Stephen Gough

The Exit Interview

Let's talk about the season that just ended. How do you feel about the overall performance of the US team this year?
SG: Basically, I feel okay about it. [There were] mixed results. Internationally, at least, [we] were real competitive at some events. It's just a different dynamic with Rusty [training] in LA, [while] Apolo was here (in Colo Springs). My main focus, obviously, was the [athletes] that I coached here. I find it hard to help someone that I don't see every day. I thought in the girls' case, they got better in general throughout the year. Like Caroline's (Hallisey) performances: she got better and better. It was okay. We had some good stuff, and some stuff that was not as good as it could have been. A decent year, I guess.

Was it better or worse than you expected, or in line with expectations?
Again, a little bit of both. A few people did things that were better than I expected. Like Derek Gray's improvement this year was great. He made a jump into a different league. You watched his skating from the fall world cups until Salt Lake. He improved the whole year round. Then there were a few other people where it didn't work out exactly as planned. Overall I think people did okay. Part of this year was getting everyone on the same page.

Do you think the changes in a post-Olympic year (e.g., athletes leaving the program, training in different locations) added to the challenges?
In a post-Olympic year, people are coming from a different place. The year before the Games, you know everyone is thinking about the Games. The year after the Games, you've got people who want to take it easy, people want [to focus] on school, people don't want to do real well. So it was hard in the U.S. and Canada to come out with a cohesive product, let's say, based on the summer that we had and that everyone is in kind of a different place. Prior to starting the job, you have certain expectations. Some of them were met, some of them weren't. You have to adjust to the reality of the environment and circumstances on the fly. And either deal with whatever it is or make the most of it.

Coaching Rusty Smith.

What were some of the challenges you encountered as head coach?
One of the things that was challenging for me was doing the actual workouts. On the men's side, we essentially had three juniors and two seniors. One of the seniors is skating world cups and world championships, and the other guys are doing junior meets. For me doing the workouts, it was extra-challenging trying to manage [the workouts] and make sure everything was working for everyone. The biggest thing I had to adjust to during the first part of the summer was just this post-Olympic thing. [The athletes] weren't ready to be pushed externally. That just had to come. For some it took a bad competition... eventually they all sort of snapped out of it and got a little more serious. But I had to let that happen. I figured if I tried to push right from the get-go it wouldn't have worked.

Did you have the support you needed from the federation (US Speedskating) to accomplish your goals for the team this season? By support I mean everything from funding to moral support.
For the most part. We didn't have a program director till July, so I'd been going for six weeks. Obviously there is a time period where things aren't running smoothly because you're getting up to speed and sorting that stuff out. On that end of things, [we] lacked a little bit at the start. At the outset it was sort of rudderless a little bit. For the most part, I'd have to say yes [regarding getting sufficient support].

Was there anything you needed or could have used that was not available to you or the athletes?
Yes and no. Here at the training center we have everything available to us. I guess there's some things that we didn't use [last] year that I would have used this coming year. The services of a sports psychologist, for example. And some of the other [services] available here at the training center. [We didn't make use of them] for different reasons, like the competition schedule. Some of the testing we didn't do as often as we might have done. Mainly it would be using the sports psychologist. We had access to one, but we were late getting started [this year] and I wasn't going to force anything on anybody. [I just wanted] to see where people were at and what their situation was with their skating. [A sports psychologist] would have played a big role in working with the group and each individual in the future. We had confirmed that one person would be our guy. He was going to start traveling with us to competitions and that kind of thing.

What are the biggest challenges facing the U.S. Short Track program over the next season and leading into the next Olympic Games?
The biggest thing is how do you improve the performance of the ladies, improve that standard? On the men's side, the men that are just below Rusty and Apolo have to be developed beyond where they're at now. They're 15th-20th in a World Cup. So those are the two big challenges, the obvious ones. There are some newer challenges that are going to have to be resolved over the course of the next season. There will be a new coach, so there may be a new plan. It's going to take time for that to sort itself out.

With coaching changes two years in a row, how disruptive do you think this will be to the team's progress?
It's hard to speculate. You'd think it can't help, but you never know how things can turn around.

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