When Utah hired new head swimming and diving coach Joe Dykstra, a new era began in the pool. Just looking at credentials alone, Dykstra is more than qualified to take over the reins of the program.
Dykstra has spent time at three Division I schools during his career – Tennessee, Washington and North Texas. He has experience in the Pac-12, having served as the Huskies’ associate head coach from 2001-2006. He spent the last seven years at North Texas as the women’s head coach, where he led the Mean Green to four consecutive third-place finishes in the Sun Belt Conference before taking second last season. North Texas finished with its highest mid-major poll ranking in program history, ending the campaign at No. 4. His teams set many records during his time as head coach and he was named Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year in 2008.
“I learned a lot at North Texas,” he said. “I learned how to not only coach, but to manage everything with the team. I had to take a terrible team and turn them into a consistent, respected program.”
Because of the success he had leading the Mean Green, Dykstra was intrigued when the Utah job opened up and felt ready for the next step.
“Coaching a coed team was a definite draw to Utah for me,” he said. “This program has unlimited potential. They have done a nice job the last few years and historically have had success. With the move to the Pac-12 and the facilities here, we are in position to be better than ever before.”
While Dykstra has compiled a solid resume, he is stepping into a much tougher situation than the one at North Texas. Not only are the Utes in a tougher conference, but the program’s image took a hard hit during the spring when former head coach Greg Winslow was investigated for allegations that he had sexually abused a teenager in Arizona. Additionally, former Utah swimmers came forth with claims of physical and emotional abuse from Winslow.
While Dykstra will try to help lead the Utes to victories in the pool, he will also have to gain the trust his predecessor had lost.
“We are going to get attention and focus for the right things,” Dykstra said. “I want to make sure the student-athletes perform well in the classroom, pool and community. I want to establish a beacon of success here at Utah and have nothing but great publicity for the university. If you look at my track record, that is what I have done. I am an educator first and I value education. This is what I have been able to do and this is what we will do here at Utah.”
The values and lessons Dykstra plans on implementing into the program are already having an effect on current swimmers.
“He is going to be an incredible leader,” said senior Nicole Ligeza. “He brings a positive dynamic to the team and will propel us forward. His approach to coaching definitely shows a lot of experience and we are all really excited to have him part of our team and family. He is the overall package and a positive role model.”
Dykstra’s style of coaching is becoming popular as well.
“He really knows what he is doing,” said junior Nick Soedel. “Other coaches have been praising him. I also really like that he uses shorter yards for practice. That will help us a lot [as swimmers] and get us where we need to be.”
Although the praise may sound great on paper, Dykstra know what he needs to do in order to make the program succeed.
“We need to establish consistency,” he said. “We need to have rules and discipline and make sure that the swimmers and divers know that this is how the program will operate and how it will always operate. I will focus on positive reinforcement and create a culture in which success is celebrated. I will never yell or scream at them [but] rather coach for constant improvement. Our goals will be to improve aspects of life every day. The swimmers have already embraced the approach and I think it will go really well here at Utah.”