Hans Dersch
Head Coach
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Coach Hans "My job is to take the best information
available and present it to swimmers in a way that helps them
reach their full potential."
Swam summer league and a little high school, but only
joined SwimAtlanta at 15. Coach Chris Davis, fast
progress, first a Jr. National Champion team, then an
individual Jr. National win. Next summer, first Senior
Nationals, 4th place. The University of Texas, a perfect fit,
amazing team under Eddie Reese and Kris Kubik, won NCAA
championships 3 out of 4 years. Time to retire (but swimming
is so hard to quit!). From SwimAtlanta, made Pan American
team (Cuba!) won gold, back to Austin to train for Trials.
Made Olympic team! Won gold on 400MR, finished with
personal best.
Jumped right into coaching at Texas A&M (Jay Holmes is still
there!) Did swim clinics for many years (borrowing drills and
ideas from the best swimmers in the world). Took a break
for rural life and raising kids, then jumped back into
coaching at Nitro where amazing coaches and families are
the norm, and also a small private HS (kids won State!) I
wanted to find the right fit where my skills and talents can make a
positive impact in the world, and every day coaching the Barracudas
gives me those opportunies.
Matt Yovich
Lead Development Coach
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Matt has been in and around competitive swimming for a long
time. He started swimming at age 5 and swam through high
school graduation. He became a swim official at age 19 and
officiated high school, college and age group club meets for
several years. Since his daughter began swimming with the
Barracudas 8 years ago, he has been a swim parent, a board
member/officer, a nationally certified official and now a
coach. He has also been involved with Montana Swimming as
Finance Vice Chair and now as General Chair.
Matt wants swimming to be a lifetime activity for our Barracuda
athletes and desires for all to learn swimming as a survival
skill. He knows that the competitive swimming community is
different than most sports – more collegial, collaborative
and familial – and results in life-long friendships. He
gets excited by seeing swimmers attain small successes, at any
level of swimming, and the confidence and self-worth that results
over time. Those successes are the result of excellent and
efficient technique and hard work.
Lisa Patchin
Lead Senior Coach
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Coach Lisa has
a myriad of experience that elevates the coaching staff at the
Bozeman Barracudas. She began swimming competitively at age
10 with the Canby Gators Swim Club in Canby, OR and quickly rose to
become a top-level swimmer in the NW/Western Zone region,
specializing primarily in sprints and mid-distance freestyle,
backstroke, and butterfly. She achieved several Junior
National times and won numerous events and high point awards
throughout her teenage years. She went on to swim in college
at Texas Christian University, a Division I school in the Big 12
conference, which has become well known for their athletic
programs. She also served as the team’s student manager
and was able to learn the inner workings of a high level collegiate
swim team.
Following
graduation from TCU, Coach Lisa obtained her Master’s Degree
in Clinical Exercise Physiology from Baylor University. Her
primary professional career has been working in Cardiac
Rehabilitation, rehabilitating patients with various cardiovascular
diseases. In addition, her degree coursework included courses
on motor development from birth to adulthood, with an emphasis on
the development of fundamental skills and their effects on future
performance. This has greatly helped her in understanding
proper progression of athletic skill and training capacity to
achieve success in sport.
Coach Lisa is
now in her fourth year with the Barracudas. She worked as an
assistant the first year, enabling her to work with all
ages/groups. As a lead group coach, she first started with our
primary Age Group level and has since moved up to the Senior
group. Lisa strives to become a better coach each season than
the last, learning from both successes and failures. She
truly enjoys the process of developing not only versatile athletes,
but also the skills that help them grow personally and succeed
outside the pool.
Jason Schoper
Lead Challenge Coach
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Michele Rutherford
Coach
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Coach ‘M’ as the swimmers like
to call her, is proud to be coaching for the Bozeman Barracudas and
is excited to work with young swimmers to develop acute stroke
technique and biomechanics for fast, fun, and efficient competitive
swimming.
Coach Michele was an avid age-group swimmer
and swam under Mark Schubert for the Mission Viejo Nadadores as a
youth. After graduating from university, she started coaching for
USA Swimming in 1990, and then had the opportunity to meet David
Berkoff in 1991 on the pool deck while he was considering graduate
school. Not long after that, she met Coach John Leonard of the
American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) at the U.S. Olympic
Training Center in Colorado Springs, where she was invited to
attend the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. That year was the most
transformative for her confidence as a coach, and it was indeed one
of the most memorable experiences of her life, abet launching her
coaching career.
While coaching alongside Dave Berkoff, she
helped develop some amazingly talented and dedicated age-group
swimmers to achieve personal best times, individual goals, a strong
sense of teamwork, and personal growth through the love of
swimming. Over the years, several of those swimmers went on
to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials, and then a few even
qualified for the National Team!
After several years of coaching
domestically, Michele moved to the United Kingdom and had the
privilege of coaching for over 10 years in Northern Ireland, which
included Swim Ireland as well as starting two successful
Masters clubs in the U.K.
Michele continues to swim
competitively, and over the past five years has competed in
several open-water swim challenges in the Mediterranean Sea along
the Spanish coastline. Outside of swimming, Michele is a faculty
teaching professor at Montana State University, and loves being
outdoors in the water either swimming, kayaking, or skiing.
One of the proudest moments of her coaching
career was when she ran into a former swimmer who had went on to
qualify for the 2000 Olympic Trials, whom she had coached from the
age of 10, and when asked what was it that kept him swimming
all those years, he replied, "It was fun. You always made
swimming fun!" :-)
Jen Kanewske
Coach
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Coach Jen is also the founder, owner, and director of Wavefront
Aquatics. Jen started swimming competitively at the age of 6 in the
San Francisco Bay area and has never left the pool. She started her
swimming career with the summer recreation team and later swam for
Orinda Aquatics under Ron & Don Heidary. She swam and played
competitive water polo all through high school.
Coach Jen has been teaching swimming since 1991 and has developed
programming for several aquatics facilities, trained swim
instructors, worked with the US Coast Guard and coached USA swim
teams. In 2013 she opened Wavefront Aquatics where she and her
staff have provided private learn to swim lessons for children and
adults as well as working extensively with competitive swimmers and
triathletes.
Coach Jen's goals in coaching are to help provide a lifetime of
enjoyment with swimming, promote safety, efficiency, and techniques
to prevent injury. Last, but not least, to encourage long lasting
friendships inside the swimming community and with the surrounding
communities.
Jesse Franc
Assistant Coach
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Jesse has been swimming his whole life from lessons to lakes! When
he decided to join his first swim club he was in 6th grade for the
Beavers in Laramie Wyoming. He soon after fell in love with the
people and saw improvement and potential in the pool. He has
competed at sectional and zone level swim meets while in
highschool. After 4 years of serious dedication to the sport he
decided to end his swim career for the love of his shoulder labrum.
Now he juggles between being a student at MSU and a swim coach for
the barracudas. It has already been 3 years of both! He has found
an enjoyable medium between staying in the world of swimming and
not destroying his shoulder and shampoo/conditioner bills in the
process. His favorite skills/lessons learned through swimming are
enjoying discipline, and the inclusivity of all on the team, and
learning how to have fun when you are in the middle of a lactate
set. He believes swimming is one of the most interesting sports
because it teaches people how to enjoy themselves when there is
nothing to listen to but the sound of water, and nothing to look at
but the blue stripe at the center of each lane. He still talks to
the swimmers and coaches from his old swim club in Laramie and is a
big believer that a swim club can be just like a family.
Lyra Reynolds
Assistant Coach
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Coach Lyra is from Littleton,
Colorado, where she swam for 8 years competitively. Lyra qualified
for and swam at summer league state three times in the 100
backstroke and twice in the 200 free. She also qualified for
Continental A-Leagues in high school in her 100 backstroke.
Lyra is a sophomore at MSU and
studies Soil and Water science. She came to Bozeman to explore the
outdoors and get away from the crowding of the city. When she
isn’t at the pool, Coach Lyra can be found rock climbing or
skiing. Her favorite place to climb is in Livingston or back home
in Clear Creek Canyon. She loves to ski at Bridger Bowl and is
excited for the snow to start falling.
She is going into her fourth year
of coaching. Prior to this season, Lyra coached the Centennial
Piranhas in her hometown. She really enjoyed coaching all of the
age group swimmers, and even had one of her practice groups win the
Division Championship for their age group. Though she is sad to
leave her old team, Coach Lyra is super excited to join the
Barracudas this season! Lyra is ready to learn and grow with the
team and is looking forward to a fun time with the team! If you see
her at the pool or around town, don’t be afraid to say
hello!
Cynthia Trudgeon
Assistant Coach
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Coach Cynthia began swimming in
Helena Montana at the age of seven. Cynthia quickly fell in
love with the sport. She moved to Butte and continued swimming for
the tarpons. Cynthia ended
with the Butte High Bulldogs where she received an All-State
title.
Cynthia Moved to Bozeman in 2018 to
continue her education. She is a sophomore at Montana
State University getting her degree in Biochemistry with a track in
Pre-med. Cynthia spends her
free time doing almost anything and everything outside such as
climbing, skiing and hiking.
This is Cynthia’s first year
with the Barracudas and her first year coaching. She is excited to
use
her prior knowledge and love for the sport to pass it along to the
other swimmers on the team.
