UNIVERSITY CENTER - Saginaw Valley State University Women's Swimming & Diving Head Coach Bruce Zimmerman has announced the hiring of Chris Hamstra as the team's assistant coach.
Hamstra comes to Saginaw Valley after being the head coach of the West Michigan Swimmers, a USA club in Zeeland, Mich. He also served as the Assistant Pool Manager for the Swimmers.
Prior to serving as the head coach of the Swimmers, Hamstra was the Head Coach and Aquatics Director at Alma College from 2007-2013. During his time at Alma, the Scots broke 40 school records and had more than 125 all-time top-10 performances. He coached two Division III All-Americans, five all-conference swimmers and one Conference "Diver of the Year." He recently had a student-athlete earn individual Academic All-American Honorable Mention honors in 2013. He stressed academics to his team and his student-athletes were ranked seventh in Women's Team GPA in all of NCAA Division III for the 2009-10 season. Hamstra also served on the Hall of Fame Committee during his time with the Scots.
Hamstra has also served as the Assistant Coach at Hope College (2006-07), where he assisted in coaching multiple all-american student-athletes and guided several student-athletes to national qualifying performances.
"I am very excited to have Chris as a member of our coaching staff," said Zimmerman. "Having been the head coach at Alma College for six years as well as a club coach in Michigan, Chris already has a strong connection with high school and club coaches in the state, which will help in our recruitment of quality in-state student-athletes. Chris's philosophies, goals and approach to working with college level student-athletes match those of SVSU, the SVSU Athletic Department and the SVSU swimming & diving program. Chris's primary responsibilities will be to design and implement the sprint groups training program as well as the strength and dry land program for the entire team. I am very confident in Chris's ability as a coach and, along with myself and diving coach Mike Matter, we will build a highly competitive swimming & diving program at SVSU that will excel in the classroom and compete on the national stage."
The SVSU swimming & diving program opens its inaugural season on October 10, 2014 with its first-ever meet at home versus Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foes Tiffin University and Malone University.
