Cal Women’s and Men’s Teams Training Together Right Now; School Has Decisions to Make
Longtime Cal women’s coach Teri McKeever was placed on administrative leave in late May after allegations emerged that she had bullied and verbally abused swimmers, and the future of the program is currently uncertain. Jesse Moore, hired as the assistant for the women’s program in late April, has worked with the Cal women in McKeever’s absence, and more recently, with many swimmers away from Berkeley for the summer or for the World Championships, the women and men’s teams have been training together.
Cal men’s coach Dave Durden, who has won five national team titles with the Golden Bear men (including this season), confirmed that swimmers at Cal are currently training together, but he said there are no plans at the moment for permanent changes. Cal is one of several top swimming universities (along with Stanford and Texas) that have maintained separate women’s and men’s coaching staffs.
While the women’s program has been under scrutiny and in flux for the past six weeks following the allegations against McKeever, there has also been change in the Cal men’s program in 2022. Early in the year, assistant coach Chase Kreitler missed several months after the birth of his first child, and former U.S. Olympic team coach David Marsh came in as a temporary replacement. Following the season, Kreitler departed Berkeley to become head coach at the University of Pittsburgh, and former Ohio State assistant Matt Bowe joined the program as the new full-time men’s assistant.