Steve Steketee enters his third season at Nevada after joining the Pack swimming and diving program as a volunteer assistant coach prior to the 2013 season.
With Steketee's help, Nevada has exceeded expectations the past two years while setting the program's goals higher and higher. The Pack were selected eighth in the 2013 preseason coaches' poll and earned a fifth-place finish in the Mountain West Championships. In 2014, Nevada was picked fifth in the preseason poll before battling to a third-place finish at the conference championships.
Since Steketee's arrival, Nevada has posted four dual wins each year, 15 student-athletes have earned All-Mountain West honors and 32 have earned MW Academic All-Conference honors, while the team has earned Scholar All-America honors for the past four semesters. Steketee has also helped guide two athletes to the NCAA Championships; senior Mengjiao Mi (200, 500 and 16,650 freestyle) in 2012 and sophomore Yawen Li (200 beaststroke, 200 IM and 400 IM) in 2013.
In 2014, Nevada posted dual victories over Pacific, Fresno State, Cal State East Bay and rivals UNLV while aiming to peak at the Mountain West Championships. The Wolf Pack did exactly that, surprising the field with 507 points and a third-place showing to tally its highest-ever finish at the MW Championships.
Prior to coaching at Nevada he was an assistant on the University of South Carolina[apos]s swimming and diving staff, where he spent the prior five seasons. As a member of the Gamecocks[apos] staff, Steketee coached swimmers that competed in multiple U.S. National Championship meets, as well as the 2008 Olympic trials and 2009 World Championships.
A former Big-10 champion in the 200-freestyle, he was responsible for the design and implementation of South Carolina[apos]s sprint program.
Steketee won his Big 10 individual title while the captain of the Northwestern Wildcats, an honor he held from 1999-2001. At one point during his collegiate career, he simultaneously held the all-time Northwestern record in the 50, 100 and 200-yard freestyle races, as well as five relay events. He also competed in the 2000 U.S. Olympic trials, where he recorded a top-20 finish in the 200 free.
From 2004-07, he was an assistant at West Virginia, where he worked with both the men[apos]s and women[apos]s teams. In his four seasons at WVU, Steketee helped the men[apos]s team improve from 11th to third in the Big East, while helping the women improve from seventh to first. In 2007, he helped the WVU men to a 20th place finish at the NCAA Championships.
From a stroke technique perspective, Steketee has implemented various programs at each of his coaching stops, including the use of Dartfish software while at WVU. He began his career at Denver University, where he was an assistant from 2003-04.
Steketee holds multiple national certifications including the American Swimming Coaches Association Level Three certification, as well as the National Swimming Pool Foundation Pool/Spa Operator certificate.
He graduated from Northwestern with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Philosophy in 2001 and is the husband of third-year head coach Abby Steketee.
