Coach Matt Hanley is the Head Coach of Northern Lights Swim Club Mat-Su (January 2007-Present).  He began his work with NLSC in October of 1997, where he was a swim instructor for the club’s Learn To Swim program.  He began coaching for NLSC in the fall of 1999 where he coached the team’s Novice Group.  In 2000, Matt began coaching a combined Novice/Bronze group and was hired as NLSC’s Assistant Gold Coach under Head Coach Cliff Murray, a position he held until January of 2002.  In the fall of 2004 Matt returned to NLSC as an Assistant Gold Coach under Gold Coach Ben Kitchen and continued in that position until January 2007.  In 2007 Matt moved to Palmer, AK, to work as NLSC’s Head Coach of the new NLSC Mat-Su branch.  In addition to Club coaching Matt has worked as an Assistant Coach for Service High School Swimming and Diving for six years (2000, 2002 - 2006) and Head Coach of Bartlett High School Swimming and Diving for one year (2001).

Matt began his relationship with swimming in August of 1993, when he joined the Lathrop High School Swimming and Diving Team.  He began swimming club in November of that year under Midnight Sun Swim Team Head Coach Cliff Murray.  Matt swam for MSST Under Cliff until the fall of 1998.  In 1997 Matt began swimming for the University of Alaska Anchorage.  He swam two years on schollarship until the swimming program was cut from UAA athletics.  He attended NCAA Division II Nationals in 1998 and 1999, where he finished as an All American (Honorable Mention) in the 200 IM and 200 Brst, both years.  When the collegiate program was cut, Matt continued his swimming career, swimming for NLSC under Head Coach Cliff Murray, until the spring of 2000 when he traded in his goggles for a stopwatch.

Coach Grant Gamblin was born in Anchorage, Alaska and began swimming competitively on NLSC in 1991, and continued through High School. After starting his coaching career in 2005 as the Service High School Assistant Coach, and realizing coaching was a serious passion, he joined the NLSC coaching staff in 2006 and started coaching adults in 2007 at The Alaska Club South.

Taking the Head Coach position of KNIK Aquatics, Eagle River High School and Bartlett High School in 2014 he continued to grow as a coach, developing learn to swim programs for all ages, age group and adult competitive programs.

Returning to NLSC in 2016 to build a dream of his, NLATS (Northern Lights Adult Training Squad)! Within the first year of NLATS creation it was top 10 for growth in U.S. Masters Swimming, bringing the team to just over 100 members. Grant brings a plethora of adult coaching experience, tremendous energy, and passion to our program.

If you’re reading this and are curious about adult swimming please contact Coach Grant to find out which practice best suits you. ALL skill levels are welcome!

Ryan Chastain is the current coach of the Bronze/ Iron groups as well as the assistant coach/ Lifeguard for the Silver group.

Ryan was born in March of 2000 and spent his childhood in Palmer Alaska where he began swimming competitively in the third grade. After a short stint on the Wasilla Waves Swim Club, Ryan transferred to the Northern Lights sister program in the Matanuska- Susitna valley. Ryan started out in the bronze group and over the years worked his way up to gold, competing in both local and out of state championship meets. Ryan also swam for Colony High, the local high school team, where he made state all 4 years and his senior year competed in the 50yd Freestyle and the 100yd butterfly, as well as helping to break the school record for the men’s 200yd Freestyle relay and the men’s 400yd Freestyle relay.

During his sophomore year of high school Ryan began to teach swim lessons for the local pool, he then progressed to coaching the Bronze/ Iron group in the valley by his senior year of high school (2018). After taking a short break from coaching to attend Arizona State University Ryan returned to Alaska and began coaching the Bronze/ Iron group at UAA pool and later Service pool. Ryan is now living in Anchorage and is currently attending University of Alaska Anchorage with a major in legal studies with intent to practice comparative and international law. 

Coach Sam Wicks is an alumna of NLSC - graduated in 2012. She started swimming at 8 years old for Alaska Pacific Swim Club, which is no longer around. She became a NLSC athlete after her freshman year of high school, also working as a Learn to Swim instructor. 

She swam for Coach Cliff while at East Anchorage High School, and Coach Ben in the Gold group. Both encouraged her to work hard in both school and swimming, she ended up swimming at Boise State University. She primarily swam backstroke and sprint freestyle, but occasionally dabbled in IM - her favorite events were the 100 backstroke and 100 IM. She competed at Division I NCAA 3 of her 4 collegiate years, and those were some of the coolest experiences - to see so many fast and dedicated swimmers all under one roof. The only topper to that was competing at the 2016 US Olympic Trials in the 100 backstroke. 

She completed coursework at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities for their Doctorate of Physical Therapy program. Since graduating from PT school in June 2020, she started working as a physical therapist at Providence Hospital in Anchorage. Throughout the years, she has dealt with a fair amount of injury (knees, shoulders, ankles) and believes her understanding of the mental side of this + her PT knowledge will allow her to be a valuable asset to athletes she works with. 

She is now the Head Dryland Coach for all practice groups - from Iron to NLATS. She is excited about the dryland training program she's created in the hopes that each athlete will get a little bit stronger and improve some each day. Occasionally, she is on the pool deck working mostly with Silver, but enjoys coaching athletes of all ages. 

Best advice she's ever received? In the words of one wise 6 year old patient of hers... "It's okay to do new things, even if they're hard".