East Los Angeles College Women's Swimming

Matheson returns to East Los Angeles College for his fourth season as Head Coach of the Aquatics Program. Matheson has over 25 years of experience in competitive swimming as an athlete, coach, aquatic safety/event manager and LA County Ocean Lifeguard.  His swimming and coaching experiences include youth to adult competitive swimmers, triathlons, open water swimming, and water polo. In June 2013, Matheson restarted a Womens Water Polo team after the program was cut in 1999. In their first season, Matheson lead his team to an 8th place in the South Coast Conference. His teams most current accomplishment is placing 5th in the South Coast Conference whilst only being a second year team. He is incredibly proud of the improvements his team was made in only a year and excited for the next season. In June 2011, Matheson became Head Coach of Womens Swimming and Diving at East Los Angeles College.  His coaching and recruiting talents helped bring the team back after a 10-year hiatus.  The first season back in 2012 included growing the team to 20 swimmers who earned a fifth place standing in dual meets and a seventh place standing at the South Coast Conference Championships. In 2006, Matheson was Head Coach of Mens Water Polo at Santa Monica College - again building the team after it was cut in 2002.  This built on a long history of coaching at SMC since 1999, as faculty and Assistant Coach for Mens and Womens Swimming and Water Polo teams.  While at SMC, he coached a USA Swimming National Qualifier, a CCCAA State Championships Swimmer of the Meet, 3 CCCAA State Recorder setters, 3 CCCAA State Championship Individual Winners, 22 Western State Conference Champions, 33 National Junior College All Americans, and 56 CCCAA State Championship Qualifiers. Since 2005, Matheson has worked summers as a Los Angeles County Ocean Lifeguard using the ocean lifeguard environment and competitions to sharpen and advance his open water swimming abilities and knowledge.  He continues his competitive swimming by competing in the Los Angeles County Ocean Lifeguard competitions in the summer. Matheson has extensive masters swim team coaching experience with Southern California Aquatics (SCAQ), from 1998 to 2005.  While at SCAQ, he helped train triathletes, open water swimmers, pool competitors and fitness swimmers, while learning the ins and outs of masters swimming. From 1996 to 2004, Matheson coached a youth age group USA Swimming team, Team Santa Monica (TSM).  In 2001, he took over as Head Coach and under his leadership, it grew from less than 100 members to 250 members - establishing TSM with solid National, Junior National and Senior groups with USA Swimming National Qualifiers and 13 Junior National qualifiers. During that same period, Matheson spent two seasons (1998-1999) as Head Coach of Santa Monica High School Mens and Womens Swimming.  At SAMOHI, he led the team to two 2nd place finishes in the Bay League and 22 CIF Division II qualifiers.  While still in college, Matheson joined his alma mater as Assistant Coach of Culver City High School Water Polo/Swimming teams for five years from 1993 through 1998. After receiving an athletic scholarship through Cal State Northridges Division I swim team, Matheson set campus records in 2 relays while completing his degree of a B.A. in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Exercise Science.  While earning his Masters degree in Kinesiology: Biomechanics, Matheson refined his swimming knowledge as a Research and Teaching Associate at CSUN and focused his research projects on competitive swimmers.  His thesis project, A Kinematic Analysis of the Breaststroke Kick, was presented at the 2011 International Society of Biomechanics in Sports Conference, in Porto, Portugal. Erik currently resides in Culver City, California with his wife Kristen, and his daughter, Ally.  Erik Matheson returns to East Los Angeles College for his fourth season as Head Coach of the Aquatics Program. Matheson has over 25 years of experience in competitive swimming as an athlete, coach, aquatic safety/event manager and LA County Ocean Lifeguard.  His swimming and coaching experiences include youth to adult competitive swimmers, triathlons, open water swimming, and water polo. In June 2013, Matheson restarted a Womens Water Polo team after the program was cut in 1999. In their first season, Matheson lead his team an 8th place in the South Coast Conference. His teams most current accomplishment is placing 5th in the South Coast Conference whilst only being a second year team. He is incredibly proud of the improvements his team was made in only a year and excited for the next season. In June 2011, Matheson became Head Coach of Womens Swimming and Diving at East Los Angeles College.  His coaching and recruiting talents helped bring the team back after a 10-year hiatus.  The first season back in 2012 included growing the team to 20 swimmers who earned a fifth place standing in dual meets and a seventh place standing at the South Coast Conference Championships. In 2006, Matheson was Head Coach of Mens Water Polo at Santa Monica College - again building the team after it was cut in 2002.  This built on a long history of coaching at SMC since 1999, as faculty and Assistant Coach for Mens and Womens Swimming and Water Polo teams.  While at SMC, he coached a USA Swimming National Qualifier, a CCCAA State Championships Swimmer of the Meet, 3 CCCAA State Recorder setters, 3 CCCAA State Championship Individual Winners, 22 Western State Conference Champions, 33 National Junior College All Americans, and 56 CCCAA State Championship Qualifiers. Since 2005, Matheson has worked summers as a Los Angeles County Ocean Lifeguard using the ocean lifeguard environment and competitions to sharpen and advance his open water swimming abilities and knowledge.  He continues his competitive swimming by competing in the Los Angeles County Ocean Lifeguard competitions in the summer. Matheson has extensive masters swim team coaching experience with Southern California Aquatics (SCAQ), from 1998 to 2005.  While at SCAQ, he helped train triathletes, open water swimmers, pool competitors and fitness swimmers, while learning the ins and outs of masters swimming. From 1996 to 2004, Matheson coached a youth age group USA Swimming team, Team Santa Monica (TSM).  In 2001, he took over as Head Coach and under his leadership, it grew from less than 100 members to 250 members - establishing TSM with solid National, Junior National and Senior groups with USA Swimming National Qualifiers and 13 Junior National qualifiers. During that same period, Matheson spent two seasons (1998-1999) as Head Coach of Santa Monica High School Mens and Womens Swimming.  At SAMOHI, he led the team to two 2nd place finishes in the Bay League and 22 CIF Division II qualifiers.  While still in college, Matheson joined his alma mater as Assistant Coach of Culver City High School Water Polo/Swimming teams for five years from 1993 through 1998. After receiving an athletic scholarship through Cal State Northridges Division I swim team, Matheson set campus records in 2 relays while completing his degree of a B.A. in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Exercise Science.  While earning his Masters degree in Kinesiology: Biomechanics, Matheson refined his swimming knowledge as a Research and Teaching Associate at CSUN and focused his research projects on competitive swimmers.  His thesis project, A Kinematic Analysis of the Breaststroke Kick, was presented at the 2011 International Society of Biomechanics in Sports Conference, in Porto, Portugal. Erik currently resides in Culver City, California with his wife Kristen, and his daughter, Ally. Erik Matheson returns to East Los Angeles College for his fourth season as Head Coach of the Aquatics Program. Matheson has over 25 years of experience in competitive swimming as an athlete, coach, aquatic safety/event manager and LA County Ocean Lifeguard.  His swimming and coaching experiences include youth to adult competitive swimmers, triathlons, open water swimming, and water polo.