This was what he had always wanted, to coach the men's U.S. Olympic water polo team, but when the opportunity arose, Terry Schroeder wasn't sure the timing was right.
This was 13 months ago. Coach Ricardo Azevedo had been fired three weeks before an Olympic qualifying tournament for reasons USA Water Polo won't discuss, and the team was in turmoil.
Schroeder, an assistant coach for a year, was happy in a part-time role that allowed him to share his chiropractic practice in Westlake Village with his wife, Lori, and be an attentive daddy to their two daughters.
His family needed him -- but so did the national team, which finished seventh at the Athens Olympics, dropped to 11th in the world in 2005 and lost its funding from the U.S. Olympic Committee while going through three coaches in 2 1/2 years.
After getting his wife's blessing, he agreed to take the job.
"Just to try to keep everybody calm and focused and stabilize the program at that point," he said. "After being with them a couple times, I knew in my heart that it was the right thing to do and I felt like I could help them."
Schroeder, who modeled for the Coliseum statue that symbolizes the ideal male athlete, has done the near-impossible, restoring the competitiveness and confidence the team has lacked since he was a four-time Olympian and won silver medals in 1984 and 1988.
With Schroeder reinforcing fundamentals and introducing new defensive strategies, the U.S. men finished a best-ever second to powerful Serbia last month in the championship of the FINA men's world league super final. This year they beat Croatia, Montenegro and Australia and lost to Hungary by one goal as the visiting team, significant signs of a renaissance.
"Part of who I am was really looking at this team and saying, 'Can we win a medal?' before I even took the job," said Schroeder, a Santa Barbara native who played and coached at Pepperdine.
"I didn't want to go in there and get sixth or seventh place. That's the last thing I want to do.
"It's been 20 years since they won a medal. So I really felt from the beginning that we could get back to the podium. In fact, when I came on as an assistant coach that was something I said in my first meeting, I said, 'I'm here because I want to help you guys get back to the podium.'"
