Erik Matheson coached 28+ years at high school, masters, club, community college and NCAA teams in California and Colorado. The last four seasons (2017-2021) he has worked at Western Colorado University (WCU) as Head Women’s Swimming & Diving Coach. In 4 seasons, Erik led Western to their first NCAA Champion, 12 NCAA All-Americans, 10 RMAC Champions and 35+ WCU record setting swims.
Prior to taking the helm at Western, Matheson spent seven seasons at East Los Angeles College (2011- 2017) as Head Coach of Women's Swimming & Diving and Water Polo teams. As a Huskie, Matheson coached 15 National Junior College All-Americans, broke two South Coast Conference records and his teams broke every school swimming record. He also started a masters swim team for the area - the Monterey Park Aquatic Club (MPAC). Â
From 1999 through 2010, Matheson was an Assistant Coach of Swimming and Diving as well as Head Coach of Men's Water Polo at Santa Monica College (building the water polo team after it was cut in 2002). 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.
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.
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, the team grew from less than 100 members to 250 members - establishing TSM with solid National, Junior National and Senior groups with USA Swimming National and Junior Nationals qualifiers.
As a college student-athlete, Matheson received an athletic scholarship at California State University Northridge's Division I swim team, setting campus records in two relays while completing his degree of a B.A. in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Exercise Science and a Master's degree in Kinesiology: Biomechanics. 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.
Matheson believes in swimming as a rehearsed performance by segmenting, rehearsing and restructuring the race, emphasizing specificity and the opportunity to work on race details to improve an athlete’s meet performance. He was published in a 2021 issue of American Swimming Magazine and recently spoke at the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America 2021 Convention om these concepts.
Residing in Culver City, Matheson lives with his wife and daughter. He continues to work 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 also applies his competitive nature to distance prone paddleboard racing throughout Southern California.
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