion but what do I know. Glad to see my old teammate on one of those relays too
How many school / NCAA records did the Bears set? Two each for Weitzeil and McLaughlin plus the 100 breast plus all five relays? Incredible performance
It also helps to be on the Board of Directors of the organization presenting the award.
http://www.cscaa.org/who-we-are
I served on the Board of Directors for several years and your comment is way off the mark. The head coaches at the meet vote on this outstanding award. Congratulations Coach McKeever on the way your ladies perform!
And the guy standing next to Coach McKeever in the photo is the Executive Director of the CSCAA whose job the CSCAA Board of Directors (McKeever in part) oversees. Nice conflict of interest on both sides of that equation.With all the crazy stuff going on with college recruiting and admissions, we need this?
Very well deserved. Congrats Teri!! The Bears were so fun to watch this week
What Teri has done over time with professional respect to others is a testament to the sport we all love. Well done coach. Your Cal record board continues to grow…..
I’m sure she’s a good coach and a lovely person and I’m not sure how the award is picked, but I would pick a coach from a team that does not consistently get the best recruits, yet has their team in the top 10. This year I would have chosen the Louisville coach.
With that logic, which has some merit, it should be given to the coach with the greatest percentage or number of PRs among her/his swimmers — and delivered at NCAAs. I think Teri would be competitive with that metric, if not win it.
The award is voted on by the Head Coaches of the teams at the meet. Many worthy candidates, but Teri’s peers felt she best deserved the award.
in most sports it is not the winningest coach to pick COY but i dunno because i dunno the rules in this voting….