Teeter to speak at Tucker Center Symposium in April

Posted on by

http://wcs.umn.edu/content/jean-k-freeman-keynote

Jean K. Freeman Keynote | WCS 2018

Susan Teeter

Susan Teeter 

Former Princeton University Women’s Swimming Coach

In her 33 years as head coach of the Princeton women’s swim team, Susan Teeter established herself as one of the most decorated swim coaches in the country. Princeton’s all-time leader in wins, Teeter tallied over 220 team victories and guided her program to 17 Ivy League titles.  During one stretch of seven seasons, Princeton won a school record of 47 consecutive meets; they also won five consecutive Ivy League titles during that time. Her legacy earned her an American Swimming Coaches Award of Excellence for four straight years, from 2006 through 2009; in 2011 she was awarded the prestigious College Swim Coaches Association “Lifetime Achievement Award”.  Most recently, Teeter was elected President of the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association by her colleagues. She was also named USA Aquatics Sports’ Most Outstanding Woman for 2015.

Over the course of her successful career, Teeter mentored 22 All-Americans and coached swimmers who went on to become Olympians, NCAA qualifiers, World University Games team members and Ivy League champions. In 2000, Teeter’s senior class established and endowed the Susan S. Teeter Award, which is now awarded annually to a senior class swimmer who distinguishes herself as an outstanding student and a valuable member of the women’s swimming team. Teeter was also named an Honorary member of the Princeton Class of 1985 and 1986. In 1999, Princeton’s President’s Standing Committee on the Status of Women recognized Teeter for her contributions to women on campus.

Teeter has served on the staff of nine international swim teams, including as an assistant manager for the U.S.A. Swimming staff at the Summer Olympics in Sydney (2000) and head manager of the USA Olympic Swimming Team in Atlanta (1996).  From 2001-2008 she served as a special consultant to Speedo USA for all Olympic and World Championships.

Teeter also holds the credentials of Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst and Certified Professional Values Analyst from Target Training International, Ltd. She works with businesses and teams to improve programs and communication. She licensed as a Certified Life Coach from the International Coaching Society.

Teeter graduated from University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a BFA. She is a level 5 USA Swimming Coach.

A Lesson from a Legend

Posted on by

http://www.humanexventures.com/listen-without-an-agenda-a-lesson-from-a-legend/

Listen Without an Agenda: A Lesson from a Legend
By Andy Grant
Posted: Monday, September 25th, 2017.
Filed under ATHLETeX, Community

Almost a year ago, I was blessed to be introduced to a true legend in the coaching world. Coach Susan Teeter, the long-term Women’s Swim & Dive coach at Princeton attended a work event we hosted, and months later I found myself with the opportunity to partner with her and support her team through the consulting approaches our company utilizes with athletics teams.

After finishing a session with the swim and dive team, we headed to dinner so that I could experience one of the best burgers in town. I may not have expected to spend three hours at dinner, but I believe I could have sat and listened to her wisdom for many more. What came out of our conversation was insight into the athletics world, personal lives, and parenting. I was just hoping to soak it all in, so much so that after I got back to my hotel, I wrote down everything I could remember from our conversation. There was one consistent theme and message Coach wanted to make sure I got, and that was to LISTEN. To her, listening was one of the most fundamental and important things she could do as a coach to better understand those she was working to grow and develop.

Now the idea of listening to others seems pretty simple and even more so, respectful. The problem however was that when Coach shared this idea with me, it was not only advice, but a challenge to our time at dinner. As we talked about life and she shared why it is so important to listen to your significant other, teammates, coaches, anyone in your life she put with it a small caveat that, sure enough, turned on the light bulb in my brain. At 32 years old, I can honestly say that I was not a great listener.

The advice: Listen without an agenda, listen without thinking about how to respond, listen without thinking how to get something out of the conversation. Simply listen. The hardest part while at dinner was to respond to the challenge of listening as she talked. I had my phone with me, my wife was calling, and I had questions in my mind I wanted to ask. As I fought the urge to speak up, or look at my phone, I simply sat and listened. It was so rewarding to invest in what she had to say and share while not working on how will I respond, or what can I add to the conversation. I was able to listen with a focus on learning more about her and more from her. While in our professional life or personal life, how often do we take time to just listen? I know for me, at that point it was not enough!

I would venture to guess like others, we all feel busy, and our minds are jumping throughout the day to different thoughts, ideas, and things we need to get done. Ask yourself this: When was the last time you went to someone you care about, asked them about their day, and just sat and listened to them? That means listening without the intent to get to something you want to share about your day, or something you want to do after you talk to them, but just sit quietly and listen to what they have to say. This is similar to the idea of breathing exercises — as we focus on our breath, in then out, we can only focus on that, our brain will not let us think about anything else. If we can listen with that intent, the focus will be on what we hear, and not what we think should come out of our mouths next.

Imagine what you could hear, learn, and take in if we all took time to listen without an agenda, listen with purpose, and listen with the intent to hear someone. I know for me, being able to do that left me with many more life lessons from that dinner, and great insight into those I care the most about in my life. So now I challenge you, go listen to someone today!

This post was written by HUMANeX teammate Andy G.

The Real Reason Susan Teeter Was a Princeton Legend by Chris DeSantis

Posted on by

The Real Reason Susan Teeter Was a Legend

April 20, 2017

Yesterday, it was announced that Bret Lundgaard will be the new head coach for Princeton’s Women’s Swimming and Diving team. Lundgaard had for years gotten nothing less than a full-throated endorsement from his boss, Tennessee head coach Matt Kredich.

Kredich’s endorsement holds enormous weight, as prior to Tennessee he was undoubtedly the best women’s swimming coach in the Ivy League. I say all this to establish one thing: this blog is not an attack on Bret Lundgaard, who applied for a job and did all the right things to get it. Lundgaard is not the problem here, and will in fact have an opportunity to be part of the solution.

Princeton’s previous head coach was Susan Teeter. Teeter is a Princeton institution, so much so that I had nearly forgotten that she too came from the University of Tennessee to coach the Tigers. But her impact went way beyond her results at Princeton. Teeter was a mentor to more coaches, men and women, than you can shake a stick at.

In fact, she’s definitely in my top five “Coaches I wish I had worked for”, along with the aforementioned Kredich, Mark Bernardino, Bob Groseth and George Kennedy. Teeter often provided more guidance and support to assistant coaches on opposing teams than the head coaches of those teams.

To say Teeter is a “female coach” is like saying that Princeton is a “New Jersey Private University”.

But to not discuss Teeter’s gender is to ignore a disturbing process that is felt particularly hard in swimming. As I mentioned in a previous post, the situation for female coaches in college sports overall is getting worse, not better. I’m sorry to report once again to my fellow men, but it’s on us.

Again, it is not Bret Lundgaard’s fault. To understand who is to blame, and what somebody like Lundgaard can do to change this, you need to understand the process by which head coaches are made.

College swimming operates on an apprenticeship model. Many coaches start as volunteers, graduate assistants or other low paying positions. If they prove themselves, they can advance to be full-time, paid assistant coaches. Many of these assistant coaches are not well-paid, but they are in their 20s and early 30s and can find a way to survive.

At this point, part of the head coaches job is to develop their assistant coaches to be head coaches. This is what Matt Kredich has done for Bret Lundgaard, and Lundgaard was quick to thank Kredich for that development during his time at Tennessee.

Many of these assistant coaches start working their way into the head coaching ranks in their 30s. Often this is the huge attrition point for women in college swimming. Here is a list of excuses for this from my fellow men that I don’t have patience for anymore.

1. “These darn women have babies and then don’t want to coach anymore” HOW ABOUT YOU MAKE A WORKPLACE IN 2017 WHERE A WOMAN DOESN’T HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN HAVING A CHILD, A FAMILY AND WORKING THERE.

2. “We don’t get any quality female applicants!”. Sigh, There might be a little work involved here. Recruit women coaches. Find some women coaches you want to apply and ask them why they aren’t. Correct these things.

3. “But, like kids and child raising”. Ok, I thought we already addressed this one but here’s another idea for you. There are literally hundreds of great women coaches who have compromised their coaching careers for their children, but now those kids are getting a little older, maybe even going off to college.

Consider hiring them and developing them and not being agist and, I don’t know, thinking about how maybe the experience of raising a child from a helpless infant to 18 years old might be extremely relevant to the job you are doing and actually might really shore up some of your own weaknesses.

Since the overwhelming majority of head coaches in swimming, even women’s swimming, are men, it’s up to us guys!  I hope that Bret Lundgaard, more than any result, fulfills Susan Teeter’s legacy by developing great coaches for the future.

Teeter awarded with National Collegiate Trophy by CSCAA

Posted on by

Teeter Wins National Collegiate Trophy

The College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America have selected Kris Kubik and Susan Teeter as recipients of its highest award, the National Collegiate and Scholastic Trophy.

Teeter, the head women’s swimming coach at Princeton for the past thirty-three years, and Kubik, Texas’ the longtime men’s associate head swimming coach who retired last year will be recognized at the CSCAA’s 57th Annual Awards Banquet on May 8th at the Bahia Resort in San Diego.

The National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Trophy, is presented annually to an individual or organization which, in the estimation of the recipient’s peers has contributed in an outstanding way to swimming as a competitive sport and healthful recreational activity.  This award is also presented by NISCA to the individual or organization which has made the most significant contributions to aquatic sports at the interscholastic level.

Quotes about Susan Teeter

“There are few coaches in the sport of swimming, or throughout the NCAA for that matter, who have had as much success as Coach Teeter.  She is a legend by all standards. Her talents and her impact extend well beyond the technical aspects of coaching, as she has truly changed the lives of over three decades of Princeton swimmers through her total commitment to developing the whole student-athlete.”
–Princeton Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan

“I want to congratulate Susan on this tremendous and well deserved award. Over her 33 year career, Susan has helped countless women become better athletes, but more importantly, she has helped us all become stronger and more empowered women. Susan legacy’s will live on for generations, and while Susan will be greatly missed on the pool deck, we know she will continue to remain involved and help shape the next generation of young women.” Alicia Biggs (Aemisegger) ‘2010, Princeton Female Female Athlete of the Decade

Sports Women’s Swimming and Diving: A Coach for Life

Posted on by

By Brett Tomlinson   Published in the February 8, 2017 Issue

Photo by Beverly Schaefer
In 33 seasons, Susan Teeter’s teams have won 17 Ivy titles.
Teeter to step away after building a tradition of successful swimmers
Women’s swimming and diving coach Susan Teeter keeps a handful of magic tricks in her office on the deck of DeNunzio Pool. One of her favorites is a “magic vase” that she has used to motivate her team at big meets.

“No matter how much you drain it, when you set it down, magically, water appears again,” she says with a half-smile. The message: When you think you’re empty, you’ve got to make that water appear, somehow, some way.

For 33 seasons, Teeter has been replenishing the reservoir of Princeton swimming with remarkable success, leading the Tigers to 17 Ivy League championships and more than two dozen All-America certificates. Later this month, her team will try to bring the coach one more title.

Teeter announced her upcoming retirement in early December, and appreciative messages from alumni and others in the swimming community quickly followed. “It’s been humbling,” she says. “Some of the emails and some of the cards I have to stop reading because I can’t see through my tears.”

When alumni talk about Teeter — invariably “Teeter,” never “Susan” or “Coach” — they highlight the same characteristics: her grace and class; her insightfulness and dedication; her emotional IQ; and the leaping, cheering enthusiasm that momentarily overrides her best efforts to stay calm and composed during meets.

Grace Cornelius Limaye ’95 recalls the first time she met Teeter, at a national meet in 1989. In the warmup pool, another swimmer accidentally jumped in on top of Limaye, and the edge of Limaye’s goggles opened a gash under her eye. Teeter “basically just dropped everything and helped me,” says Limaye, who went on to be an All-American and captain at Princeton. “That’s what she does, and that’s why she has such a devoted following.”

“Anyone can write a practice or take a split,” says Nikki Larson ’16, one of last year’s captains, “but not all coaches can figure out what makes people tick. … [We knew] she would be there, even if it wasn’t swimming-related.”

For Lisa Boyce ’14, another team captain and All-American, Teeter’s influence was apparent when she first met the upperclass swimmers during a recruiting trip. “They seemed poised, they seemed put-together,” she says. “They were the people I wanted to grow up to be like.”

Alyson Goodner ’00 adds that with a roster of more than 40 athletes, Teeter works to make sure “everyone feels appreciated and respected.” Goodner has had a particularly close relationship with the coach, who officiated at her wedding in 2012 and now is the godmother to her son. Even long after graduation, Goodner says, “she’s someone we constantly strive to make proud of us.”

As a competitive swimmer, Teeter’s career did not have a smooth start. She entered high school a few years after Title IX passed, opening the modern era of women’s athletics. But the schools in her native Memphis were slow to welcome girls’ teams. Teeter petitioned the board of education to swim in the boys’ meets, a request that the athletic director approved with a caveat: The girls would need to find their own supervisor. Teeter convinced the football coach to sign on, and into the water she went.

Soon after, while working as a lifeguard at a local country club, Teeter took her first coaching job. “I just got hooked on motivating young people and seeing the reaction when they could achieve something that they didn’t think they could achieve,” she says.

At the University of Tennessee, Teeter started as a team manager and was promoted to assistant coach while still an undergrad. By the time she became Princeton’s head coach in 1984, she was a veteran of sorts, though still only a few years older than her swimmers.

Teeter won her first Ivy title in 1990 when the Tigers swam to a 7-0 dual-meet record. In the next decade, her teams won the league four more times, and the coach served on the staffs of two U.S. Olympic teams. From 1998 to 2004, women’s swimming and diving won 47 straight dual meets, a Princeton record for any sport. The Tigers remain a perennial favorite at the Ivy meet, winning four of the last seven titles.

Teeter says she has always wanted “to be somebody who walks off the deck when I still love the sport and still love coaching.” The downside, she concedes, is that she’ll miss the job. But she hopes to stay connected to her sport. She is president of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America, with a full year left on her term. She also runs team-building workshops part time and hopes that work will continue to provide an “inspirational fix.”

“I’m never going to stop coaching,” she says. “Coaching’s ingrained in me.”

Dec. 15 TigerCast: Susan Teeter Reflects On 33 Years Of Team-Building, Titles, And Tradition

Posted on by

Dec. 15 TigerCast: Susan Teeter Reflects On 33 Years Of Team-Building, Titles, And Tradition

Only a few days removed from her retirement announcement, Princeton women’s swimming & diving coach Susan Teeter joins TigerCast for a long sit-down about her career — from the mentors who helped her to those first few hours after her announcement. She talks about team-building, creating the foundation for a championship run, coaching Alicia Aemisegger, and plenty more in this 30-minute sitdown with the 17-time Ivy League champion.

Interview: Susan Teeter 4:45.

TigerCast is a weekly podcast that features interviews with both athletes and coaches, as well as provides coverage of the biggest upcoming events for Princeton’s 37 varsity teams. For the first time, you can now subscribe to TigerCast through iTunes or a variety of other podcast apps; you can also go directly to the TigerCast page, or you can listen to each week’s show directly from GoPrincetonTigers.com

Venerated Princeton Swim Coach Susan Teeter Announces Retirement Following 2016-17 Season

Posted on by
teeter

Susan Teeter, who has both guided 17 Princeton teams to Ivy League titles and earned the 2011 “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the College Swim Coaches Association, announced her retirement from coaching Saturday morning after an incredible 33-year run at Princeton University.

Teeter — whose Princeton career has also included 22 All-America honorees, two different win streaks that extended beyond 40, and more than 220 team victories — will coach the Tigers through the remainder of the 2016-17 season.

“While I have known this day would eventually come, it’s quite hard to believe it’s here,” Teeter said. “I have made the choice to retire from my head coaching position at the end of this season, even though at my age, retirement is not a word I plan to keep in my vocabulary. While I am looking forward to the next opportunities and challenges that await me, I will forever consider myself a member of the Tiger and PUCSDT families. I am so proud of the tradition and legacies that we have built here at Princeton, and I am so grateful for the relationships I have made and will carry on for the rest of my life. Princeton is such a special place, and it will always remain that way in my heart.

“I wanted to share my deepest appreciation for everybody who has played a role in this tradition we have built for PUCSDT,” said Teeter, whose full statement can be found here. “While we still have work to do this year, I know I can walk away from Princeton with a full heart, because we have created something that goes far beyond wins and losses, Ivy titles and All-America honors. We have created a family, a bond that our swimmers and divers will have for the rest of their lives, and one that I will have for the rest of mine as well.”

Her career has been nothing short of remarkable. Princeton’s all-time leader in wins, Teeter has racked up 223 dual meet victories to only 58 losses (.788), and she has guided the Tigers to an incredible 17 of their 22 Ivy titles, including 12 championships in the last 17 seasons.

“There are few coaches in the sport of swimming, or throughout the NCAA for that matter, who have had as much success as Coach Teeter,” Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan said. “She is a legend by all standards. Her talents and her impact extend well beyond the technical aspects of coaching, as she has truly changed the lives of over three decades of Princeton swimmers through her total commitment to developing the whole student-athlete.

“Her record speaks for itself, but her true impact is evident through the longstanding relationships she has developed within the department, the University and within the national and international swimming communities. Both Princeton Swimming and Diving and Princeton Athletics have been so fortunate to have Teeter on our team for so many years, and I am personally fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with her for the past two and a half years. I know she will stay forever connected to Princeton.”

“While replacing Teeter is an impossible task, we are 100% committed to hiring the next legendary coach of Princeton Women’s Swimming and Diving to carry on the mission of both Coach Teeter and the whole department,” Marcoux Samaan added.

Since the turn of the century, Princeton has put together a pair of remarkable streaks. During a seven-season stretch, her teams won a Princeton-record 47 consecutive meets, a streak that ended in 2004 at nationally ranked Pittsburgh. Princeton also won five consecutive Ivy League titles during that time period (2000-04).

Princeton won 43 consecutive dual meets during an era that featured the dominant career of Alicia Aemisegger ’10, who would go on to be named the GoPrincetonTigers.com Female Athlete of the Decade and remains one of the most accomplished swimmers in Ivy League history. Aemisegger earned 13 All-America honors, including one in the 800 free relay (2008), and she led the Tigers to three Ivy League championships.

Under Teeter’s tutelage, Aemisegger also reached 10 NCAA individual finals — she placed as high as second in two of them — won all 12 of her Ivy League championship finals and reached the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials final in the 400 IM, a race televised live on NBC. She ended her career with nine of the 14 individual Princeton records.

If people thought Princeton would fall off after Aemisegger’s graduation, they were mistaken. Princeton has won three of the last six Ivy League titles, and it sent two swimmers to the 2014 NCAA Championships. Lisa Boyce ’14 reached the NCAA final in the 100 fly to earn first-team All-America honors, while Nikki Larson ’16 made her debut at nationals.

“Being able to work with Teeter the past seven years has been an amazing opportunity,” associate head coach Suzanne Yee said. “Her passion for the family and tradition she has built here at Princeton, and her commitment to furthering young women’s coaching careers at the collegiate level is second to none. Teeter has continued to expect, give, and receive excellence – in the classroom, in the pool, and as young women.

“Her commitment to mentoring, team building, and success has taken this team to a level unparalleled in the conference, if not the country. I have been able to continue my learning curve on a daily basis working with Teeter, and I hope that I can leave a legacy in the lives of the student-athletes that I have worked with like she has done for the past 33 years.”

Her peers have taken notice of Teeter’s place in the sport. She was honored with the prestigious College Swim Coaches Association “Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2011, and she earned an American Swimming Coaches Award of Excellence five straight years from 2006 through 2010, as well as one in 2014. During the spring of 2014, she was voted president of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America. The CSCAA later bestowed the Distinguished Service Award in College Swimming.

Recently, Teeter was honored with both the United States Swimming Outstanding Women in Swimming Award, as well as the “Athlete Coach Exemplar” award; the latter was given by the HumanEx Culture Assessment Company.

“It is very hard to put into words all that Susan has done for the PUCSDT family during her time at Princeton,” head coach Rob Orr, Teeter’s teammate throughout all 33 years. “As in any family, both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have always been a close-knit group. Susan’s constant guidance and support of working with all individuals of both teams has laid the groundwork for helping produce the best, most well-rounded student athletes and alumni in the country.

“The hundreds that she has come in contact with have had the opportunity of learning not only about training and teamwork, but more importantly the necessary skills to lead an enjoyable and productive life,” Orr added. “She will be sorely missed and we wish her the best.”

Teeter has mentored swimmers who went on to become Olympians, NCAA qualifiers, All-Americas, senior national/Olympic trial qualifiers, World University Games team members and Ivy League champions.

Teeter spent the summer of 2000 serving on the U.S. coaching staff at the Summer Olympics in Sydney and the summer of 1996 as the head manager of the Olympic team in Atlanta. In all, she has been on the staff of nine international swim teams. She served as a special consultant to Speedo USA for all Olympic and World Championships.

In the winter of 2000, Teeter’s senior class established the Susan S. Teeter Award, which is given annually to the senior class swimmer who, during her four-year career, distinguishes herself as an outstanding student and a valuable member of the women’s swimming team.

In 1988 she received the Master Coach Award from the College Swimming Coaches Association for her contributions to collegiate swimming. Teeter also was recently awarded the credentials of Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst by Target Training International, Ltd. An honorary member of both the Class of 1985 and 1986, Teeter is also a Certified Professional Values Analyst.

Princeton will hold a national search for Teeter’s successor.

Print Friendly Version