The Eastern Illinois swim team has been through a rough couple of years, especially with coaches. Four coaches have come and gone from EIU in five years, but the team is hoping its coaching woes are over. 

Eastern’s new swim coach Scott Teeters is hoping to lead the Panthers back from last place finishes in both men’s and women’s Summit League tournaments last year. 

Coming into Eastern, Teeters has had a multitude of success, bringing nearly 40 years of coaching experience, including 25 years at the collegiate level.

Teeters started out as an all-American swimmer at Oakland University. At Oakland, he walked on to the swim team as the first person from his family to go to college, so he had to work extra to pay off his tuition while swimming. 

“I was the first person in my family to ever go to college, back in the day, and so I had to do what’s called work study hours. So, I worked 30 hours a week and swam. And I was a captain of that team,” said Teeters, “I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back on it, yeah, I worked pretty hard.”   

Teeters was a three-time all-American at Oakland and took what he learned from there and his high school to help the kids he coaches, he said.  

Teeters said he chose coaching because of his eye for the workings of the sport.

In high school, Tetters said that he had a coach that could see mechanics of the swim team better than anyone. After college Teeters coached a club team and realized not everyone had that same eye. He had great success at that club and beyond that until he went until he went to Olivet Nazarene University. 

When he went to Olivet, there was no swim team.

Teeters started the swim team from scratch.

He wanted to prove something at Olivet, as they were a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics school and not taken seriously, he said. 

“I wanted to convince everybody that NAIA really stood for not always inferior athletes, and they got a chuckle out of that,” said Teeters. “I remember, once I assembled my team, the first year we ended up with 55 kids. We went into the nationals and did great.”

Four years later, the Olivet team ended up winning the men’s championships. And five years later, they won both the men’s and women’s championships, despite competing against Division I schools.

Teeters brought success to Olivet, but before that he had an experience that guided him for the rest of his years. 

Teeters travelled to South Africa after the fall of apartheid to help teach.

He said that one day he went to a local swimming pool, and they had Black and white kids in the pool and the swim coach did not know what to do with that many kids. Teeters went up to the coach and told him he could help the Black kids and so he did.  

“I didn’t realize this, but it was the first integrated team post-apartheid anywhere in South Africa.” Said Teeters.  

This was one of the many times he saw how apartheid was falling in front of his eyes. He also brought back a saying from this time to his teams. 

“I’m thinking to myself, ‘how in the world am I so blessed to be part of this?'” Teeter said. “So, one of the things that we kind of used as a nickname for our team is that everybody’s walking around feeling like we’re blessed, not stressed.”

Before coming to EIU, Tetters led D1 programs at Eastern Michigan University, Oakland University and Gardner-Webb University.

After all of that and more Teeters is now at Eastern. After changing coaches so many times Teeters said he is here to stay and change the culture. He is bringing a new mindset to EIU and is trying to win the Summit League with it. 

“Come as you are, who you are and just be the best person you can be. That’s all we’re ever gonna ask,” said Teeters. 

Teeters said he just wants to make sure his swimmers know he believes in them. At the end of the day, Teeters just wants to make good humans out of his team. 

“If you have somebody that believes in you, it goes a long way, I guess,” Teeters said. “I just try to do it every day, is I just bring a real enthusiasm. And I just make sure that they know that I’m excited for them.”  

Patrick Schmitz can be reached at 581-2812 or at pfschmitz@eiu.edu.