Cal gave McKeever raises despite bullying complaints
In December 2019, University of California freshman swimmer Danielle Carter met with Golden Bears head coach Teri McKeever for the final time after a series of heated meetings with the coach and other athletic department employees in which Carter complained that McKeever had routinely bullied her. The bullying, the swimmer said, led to her walking into her dorm bathroom days earlier with the intent of committing suicide.
At an earlier meeting with Carter and her parents, Scott and Darla, McKeever said, according to Darla, “‘I’m not dealing with this piece of (expletive) for three years,’ and she pointed right at Dani.”
This final meeting between Carter and McKeever was also attended by Jennifer Simon-O’Neill, McKeever’s close friend and who as the executive senior associate athletic director had direct supervision over the Cal women’s swimming program at the time.
Upset by how McKeever had treated her daughter and the university’s handling of the case which would result in Danielle Carter transferring to UC Santa Barbara, Darla Carter said she also called Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton about McKeever.
“I did get him on the phone,” Darla Carter said. “I requested a meeting to talk about what was going on with Danielle and how she was being treated by Teri.
“Jim told me he does not meet with parents or athletes that have not graduated from their program.”
Just weeks after the meeting described in detail by Danielle Carter that included Simon-O’Neill, and Darla Carter’s call, Knowlton on Jan. 7, 2020, signed off on a five-year contract extension for McKeever potentially worth nearly $1.5 million and cementing her position as the nation’s highest-paid female college swim coach.
It wasn’t the first time a complaint filed or presented to Cal officials detailing allegations of McKeever’s bullying was followed by pay raises and increases in other compensation for the coach.
In a Jan. 13, 2010 letter to then-University of California chancellor Robert Joseph Birgeneau, Golden Bears swimmer Jenna Rais alleged she had been verbally abused and bullied by McKeever.
University administration and athletic department officials including Knowlton, Simon-O’Neill and Sandy Barbour, Cal’s athletic director from 2004 to 2014, have received more than 30 complaints from Cal swimmers or their parents alleging bullying behavior by McKeever over the 12 years following Rais’ letter. One of those complaints in 2018 prompted a university official to acknowledge she would review the school’s bullying, sexual violence and sexual harassment and non-discrimination policies with the coach, according to interviews, university documents and emails obtained by the Southern California News Group.
Despite the repeated complaints, Cal has paid McKeever, 60, just under $3 million in total compensation since 2010 and given her eight raises in her base pay between 2010 and 2019, according to her contract and other university financial records. McKeever’s annual base salary has increased by more than 77% since 2010.
The base salary raises and increased compensation for McKeever in light of the steady stream of complaints, current and former swimmers and their parents said, shows that Knowlton, Simon-O’Neill and other Cal administrators did not listen to them and that the university has prioritized athletic success over athlete well being.
“It makes me kind of sick to my stomach actually,” Chenoa Devine, a former Cal distance standout, said when informed of McKeever’s pay raises. “I mean that Cal didn’t listen to complaints from all those swimmers and parents and then turned around and gave her pay raises, that is pretty gross to me.”
“We were making complaints at that time,” said Chloe Clark, a former Golden Bears swimmer, who also complained to Simon-O’Neill about McKeever’s alleged bullying in the fall of 2019. “So, no I don’t think the school listened to us.”
“‘Teri is producing Olympians, she’s an Olympic coach. There’s really nothing more I can do for you,’ ” Clark recalled SimonO’Neill telling her during the 2019 meeting.
Cal placed McKeever, who has guided the Golden Bears to four NCAA team titles, on paid administrative leave on May 25 and commissioned an investigation by a Los Angeles law firm into allegations a day after SCNG reported that the coach has routinely bullied athletes throughout her 29year career at Berkeley.
To date 36 current or former Cal swimmers and divers, 17 parents, a former member of the Golden Bears’ men’s swimming and diving squad, two former coaches and two former Cal athletic department employees have told SCNG that McKeever, the only woman to serve as head coach of a U.S. Olympic swim team, routinely bullied swimmers, often in deeply personal terms, or used embarrassing or traumatic experiences from their past against them, used racial epithets, body-shamed and pressured athletes to compete or train while injured or dealing with chronic illnesses or eating disorders, even accusing some women of lying about their conditions despite being provided medical records by them. Swimmers and parents have also alleged that McKeever revealed medical information about athletes to other team members and coaches without their permission in violation of federal, state and university privacy laws and guidelines.
Nine Cal women’s swimmers, six since 2018, have told SCNG they made plans to kill themselves or obsessed about suicide for weeks or months because of what they describe as McKeever’s bullying.
At least two dozen current or former Cal swimmers or their parents have complained about McKeever, either formally or in person, to Cal officials between 2010 and July 2022, according to university documents, emails and interviews.
“They deny, or say this ‘it wasn’t on my watch’ stuff, especially Jim Knowlton,” Scott Carter said, referring to Cal.
Thomas Newkirk, McKeever’s attorney, has portrayed his client as the victim of both a double standard in how female and male coaches are viewed and judged, and how female athletes are socialized from a young age to report stress, injuries and frustration differently than male athletes.
Current and former Cal swimmers have described Newkirk’s gender bias argument as condescending, demeaning, desperate and offensive.
Knowlton has served as Cal’s AD since May 2018. Simon-O’Neill has been an employee of the Cal athletic department since August 2008 and has been an associate AD and the senior women’s administrator since August 2015. McKeever is the godmother to one of Simon-O’Neill’s children, according to published reports and multiple sources.
SCNG submitted a request to interview Knowlton and Simon-O’Neill with a university spokesman this week. In response to the request the university issued this statement: “As you know, there is an investigative process underway. In order to protect the integrity of that process, we will have no comment about any of the related issues for allegations.”
Newkirk said in an interview and in documents sent to Cal chancellor Carol T. Christ and Knowlton that top university officials were not only aware of McKeever’s coaching methods but have rewarded her.
Interviews and financial records support Newkirk’s claim.
University financial records and documents related to McKeever’s contract show that Cal officials repeatedly increased the coach’s compensation even as the complaints to the university of her bullying piled up.
The contract extension approved by Knowlton in January 2020 runs through April 30, 2024. The contract includes an annual salary of $242,500, nearly three times the average salary for a college head swim coach, according to the College Swimming and Diving Coaches of America Association. Under the deal, McKeever could receive up to $55,000 per year in bonuses including $35,000 if the Golden Bears win the NCAA team title. McKeever also receives a $2,000 bonus if a Cal swimmer qualifies for the Olympic or World Championships team, breaks a world or American record or if a Golden Bears athlete or relay wins an NCAA title.
“It’s weird but what Teri’s attorney said, pretty much that’s what’s happened,” Scott Carter said. “Cal knew what (McKeever) was doing and actually rewarded her for that. On the surface that’s mindboggling that that happened.
“You can’t explain Nothing makes sense.”
The contract’s list of performance of duties states that McKeever is responsible for the team’s performance “based on the outcome targets agreed upon” with the athletic director and sport supervisor “each year.”
The list of performance duties also includes supervision of staff, performance review, regular meeting attendance, conducting the program with “integrity” and meeting established budget standards, developing relationships “with external stakeholders (donors, sponsors, patrons)” and meeting fundraising responsibilities.
Nowhere in the contract is student welfare mentioned.
The contract does state that “the primary purpose of the University and its intercollegiate athletics program is educative. Thus, the educative purposes of the University shall have priority in the various provisions of this Contract. Coach’s conduct shall at all times be in a manner consistent with Coach’s positions as an instructor of students.”
McKeever can be fired for cause for violating those policies as well as for failing “to properly represent the University and the University athletic programs in private and public forums, including the commission of, participation in, or condoning of any act, situation or occurrence that in University’s judgment, brings Coach or University into public disrepute, embarrassment, contempt, scandal or ridicule.”
Cal under the terms of the contract would owe McKeever no further compensation if she was fired for cause. If the university fired her without cause it would owe her 50% of her annual base salary or $121,250. it.