Snooker’s head manager was fired for harassment.
“I’m writing to inform you that we have parted ways today with long-time women’s swimming coach, Teri McKeever,” Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton wrote to Cal swimmers. “After carefully reviewing an extensive investigative report completed recently by an independent law firm, I am confident that this is in the best interests of our student athletes, our swimming program, and Cal Athletics as a whole.”
“The report details numerous violations of university policies that prohibit discrimination based on race, national origin, or disability.” The study also shows verbally abusive behavior that runs counter to our core beliefs. I was horrified by what I discovered when reading the report’s 482 pages, which substantiate far too many charges of improper behavior. I’d like to apologize on behalf of Cal Athletics to any student-athlete who has previously been subjected to this behavior, and I’d like to thank everyone who has had the bravery to come forward and share their experience with the investigators.”
Dave Durden will remain as acting director of both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs, according to Knowlton.
“Looking to the future, I acknowledge that there have been evolving standards in intercollegiate athletics when it comes to how we develop our student-athletes to be their best on and off the fields of competition,” Knowlton said. “While we have strong, existing policies that cover a wide range of unacceptable conduct, I believe areas remain where there is a lack of consensus and clarity, areas where practices acceptable in the past need to be updated. To support our student-athletes and coaches, I will lead a collaborative effort across the Cal Athletics community to develop updated guidelines that will allow coaches to mentor and challenge student-athletes in an environment that enables our young women and men to thrive.
“In the days ahead, we will begin this process through a series of conversations with our coaches, staff and student athletes. We will provide ample opportunities for our teams to provide input and feedback. Once completed we will educate our community about our new guidelines.”
Allegations about McKeever’s misconduct first surfaced last May, as numerous current and former members of the Cal women’s team claimed that she had verbally and emotionally abused them.
McKeever was then placed on paid leave by the university, and the school hired an independent law firm to investigate her.
When the accusations first came to light, 19 current and former women’s team swimmers, six parents and one former member of the men’s team spoke out against McKeever.
In December, the investigation into McKeever passed the six-month mark. Knowlton had previously said the investigation could take “up to six months.”
“Today I was informed by AD Knowlton of his decision to terminate my employment as CAL’s Head Women’s Swimming and Diving Coach. A position I held proudly since August of 1992,” McKeever wrote in a statement. “There was not one day in the last 30 years where I questioned what my job was. I was charged with recruiting exceptionally talented young women and coaching them toward the goal of winning an NCAA National Championship. I loved my job, especially the challenge of taking an individual sport like swimming and making it about the team’s accomplishments. I invested my whole self into this mission of excellence in the pool, classroom and beyond. I am proud of being the only female in swimming history to lead women to not one, but four national championships and the only woman ever selected to serve on, not one, but four USA Olympic Swimming Coaching staffs.
“During a 30-year career there are always those who take issue with my coaching style and me personally,” she continued. “I am a woman holding what is traditionally a man’s job and double standards come with the territory. I also know for those that struggled with my coaching, there were far more who had their lives positively changed by their experience. I greatly value the bonds I made with hundreds of young women and look forward to continuing to witness their successes.
“I deny and unequivocally refute all conclusions that I abused or bullied any athlete and deny any suggestion I discriminated against any athlete on the basis of race, disability or sexual orientation. There were and should be consequences for violating team rules, not showing up for scheduled appointments, misusing resources, not giving an honest effort and behavior that was not congruent with their individual or our team goals. But those consequences were not applied because of who someone was, only for what they did or didn’t do that hurt the team and the culture we were working hard to sustain.
“I am terribly disappointed and saddened at the way in which the investigation process was conducted,” McKeever added. “I have been an open book in my coaching methods and administration knows and have fully approved of how I coach. Given that knowledge, the lack of support by CAL’s administration has been heart breaking. I am the only coach, again female coach, to be subjected to a month’s long investigation examining every mistake made over 30 years.
“I leave Berkeley knowing I made a difference in hundreds of women’s lives. My life’s work has always been to empower women to see their strengths, understand their talents and learn skills that will fuel their success beyond their time in the pool. I wanted them to believe that as a female, they can do anything they set their mind to, but they’ll need to learn how to lift one another up and, in many fields, they’ll still need to be at least twice as good as their male counterpart. I now take that work beyond my time in Berkeley.”
Newkirk called the process leading to this decision “one of the most disturbing displays of double standards and enabling of gender bias directed at a female coach,” citing Cal’s handling of complaints against its women’s soccer coach as one example of that double standard. He said McKeever will be filing a lawsuit against the university.
Related: What does the Cal soccer coach have to do with the Teri McKeever investigation?
“The coaching profession is at a crossroads,” Newkirk said. “The complaints made about Teri were largely the result of gendered differences in how she was judged as a female but also based on gendered evaluations of female athletes. The complaints were also the result of a lack of resources provided to help coaches manage the mental health challenges of athletes. Coaches are all at risk as they seek to walk the line of great coaching compared to what any disappointed athlete or parent can now claim is abuse.”
“Teri will be filing suit to expose the manner in which gender has affected not only the evaluation of her coaching but harmed and continues to harm both female and male athletes,” he added. “Female athletes, including those who complained, have been treated in a patronizing manner by this administration. Male athletes who need actual help with mental health are being ignored. Male coaches, who are not abusing anyone must now be fired. Teri is committed to finding the answer to this national problem that is destroying not only female coaches but coaching as a profession.”
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