This past June, Taylor Dodson was driving down 17th street on her way to grab lunch at Memorial Stadium when her phone began to ring. Dodson, the assistant coach for the IU water polo team, glanced down and saw an unsaved number.
The only inkling of who was calling was the recognizable 812 area code. Not knowing who was on the other end, Dodson greeted the caller with caution.
“Hi, this is Taylor. Can I ask who’s calling?”
“Hey Taylor,” the voice responded. “This is Fred Glass. How are you?”
Not long before this call, Dodson had interviewed to take over the vacant head coaching role for IU water polo. If accepted, it would be her first head coaching job in her young career.
After a quick chat, the IU athletic director gave her the opportunity that Dodson had always wanted: Glass offered her the IU water polo head coaching position.
Looking back on that conversation, Dodson could not recall everything she said. But one thing she told Glass is cemented in her memory to this day.
“I told him, ‘I won’t let you down Fred,’” she said. “And to this day, even when he retires, the goal is to not let Fred down.”
Dodson’s love of the game was established when she was a young girl. Growing up in southern California, water polo was the most popular sport in the pool.
“At my high school, the swim program would not exist without the water polo program,” Dodson said.
She played competitively in high school as well as on a club team, followed by a collegiate career at University of California, Berkeley. As a Golden Bear, Dodson led her team to a silver medal in the 2011 NCAA Championships, the best finish in program history. Despite the success in the pool, the team camaraderie is what she cherishes most.
“So much of what I remember is not the scores or the games, but the van rides to and from," Dodson said. "That's what I try to tell the girls.”
After graduation, Dodson played professionally in Spain for one year before returning to the United States to give coaching a try. While taking classes for her MBA at Wagner College, she took a job as a full-time assistant. She credits those two years at Wagner for confirming that coaching was her passion.
Now as the IU head coach, Dodson is taking on a new set of challenges. Last season, the Hoosiers ended 6-17 and winless in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference. It was the worst finish for IU in over 20 years. Assistant coach Mackie Beck believes that the two years Dodson spent as an assistant will be meaningful in turning the program around.
“It’s been an easy transition,” Beck said. “Those that were here last year are comfortable with [Dodson] since she was already in the program and the newcomers have embraced it with open arms.”
The Hoosiers have faced ranked teams in each of their eight games. The team is 3-5, already topping the amount of ranked games it won last season. Every match, Dodson always credits the players.
“It’s so great to work with the group of girls that we have,” Dodson said. “They’ve bought into the changes we wanted to make as a program and it shows.”
Despite an improved start, the Hoosiers still have a lot of work to do. IU has regular season games until April, followed by the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in San Jose, California.
The focus is not on that yet. The message Dodson conveys is simple.
“The main goal I tell the girls is to get better each and every day.”
