Q&A With Texas Associate Women’s Head Coach Mitch Dalton
By Michael J. Stott
After five years as director of USA Swimming’s National Junior Team Mitch Dalton is now associate head coach of the University of Texas women’s team as the Lady Longhorns fight for NCAA supremacy.
Mitch Dalton
University of Texas
Austin, Texas
- James Madison University, B.A., english language and literature, 2007;
- Rider University, M.A. organizational leadership, 2019
- Associate head women’s coach, University of Texas, 2020 – present
- Director, USA Swimming National Junior Team, 2015-2020
- Assistant men’s coach, Princeton University, 2010 – 2015
- Helped Tigers to four Ivy League titles
- Assistant coach, George Washington University, 2008-2010
- Coach, Machine Aquatics, 2008 – 2010
- Volunteer coach, James Madison University, 2007
- Coach, Estonia, World University Games, 2011
- Board member, ASCA, 2020 – present
- Senior captain at JMU
- Recipient of JMU’s Steven H. Miller Award for Leadership and Dedication
- 3x top USMS swims, 2020
Swimming World: As a native of Australia how did you happen to come to America?
Coach Mitchel Dalton: My dad got a job with the International Monetary Fund in 1993. I was in third grade and I thought moving to McLean, Virginia was the end of the world.
SW: James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia is a long way from Down Under. Why JMU for college?
MD: When I was 14, my dad had not received an indefinite contract. Thus, my parents and I thought it would be best if I returned to Australia for boarding school to prepare me for Australian National University. After about two years my dad’s contract got renewed. This presented the option of returning to the U.S. after high school.
I always dreamed of attending NYU; I was obsessed with New York City. My mom said after four years of living so far away, you can do a state school for two years, then transfer to NYU. I got into all the Virginia state schools and JMU just seemed the most logical from a distance and cost perspective, but I was not really excited about JMU. It was just a means-to-an-end. My summer league coach recommended I try walking on. I didn’t even know what that meant. Coach Matt Barany gave me a shot, and after two weeks of being on that team, I knew I wasn’t transferring.
SW: After swimming at JMU the school cut the men’s program. In your first coaching post you became an assistant coach on the women’s team for his wife Samantha. What inspired you to become a collegiate coach?
MD: Summer league swimming changed my life. When we moved to the U.S. I really didn’t have many friends until school was over and we started swimming in the Northern Virginia Swimming League. It is the greatest summer league in the United States. I know everyone says that – but I stick to that statement! NVSL gave me a community and from the time I was 10 I knew I wanted to coach that summer league team one day.
The same was true once I was at JMU. I wanted to be a coach, and thought I would do the “super-senior” route and coach my college team. When the men’s team got cut, this option was off the table. I approached Sam about possibly coaching with her as a volunteer for the women’s team. I was pretty nervous about her response. To be honest, as an athlete I was immature and probably made her life a lot harder than it should have been! The only condition was that I had to attend every meeting, every practice and take it seriously. Alongside her assistant, and now head coach Dane Pederson, it felt like the three of us were starting something new while honoring the traditions of the past.
I always had that quiet voice inside of me telling me I was born to coach. For whatever reason, I suppressed it as long as I could as a career option. So after graduating I did my internship in political communication at a boutique PR firm. I applied to American University for political communication with goals of being a speech writer. In the six-month gap between graduating from JMU, doing my internship and starting at American, I coached with Dan Jacobs at Machine Aquatics. From that I realized that I was meant to be on deck and I finally surrendered to that internal voice.
SW: As an assistant you were very good at team building skills. As an athlete what was a unique experience that made a difference?
Courtesy: University of Texas
MD: We used to take one Saturday morning off each season and drive to the top of a mountain in the Shenandoah. I remember Matt Barany had us up early so we could see the sun rise. We sat in a circle and I listened to the upperclassmen talk about what the team meant to them, our goals of winning a CAA championship and what it meant to be a JMU alum. From a culture perspective, everything just clicked for me. That has become a blueprint for my team building skills. Coaches create the environment, but the most powerful moments occur when athletes take ownership of their team.
On the drive up the mountain, I was unsure of how to navigate my place in a world far from my small private boarding school in Australia. On the drive down, I remember two things: rock band Weezer was on the radio, and I felt like I was part of something bigger than myself.
SW: What’s the most electric collegiate swimming and diving experience of which you have ever been a part?
MD: The UVA, NC State, and now IU meets we have hosted at Texas, have just taken things to another level. In my experience as an athlete the CAA Championships at George Mason University in the early 2000s were insane. I remember my mom would arrive at 8 a.m. BEFORE finals of the Wednesday relay just to get in line and get good seats for the team. Everyone on that deck treated CAA’s like it was the Olympics. I can still feel the silence when the starter asked for quiet and then the eruption of screams upon the buzzer. You can trace some really great coaches back to that conference. The atmosphere of that meet is a big part of why.
SW: What’s the best advice you ever received as you have built your coaching career?
MD: Trust your gut. I’ve come to redefine this for myself as “trust but verify.” Taken too literally this advice can lead to some irresponsible emotionally charged decisions. One’s intuitive reactions are there for a reason. The job is to explore reason. Is it real, and what’s the takeaway.
SW: Career stops at JMU, George Washington University and Princeton before heading to USA Swimming’s National Junior Team. What was your role in supporting the National Junior Team?
MD: To be a Swiss Army knife for coaches and athletes as they chased excellence towards making an Olympic Team. Frank Busch took an enormous risk in hiring me. I was an assistant coach in the Ivy League with very little (and maybe that’s being generous) exposure to the National Team. I am still not sure why he hired me. I’ve asked him over the years and his answer is best summed up as: potential.
I was under no illusion of the task-at-hand for taking over after Jack Roach. I was also under no illusion that a lot of our best coaches who I was tasked with serving were scratching their heads as to my hiring. So, I figured there was no way I could help people if I pretended I had all the answers. I spent the first year approaching our best coaches and asking what they thought of the program, USA Swimming and what they would do if they were me. I formalized the process and created a task force of some of the country’s best coaches (most of whom were club coaches). This process helped me create the blueprint for my work as NJT director.
The vision for the program became “The National Junior Team Program Will Increase The Future Performance of The United States Olympic Team.” Once that was formulated, every decision was tied back to that vision statement. Sure, lots of decisions and things could have value – but would it make our Olympic Team better?
I did my best work with the NJT when I was a connector. Connecting athletes-to-athletes, coaches-to-coaches, coaches to USA Swimming etc. etc. To do this, I had to be on the phone all the time and on the road. This was where I could really understand peoples’ strengths, stories and situations.
Chris Martin gave me the best advice when I started. I called him for counsel given his experience in our country, but also with other federations. He said, “The coach-athlete relationship is sacred. Your job is never to get inside the circle. Your job it to stand outside the circle, and when you can see a little gap inside that circle that needs to be filled, help the coach and athlete do so.”
SW: What’s the importance of the NJT program to American swimming?
Photo Courtesy: Texas Women’s Swimming and Diving
MD: If you are a numbers person, the best way to think about the Junior Team is that roughly 80-85 percent of any Olympic Team will have international experience before getting to the Olympic Games. For many newcomers, that comes in the form of meets outside Operation Gold Competitions; events like: World Junior Championships, World Cups, Mare Nostrum, Short Course Worlds, World University Games, etc. So if you want that number to stay above 80 percent the National Junior Team is important.
If you are people person, the community and connection between junior teams was everything. Without fail, after every competition or camp I would be approached by Junior Teamers who would say how impactful it was for them. At their home clubs they may be the fastest person in the water, or maybe they were a female practicing against males…many without the same goals as they had. John Morse once told me the National Junior Team should be motivational and affirmational. That is the value of the program to Team USA. Some of our best young people getting together and saying, “I am good enough to be here, and I want to be better.” Then, once they got to that Olympic Games, they were on the pool deck with a roster of people they had built two-to-ten years’ worth of trust and memories.
SW: What are the most important qualities to develop/nurture in a fast young athlete?
MD: Don’t let them settle. Whether this be in practice, competition, life – expect a lot out of them. I could most often tell the National Junior Teams that were happy to get a T-shirt and be at camp versus the ones that were pissed they didn’t make the National Team. The latter were always the ones that ended up winning the hardware. Some of that is the athlete intrinsically, some of that is a coach setting high standards, but instilling capability.
SW: What quality makes a National Junior Teamer different?
MD: Bruce Gemmell always tells me how much he hates the word “talent” so I won’t use that –because he’s right. The USOPC did a big expensive study on Katie Ledecky to find what made her great from a physiological standpoint. Their findings were that she was physically “remarkably unremarkable.”
A better question is “what makes a National Junior Teamer (a good swimmer) keep getting faster?” Consistency in training, ownership of technique, life outside the pool and, most importantly, the way they talk to themselves. The ones I saw become household names, were the ones that refused to make excuses and settle. They had great coaches, kept working harder and set bigger goals.
SW: Junior teamers in your time were Kate Douglass, Regan Smith, Alex Walsh, Gretchen Walsh, Erica Sullivan, Michael Andrew and Carson Foster among others. Any stories or common qualities among those athletes?
MD: Easy answer, they all had great coaches. Outside of that, I’m never good at the “common qualities” questions. All these athletes mentioned are individuals. I probably spent more time observing their individuality and how their uniqueness made them great.
All these athletes attended some of our smaller roster competitions (Mare Nostrum, World Cup, Zajac). I always liked those small roster sizes for two reasons: athletes couldn’t hide and they usually were up against world beaters. It was great seeing a group of young, optimistic, hard working Americans take on the likes of Katinka Hosszu, Chad Le Clos and Sarah Sjostrom.
I remember seeing Regan take on Katinka in what was Regan’s first international competition. Katinka was the Iron lady, Regan went toe-to-toe with her and the kids coined her “Tin Foil Gal.” The galvanizing of our young and capable against the best the world had, always made me optimistic about the future of USA Swimming.
SW: Do some of the same swimmer obstacles exist between NJ Teamers and non-NJ Teamers?
MD: Perhaps the level of outside noise can increase. But as Eddie says, “our sport is brutally honest.” No matter what level, it’s about doing the work at practice and in between your ears that matters most.
SW: You’ve had four years now at the Forty Acres alongside Carol Capitani. What do like most about working with women’s only program?
MD: While 95 percent of my time is still dedicated to coaching women only, that will likely change as we continue to evolve to what makes the most sense for Texas. Having the women together provides a rare opportunity for them to grow and, in some cases, think about some limits they may have put on themselves from a societal standpoint.
We started combining practices on Friday afternoon. Vibes are great, work is good! I said to Bob Bowman, “I think the women are going faster than we are asking them to because they want to keep up with the men.” Bob replied, “I think the guys are going faster because they don’t want to get beat by the women.” Iron sharpens iron, I thought it was great.
Here is why Carol is amazing. The next morning, she asked the women to close their eyes and do a blind poll of “who liked last night, who didn’t.” She asked the swimmers to share from each perspective what they liked and what they didn’t. Following that Carol said, “I loved the environment, and I think it can be good. What I hated: you all went straight to the back of the lane. That crap stops right now. Some of you can lead lanes in kick sets. Lead.”
That is just a message that 24 women aren’t usually given daily.
SW: What’s the best part about the change of staff this year?
MD: We can better serve our Texas student-athletes. More coaches = more eyes and support on athletes.
I had the pleasure of attending an SEC conference this year in which Dawn Staley and Nick Saban spoke to us. I’ve since been reading books from all the coaches considered “GOATS.” One thing is very clear: keep your system simple. Bob has the best training system in the world and an important variable is simplicity.
I am always observing, and that’s what I have learned the most from Bob. Keep your system simple, modify for some individual needs here or there, and for the athletes “DO YOUR WORK.” In an admirable effort to give everyone what they needed, we got too individualized last year and had too much going on.
SW: Coaches bring their own style and personalities to their coaching assignments. What’s the most critical thing you say to yourself?
MD: Oh boy, the list is long. Probably the thing I have to work on the most is quieting my own self-criticism. It really tested me in the Olympic year. As a leader, when an athlete fails or something goes wrong the first question I always ask is “as a leader, what was my role in this?”
Fear is a motivator, but it’s not sustainable. There has to be something else to get you to the next level. This season, I’m really proud of how I’ve caught the self-critical voice that pops into my head. I acknowledge it, thank it for being there – then give equal or more attention to a thought that raises my idea of what’s capable. Not perfect, but progress over perfection.
SW: How does your body and brain relate to your mind?
MD: Carol and I have been living our team standards this year. One of them is “Live a life of discipline”. Carol missed maybe five days of working out between July and NYE. I’m swimming and lifting. I am thinking more clearly, reading more, sleeping better. No matter what you do as coach, you gotta’ move. Spend time with your thoughts for minimum 30 minutes a day while doing something hard.
SW: What do you want the next generation to get right?
MD: Conflict. Conflict leads to deeper intimacy. Your team will never be the best version of itself unless it is willing to have hard conversations with each other. The more reps they get, the better they will be. The same is true for a coach.
I fear we are losing the art of getting into a heated exchange, the clashing of ideas, then shaking hands and resetting. If we live in fear of hard conversations, or saving our best ideas because we aren’t sure the perfect way to communicate them, imagine the progress we will waste.
Michael J. Stott is an ASCA Level 5 coach, golf and swimming writer. His critically acclaimed coming-of-age golf novel, “Too Much Loft,” is in its third printing, and is available from store.Bookbaby.com, Amazon, B&N and distributors worldwide.
