Imagine receiving the job opportunity of a lifetime at age 28 and putting it on the back burner.
That’s what Margo Geer did with an assist from her future employer, the University of Alabama.
It’s clear Geer has other fish to fry.
In late December when Greg Byrne, the Crimson Tide’s director of athletics, offered her the position of head coach for the Alabama men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs, Geer was intent on competing as a sprint freestyler at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
She said it “didn’t really cross my mind” to stop swimming and immediately take the plum job.
A world champion and four-time 2019 Pan American Games gold medalist, Geer was a volunteer assistant coach with the Alabama team while also training with head coach Coley Stickels.
When Stickels decided to step down to focus on coaching elite athletes, Byrne turned to Geer. They had a long history, having met when he was the athletic director at the University of Arizona and she was a three-time NCAA champion for the school and Pac-12 Woman of the Year in 2015.
But Geer wasn’t ready to take the full-time plunge into the working world. She asked if Alabama would wait until she had completed her competitive career and Byrne agreed.
“That was one of the first things that I talked to Greg about,” Geer said, “that I had put a lot of time and energy in – and other people had put a lot of time and energy into the run-up to the Olympics – and it was something I didn’t really want to cut short. It’s still very much a huge opportunity to just perform at my best. I really wanted to finish it out and end on my terms.”
Floating Start Date
Geer plans to begin her tenure as the Alabama head coach in August after the Games. However, if she does not qualify for Tokyo at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming in late June, she will take the reins sooner.
Alabama announced Stickels’ departure on the same day it named Geer as the next permanent head coach.
“We were fortunate to have an exceptional candidate right here in Tuscaloosa for this position and are thrilled that Margo will be our next head coach,” Byrne said. “She has one of the most impressive lists of accolades, both at the collegiate level and internationally. I’ve known Margo for many years and she is well-respected, talented and extremely hardworking. We are certainly supportive of her continuing to train for the 2021 Olympic Team trials and look forward to having her fully on board when her competitive career is complete.”
In the meantime, Ozzie Quevedo, who was an Alabama assistant, is the interim head coach.
Geer is still training with Stickels’ elite group in Tuscaloosa. While she is not coaching the Crimson Tide from the pool deck, she remains a part of the program by sharing her vision for the future with current team members as well as with recruits.
Geer’s news definitely made waves in the swimming world since she was viewed as an Olympic contender in her prime rather than as the next head coach of a major program.
It also was an unorthodox move given Geer’s age and the fact she had never been more than a volunteer assistant coach – at Ohio State and Alabama – for a college program. In her only other significant coaching job, Geer was a part-time assistant with an 8-and-under club group at the same time she was at Ohio State.
“I’ve never been a head coach before, but that doesn’t exactly scare me away from the duties that it takes to be good at it,” Geer said. “I’ve been around a lot of great minds and I’ve worked with a lot of them personally. I haven’t just seen them from afar or studied their workouts on a piece of paper. I’ve actually done them.”
Leadership Roles
She had already proven precocious as a leader. At Arizona, Geer became a team captain for the first time as a sophomore, continuing in the role as a junior and senior.
“I absolutely respect experience, but I’ve also never been afraid to step into a leadership role and take on that sort of challenge,” Geer said.
She said she learned from coach Bill Dorenkott at Ohio State that to be a good coach, “You have to have good character, you’ve got to have competence in your sport and you’ve got to be able to make connections. When I boil it down, I think I bring value in all three of those areas and I can get better at all of those those things.”
Rick DeMont, the 1972 Olympian who coached Geer at Arizona, said she is “super together.”
“She’s down-to-earth, very honest, very smart, very well-read,” DeMont said. “She’s pretty quiet, but when words come out, they’re good, they’re strong. She’s loyal and a pleasure to coach because she’s a student of the sport.”
DeMont said Geer has a really efficient stroke and an awareness “to the nth degree.”
“I was all about that hyper awareness,” Geer said, “like how can we just drop a tenth of a second? When you’re talking about that minuscule amount of time, it’s the smallest little detail, and the smallest little things that matter. And I think from a coaching perspective, it’s good to have that mindset, but also just being able to simplify everything for the kids. It doesn’t have to be overcomplicated.”
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