California State University, Bakersfield has announced that head swimming & diving coach Chris Hansen will not return as the program’s director next season. He will retire from collegiate coaching after 17 years leading the program.
“We appreciate Chris for his many years of service to CSUB,” said Kyle Conder, Assistant Vice President and Director of Athletics. “We wish him well in his future endeavors.”
The school’s press release did not reference Hansen being on paid administrative leave since returning from the Big West Championships in February.
his past season, the Roadrunner women’s team placed 5th out of six teams at the 2025 Big West Championships, while the men finished 5th out of five teams, with junior Vili Sivec winning conference titles in the men’s 100 and 200 fly.
Following the Big West meet, CSUB sent Sivec to the Bulldog NCAA Qualifying Meet, where he set a new school record in the 100 free in a time of 41.98, which ultimately saw him fall short of the NCAA Championship cutline by three one-hundredths of a second.
Sivec also set new school records in the 50 free (19.27), 200 free (1:33.48), 100 fly (45.61) and 200 fly (1:43.13) during the season.
In 2023-24, CSUB competed at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships, with the women placing 5th out of 10 teams and the men taking 6th out of seven teams.
In 2019-20, the team’s last season in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), Hansen coached Autumn D’Arcy to three individual conference titles, earning her WAC Swimmer of the Year honors, while Mikayla Popham won Freshman of the Year honors.
In 2014 and 2015, he coached Mitchell Huxhold as the school’s first NCAA Division I Championships qualifier. He earned an All-America honor in 2014 by finishing 16th in the 500 free and was named the WAC Male Athlete of the Year honor across all sports.
Hansen is also the managing director of Roadrunner Aquatics, a USA Swimming team based in Bakersfield.
Prior to taking over at CSUB, Hansen spend four seasons as the head assistant coach at the University of North Carolina, and as the head assistant coach at UNLV. He also spent two seasons as the head coach at Virginia Tech, including being named the 1998 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year.
Other collegiate stops include as the head assistant at East Carolina, and brief stints as an assistant at UNC and Villanova.
A retirement in this situation doesn’t necessarily mean something dire was found. Sometimes it means that a situation is right to just part ways, maybe because relationships soured during an investigation, maybe because the investigation is taking too long. And sometimes it means some issues were found but overall the allegations didn’t hold up, but the school does want to move on. I don’t know anything about this particular situation, but when I see a retirement like this, I tend not to believe the worst without more info.
Someone should dig deep..go back to swimmers who swam with him at VT and UNC. Fact he kept a job this long there people thought/hoped he had learned. Not saying he didn’t learn but this situation basically is the same as then but now with social media and press so he can’t hide
I was one of the people to interview Chris prior to his hiring. Needless to say, CSUB should have got rid of Chris many, many years ago! Chris’ lack of interpersonal skills became quite apparent the longer he coached at CSUB. After a few years in the helm he closed the community paid CSUB 50 meter pool to only his club team and the university’s programs. Due to this very self serving decision, the formally very strong Bakersfield swim community started dying. Hopefully a new coach will not only help improve CSUB, but the entire Bakersfield swim community!
In collegiate athletics, coaching turnover is inevitable. But when six coaches leave under the watch of a single athletic director in a short span of time, it’s time to look beyond the locker room and into the office at the top.
The recent retirement of the swim coach, a respected figure within the university’s athletics community, has once again raised eyebrows—especially among those who have witnessed a troubling pattern. In just a few years, the athletic department has seen an exodus of experienced staff: volleyball coaches departed under unclear circumstances, the softball coaching staff is on administrative leave after controversial accusations, and long-standing concerns about leadership remain unresolved.
At the center of it all is the athletic director,… Read more »
Cool, we ain’t reading all of that, Karen
Forced retirement?
I had a recruiting call with him a month ago 💀
Dodged a bullet
Or not….the team itself is a great group of people who will persevere through this.
Seeing as he’s been on leave since March, I highly doubt it
Hmmmm placed on leave then retires ? What do we not know..
so much….theres so much….
“Is your name Chris Hansen? Why don’t you have a seat over there?”