Q & A with DART Coach Billy Doughty
By Michael J. Stott
With the merger of Davis Aquatics and Arden Hills into DART Swimming, Billy Doughty has helped the program grow by leaps and bounds, becoming a mainstay on the USA Swimming Club Excellence rankings.
Coach Doughty helped elevate DART Swimming to USA Swimming Gold Medal status in 2015; otherwise, the club has earned Silver Medal status since 2014. In 2018, he placed three DART athletes on the USA national team.
CREDENTIALS
• Head coach/CEO, DART Swimming (Davis site), 2009-present
• Head site coach, Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics, 2001-06
• Head coach, City of Mobile Swim Association, 2006-09
• Head men’s coach, USA World Junior Championships Team, 2019
• Head men’s coach, USA National Junior Team for Mel Zajac Meet, 2018
• Assistant coach, USA Pan Pacific Junior Championships Team, 2018
• 7x Sierra Nevada LSC Senior Coach of the Year
Swimming World: Two programs with impressive histories combined… What spurred the Davis-Arden Hills merger?
Billy Doughty: I took the head coaching job at Davis Aquadarts in 2009. It took a couple years to build the program into a team that was regularly producing swimmers attending junior nationals. Once we started to have swimmers consistently perform at that level, I thought it would be great to have relays and compete as a team at national-level meets. Davis is a town of around 50,000 residents, so we are never going to be a huge program.
Coach Brian Nabeta at Arden Hills and I started to talk about combining our programs so we could do that. He is extremely easy to work with, and we have very similar goals for our swimmers, so the merger was easy for the most part. Brian’s relationship with Arden Hills ended several years ago, and he moved his site to American River College. We are still together at this point.
SW: What were the challenges in parceling out responsibilities and assembling a cohesive, united program?
BD: A merger is always a work in progress. Brian and I have learned each other’s strengths and passions and worked on taking over appropriate portions of the program. It helps that I respect Brian, and I have definitely learned to trust that he always has the team’s best interest at heart. People ask if Brian and I move on from DART, will the merger remain. I honestly don’t know; the personal relationship and history between Brian and I hold things together at this point.
To access the full Q&A session with DART coach Billy Doughty,
Check out the March issue of Swimming World Magazine- Available Now!
[ PHOTO BY PETER H. BICK ]
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FEATURES
016 CATCH CAL IF YOU CAN!
by Dan D’Addona
With all their firepower and depth, Cal’s Golden Bears will be extremely difficult to catch at this year’s men’s Division I NCAAs.
020 MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU
by Dan D’Addona
That’s what Stanford’s swimmers could be saying to each other, as the Cardinal appear to have what it takes to win their fourth straight women’s NCAA championship!
023 THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
by David Rieder
Swedish swimmer Louise Hansson never envisioned herself swimming in college in the United States. But as she prepares for this month’s women’s NCAAs, the University of Southern California senior says that moving to the U.S. was the best thing she’s ever done.
026 TAKEOFF TO TOKYO: “WE WILL SMASH THEM LIKE GUITARS”
by John Lohn
Before the men’s 400 freestyle relay at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, American Gary Hall Jr. proclaimed the United States would “smash (the Australians) like guitars.” However, the Aussies won the race by 19-hundredths of a second, ending the U.S. streak of seven straight Olympic gold medals in the event—and 15 straight victories, counting the World Championships! In the latest installment of our “Takeoff to Tokyo” series, we venture back 20 years to what has become known as the Air-Guitar Race.
030 UPON FURTHER REVIEW…
by Andy Ross
The battle for supremacy for this year’s NCAA Division II and Division III swimming and diving titles might not be such a foregone conclusion as in previous years when Queens dominated D-II, Emory controlled women’s D-III and Denison was the talk of men’s D-III.
COACHING
010 LESSONS WITH THE LEGENDS: CECIL COLWIN
by Michael J. Stott
014 SWIMMING TECHNIQUE CONCEPTS: TECHNIQUE SIMILARITIES ACROSS THE FOUR COMPETITIVE STROKES
by Rod Havriluk
Although there are obvious differences in technique elements across all four competitive strokes, there are many similarities. Knowing about the similarities can help swimmers better understand specific movements and, consequently, make technique improvements more quickly.
040 Q&A WITH COACH BILLY DOUGHTY
by Michael J. Stott
043 HOW THEY TRAIN LUCA URLANDO
by Michael J. Stott
TRAINING
013 DRYSIDE TRAINING: STROKE STRENGTH SERIES—BACKSTROKE
by J.R. Rosania
JUNIOR SWIMMER
045 UP & COMERS: JACE LLOYD
by Shoshanna Rutemiller
COLUMNS & SPECIAL SECTIONS
008 A VOICE FOR THE SPORT 009 BEYOND THE YARDS
019 THE OFFICIAL WORD
032 2020 SWIM CAMP DIRECTORY 044 HASTY HIGH POINTERS
046 GUTTERTALK
Proud of you Billy Doughty!!
That’s a dashing photo Billy Doughty?
Mike Murray – it was that one or my old Halloween photos. Probably should have used the Halloween photo.
Billy Doughty THIS
Very nice.
All about the relays. I love it. Well done.
I know him! I know him! Billy Doughty Why is your Grissom HS coaching tenure not listed in your credentials??? ?
Well hello Billy ?
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