Joplin finalizes plans for USD’s triathlon program

As USD’s newly added Triathlon team kicks off in the fall, their head coach has been doing planning and goal setting for their debut season.

Triathlon coach Kyle Joplin has started setting up the team’s play schedule for the fall and the travel schedule. This is his second time building a triathlon program at the collegiate level.

“It’s never easy starting a new program but I think it’s… quite easier this time than last time,” Joplin said. 

He’s recruited about half of the women’s team so far with four committed to the program and three to four spots still open. Some of the triathletes have experience in the sport and others are just starting.

“We do have some girls coming in that are pretty competitive triathletes on the national level,” Joplin said. “So having them continue to improve and having some of our other freshman or grad students kind of develop into better triathletes and competitiveness our first year.”

Goals he has for the first season are filling the roster and having the team compete well against the three other Division 1 schools in the country.

Training for the new team will be relatively easy, as the only space they will have to really share throughout their season is the pool. Biking and running will be done outside, but for swimming they will have to share the pool with the swim and dive team.

“The swim is going to be probably not the most ideal situation, but I’ve had several meetings with Jason (Mahowald) and Steve (Mohs)… and I think we’ve got a pretty good plan moving forward for next year on how we’re going to get everybody in (the pool),” Joplin said. 

Joplin said there’s a possibility of adding more women to the roster in the next couple of weeks.