What Makes Them Tick?

WHAT MAKES THEM TICK?

In international competition and at home in Penn Charter’s pool, assistant swim coach Crystal Keelan looks for connections to her swimmers and ignites their drive.

BY RAY BAILEY OPC ’09

When Brian Hecker refers to his Penn Charter swimming and diving colleague Crystal Keelan as “one of the best coaches in the country,” he isn’t exaggerating out of chummy enthusiasm—he means it.

His assessment would likely be affirmed, in fact, by the authorities at USA Swimming, the national governing body for the sport. Why else would they name Keelan to lead Team USA at the World Junior Championships in Budapest this summer?

“It’s a pretty cool opportunity,” Keelan said from her office in the Graham Athletics Center, where she also presides over the Penn Charter Aquatics Club (PCAC).

Budapest marks Keelan’s second high profile appointment in less than a year. Last fall, she served as head coach of Team USA at the Youth Olympic Games—the sport’s other premier international competition—in Buenos Aires. It was her first time leading Team USA, though she had previously served as assistant coach.

The Youth Olympic Games appointment held another significance for Keelan: It was her first appearance at an international meet without her star protégé, Reece Whitley OPC ’18.

Keelan is perhaps best known for coaching Whitley through 23 National Age Group records, a flurry of national and international medals, and a Sports Illustrated Kids cover. Their seven-year mentorship began with one-on-one lessons when Whitley was 11 and continued at PC and PCAC until his graduation last spring.

But impressive as those achievements are, reducing Keelan’s career to her work with Whitley would be misguided, warns Hecker.

“Everywhere she’s been she’s had success,” he said.

After concluding her own swimming career at York College, Keelan became an assistant coach with the Lower Moreland Lightning in 2004. She sent swimmers to top national meets, trained Junior Olympic champions and refined her coaching skills while working under her aunt and mentor, Dawn Pachence.

In 2007, Keelan began a five-year stint as head coach at her high school, Council Rock. She led the school to its first divisional title in three decades and watched her roster balloon into the mid- 200s. The school’s dwindling USA club program grew from two members to 50 under her direction, and more than half the team qualified for Junior Olympics.

It should come as no surprise, then, that “Coach Crystal” has found success at Penn Charter as assistant swim coach for boys and girls.

This season, the girls swimming and diving team won the Inter-Ac and the Eastern Interscholastic Championship for the second year in a row. The boys and girls teams’ combined scores earned Penn Charter a fifth-place ranking among 45 Pennsylvania independent schools at Easterns.

After that inspired season-capping performance, Keelan took to Twitter—as she often does—to congratulate her athletes and take stock of the day’s accomplishments:

“9 team records broken, 6 All American recognitions, 2 relay wins, 1 individual win, insanely fast swimming & the best team spirit on deck!”

Keelan, second from left, poolside at Easterns with PC varsity swimmers (L-R) Gabriella Lopez-Ona, Camille Weiss and Marissa Lopez-Ona.

John Thiel, Penn Charter’s director of athletics and athletic planning, said Keelan has helped bring greater depth to the aquatics program since her arrival in 2013. He praised her “outstanding technical knowledge” and communication skills.

“It’s amazing to watch what she can get done in a minute—in 30 seconds—with a swimmer,” he said.

Keelan and Hecker divvy up coaching duties for the boys and girls varsity teams, with support from former head coach Charlie Brown Hon. 1689. Keelan designs most of the programming. And rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, she customizes workouts for each swimmer and makes adjustments in real time.

“You’ll see a lot of coaches will put a set up on the board—every kid is doing the exact same thing,” Hecker said. “It’s not going to make them better.”

PC swimming and diving co-captain Annika Murray, a senior, noted Keelan’s keen sense of judgment: “She knows what each person needs, and she knows how to coach different types of swimmers.”

That kind of individualized attention even extends beyond the pool. Keelan meets with her athletes one-on-one at the beginning of each season to set goals and find out about their lives beyond PC’s pool. She checks in with them casually at practice to make sure everyone is happy, healthy and staying on top of school work.

Building rapport with athletes seems to come naturally to Keelan, and it also serves her as a coach. Knowing her swimmers’ personalities allows Keelan to tailor her approach on the pool deck.

“Some kids respond to me being a little bit sarcastic or making a joke, and others respond to me just cheering them on,” she said. “You have to find out what makes them tick.”

Hecker sees Keelan’s ability to bond with her athletes and her ability to get results as two sides of the same coin.

“It’s rare that you see a coach demand so much and still have the kids love her so much,” he said. “She finds a way to make sure they know she cares about them and then she gets them to really work and dig.”

For Whitley, now a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, Keelan’s willingness to “get to know her swimmers and understand them on a personal level” is her most admirable trait.

“That’s something that’s very rare in coaching: Someone who can look past the pool,” he said by phone.

Whitley has been eagerly following the developments in his former coach’s career. He tuned in for the Youth Olympic Games last October.

“I loved watching those kids go at it and compete at the best level in the world for junior swimming. To know [Keelan] was behind all that as head coach was really cool.”

For Keelan, this latest iteration of success comes on the heels of much learning during the experience with Whitley. She points out that their relationship was symbiotic: His passion for improvement as a swimmer fueled her passion for improvement as a coach. They got better together.

PCAC swimmers Alex Boratto (L) and Reece Whitley after breaking the National Age Group Record in the 400 Medley Relay last summer. Boratto swam backstroke and Whitley swam breaststroke in the event.

And Keelan, who describes herself as “not shy,” took advantage of the professional development opportunities available at the upper echelons of competitive swimming. She made a habit of approaching other coaches for insight and advice; she studied elite swimmers during down time at meets; she phoned in for conference calls with the Olympic Training Committee.

In short, Keelan, already a great coach, rose to the extraordinary occasion she was presented with and became one of the best.

That trajectory isn’t lost on Thiel.

“To me, one of Crystal’s greatest assets is her desire to continue to learn and develop.”

Nor is Keelan’s trajectory lost on the broader swimming community, which has embraced her with open arms—and without her most celebrated pupil. PC

NEW FACES IN PC ATHLETICS

MAIYAH BROWN HEAD COACH, FIELD HOCKEY

Maiyah Brown comes to Penn Charter after four years as a varsity field hockey starter at Temple University, where she majored in sport and recreation management. Brown was a captain of the Division I team and helped take the Owls to the Big East Tournament in 2015 after scoring a game-winning goal against Villanova.

A native of Allentown, Brown was a four-year letter winner at William Allen High School, where she scored 36 career goals. She also played club field hockey for the Slapstyx and won a silver medal at the Disney Field Hockey Showcase.

Along with her work at PC, Brown is an operations manager at LA Fitness and an athletic assistant at Phield House, an indoor sports facility in Philadelphia.

JOHN OWENS HEAD COACH, BOYS BASKETBALL

John Owens joins PC Athletics after serving as associate head basketball coach at his high school, Abington Friends. Before that, he was assistant coach at California University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with a BS in psychology in 2007 and a master’s degree in school psychology in 2009.

During his playing days at Abington Friends, Owens received All-League honors his junior and senior years. In his senior season, his team won the Friends League Championship. He finished his high school career with more than 1,000 points.

Owens attended Bloomsburg University, starting at point guard for two years. He then transferred to California University of Pennsylvania, one of the strongest Division I programs in the state, where he completed his college career and earned Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference MVP honors.

Owens is currently employed at JEVS Human Services as the senior director of community support services.

BOBBY WURTZ OPC ’12 HEAD COACH, BOYS WATER POLO

Bobby Wurtz OPC ’12 returned to Penn Charter as a coach after graduating from Fordham University with a BS in engineering physics. At Fordham, Wurtz played water polo and served as co-captain of the team during his junior and senior seasons. He helped lead the team to its first 20-win season in school history.

While at PC, Wurtz served as a captain of the water polo and swimming teams for two years. He won the PC/GA Day game MVP, team MVP and First Team All-Inter-Ac in his senior year. Wurtz also swam on three All-American relays, played golf and pole vaulted for the track and field team.

After a period working as a computer programmer, Wurtz pursued a master’s degree in cybersecurity from Johns Hopkins University. He recently developed and launched a company with his family and a former teammate from Fordham. Nutrition by Corvis delivers customized meals for competitive athletes, and Wurtz is chief information officer and primary web developer.