Sean Hutchison, who is one of America’s top coaches, is leaving the FAST Swim Team in Fullerton, California to start his own program, the USA Today is reporting.
Hutchison is heavily involved in the USA National Team program, including being one of the coaches who recently accompanied the team to Dubai since he coaches 5 of the 18 swimmers on the women’s team. This includes Katie Hoff, who took gold in the 400 free and silver in the 200 free, and budding-star Dagny Knutson. Hutchison came to the FAST program just over a year ago.
Hutchison’s departure has been surrounded by plenty of rumors about what the possible reason could be. Some have speculated that he might be upset about Mark Schubert’s unceremonious firing from USA-Swimming. At FAST, Hutchison was coaching one of the United States Olympic Committee’s “Center’s of Excellence.”
The other more heinous rumor is that Hutchison’s departure might have to do with an inappropriate relationship with one of his swimmers. In the current atmosphere of college swimming, such rumors can be a death knell, despite the fact that Hutchison worked predominantly with adult athletes. While any relationship with a college-aged swimmer wouldn’t be illegal, it would still be unethical under the ASCA and USA-Swimming’s new guidelines.
Bill Jewell, who is in charge of the FAST program, told the USA Today that “I brought these issues to Sean’s attention, and Sean denied these things. I, in turn, was relieved with his denial. But still, I’m a guy running this club and I’ve got rumors flying around out there. I’ve got parents saying, ‘Is my child safe in your place?’ I have to address these kind of issues.”
He also remarked that the rumors made him “uncomfortable,” but that they in no way should imply that Hutchison was fired.
Hutchison’s reasoning is far more benign. He explains that he has planned for quite some time to leave and begin his own professional swim team to train elite athletes to international and olympic success. This is very much a similar role to the one he held at FAST, but this program would no longer be controlled by the US Olympic Committee.
The timing of the move makes sense. With just over 18 months until the London Olympics, and the beginning of the long course season that will lead up to this summer’s World Championships, now is the ideal time to make the transition both for Hutchison as well as the FAST program.
We have no reason to believe any of the rumors, as Hutchison throughout his career has been a stand-up individual, but if anything more comes from them, we will be sure to share them.
Jewell had hoped the transition would be made by the end of the year, and announced Hutchison’s last day as Friday. There’s no word on who will replace him, though there is a possibility that he will take many of his top swimmers with him and that the USOC will deemphasize FAST as a post-grad center.
This likely means that Hutchison is not interested in the National Team Director job that was vacated by the release of the aforementioned Schubert. As one of the best, and hottest, coaches in the country, many pegged him as a front-runner for the position.
7 years later, and the “heinous rumor” is proven to be true. What a shame USA Swimming couldn’t do what it should have all those years ago. You must never trust the words of a man whose motives are so unclear and allegations so serious.
im tired of this to. Everyone knows the person Sean so had affairs with is Ariana the swimming world is not that stupid. I been reading articles on this topic and come across the issue of Sean leaving FAST to start his own elite swimming team ( he says that it is not because of the rumors that were being spread) and now all of a sudden he ends up staying at FAST right when the rumors die down. Sooo what does this mean? I guess it was because of the rumors Sean. And as for this elite team you were going to make after so saying you were going to leave FAST, I just dont understand it? I thought… Read more »
i don’t understand why SoCal needs a post grad COE program, they have plenty of great programs for post grads to swim at, and they can get stipend from USS to foot the costs. Why not put the COE in AZ or NV where costs are lower. They could build a center in AZ, NV, OR for what rent is in CA.
Pajer could keep his azot program and run the COE (just as Hutchinson has done) it is close and he already has the staffing (a long shot, i know). How much of a risk is he, they just lost the director and the coach. bringing in someone from 1400 miles away with a bunch of athletes that will follow them to anywhere they go is risky. that person can bug out at any point and take the show with them. I don’t see this being free of politics, so i question if Urbanchek is wanting to lead this. Touch situation. But at least they have a year-n-half to figure it all out.
I tended to agree with you Viking. I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking a position within the USA Swimming National Program at the moment…
That’s why I think Hutchison is going to be hard to replace with a big name. Nobody in their right mind would put all of their eggs in one basket at the post-grad center unless they were in a position like Urbanchek where they don’t need to be in charge, they’re just looking for a hole in the ground for them to coach and not deal with the politics.
The more I think about it, the better choice someone like Pajer might be for the gig. Doesn’t have to be uprooted too far, not a whole lot… Read more »
I kind of wondered if Schubert being ousted might effect the elite centers. Does anyone think that maybe Hutch might be moving on partly because it was Schubert who talked him into taking an elite center in the first place? I mean, really… I figured there would be more changes to the elite programs than just this one. If I was talked into leaving the club I built to head a site for a big USA Swimming project, and then the guy who headed the project was booted, I would have a hard time still believing that I was in the right place. ya know what I’m sayin’?
how about B.Pajer ..UCI shut down a quickly developing national level D1 program and left Pajer hanging without a net. He has repeatedly proven he can develop swimmers into gold contenders. UCI no longer is hospitable toward swimming??? …this would be a good move for SoCal, Pajer, and US training situation at FAST.
Pajer is actually a very interesting name for this position. It takes someone in a very special position to convince them to leave a successful club, and most of the big names don’t seem like they’re in a spot to do so. I think Pajer would probably do well at the post-grad center.
The only question with him would be does he have the track record of working with Olympic-caliber athletes to get the USOC to bite on him? Not that he wouldn’t be a great coach; but there’s no denying it would be a bit of a risk.
I hope this program going to help the swimmers. Sports coaching is the toughest job and experience really matters here. Coach should be inspiring.