U.S. Masters Swimming Officials Excellence Award

Recipient:	Teri White
Year:	2023
LMSC:	Snake River

As many USA Swimming officials do, when her kids left the sport, Teri White kept right on officiating. She eventually wound up at U.S. Masters Swimming meets in the Pacific Northwest LMSC. In 2015, Teri volunteered to be the LMSC Officials Chair, and she worked to assure that sufficient officials were recruited for each masters meet held within the LMSC. When some years later Teri moved to Idaho, she found her own replacement for PNA!

Also in 2015, after attending the USMS Annual Meeting for the first time, Teri joined the USMS Officials Committee. She became Vice Chair in 2017 and chaired the committee from 2018 through 2022. One of the things Teri was best known for was expanding and professionalizing the USMS officials training and certification program. Being well organized and strategic, helped her do that. But those who worked with her say her secret was her unfailing positive and motivational approach with everyone. Teri’s zest for having fun while performing the critical role of officiating at swim meets was infectious, and she had a knack for persuading others to have as much fun as her while delivering excellent service to athletes of all ages.

Since 2014 Teri had worked nearly every USMS pool national championship and numerous World Aquatics World Championships (Budapest 2017, Gwangju 2019, and Kyushu 2023). After the coronavirus pandemic shut down events in 2020, she helped work through the challenges of running the 2021 Spring National Championship in Greensboro, NC with new social distancing protocols created to make a safe space for all participants and meet staff. USMS couldn’t have swim meets without officials and Teri’s years of dedication and service made an incalculable impact on its ability to provide well officiated competitions.