Coach Mike Kotch, who served as head coach of the swim team and director of aquatics at Regis College since 2008, was named coach of the reinstated swimming and diving program this summer. JustSports sat down with him to ask some questions about his plans for the team, which will begin competing again in the 2012 to 2013 season.

JustSports: What have you been  doing since you got here, and what is the process for next season?

Mike Kotch: The biggest thing that I've been trying to do is familiarize myself with the intricacies of Brandeis University.

I'm meeting with as many of the different coaches in the department and trying to pick their brains to find out what has been successful through the recruiting process. I spent the majority of the summer recruiting for another college, so now I need to play catch-up. But now I'm just trying to get organized and get the word out there and let people know that there is now a coach, and just trying to build a team.

JS: Will you be involved with the club team at all this year?

MK: Next year, once we get into the college season, my role will be 100 percent focused on the college team. I have no problem helping out or advising, but my attention will change dramatically.

JS: How is the pool coming along?

MK: Right now it looks exactly like it did 6 months or 3 years ago. There's no water in the pool, obviously, but they have completed the asbestos removal and now they are ready to start cranking and banging down walls and doing the cosmetic upgrades as well as the new filters, new heating systems, all of those things. At the end of the day, the plan is that construction will progress on time, and we will be able to open the pool to the student body for second semester of this year. But it's going to be the same pool that people saw 3 years ago, just a lot nicer.

JS: Jim Zotz was the former swim coach, and he's still at Brandeis, though now in a different position.  [Zotz is now an assistant director of Athletics, and in charge of Strength and Conditioning.] What kind of role will he play with the team this year?

MK: He clearly has a new role here within the athletic department, and he has been more than helpful in answering my questions. Deep down, I know that he will always have that passion and that interest in the swim team, and what that does is, number one, it motivates me because I know what a good job he had done, so I want to get back up to the standards that he had set, and I want to surpass those standards. And also, having someone who was a swim coach for over 30 years, it's going to be a fantastic asset in that he's going to know exactly how to design strength and conditioning programs for swimmers. … He's someone who has been a great mentor and a great friend to me, so I look forward to having him around and making him proud of the next chapter in Brandeis swimming.

­—Jeffrey Boxer