When current Illini head coach Jeana Kempe finished her competitive collegiate career, she had no interest in getting into coaching. After spending four seasons swimming and earning a bachelor's degree in sociology at the University of California-Los Angeles, Kempe attended Northern Arizona to complete her master's degree in education psychology and human relations.

Serving as a graduate assistant in academics, Kempe hated what she was doing and wanted to find a way out. That lifeline ended up being a coaching opportunity, and she ended up loving the experience of coaching at the club level.

"In the beginning, it was getting out of what I was doing. When I lived in Flagstaff, Arizona, it's not a cheap place to live, so I was working like three different jobs," Kempe said. "I was coaching club at the time, so I was coaching little eight-and-unders. They were fun, and I was having a good time.

"It was really like the age group in general that kind of kept me into coaching in college. I like the 18-to-22-year-old age group of being away from home for the first time, figuring out who you are away from your parents, all the milestones that you go through and how much you change from 18 to when you graduate. That's ultimately why I've stayed in college coaching."

Kempe started her coaching career at the Flagstaff Peaks Aquatic Club before serving as an assistant at Northern Arizona from 2011-2012. She then got the opportunity to head south to Louisiana State, where she was an assistant coach from 2013-2018.

After three years at Auburn and one year at South Carolina, both in assistant coaching roles, Kempe enters her first year in head coaching role at Illinois.

Though she was born and raised in Illinois and recruited while in high school by former Illini head coach Sue Novitsky, who retired in March after 28 years with the program, Kempe says all of her coaching moves were to get her family closer to relatives living in Florida, but the opportunity to come back to Illinois was simply too good to turn down.

"We've been in the South for 10 years," Kempe said. "For us, it was getting closer to our parents, and then this opportunity really made it hard. I think in our hearts we knew it was an immediate yes, but it took some time to get there."

Once Kempe arrived in Champaign, she knew exactly who she wanted to have on her staff. Kyle Patnode, who Kempe worked with at South Carolina, was the first name on her list, and he is now the Illini's assistant swimming coach.

Kempe says it was always the plan to ask Patnode to join her staff, and she has already enjoyed having him here.

"In my head, it was always the plan," Kempe said. "I remember looking at him on the pool deck in South Carolina, when I knew I was going on the interview. I kind of looked at him, and I'm like, 'Kyle, if I take this leap of faith, and I say yes to this job, I need to know you're coming with me.' He was always my number one."

Kempe says the addition of Patnode, who also hails from the state of Illinois and has experience competing and coaching in the Big Ten, will also be important in the recruiting world. With Illinois full of some of the best high-school swimmers and divers in the country, the new staff knows they need to establish a pipeline to keep those talented student-athletes home.

"Illinois should be a place for Illinois kids to go and want to go," Kempe said. "I think for us, just having ties with recruiting with coaches and club coaches in Chicago, central Illinois, and southern Illinois goes a long way. They trust us, they want their kids to be here, and that's what you need. This is one of the best swimming states in the country, and if we have those girls on our program, they're only going to make us better."

Adding head diving coach Tricia Grant was a bit tougher, and the pair did not know each other prior to this season. Kempe asked past diving coaches that she had worked with if they had any recommendations, and Grant kept coming up.

Once they connected and had their first phone call, Kempe knew she had to offer her the position and get her on board.

"I was blown away with her in my first phone call," Kempe said. "She's super organized, she's a great coach, and she has a good balance of holding her athletes to that highest level and also knowing the day that they need an arm around them and pull them back. I've already seen that on the deck, and I'm very confident in the decision that was made there on the diving end."

With a young and energetic staff, Kempe is ready to establish her culture on the Fighting Illini swim and dive program, which is looking to improve in the first year of this new era.

To reach that goal of improvement throughout the team, Kempe has started making changes to the team's typical schedule. While past seasons have featured Big Ten competition in late stages of the schedule, the Illini will start conference action at the end of October, sprinkle in a Big Ten meet in December, and take on several Big Ten teams in dual meets throughout January.

Kempe says that change will get the team more prepared for Big Ten Championships in February and ultimately gear up for CSCAA and NCAA Championships in March.

As Kempe and her family readjusts to the weather in the Midwest and takes on a brand-new program, the Illini prepare to open their first season of this new era on Oct. 1 with the annual Blue vs. Orange meet.

With a new look and new faces in town, Illinois is set to turn the page and begin a new chapter under Kempe and her coaching staff.

"I think any time you have a coaching change, that team in your first year is always special because they're the ones that are the most vulnerable," Kempe said. "They're the ones that don't know what to expect, literally every day, and they'll be surprised at what they can do. 

"I think that this team really has the ability and the talent in the pool to become one of the best Illinois teams in a long time, if not ever, and they're really embracing that idea."