On Deck: Dorenkott Settles in at Ohio State

New Ohio State University women’s swimming coach Bill Dorenkott has moved his family to the Columbus area, he has spent eight days on campus and he’s settling nicely into his new surroundings at the impressive Bill & Mae McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.

Named Ohio State’s women’s coach in April after 10 years as head coach of Penn State’s women’s team and seven years as coach of its men’s programs, Dorenkott has quickly developed an appreciation for the nationally respected and world-class-fast McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion.

“I like the view from my new office [deck level with windows looking out onto the pool],” Dorenkott said. “The McCorkle Aquatic Center is nothing less than amazing.”

Dorenkott, who has been joined by assistant coach Stefanie Williams, the former Georgia star who was an assistant coach the last three years at Missouri, is also adjusting to and enjoying the fact that he will coach only one team after holding dual women’s and men’s coaching titles the past seven years at Penn State.

“Some of my greatest memories in 17 years of coaching have been when I was able to focus on one group of athletes, whether it is a single sex program, a national team or preparing individuals for the U.S. Olympic Trials,” Dorenkott said. “I’m very excited about the idea of building relationships and I’m excited about focusing recruiting-wise on some specific individuals. From a staff standpoint, it will be just myself and Stephanie working in conjunction with diving coach Vince Panzano...and that is very appealing.”

Dorenkott takes over an Ohio State team that has won five Big Ten championships, but none since the 1986 team completed a championship run of five consecutive Big Ten titles. So there’s work to be done in the pool, but Dorenkott has Big Ten championships on his resume: three of them, in fact. He coached the Penn State women to Big Ten Conference championships in 2002, 2005 and 2006.

His teams are consistently competitive. Penn State’s women never finished lower than fourth at the Big Ten championships in 10 years under Dorenkott when, prior to his arrival, it had never finished higher than fourth. And this season, for the fifth consecutive year and the seventh time in the last eight years, Dorenkott had at least 10 swimmers qualify for the NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. Eight of those student-athletes attained All-American status.

It is this message of building champions and having teams consistently contending for championships that Dorenkott feels will resonate with prospective student-athletes and their families as he hits the recruiting trail later this week.

“I think to take over teams that weren’t necessarily having success and guiding those programs and student-athletes to new levels of achievement adds a measure of validity to what you are saying,” Dorenkott said. “We took over a women’s team at Penn State that was 11th in the Big Ten not long before winning a championship. I envision us doing the same thing here.

“And when you couple winning championships with placing kids on U.S. national teams or having Olympic Trials finalists or NCAA champions, I think prospective student-athletes and their parents understand there is a degree of credibility and that we have the ability and desire to help student-athletes reach their potential in both the classroom and the pool.”

Dorenkott and Williams will begin sharing those thoughts Thursday when they hit the road and start recruiting future Ohio State Buckeyes. Neither has been on the job 10 days nor is fully moved into their new offices. That’s ok. They’ll have time to get comfortable later.