Fairbanks High School graduate Margo Geer will take another step in her swimming career next year.
Geer will replace Coley Stickels as the head coach of the University of Alabama swimming and diving program.
The position became open on Monday when Stickles stepped down.
He did so in order to concentrate on preparing athletes for the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The Games were postponed last summer due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Alabama assistant coach Ozzie Quevedo will serve as interim coach until Geer takes over the program.
Geer is hoping to qualify for the 2021 United States Olympic team.
She will swim in her fourth Olympic Trials next summer.
Geer won eight state championships while competing for Fairbanks High School.
She captured the state’s top honors in the 50 and 100 freestyles each of her four years of competing on the high school level.
After graduation from Fairbanks, Geer earned numerous national honors as a swimmer for the University of Arizona. She was a 27-time All-American.
She is coming off the International Swimming League season with the DC Trident.
The sprinter has four World Championship relay medals to her name and won four golds during the 2019 Pan American Games, including the 100 free and three relays in addition to silver in the 50 free.
A 2014 graduate of Arizona, she began her coaching career as a volunteer assistant at The Ohio State University in 2016-17 and assumed the same position at Alabama.
Geer could not be reached for comment by the Journal-Tribune before presstime.