Paula Chenquer joined Valpo's coaching staff in the summer of 2023. Entering her fourth season on staff in 2026-27, Chenquer is in her first year as an assistant coach after spending her first two years as a graduate assistant.
Chenquer helped lead the men's and women's teams to one of the most successful seasons in the program's modern era. The men sent five swimmers to the CSCAA National Invitational Championship, scoring 28 points at the postseason meet. The men posted a 7-3 dual meet record, their highest win total since 1988-89, while the women went 6-4 for their highest win total since 1991-92.
19 swimmers combined to qualify for 31 event finals at the MVC Championships and Anthony Martin was named MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The men and women combined for 179 top-10 swims over the course of the season, including 30 record swims. When the dust settled, 12 new individual program records and five new relay program records were established, among 87 new individual top-10 placements and 24 new relay top-10 placements.
In her first two years on staff, Chenquer helped guide the Valpo women to their top two point totals at the conference championship meet since joining the Missouri Valley Conference. On the men's side, the Beacons' 2024-25 MVC championship meet finish was its best at a conference championship meet since 2005-06.
Chenquer spent the 2022-23 as an assistant coach at her alma mater, Emmanuel College. She helped guide the Lions as both the women’s squad and the men’s squad won Conference Carolinas championships. Emmanuel had four swimmers earn All-American honors at the Division II national championships.
Chenquer swam her final three seasons at Emmanuel, serving as team captain as both a junior and a senior. A distance free and breaststroke swimmer, she qualified for multiple ‘A’ finals at the conference championship meet for the Lions.
Prior to her time at Emmanuel, Chenquer swam as a freshman in 2017-18 at Limestone College. She won the 1650 free at the 2018 Conference Carolinas championship while representing the Saints.
In addition to her coaching experience at Emmanuel, Chenquer spent the summer of 2019 in a coaching internship at Corinthians swim club in Brazil, coaching 15 and 16-year-old swimmers. Chenquer graduated from Emmanuel in May 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in sports management.
