Bill Dorenkott is entering his 13th season in the Penn State athletic family, and his 17th year overall in the coaching profession.
One of the nation[apos]s top coaches, Dorenkott, is entering his 10th season in charge of the women[apos]s program and his seventh year leading the men[apos]s team. He was an assistant coach for the men[apos]s squad before being named the head coach for the women[apos]s team prior to the 1998-99 season. He then took on the duties of coaching the men[apos]s team as well for the 2001-02 season.
Dorenkott has led the women[apos]s squad to three Big Ten Conference Championships in the last six seasons. In the three seasons in the last six years that the Nittany Lions did not win the Big Ten, they finished second or third. Dorenkott has built a women[apos]s program that has sustained success over the long haul as Penn State has finished in the top three at Big Ten[apos]s in each of the past seven straight years, the only team in the Big Ten that can lay claim to that accomplishment.
The women[apos]s team also has enjoyed success at the NCAA Championships under the direction of Dorenkott. They have scored points and thereby placed in eight of the nine years under Dorenkott. They have finished in the top 20 in three of the past four years and have qualified 12 or more individuals for the NCAA meet in four of the last six seasons. Penn State qualified 12 for NCAA[apos]s in 2006, the fifth-most student-athletes of any school in the country. Last year[apos]s 10 NCAA qualifiers was tied for the most of any school in the Big Ten and tied for the 10th most of the 56 schools that sent at least one qualifier to NCAA[apos]s. Penn State has now had at least 10 NCAA qualifiers on the women[apos]s side for four straight years.
Before he became head coach of the Penn State women[apos]s team, the Nittany Lions had only been able to finish as high as fourth in the Big Ten Championships. Overall, in his nine seasons at the helm, the Nittany Lions have finished in the top five in the Big Ten Championships all nine times, including seven top three finishes, which include the three championships, two second place finishes, and two third places.
Prior to joining the men[apos]s staff an as assistant coach, the men had never finished above sixth place at Big Ten Championships or in the top 20 at NCAA Championships. In his time as an assistant, the team finished third once and as head coach, Dorenkott has led the men to one top three finish at the conference championships. Last year, the men[apos]s team had nine NCAA qualifiers, the second-most under Dorenkott and the most since 2002. In the 2005-06 season, the men[apos]s squad won 10 dual meets, the most of any year under Dorenkott. Over the last three seasons, the men[apos]s team has a 23-14 dual meet record, more than doubling its dual meet win total from Dorenkott[apos]s first three seasons. The Nittany Lions have scored points in the NCAA Championships in three of his six seasons at the helm of the program and have had individual qualifiers in each of his six seasons, highlighted by 10 in his first season as head coach and the nine last year.
Dorenkott[apos]s accomplishments as a collegiate coach have helped him attract many of the nation[apos]s top swimmers to Penn State. He has coached 27 different athletes to Big Ten Championships in a total of 32 events. His student-athletes have garnered 58 All-Big Ten first team selections in just nine seasons.
But Dorenkott has proven that his passion isn[apos]t limited to to the pool. He is a supporter of legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno[apos]s [quote]Grand Experiment[quote] in that he encourages his student-athletes to succeed in the classroom as well. He has coached 134 Academic All-Big Ten honorees, 32 CSCAA Academic All-Americans (minus women prior to 2003) and 11 out of 12 possible CSCAA Team Academic All-America awards. The Nittany Lion women were 26th in the nation in 2007 with a 3.38 combined grade point average, while the men were 35th with a 3.11 GPA.
During his tenure, two swimmers have earned the prestigious and exclusive NCAA postgraduate scholarship in Dee Dlugonski and Sarah Haupt. Both have used it to go into coaching after outstanding careers at Penn State both in and out of the pool. Both former All-Americans and Academic All-Americans, Dlugonski is a current assistant at Penn State while Haupt is a graduate assistant coach at Shippensburg. Dlugonski was also a finalist for the NCAA Woman of the Year.
Entering the 2007-08 season, a total of 18 swimmers have qualified for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials while three other swimmers have qualified for Olympic Trials in their respective native countries. At last summer[apos]s U.S. Nationals, six different swimmers placed in the top 16 in eight different events over the five-day event, led by Pat Schirk and Kaitlin O[apos]Brien. Schirk finished fifth in both the 100 and 200-meter backstroke while O[apos]Brien placed seventh in the 200-meter breaststroke and sixth in the 400-meter IM. Both Schirk and O[apos]Brien were selected to be part of the U.S. National Team for the Japan International Grand Prix in Tokyo, Japan in late August.
In the history of the women[apos]s program before Dorenkott took over as head coach, Penn State produced just nine Olympic Trail qualifiers. In 2000, the first Olympiad while serving as head coach at Penn State, Dorenkott saw that number grow as 12 women[apos]s swimmers qualified for Olympic Trials. Heading into next summer[apos]s trials, with still the early part of next summer to go for more to qualify, a total of 47 swimmers have qualified for Olympic Trials during his tenure. For men[apos]s swimmers, Eugene Botes also swam at the 2004 Athens games for his native South Africa.
Dorenkott has coached on four continents, and his student-athletes have competed in the Olympic Games, PanAm Games, World University Games, World Championships, Pan-Pacific Championships, U.S. National Championships and on the U.S. International circuit. He has been a member of the United States Swimming National Team coaching staff since 2001. He also served on the U.S. National Team coaching staff during the 2001 World University Games, the 2003 PanAm Games and at the same 2007 Japan International Grand Prix meet that Schirk and O[apos]Brien competed at.
In fact, at the PanAm Games, Dorenkott served as an assistant women[apos]s coach in charge of sprinting and his athletes collected 46 medals and broke 16 PanAm records in six days.
Dorenkott has an eye for talent as well as a knack for developing it. Under his tutelage, Dorenkott-coached swimmers have set and held the Big Ten records in the 50 and 100 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke, 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly, 200 and 400 medley relays and the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. Dorenkott-coached swimmers also set and still hold Big Ten Championship records in four events: the 200 butterfly (Amberle Biedermann), the 100 backstroke (Sarah Haupt), the 100 breaststroke (Kristen Woodring), and the 400 medley relay (Haupt, Stanchock, Biedermann, Dlugonski). Furthermore, Dorenkott-coached swimmers hold the school records in every women[apos]s event. He has also coached five men to five Big Ten titles in six years, including the 2002 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams that set the then-Big Ten mark with times of 1:18.69 and 2:53.68, respectively.
Since 2001, Dorenkott has coached 18 different women to 29 Big Ten Championships. He has guided two women to the Big Ten Freshman of the Year Award, and 34 women to All-Big Ten first team selections.
Eight-time Big Ten Champion Kristen Woodring is the only woman in Big Ten history to break one minute in the 100-yard breaststroke, and she did it twice, holding the conference record of 59.77 seconds.
Over the last three years, Penn State[apos]s women[apos]s swimming team has not only claimed two Big Ten Championships, but also a combined eight individual event crowns as well. At the 2005 NCAA Championships, Penn State claimed its second-best finish ever with a 13th place finish with its 200 and 400 medley relay teams finishing seventh. The Nittany Lions followed that up with a 19th place finish at the NCAA Championships in 2006 with Nikki Collins and Kaitlin O[apos]Brien both earning All-American honors by both finishing sixth in the 1650 freestyle and the 400 IM, respectively. Last year, the Nittany Lion women finished 26th at NCAA[apos]s, with Collins once again earning All-American honors. Penn State[apos]s best-ever finish at NCAAs was an 11th place finish in 2001, also under Dorenkott.
Dorenkott has been a member of the Penn State athletic family since 1995, when he was named as an assistant men[apos]s swimming coach. He served in that capacity until 1998 when he took over as head coach of the women[apos]s program.
It didn[apos]t take long for Dorenkott[apos]s presence to be felt. The women improved in their conference finish his first four seasons, capping them off with a Big Ten Championship in 2002. In 1998, the year before he took over as head coach, the Nittany Lions finished eighth at Big Ten[apos]s. In his first four years as head coach, the team finished fifth, fourth, second and first at Big Ten[apos]s. He was named the Big Ten Swimming Coach of the Championship in 2000-01 when he led Penn State to a second place finish. The Nittany Lion women have posted a 67-17 dual meet record under Dorenkott[apos]s tutelage. Prior to his taking over the women[apos]s program, the Nittany Lions never finished higher than fourth place at Big Ten Championships. In his nine seasons as head coach, the women have finished lower than third only twice, which were in his first two years as head coach.
Following his early success with the women[apos]s program, Dorenkott was named the head coach of the men[apos]s team in 2001 as both programs were merged into a single program. He guided the Penn State men to a third-place showing at the Big Ten Tournament and 15th at the NCAA Championships that season, the highest finish in school history at NCAAs for the men[apos]s program.
Aside from his coaching duties, Dorenkott has also served as the Director of the Penn State Swimming Camps since 1998, and he is also a lecturer in the Penn State Department of Kinesiology.
He served as an assistant coach at the boy[apos]s and girl[apos]s swimming team at Bay Village High School from 1987-88. He was also the head coach of the Lake Shore Swim Club in 1991, and the head age group coach of the Little Rock Racquet Club in 1990 and 1992.
Dorenkott competed collegiately at Cleveland State, where he became a 15-time conference champion, setting a school record in the process. He was a varsity record holder and a U.S. National qualifier and scorer. In 1990, he earned the team MVP award and then served as a team captain in 1991. Dorenkott received two degrees while attending Cleveland State, earning bachelor[apos]s degrees in both communications and psychology.
Dorenkott[apos]s reputation preceded him and other coaches recognized his coaching abilities early on. He was named a graduate assistant coach of the men[apos]s and women[apos]s swim team at Ashland University in 1991 immediately following graduation. He remained in that position until he was named head coach of both teams after just two seasons. In his first season at Ashland, he led the women[apos]s team to a conference championship, and led the men to a fourth place showing. He turned the men[apos]s team around the next season as they joined the women[apos]s team as conference champions as the women repeated. In his two seasons as the Eagles[apos] mentor, the program produced 16 All-Americans in 49 events. Five Ashland swimmers were named Academic All-Americans in 1995, and 33 records were set under Dorenkott[apos]s tutelage. His 1995 men[apos]s team finished sixth at NCAAs after a 9-2 dual meet season, and the women placed 11th. While at Ashland, Dorenkott was the 1993-94 and 1994-95 Penn-Ohio Conference Women[apos]s Swimming Coach of the Year and the 1994-95 Penn-Ohio Conference Men[apos]s Swimming Coach of the Year. He served as the meet director of the 1994-95 Men[apos]s and Women[apos]s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. He also served as the head coach of Ashland[apos]s women[apos]s tennis team from 1991-93.
He and his wife Adrianne reside in State College with their four children - Jack (9), Matt (6), Anna (4) and Will (1).