Outside Topic OT: serious bullying by cal women's swimming coach mckeever - Printable Version
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OT: serious bullying by cal women's swimming coach mckeever - jonnyss - 05-24-2022
https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/05/24/cal-swimmers-allege-coach-teri-mckeever-bullied-and-verbally-abused-them-for-years/
this article may be under a paywall. basically, 19 cal women's swimmers accuse terri mckeever of screaming at them in public, daily calling them pieces of s***, body shaming, ignoring medical and mental health conditions &/or revealing those confidential conditions to the team. plus homophobia and racism. several detail how they became suicidal. mckeever's response reportedly was to mock them in front of the team: "did you try to kill yourself last night?...do you know how pathetic that is, how stupid that is, how selfish that is?...you messed up (your teammate's) practice!"
the administration was told multiple times over years by the athletes and parents, yet did nothing, apparently because of mckeever's olympic success.
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - BobK - 05-24-2022
Incredible abuse of power. I read the story, athletes treated as pawns by the administration also.
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - ColoradoTree - 05-24-2022
What an awful read. Absolutely criminal that this has been allowed to continue and that the UCB administration has been so dismissive of the students' concerns.
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - fullmetal - 05-24-2022
holy crap. mckeever needs therapy. unfortunately, so might a generation of her athletes now. that behavior is not normal and not acceptable.
Quote:Her father died in 1967 from head injuries received in a 1965 car accident, after twenty-two months in a coma.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teri_McKeever
she's been at kal since 1992, and perhaps her teams have been successful in spite of, rather than because of, her coaching behavior.
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - newguy - 05-25-2022
according to SwimSwam, a highly regarded swimming site, McKeever is godmother to the eldest child of Cal Athletic Dept. #2 Jennifer Simon-O'Neill. but that doesn't mean there's favoritism or anything.
https://swimswam.com/teri-mckeever-is-godmother-to-child-of-high-ranking-cal-athletics-official/
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - fullmetal - 05-25-2022
And let's be fair, I'm sure McKeever isn't that way toward her entire team. I'm sure she's only this way toward the lower 25% or so of her team...the "least favorites," so to speak. The top 25% will overlook that behavior because McKeever will treat them with golden gloves. The middle 50% gets to sit uncomfortably as they balance their own need to curry favor and perform with their sense of courage/fairness. Those are random percentages, but the concept holds true. It's generally the minority of athletes who are hurt severely, and everyone else just lives with it.
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - M T - 05-25-2022
(05-25-2022, 08:37 AM)newguy Wrote: according to SwimSwam, a highly regarded swimming site, McKeever is godmother to the eldest child of Cal Athletic Dept. #2 Jennifer Simon-O'Neill. but that doesn't mean there's favoritism or anything.
https://swimswam.com/teri-mckeever-is-godmother-to-child-of-high-ranking-cal-athletics-official/
That's a pretty low blow someone's trying to land.
If you are employed somewhere for 29 years, you might have a few close friends there. Does that mean favoritism??? Does Condelezza Rice's involvement with Stanford Athletics mean that anything goes for Stanford Athletics? Of course not.
As for 25%, 50%, 25%, that is a gross assumption of what is apparently going on. Not just the numbers, but also the assumption it is the "lower" part of her team that is complaining. (By the way, she's had more than 25 Olympians go through her program at Cal in the 29 years she's been there -- not that this is any excuse for even one athlete being abused.)
I am not defending McKeever as I know nothing about her except her coaching record. There are pretty serious claims in there. It seems disingenuous to ask for a comment from the target within 48 hours on a piece like this.
I did know Richard Quick (legendary swim coach at Auburn, Texas, and Stanford) somewhat. I was a swimmer on an across-town age-group team in the late 1960s. I knew his swimmers and saw his interactions with them and others at meets. At the time, he knew me. We would nod to each other when I would sometimes see him at the Stanford pool 30 years later but I'm sure he would wonder "Where do I know that guy from?". He was always a highly respected coach among his athletes and other coaches. However, he did have at least one world-class swimmer who cut her career short. She felt that Quick contributed to her eating disorder issues when he pointed out the impact of weight upon performance. And there was another world-class swimmer that famously transferred away from his program.
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - FarmTeam - 05-25-2022
(05-25-2022, 01:18 PM)M T Wrote:(05-25-2022, 08:37 AM)newguy Wrote: according to SwimSwam, a highly regarded swimming site, McKeever is godmother to the eldest child of Cal Athletic Dept. #2 Jennifer Simon-O'Neill. but that doesn't mean there's favoritism or anything.
https://swimswam.com/teri-mckeever-is-godmother-to-child-of-high-ranking-cal-athletics-official/
That's a pretty low blow someone's trying to land.
If you are employed somewhere for 29 years, you might have a few close friends there. Does that mean favoritism??? Does Condelezza Rice's involvement with Stanford Athletics mean that anything goes for Stanford Athletics? Of course not.
As for 25%, 50%, 25%, that is a gross assumption of what is apparently going on. Not just the numbers, but also the assumption it is the "lower" part of her team that is complaining. (By the way, she's had more than 25 Olympians go through her program at Cal in the 29 years she's been there -- not that this is any excuse for even one athlete being abused.)
I am not defending McKeever as I know nothing about her except her coaching record. There are pretty serious claims in there. It seems disingenuous to ask for a comment from the target within 48 hours on a piece like this.
I did know Richard Quick (legendary swim coach at Auburn, Texas, and Stanford) somewhat. I was a swimmer on an across-town age-group team in the late 1960s. I knew his swimmers and saw his interactions with them and others at meets. At the time, he knew me. We would nod to each other when I would sometimes see him at the Stanford pool 30 years later but I'm sure he would wonder "Where do I know that guy from?". He was always a highly respected coach among his athletes and other coaches. However, he did have at least one world-class swimmer who cut her career short. She felt that Quick contributed to her eating disorder issues when he pointed out the impact of weight upon performance. And there was another world-class swimmer that famously transferred away from his program.
Not really sure what point you're trying to make about Richard Quick. What does that have to do with anything? There are 19 (nineteen!) swimmers who spoke to the reporters, and it was an interesting and almost certainly telling statistic that 42% of kids in her program haven't completed their eligibility over the last 10 or so years.
Don't think disclosure of the Simon-O'Neill relationship is a low blow in the slightest. Simon-O'Neill is supposed to be essentially McKeever's boss (or one of them), and when it turns out she's a close personal friend then it's fair to question whether she can be impartial in her assessment of complaints, etc. Clearly she dropped the ball.
Anyway, McKeever is done. No way she survives this. I'm not one to automatically think the coach is in the wrong when an athlete complains about a tough coach, but the sheer volume of complaints, the nature of the various complaints, and the number of athletes coming forward is damning.
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - fullmetal - 05-25-2022
It is absolutely fair to point out that Quick may have skeletons hidden in his closet, but that should not normalize McKeever's actions. If we need to have a public accounting of Quick's coaching behavior...well, the truth is the truth.
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - cardcrimson - 05-25-2022
and there is this: McKeever was apparently pretty supportive of one of her coaches during an exceedingly difficult time:
https://swimswam.com/former-cal-coach-kristen-lewis-cunnanes-new-book-seeks-to-help-other-abuse-victims/
No exoneration intended, just a side note to the story. For full disclosure, my daughter has trained at Kristen's home--she seems like a wonderful woman, and obviously a very strong one.
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - newguy - 05-25-2022
a majority of the team walked out on practice today, according to swimswam. i can't say i blame them.
https://swimswam.com/cal-swimmers-walk-out-of-practice-on-wednesday-after-mckeever-reads-a-statement/
and in this particular case, i'm going to go out on a limb and say that the godmother relationship likely implies favoritism.
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - fullmetal - 05-25-2022
Wow...just wow. I hope the student-athletes are supported by the university.
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - BobK - 05-25-2022
McKeever on admin leave
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - akiddoc - 05-25-2022
Skip Kenney made my brother's life miserable when he was on the Stanford men's team in the 1980's. (Not my brother who sometimes posts here). My brother was a walk-on on a team with multiple Olympians. He actually went to the USA Olympic trials 3 times and the Canadian trials once, so he was not some below average swimmer. But for Stanford at that time he was not elite, and the coaches of that era felt it necessary to belittle those at the end of the bench. McKeever sounds like a relic of those days. There is no reason and no excuse for that type of coaching.
Sakibomb25 - Sakibomb25 - 05-26-2022
I mean some of the swimmers were pretty high-profile. You can tell Cassidy Bayer was the swimmer who barely missed the Olympic team and transferred to another SEC school. So it wasn’t just the lower-tier athletes, Cindy Tran was a six-time NCAA champion… not someone who is at the end of the bench.
It’s also pretty damning that Missy Franklin and Natalie Coughlin stayed at Cal… and chose to swim with Dave Durden instead.
McKeever is done. No way does she survive this. Even if Cal let’s her keep her job… there is no way too-tier recruits are going to want to go to Cal now. I wonder if Maggie MacNeil changes her mind and goes elsewhere for her Covid year?
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - gailtate - 05-26-2022
This whole thing should remind everybody in or out of sports that we are well into a new era wherein pathological behavior by those in power can no longer stand as it would, could and certainly did in the past. You can't get away with it anymore. Period. This is as encouraging as it is overdue, of course.
RE: OT: serious bullying by cal coach mckeever - fullmetal - 05-26-2022
(05-25-2022, 07:54 PM)akiddoc Wrote: Skip Kenney made my brother's life miserable when he was on the Stanford men's team in the 1980's. (Not my brother who sometimes posts here). My brother was a walk-on on a team with multiple Olympians. He actually went to the USA Olympic trials 3 times and the Canadian trials once, so he was not some below average swimmer. But for Stanford at that time he was not elite, and the coaches of that era felt it necessary to belittle those at the end of the bench. McKeever sounds like a relic of those days. There is no reason and no excuse for that type of coaching.
I'm really sorry to hear. Choosing a few team punching bags each season is a terrible/unacceptable/short-sighted way to motivate performance from the rest of the team. I hope your brother found happiness outside of swimming at Stanford.
I'm still not done processing my time on a team at Stanford, and it's sometimes a wonder that I love Stanford as much as I do given my time there.