The Morning Swim Show, September 6, 2012: What is Josh White’s Role As Associate Head Coach at Michigan?


PHOENIX, Arizona, September 6. ON today's edition of The Morning Swim Show Josh White talks about his new role as associate head coach at the University of Michigan.

With the men's and women's teams combining in Ann Arbor, White says the biggest task is creating a sense of unity, though it should not be that difficult, with the leadership of head coach Mike Bottom and the team bonding already inherent in each squad. He also relives the experience of attending the London Olympics as a coach, where he guided a couple of swimmers to the finals. Be sure to visit SwimmingWorld.TV for more video interviews.

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Morning Swim Show Transcripts
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(Note: This is an automated service where some typos and grammatical errors may occur.)

Jeff Commings: This is the Morning Swim Show for Thursday, September 6th, 2012. I am your host Jeff Commings. The University of Michigan recently announced that the men's and women's teams will be one combined team with Mike Bottom as Head Coach. With us today in the FINIS Monitor is Josh White, who will be one of two associate head coaches and he joins us now from Ann Arbor. Hey Josh. I'm happy to see you again. How are you doing?

Josh White: Good. Thank you. How are you?

Jeff: Doing all right, thanks. So how does it feel to be Associate Head Coach?

Josh: It is a great honor that I am really being able to represent the University of Michigan in whatever way I can, so we are excited to keep moving forward.

Jeff: And we got a lot of these associate head coaches jobs coming up around the country. What exactly does an associate head coach do?

Josh: You know, pretty similar things to an assistant coach, I think. Not too much different.

Jeff: Well that's good. Just a better name to go along with it.

Josh: Yeah.

Jeff: That is good, that is good. So take me back to when you first wanted to be a swim coach. How old were you?

Josh: Oh, I was in college actually, I have always been really lucky to have great mentors, and that started in college with my college coach at Kenyon, Jim Steen and you know it continued through the years and I have the great opportunity to work with John Urbanchek and Mike obviously, who has really been incredibly informative in my career in helping me learn how to be a better coach.

Jeff: Well, if you want to have somebody to look up to for your, you know, to want to be a coach. Not many coaches can be better in Jim Steen John Urbanchek and Mike Bottom that is for sure.

Josh: Absolutely.

Jeff: So what is it like working with Mike Bottom at Michigan?

Josh: It is great. You know I think Mike is first and foremost is a wonderful person and he and I have become great friends. We have been very fortunate at Michigan to have a lot of resources that matches Mike's philosophy of really building well rounded student-athletes who are focused on academics and also becoming better people and that is I think something I have really enjoyed working with Mike because that really is as focused as trying to get better in every aspect each day and that is something I have really enjoyed.

Jeff: And this is not your first time working with a combined team. You were also a coach at the combined programs at Pomona-Pitzer, but this is at a Division I scale. I would imagine maybe I wouldn't say the intensity is higher, but you know what do you see is the differences between your work with Pomona-Pitzer and at Michigan now?

Josh: Well I think the biggest thing is Mike's vision to run the programs basically in parallel that the men and the women will be training together directly and that the combination is in the staff and the resources that we have to put together for each. I think that's a new concept that we are excited to work with and to do things a little differently, so that is going to be one of the biggest differences. We've had the opportunity to work with the women through the summer and had great experiences with them, a wonderful group of young women who are excited to move forward and keep trying to get better.

Jeff: The men's team finished in the top 10 at the NCAA's this past March, the women not doing as well as they used to. What is going to be the key to kind of getting these teams back in balance?

Josh: Well I think culture and recruiting. Establishing you know just the empowerment that Mike brings to every group that he works with and with the resources that Michigan has to devote to their teams we have a lot of opportunities to hopefully bring him some great athletes and start with the group that we have who have great leadership and continued to bring in some really good athletes that will help the team improve as well.

Jeff: Well we know a lot about some of the top guys on your team obviously Conor Jaeger made the Olympic team. Sean Ryan, National Champion. Kyle Whitaker, National Finalist and the list goes on and on. Tell us about some of the girls that we could see making a big jump this season?

Josh: Well, I think we have got just a great group of all around women. I wouldn't want to single anyone out because I think that is really the goal you know Michigan at its heart is based around Bo Schembechler's idea of the team, the team, the team. That is what our women will need to get forward is that sense of team so I don't want to single anybody out, but there are definitely some women in there that could make an impact.

Jeff: That is a good idea in theory, but with swimming being such an individual sport how do you keep that team aspect going throughout the whole season?

Josh: Well you know really I think that has been one of the strengths of our groups as — if you look at Conor Jaeger's success, he would be the first one to tell you that Sean Ryan and Ryan Feeley and the whole distance group as well as the team as a whole made a huge impact on that and they support one another in success and failure and they are competitive with one another and help drive one another, but what it comes back down to as they are always rooting for one another's success and it's a great thing to be associated with, so it is an exciting thing.

Jeff: Yeah, let's talk about Connor a little bit. He got to go to the Olympics. Swam the 1500, got a second swim, got to swim in the finals and I understand you were there giving some guidance. What was it like to be there to see all that happen?

Josh: Amazing, I mean amazing. That is the only thing I can say. I think back to 4 years ago before I came to Michigan and at the time I probably would have never envisioned even being a spectator at the Olympics, so having the opportunity to go and work with Mike there and Conor and our group of postgrads and Mark Hill was a dream come true.

Jeff: Tell us about how you were able to work with your post grads, Milorad Cavic, Wu Peng were just some of them. You know, what is it like to balance with all those because they all are from different countries. I mean you can't obviously you know devote so much time to just one of them?

Josh: Right, right. You know I think we were lucky to have most were from relatively small countries and we were lucky to have the opportunity afforded to us by the countries to work with them without at the same time being sensitive to the schedules of the other countries.

Jeff: Yeah, again, it just must have been a thrill to have your first coaching experience being one where you are guiding a lot of swimmers into the finals.J

osh: Yeah, it was amazing and Mike told me 4 years ago that his goal was to help bring me to the Olympics with him and I was lucky to be able to realize that.

Jeff: And along the way you got a doctor added to the front of your name, you're Dr. Josh White. What did you get your Doctorate in?

Josh: Human Performance, I worked at the Counsilman for the Science of Swimming with Dr. Joel Stager and that was amazing because it was a very practical application of everything that I got to learn directly towards swimming and Dr. Stager is a great coach in his own right and I had a real pleasure studying with him and learning from him.

Jeff: Well that is definitely, I am sure you are going to be applying that to every workout you do there with the Wolverines Josh. Thanks so much for joining us today. Congratulations on your success at the Olympics getting guys at the finals and we are looking forward to see how the combined team does this season.

Josh: Great, thank you very much I appreciate the opportunity to be on the show.

Jeff: It is always our pleasure Josh, thanks a lot. All right, so that is Josh White joining us today on the Morning Swim Show and that is going to do it for today's show. I am Jeff Commings. Thanks for watching.

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