Boy. Let he who has never abused anyone verbally throw the first stone. Innocent until proven guilty. There are two sides to every story. We've just heard one. Before we say, "off with their heads," let the coach have her day in court and listen to her side. In the meantime, let's mourn and grieve for the women who were hurt and support them. Heteroscedasticly yours...
Sadly, time for both McKeever and Knowlton to be fired IMMEDIATELY. There is enough evidence here that warrants both of them to go.
I swam for Cal in 1970. I was a scrub, but Pete Catino honored me with a letterman's jacket, which I treasure far beyond any work award (I've won a lot of these). My experience swimming under Catino is by far the best memory I have of any athletic experience. He taught me that hard work at Cal in itself is its own reward, and I graduated with Honors at Cal as I applied what Coach Catino taught me in the pool to my studies, and then in advanced degrees.
Look, I know that competitive swimming is a grind, takes mental and physical toughness every day, week, month, year. Grinding away lap after lap after lap after lap is not for the weak at heart.
These young women should have been honored by all of us at Cal - they came to Cal with the promise of athletic opportunity as well as academic excellence. They wanted what I, far below their athletic ability, experienced swimming at Cal. I cannot fathom how Knowlton could have let this atrocity continue in the face of multiple transfers, what parents tried to tell him, what these young women experienced, after they had just one year of experiencing McKeever.
That these young women have experienced something horrific in comparison to what Pete Catino did simply angers me deeply. This is not what excellence at Cal is supposed to be about. Did Pete Catino push me HARD every workout? Of course he did. Did he choose line-ups based on practice and meet times? Of course he did. Did Pete Catino EVER INSULT, DEMEAN, PERSONALLY ATTACK ME, EVER, EVEN ONCE? NO, HE DID NOT. He made me a better swimmer, a better human being, for having participated in Cal swimming.
And that's what these young women deserved to experience at Cal. For the first time in my life I am ashamed of Cal. This is a DISGRACE pure and simple.
Chancellor Carol Christ, I demand that you take immediate action to end this travesty, and restore these young women's dignity. If you do not do that, then I call for you to be fired immediately as well. This is a disgrace, an open wound, that should have nothing to do with Cal swimming.
Sounds like McKeever is on administrative leave now. (https://www.si.com/college/cal/other-sports/mckeever-on-administrative-leave) UC, being a government org and massive bureaucracy, has to do this sort of thing as an initial step. Especially true if they want to avoid a wrongful termination suit or avoid paying out her contract after firing her. Should have been handled literal years ago. I'm really quite disgusted with Knowlton.
In theory, NIL can provide us with ways to financially support our athletes without our shitty athletics administration touching it. If anyone has any good ideas about how to make this happen (via NIL or otherwise), I'm all ears.
I'm sure there is some context. Maybe these swimmers had bad attitudes. Maybe they didn't give it their best. What else is a champion making coach supposed to say? Good grief. We're raising a bunch of pussies and teaching our children to be pussies because we're telling them that some coach who took them seriously can only speak to you nicely to turn them into a champion. Okay, if the sports media and culture is going to be that way, then according to Title 9, we should go after Coach K and every other successful coach in the country. If you can't take the heat, then get out of the kitchen. Swim for fun and become a data analyst in one of our coastal cities. They're talk nice to you.
I agree that there is only a path forward for Cal and Cal athletics of a deep and transparent ownership. NO matter what this means in terms of heads falling. We have no standing if we don't stand by Fiat Lux. We can't be the Catholics or the Baptists and ignore allegations. We have to be the place where we hold ourselves and our people to a higher standard of ethics, accountability and compliance. The Bear is Dead. Long live the Bears.
These kind of stories remind of legendary Cal football coach, Pappy Waldorf who was beloved by his players. He considered himself a teacher first and a mentor. He made players feel good about themselves whether the starting quarterback or a fifth string defensive back. He rarely chewed players out and when he did he made a point after to tell them he loved them and say how much they meant to him. One would think this would be the model for all college coaches, maybe especially at a prestigious university at California. Coaching is teaching and verbally abusing players should not be a wit less abhorrent a notion than abusing students. Fire everyone involved -- the AD too, if there is cause -- and create a different culture. Now.
Knowlton did nothing with the women's soccer coach deal. While McKeever may be a bigger fish the allegations are similar ~ almost exact. So, we know Knowlton is incompetent when it comes to these matters.
There is always 2 sides to every story and Cal, due to laws, will never tell us the other side. Where there is smoke there is fire. Now 2 coaches under Knowlton have been accused of heinous behavior. All of them need to go: Knowlton, Simon-O'Neil, McKeever, and McGuire.
Holy moly what a rabbit hole of events. McKeever without a doubt should be canned, not even so much for the verbal stuff because that seems to have been normalized in this age but the harping and dumping on student athletes especially those who feel unwanted is embarrassing, heinous, you name it. Somehow this might look even worse for Knowlton if that was the reasoning for not taking the meeting with the parent because it shows that he helps foster that culture. Good lord what a mess. Why can't legendary coaches have the demeanor of a Gregg Popovich is beyond me.
Look...this was before Terri, but I'll never forget my freshman year at Cal in '84 when Mary T. Meagher sat down and told all the Black folks at the table that Blacks couldn't swim because our bodies couldn't float. I was done with Cal swimming after that.
Oh they had a little party down in newport...
Sorry everyone, my account got hacked!
Boy. Let he who has never abused anyone verbally throw the first stone. Innocent until proven guilty. There are two sides to every story. We've just heard one. Before we say, "off with their heads," let the coach have her day in court and listen to her side. In the meantime, let's mourn and grieve for the women who were hurt and support them. Heteroscedasticly yours...
Sadly, time for both McKeever and Knowlton to be fired IMMEDIATELY. There is enough evidence here that warrants both of them to go.
I swam for Cal in 1970. I was a scrub, but Pete Catino honored me with a letterman's jacket, which I treasure far beyond any work award (I've won a lot of these). My experience swimming under Catino is by far the best memory I have of any athletic experience. He taught me that hard work at Cal in itself is its own reward, and I graduated with Honors at Cal as I applied what Coach Catino taught me in the pool to my studies, and then in advanced degrees.
Look, I know that competitive swimming is a grind, takes mental and physical toughness every day, week, month, year. Grinding away lap after lap after lap after lap is not for the weak at heart.
These young women should have been honored by all of us at Cal - they came to Cal with the promise of athletic opportunity as well as academic excellence. They wanted what I, far below their athletic ability, experienced swimming at Cal. I cannot fathom how Knowlton could have let this atrocity continue in the face of multiple transfers, what parents tried to tell him, what these young women experienced, after they had just one year of experiencing McKeever.
That these young women have experienced something horrific in comparison to what Pete Catino did simply angers me deeply. This is not what excellence at Cal is supposed to be about. Did Pete Catino push me HARD every workout? Of course he did. Did he choose line-ups based on practice and meet times? Of course he did. Did Pete Catino EVER INSULT, DEMEAN, PERSONALLY ATTACK ME, EVER, EVEN ONCE? NO, HE DID NOT. He made me a better swimmer, a better human being, for having participated in Cal swimming.
And that's what these young women deserved to experience at Cal. For the first time in my life I am ashamed of Cal. This is a DISGRACE pure and simple.
Chancellor Carol Christ, I demand that you take immediate action to end this travesty, and restore these young women's dignity. If you do not do that, then I call for you to be fired immediately as well. This is a disgrace, an open wound, that should have nothing to do with Cal swimming.
Sounds like McKeever is on administrative leave now. (https://www.si.com/college/cal/other-sports/mckeever-on-administrative-leave) UC, being a government org and massive bureaucracy, has to do this sort of thing as an initial step. Especially true if they want to avoid a wrongful termination suit or avoid paying out her contract after firing her. Should have been handled literal years ago. I'm really quite disgusted with Knowlton.
In theory, NIL can provide us with ways to financially support our athletes without our shitty athletics administration touching it. If anyone has any good ideas about how to make this happen (via NIL or otherwise), I'm all ears.
Pretty damn awful. And multiple athletic directors allowed it to continue.
I'm sure there is some context. Maybe these swimmers had bad attitudes. Maybe they didn't give it their best. What else is a champion making coach supposed to say? Good grief. We're raising a bunch of pussies and teaching our children to be pussies because we're telling them that some coach who took them seriously can only speak to you nicely to turn them into a champion. Okay, if the sports media and culture is going to be that way, then according to Title 9, we should go after Coach K and every other successful coach in the country. If you can't take the heat, then get out of the kitchen. Swim for fun and become a data analyst in one of our coastal cities. They're talk nice to you.
here comes the woke mob...no need to hear the other side of the story
I agree that there is only a path forward for Cal and Cal athletics of a deep and transparent ownership. NO matter what this means in terms of heads falling. We have no standing if we don't stand by Fiat Lux. We can't be the Catholics or the Baptists and ignore allegations. We have to be the place where we hold ourselves and our people to a higher standard of ethics, accountability and compliance. The Bear is Dead. Long live the Bears.
These kind of stories remind of legendary Cal football coach, Pappy Waldorf who was beloved by his players. He considered himself a teacher first and a mentor. He made players feel good about themselves whether the starting quarterback or a fifth string defensive back. He rarely chewed players out and when he did he made a point after to tell them he loved them and say how much they meant to him. One would think this would be the model for all college coaches, maybe especially at a prestigious university at California. Coaching is teaching and verbally abusing players should not be a wit less abhorrent a notion than abusing students. Fire everyone involved -- the AD too, if there is cause -- and create a different culture. Now.
Knowlton did nothing with the women's soccer coach deal. While McKeever may be a bigger fish the allegations are similar ~ almost exact. So, we know Knowlton is incompetent when it comes to these matters.
There is always 2 sides to every story and Cal, due to laws, will never tell us the other side. Where there is smoke there is fire. Now 2 coaches under Knowlton have been accused of heinous behavior. All of them need to go: Knowlton, Simon-O'Neil, McKeever, and McGuire.
clean house. fire them all, AD and top brass of Athletics included.
McKeever aside, this is a really bad look for Knowlton.
Holy moly what a rabbit hole of events. McKeever without a doubt should be canned, not even so much for the verbal stuff because that seems to have been normalized in this age but the harping and dumping on student athletes especially those who feel unwanted is embarrassing, heinous, you name it. Somehow this might look even worse for Knowlton if that was the reasoning for not taking the meeting with the parent because it shows that he helps foster that culture. Good lord what a mess. Why can't legendary coaches have the demeanor of a Gregg Popovich is beyond me.
Look...this was before Terri, but I'll never forget my freshman year at Cal in '84 when Mary T. Meagher sat down and told all the Black folks at the table that Blacks couldn't swim because our bodies couldn't float. I was done with Cal swimming after that.
What a fiasco indeed...