Eastern Illinois director of athletics Tom Michael has announced the hiring of Scott Teeters as the Panthers' next head swimming coach. Teeters becomes the tenth head coach in program history.
Teeters brings nearly 40 years of coaching experience to EIU, including 25 years at the collegiate level. He has led Division I programs at Eastern Michigan, Oakland University, and most recently Gardner-Webb. He has also served as head swim coach at Olivet Nazarene University.
At Olivet, Teeters led his teams to three national championships, including back-to-back men's championships in 2016 and 2017, and a women's championship in 2017. His swimmers earned over 40 individual and relay national championships with a pair of NAIA national records. Teeters was named NAIA Coach of the Year four times while more than 100 of his athletes were named CSCAA NAIA All-Americans over six years.
"I would like to thank Dr. Jay Gatrell and Tom Michael for this exciting opportunity", said Coach Teeters. "Their leadership goals for the EIU swim program align perfectly with my vision for transforming Panthers swimming into a life changing endeavor. I want to create a place where our athletes can come back in 10 years and still feel like they belong".
Teeters spent the last five years teaching and coaching high school swim in Kankakee, Illinois. Under his direction, Teeters' girls team went undefeated in 2019, while his boys team scored the most points in a sectional in 22 years.
Teeters has an additional three years as the girls' varsity swim coach at Novi High School in Novi, Michigan, where he produced 12 High School All-Americans.
On the national level Teeters has served in multiple leadership roles for USA Swimming, spending time as the national select camp coach, national age group camp coach, Team Michigan head zone coach, and member of the Michigan Swimming Board of Directors.
Teeters' teams have also excelled in the classroom, consistently achieving GPA's of well over 3.0. At Olivet, his 2018 team led the nation in Academic All-American selections (6) with a cumulative GPA of 3.59 while the 2017 women's team ranked first nationally with a GPA of 3.63.
"We are excited to welcome Coach Teeters as the head swim coach of the Panthers program," said athletic director Tom Michael. "Scott brings with him an accomplished background developing championship swimmers both in, and out of the pool. I look forward to him providing some stability and leadership for the young men and women who are EIU swimmers."
