University of Utah head coach Joe Dykstra has resigned after 9 seasons at the helm of the Utes swimming & diving programs. Dykstra also notably serves as the president of the CSCAA board.
Dykstra informed the team of his resignation on Wednesday afternoon.
During Dykstra’s tenure at Utah, the Utes had a number of swimmers qualify individually for the NCAA Championships and were able to qualify relays in a number of years. They were unable, however, to break through and reach the level of the top brass teams in the Pac-12. In 2015, the Utah men’s team finished 22nd at NCAAs with the most points scored in program history.
In Dykstra’s first year as head coach, 2013-2014, Utah had 4 All-Americans and set 29 programs records. Then, in the 2014,2015 season, they sent 11 athletes to the NCAA Championships. Dysktra’s program has consistently been among the best in the Pac-12 at getting improvement out of swimmers, however, Utah unfortunately hasn’t been able to reel in nearly as many high profile recruits as other conference programs.
Prior to Utah, Dykstra served as the head coach of North Texas’ women’s team for 7 years. During his stint with North Texas, he was name the Sun Belt Coach of the Year twice. While he was with the team, North Texas had its first NCAA qualifier in 15 years.
Dykstra has also previously served as the associate head coach at the University of Washington, which no longer sponsors swimming & diving, and started his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Tennessee in the late 90s.
Jonas Persson is the best person for the Utah head coaching job.
Best of luck to Joe! That 2015 team with 22nd place was scored with only 2 individual swimmers and no relays. Nick Soedel in the 50 and 100 Free and Bence Kiraly in the 500 and 1650. Both those swimmers were legacy recruits of Greg Winslow.
Joe is a wonderful person and coach. I wish him all the best.
Elizabeth, I echo your post. Joe Dykstra is Great Coach and person. He’s done a great job at Utah and North Texas.
Sad to see Joe go, but they don’t need to bring in a new head coach: they already have a great team. Jonas has been great as interim head coach. Just need a new assistant coach for him, Michele and Jos!
I think we’re sleeping on Lisa Ebeling, Head Coach at the University of Northern Colorado as a solution. She’s got ties to Utah, former family members that swam there & she even coached there – the Utes Women’s 200 Free Relay record that still stands today is from when she coached there and now her swimmers at UNC are even faster than that relay record (at a mid-major). She’s got all the elite experience a Head Coach would need to make that program very successful!!!
Seriously?
Seriously
Candidate needs to know PAC12 and west coast and mountain recruiting and maybe how to do more with less as they compete against others in the “Conference of Champions”:
Early clubhouse leader:
Herbie Behm – former Utah assistant who would know the ins and outs of the program who has done great things at ASU with the sprinters. Bob was smart on hiring him and made a good mark in the PAC12 and at ASU. Would be a popular choice with recent alumni?
Others to consider:
Ben Loorz – give UNLV P5 support and you basically have Utah. Done well at UNLV and would do better with P5 budget and PAC12 conference name to recruit to. … Read more »
Lisa Ebeling – started at Utah with a impressive track record and breath of experience who is making a significant impact on current program at Northern Colorado.
Although Herbie (former coach at Utah hired away by Bob) or Jonas Persson (current assistant who was head coach at Toledo) make the most sense, I bet it is either Lisa or Michelle Lowry (current assistant/associate Head Coach)
Joe to USC ?
God bless Joe.
Pros: if you have never been, Utah is beautiful.
Cons: going to be hard to compete in the PAC 12 going up against Durden, McKeever, Bowman, Loo……….
Once you go to Utah, you never leave Utah. (Fletch)