A former assistant coach at Tennesee, Christian Hanselmann will make the move from coaching with the Carmel Swim Club to taking over the Southeastern Swim Club in Fishers, Indiana. He will also serve as the head coach for the Hamilton Southeastern High School team.
“I am so excited and grateful for this opportunity to lead Southeastern Swim Club. The passion that I felt from the Board of Directors and the staff at HSE confirmed how special of a team this is. I cannot wait to start meeting and working with all of you!”
Hamilton Southeastern’s athletic director Greg Habegger had to say of Hanselmann’s hiring:
“We are excited to add Coach Hanselmann to our Royal coaching family. He brings energy and a commitment to excellence to a program already steeped in tradition. He also brings unique experience to this position. He has trained in our pool as an athlete, coached with our club, competed and coached at the university level, and trained and mentored elite high school athletes. Coach Hanselmann is an outstanding communicator and brings a quiet confidence to everything he does. We look forward to watching him build relationships with our athletes, parents, staff, and community.”
In his short coaching career, Hanselmann has spent time coaching at some of the top colleges and clubs in the country. After swimming at Brigham Young University, he served as a graduate assistant at Tennessee. After a year-long stint with Eastern Michigan, he returned to Tennessee as an assistant coach in 2017. In 2019 he left collegiate coaching when he was hired to work at Carmel Swim Club, a team located just 10 miles from where he now coaches in Fishers, Indiana.
Hanselmann will be taking over a club and high school program that has been led by Andy Pedersen for the past 29 years. Under Pedersen’s tutelage, the team has produced swimmers such as Keegan Streett, who is set to be a part of Georgia’s freshman class of 2021, and Kennedy Fisher, who will join the University of Arizona in the fall of 2022. Since 2010, nearly 50 swimmers have gone on to swim collegiately at the Division 1 level.
Massive “Congrats” to Christian! Excited for what’s to come
This club is very special with a history rich with tradition. Our kids swam there for many years and not only had success learning to swim fast but that is where they learned team spirit and that lifelong friendships are made through this sport.
My hope is that this new hire will light a fire within this club that leads to many more success stories.
For Christian to “light a fire” under the club and high school, they will need a clean break from Andy Pedersen and his cult of followers. Andy has already undermined and attempted to manipulate the hiring process and been openly very critical of the current head age group coach. Not that I disagree with him on his assessment of Matt.
I can’t argue with you. I agree that he should clean house. Bottom line is I would love to see HSE Have success. It would be good for the state
i mean it’s better then Joel Elber being there, cause that man really ran the program into the ground
Yeah. Andy replaced a guy (Elber) that ran the Southeastern age group program into the ground with a guy (Pappachronis) that got run out of North Central/WTSC for destroying their program and hiring and covering for pedophile assistant coaches. Now, on his way out the door, he bashes Matt for being lazy and not doing his share of the work. What a leader…. Carmel and Fishers High School thank Andy and his cult for their efforts to make HSE and SSC irrelevant and uncompetitive in swimming, not only in Indiana but THEIR OWN SCHOOL DISTRICT!
Speaking of Joel Elber… Why is his addition to the Safesport ineligible list so hush…hush and did his conduct involve a minor and where did it happen (Lawrence or Southeastern)? He was put on the list in March.
It involved a student at Lawrence North on the day of her 18th birthday.
As I know people on the board of directors at SSC and have a sibling on the team, I can assure you that Andy has not manipulated the hiring process and has in fact been on vacation for the majority of it. Additionally, Matt and Andy are best friends and I have only heard Andy speak kind words about Matt. Please don’t speak on topics you don’t know enough about
OK. If they’re such good friends, why did Andy go out of his way when coaches from other programs offered “congratulations” to him on his retirement, and turn around and bash Matt for being lazy and not doing his share of the administrative work???? I’ve heard this from multiple people that I trust. I’ve known Andy for years and he has always talked out of both sides of his mouth. I just hope he doesn’t interfere and undermine Christian when he takes over.
I do know what I’m talking about. Here is the contents of a text from someone that personally talked to Andy that was sent to me…. Some friend Andy is to Matt…. With friends like that, you don’t need enemies!
BTW… The first sentence is sarcasm.
“So was blessed to spend an hour listening/talking to Andy last night.
Takeaways:
New coach was his hand picked successor- will be really good
Pappachronis will probably get fired in the next year. Very lazy. Doesn’t do any work. Still a great friend but was a mistake to hire him.
Thinks there will be other changes to staff coming. All for the good.”
You just can’t make this up! What a great program…
All you are doing is spreading rumors, based on what? A text from a friend? I do not understand why you keep referencing other coaches, and sharing unfounded rumors about them.
Guerra, I appreciate that you have some sort of stake in this topic, and realize that you have a desire to discuss one or more former coaches, and your relationships with them. I came to this article expecting that the comments would refer to Christian, his character, the work that he has put in to earn this job, and his future. If you are as knowledgeable as you claim, I expect that you know Christian, and you would be able to talk about the things that will make him a great head coach. Perhaps these positive comments about Christian could educate the rest of us. You comments about other coaches belong in another forum.
I don’t have any stake in it other than I want to see the HSE/SSC program successful with Christian. Andy Pedersen has left the program in disarray and I would hate to see him put in a position to sabotage the needed changes for the program to be successful, or at least competitive again in THEIR OWN SCHOOL DISTRICT.
For someone claiming to be so knowledgeable about HSE yet making some very vague claims, you would probably know that for the past 5+ years the Mudsock meet between the two high schools in the district are pretty dang near a tie with a few points in change, which I would consider to be competitive. I agree with Fishers Local, this should have been a welcoming section for the new head coach yet you have taken so much time out of your way to come back to the page and continually bash a program you want to see “succeed”. It is by no means a perfect program, but highlighting every little thing you can think of isn’t being critical, it’s… Read more »
Sorry for so bluntly pointing out the facts and best wishes to you, your teammates and Christian. The program has a lot going for it…. excellent facilities and resources, large and financially upper class population base, supportive school district, large and supportive alumni base, volunteers that host and run outstanding events. Unfortunately, the performance in the pool isn’t one of them and that falls on the shoulders of Andy Pedersen. You can’t train high school kids like the local summer swim and tennis club and expect to see them reach their potential. You’re certainly not going to win state meets or qualify athletes to Wave 2 Olympic Trials. He didn’t do a good job and and very often when his… Read more »
Let’s face it – the area has never been the same since they lost a great coach in Ken Stopkotte…that is taboo to say, but as a family we faced the “Ken vs Andy” high school decision. Ken’s departure made our decision easy. Guerra – I think Ken may have hated Andy as much as you do…but Ken brought out the best in Andy and your facts may be off just a bit as HSE/SSC had lots of high level success that my kids were part of. Would my kids have swam faster for Ken – quite possibly and he definitely made the entire area better by raising the level of competitiveness. At one time, Ken was probably the best… Read more »
OK. swim4life, you seem like a logical and reasonable person and I’ll meet you halfway. After all, you might be the only person I know on the planet Earth that likes BOTH Ken and Andy (LOL!). Ken vs. Andy…. I heard about it, but that must have been a true classic to witness! Best wishes to HSE/SSC and I believe there are great things ahead for them and Indiana Swimming. And I’m going to leave it at that.
Is it really just about the State Meet and Olympic Trials? If you think this is the reason many of us swam competitively for 15-20 years, then you clearly don’t understand the sport or alternatively don’t understand what actually matters in this world. Andy challenged and supported us to do great things beyond the pool deck. The lessons I learned from swimming at SSC are applied daily in my professional and personal life. If I looked back at my swim career and only thought about what place I got at the state meet, then it would have been a wasted experience. I am willing to bet that SSC has produced more collegiate team captains than any other program in the… Read more »
This is a great hire and best wishes to Christian and Jenny. I hope it works out but, IMO, he is heading into a den of vipers and a club and high school team that has developed a poor work ethic and limited their focus to high school sectionals. For their significant advantages of good facilities, strong population base and upper class economic level, this program has grossly underachieved for years under the leadership of the previous head coach.
meh, the vipers are about a mile away.
What is the barometer? 50 d1 kids since 2010 plus an alum base/network noted nationwide for helping one another, philanthropic fundraising, and mentorship. Maybe they should fry everyone so they are physically and mentally shattered by the time they graduate high school. Had three kids swim there – one great college career feeling fresh/prepared, one had 3 internships sourced by Southeastern alumni, and last played different sport in college/”coasted” from the strength/stamina gained in high school. All dropped consistently/swam fast, scored at or above the state level, learned to work hard, still love the sport (even swimming Masters), and donate money back to program. Christian swam at Southeastern and knows he is taking over a great program that values all… Read more »
What is the barometer? 50 d1 kids since 2010 plus an alum base/network noted nationwide for helping one another, philanthropic fundraising, and mentorship. Maybe they should fry everyone so they are physically and mentally shattered by the time they graduate high school. Had three kids swim there – one great college career feeling fresh/prepared, one had 3 internships sourced by Southeastern alumni, and last played different sport in college/”coasted” from the strength/stamina gained in high school. All dropped consistently/swam fast, scored at or above the state level, learned to work hard, still love the sport (even swimming Masters), and donate money back to program. Christian swam at Southeastern and knows he is taking over a great program that values all… Read more »
How awful do you have to be that you resort to insulting literal kids just because you don’t agree with their previous coach
Just a question: how did the team get to be named Southeastern swim club, in indiana?
maybe because Hamilton Southeastern HS and Southeastern Swim Club are in Southeastern Hamilton County????? Just a thought. Until the early 00’s, it was the only HS and club in Fishers.
Congrats Christian and Jenny!