Dorsey Tierney-Walker was named the new ASU head swimming and diving coach on May 19, and she has officially relocated to the Valley and started working. Tierney-Walker won two NCAA Championships as the co-women’s head coach at Auburn, and now her goal is to bring that same success to Tempe.
The State Press: What attracted you to ASU?
Dorsey Tierney-Walker: This is a very popular state for our sport, both at the club and at the high-school level. Tempe and the surrounding areas, it’s such a vibrant, energetic atmosphere. I actually came and interviewed the night that Barrack Obama was here. It was crazy, but it was great walking down Mill Avenue and you’re talking about college graduates are sitting there discussing his speech and how it impacted them.
SP: How have your first couple weeks on the job been?
DTW: I actually just got here permanently [on Thursday]. It’s been awesome so far. The people within the athletic department and within the entire university have been incredibly helpful as far as getting [me] organized within human resources and with pointing me in the right direction. It’s my husband and I and two dogs, and our two dogs are kind of like our children, so it’s been amazing how helpful people have been in directing me to find places to live that will accommodate my dogs.
SP: Since it’s summer vacation, how much contact have you had with the athletes you will be coaching this coming season?
DTW: I’ve had a little bit, but it’s been more just through e-mail and things like that. This team can be just outstanding next year, and I think the former coaching staff has done a great job of helping them transition through the summer into a new coaching regime. I think they’re excited, and maybe a little bit nervous too. I think they’re excited just to kind of have a new program that sort of veers in a little bit different direction.
SP: How did you get into coaching?
DTW: I was team captain of my college team for a couple years and also the [Pan American] team, and I think I naturally sort of assumed kind of a mentoring type of responsibility in my swimming career throughout my years. When I went to graduate school, I went to the University of Massachusetts for sports management, my goal was to eventually be an athletic director. But as a graduate assistant, to pay for school, I was the assistant swim coach. The head coach unfortunately hurt his back within my first week there, and so I sort of coached the team for much of the year on my own and absolutely loved it. It became the best part of graduate school, so after my first couple months doing that, I realized that this was something I wanted to do for a career.
SP: You also got to swim at the Olympic trials in 1988 and 1992. What was that experience like?
DTW: At this point, looking back, I can be very proud of my athletic accomplishments. I aspired to be an Olympian from probably the age of 8 on, so my goal was to go to the Olympic Trials and not just participate, but make the team. My first experience there in high school, mentally I was not prepared to compete at that level. Four years later, I went and I performed much, much better and it was a great experience. I’m probably a better coach having not quite accomplished my goal at that level, but I certainly kind of went into it the entire time wanting to be an Olympian. I came away with a positive and a negative experience, but ultimately, in my profession, it has truly helped me guide athletes who are competing in those sort of pressure-packed situations [to] maintain sort of a guided outlook, stay within themselves and focus on the things that you can control and not what you can’t control.
SP: What are some of the unique qualities you bring to the table as a coach?
DTW: I relate to the athletes very well in many different ways, [such as] trying to balance their academics and their athletics. I also have very high expectations for myself and for the program, and ultimately I think we all rise to the level of expectation. I enjoy making those expectations and pushing the limit and will continue to do that in my career. I think that’s a unique aspect that I have that sort of helps athletes achieve much higher than they ever possibly could.
SP: What are the biggest things you have learned throughout your coaching career so far?
DTW: I was the assistant coach at Southern Methodist University under a fantastic coach named Steve Collins, and he taught me a couple things. No. 1, [you can guide] talented athletes, but also [allow] their talent [to] blossom in a not-so-constrained environment. I also learned from him that you can be successful in many, many different ways. You can have a lot of talent, and they can help you be successful. You can also develop talent, and you can take and develop toughness.
At Indiana, when I took over there, I really don’t think I had a clue what I was doing. I worked very, very hard and I had a lot of passion for what I did, and I think that spilled over to the athletes. They had passion for what they did, and it made them excited, and so we sort of learned from each other. But what I did learn is that with passion, with excitement and with having your athletes not only believe in the program and the coaching staff and themselves, but most importantly each other, you can go a very long way.
At Auburn, I learned how to be successful at the very highest level with the team. I learned, No. 1, that this is a team sport. That means the entire coaching staff [and] that means the extended support staff from the athletic trainers to the athletic director to the equipment guy. It has got to be a total team effort in order to compete at the national championship level.
SP: What are your expectations for the team this coming season?
DTW: Obviously, I’ve had an opportunity to study the current student-athletes on paper, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot. Until you get to know the dynamic of the team, when the leaders begin to emerge and develop, it’s a little bit hard to tell. I’m not going to limit these current student-athletes based on what they’ve done in the past. Our focus is the future and our focus is to get better, stronger [and] faster and to be the best team that we possibly can.
SP: What are your long-term goals for this program?
DTW: Each year, we need to build on previous success. Right now, I kind of look at this clean slate with so many opportunities. [We have] opportunities to develop camps, to develop community support [and] to develop really a culture among swimming and diving. We want to develop national champions and we want to develop Olympians, and I think we can do it at ASU. Each year is going to be a building process. We will start with our current student-athletes and we just keep growing from there. I plan to be here for the rest of my career. I’ve got a ton of family here, as does my husband, and I plan on bringing in a staff that’s going to be here for a while.
SP: What’s it going to take to de-throne UA, a consistent national power in the sport?
DTW: There is no limiting factor for how good and how competitive we can be at ASU. Obviously, that starts with recruiting, and we intend to recruit the best student-athletes in the country and in the world. If we can do that, then we’re going to be awfully good. It’s awesome having a school and a program like UA to sort of gun for, but there are so many great programs out there, and we’re going to be the best program that we can be at ASU. That “best” can be the best in the country. I really believe that.
SP: What is the best moment of your coaching career so far?
DTW: My first year at Auburn, the women won the national championship in pretty dramatic fashion. Coming into the last day of the meet, we were 56 points down at the University of Georgia against the University of Georgia. Every single member of the team scored that morning [for] the first time in history. We ended up winning on the last relay. What I saw was that the person who was winning the [individual] national championship to the person that was scoring 13th was just as important. That kind of goes back to the importance of a team that’s strong from its best swimmer to its 18th-best swimmer.
Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu
