The University of Utah announced today that it has hired Joe Dykstra as the new head coach, replacing Greg Winslow, whose contract was not renewed.
Dykstra’s previous job was as the head coach of the women’s team at the University of North Texas, where he was for seven years. In his time with the Mean Green, he took a struggling program and turned it into one of the better mid-major programs in the country, culminating with the 2013 season where he sent sophomore Kimberly Phillips to the NCAA Championship meet: the team’s first ever NCAA qualifier.
“I couldn’t be more excited to join the Utah program,” said Dykstra. “To be able to lead a coed program in the Pac-12 Conference is a tremendous honor. Utah has limitless potential and I am looking forward to building on its recent success and taking this program to new heights. I want to express my appreciation to Dr. Hill and (senior associate athletics director) Kyle Brennan for giving me this opportunity.”
Prior to his time at North Texas, Dykstra was an associate head coach at Washington before their program was cut; he was a Washington alumni himself and was a captain as a senior.
Dykstra’s coaching style has been described by former swimmers as creative. Alesha Olesen, who swam for Dykstra in his first year at North Texas said of her experience: “He really works to build a team atmosphere, and uses creative coaching that encourages hard work and consistently challenged us.”
She described Dykstra as coaching on the lower-yardage end of the spectrum, and emphasized race-pace training and challenge sets. She described his as the “hardest taper [she] ever did.” Other former Dykstra swimmers echoed these sentiments, describing him as “energetic and creative.”
Olesen also emphasized that Dykstra believes heavily in goal-setting and accountability. After creating almost an immediate turnaround when taking over at North Texas, those skills will be a valuable one for the Utes, who will be trying to move past an ugly period in their program. The end of Winslow’s tenure was marred by accusations of physical and verbal abuse toward swimmers and assistant coaches, racism, and an investigation by Arizona State University police of charges that he had an inappropirate sexual relationship with an underage swimmer.
Dykstra will inherit some quality talent at Utah. That’s especially true of the men’s team, who despite their challenges had one of the best seasons in decades. Nick Soedel, just a sophomore, was 12th in both the (19.48 in prelims) and 100 (42.83 in prelims) freestyles at NCAA’s and freshman diver Josiah Purse placed as high as 16th individually, on the 1-meter. That’s the first time since 1975 that the Utes had two athletes earn All-American honors in the same year. They also sent another freshman, Kristian Kroon, to NCAA’s.
The Utah women didn’t have any NCAA qualifiers in 2013.
6 years of D1 Head Coaching experience > a “Big-Time” assistant with NO head coaching experience. Pretty simple really. And lets be honest…its Utah….Was anyone “Big-Time” really going to be THAT interested knowing the salary, budget, and current facility? Access to an outdoor 50 meter is great…..try training men and women for 6 months inside with 8 lanes.
I remember a couple of years back when a guy left Northwestern to be a head coach at West Virginia. He was big time at Northwestern and WVU and still is at Bolles.
And WVU was nothing but another stepping stone for him….Bolles pays him more if you can believe that, not including the tuition. Maybe things will change for WVU in the Big12, but when you pay what they paid with that facility….they were lucky he stayed as long as he did and should feel fortunate he even stepped foot on campus (both of them).
As with WVU, hopefully PAC-12 money will trickle down to swimming at Utah….but again, if you’re a top assistant at a PAC-12 or SEC school….is it really that appealing? Your facility is nicer where you are, your operating budget is higher where you are….etc… I wouldn’t be surprised if the salaries were comparable in some cases… Read more »
Dutchwomen, excellent facts and figures! Keep them coming. Also, the outdoor pool facility is basically not available for use until mid May due to the longer winter climate at altitude. You end up losing a good portion of your LCM training season.
The current indoor Ute Natatorium could be configured to a 50M pool. The large diving well is separated by a solid easement between the competition pool and on the other side of the 8 lane competition pool is another small concrete easement to the 5 or 6 lane training pool, which is oriented 90 degrees to the competition pool. Should be able to relativeily easily drop in a CRES stainless Myrtha pool. The moderate altitude level precludes… Read more »
First off I think everyone who is a follower / fan of swimming and in this case PAC 12 swimming hopes that coach Dykstra is successful, elevates swimming at the UofU and the PAC 12
What I hear being said is that the UofU may not ready for the PAC 12. That possibly they just didn’t understand what conference they are now attempting to compete in and do they belong ? That makes the assumption that the UofU WANTS to be competitive in the sport of swimming.
There are two types of universities…..those that build 50 meter pools and those that do not. Really not sure how Utah thinks they’re going to lure away a Big-time assistant paying 63 base…Perhaps someone ‘in the know’ can get on here and explain the 63 base and then the other 33k that gets it up to 97…how much of that 33k is camps, and how much is not “earned” income like HSA,401K, reimbursement, etc?
A lot of mid-major coaches make more than 63, and certainly a lot of those “big-time” assistants we keep hearing about do as well. Tell me why, for example, anyone from Auburn would apply for the Utah job? I use Auburn as the outlier, but… Read more »
This would be a decent hire if Utah, was still in the Mountain West.
Being they are in the PAC12 makes this is a swing and miss solely based upon his resume. It is concerning that Dykstra has spent 7 seasons at North Texas and only developed one NCAA participant. That’s a minimum of 6 recruiting classes and to have only one swimmer in that time frame go to NCAA’s is alarming. I’m sure Dykstra is a nice guy but how is he going to attract or even KEEP top talent in Salt Lake based upon his history. On the bright side of things North Texas did have highest GPA for the fall semester!
One NCAA qualifyed doesn’t look impressive until you actually do some research. Go on the UNT website and check out the top times for 2007-2008. There was no one on this team anywhere close to qualifying for NCAAs. For instance, their NCAA qualifier went 16:13 in the 1650- in his first season the top time was 17:07. Look at other events and compare and you won’t find this to be an anomaly. Huge improvement across the board- in one completed recruiting cycle- that is very impressive.
As a parent of one of Joe’s swimmers at UNT, all I can say is he is a fantastic coach!! His swimmers love him, he is committed, he makes them work hard and believe in themselves. He will be missed by UNT greatly and only hope they can hire someone as talented as he is. He is great at seeing potential and developing talent.
Joe may be a good guy and good coach, but the current assistant coaches carried Utah before Winslow’s dismissal and held the teams together after Winslow’s dismissal. They could have mailed it in. Instead the men showed marked improvement from last year.
One of those top two assistants should have been selected for the job.
Given that the Utah assistants were “on watch” when a lot of the issues with Winslow were going on, I think that the administration HAD to go ouside the present staff to make a hire. Not a criticism of the present staff at all, just what the admin had to do politically to show they were making sure the Winslow issues were dead with his departure.
You are likely correct. Eventhough the most qualified candidtates were internal, they needed to make an outside hire due to the Winslow allegations. If the assistants leave, we will just have to see what their roster will look like next season. There may be some transfers.
Program is bigger than any individual coach. It’s not as if they would loose a proven coach if any of those assistants leave. Sounds more like a coach on an ego trip…..
Congratulations to Joe! Great coach, great person, great hire! He will do an outstanding job at Utah!
Congrats! Well done
Agreed. Joe is a stand up guy- he is smart, of great character, and will know how to use the new tools given to him. Excellent hire!
I have to say I am overjoyed. The swimming world needs more Joe Dykstra’s in big places and we got one. A humble, smart, hard working individual.
Also to all those claiming you need a “name” to recruit, I call bs. Many of the best recruiters in the country you have never heard of. Honest hard work goes much farther in recruiting than a “name” if you know what you’re doing.