"My job is to take the best information available and present it to swimmers in a way that helps them reach their full potential."

Head Coach Hans Dersch is a U.S, Olympic Gold Medalist (1992 Games, Barcelona).

Hans began swimming in summer league from age 7-14, along with two years of high school team, but only joined a club team (SwimAtlanta) at 15. Under Coach Chris Davis, he made fast progress, and sparked a storied athletic career, first with a team Junior Nationals Championship, then a Junior National individual win, where he set a National Junior Olympic Record. He was a very young high school Senior so he spent a gap year taking classes at Georgia State and training at SwimAtlanta.

The next summer, at his first Senior Nationals, he was Rookie of the Meet placing 4th in the nation against his former Olympic heroes.  This was enough to attract scholarship attention from the University of Texas, where under Eddie Reese and Kris Kubik, he was part of 3 NCAA championship teams.  After college he retired (but swimming is hard to quit). 

Working at Ernst & Young, Hans resumed training at SwimAtlanta, and made the 1991 Pan American team, winning 2 gold medals in Cuba, then moved to Austin, Texas to focus on Olympic Trials. Shocking many, he placed 2nd in the country and made the Olympic team. In Barcelona, Hans won Gold as part of the men’s 400 Medley Relay, finishing his career with a personal best.

Hans jumped right into coaching at Texas A&M University along with Jay Holmes, the current Head Coach. He operated traveling swim clinics for many years (constantly learning and borrowing ideas from the best swimmers and coaches in the world). When his young family moved to a rural area, he took a break from coaching to raise kids, and run a business, then jumped back into coaching the National Group at a large private club team in Austin Texas. 

Hans has coached Junior National, and National Champions, NCAA Champions, Olympic Trials finalists, International Swim League pro team members, and numerous NCAA Division 1 scholarship athletes.  He also briefly coached his own kids’ small private high school, where his team went from unknowns to winning State in two years, and setting records that stand today.

So why is Hans in Bozeman?

“I wanted to find the right place, and the right fit where my skills and talents can make a positive impact in the world. Every day, coaching the Barracudas gives me those opportunities.”

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 fifth 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.

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.

Janelle was born and raised in Hawaii, where she competed as an age-group swimmer for the Kamehameha Swim Club and PAC-5 high school swim team. Her swimming experiences range from the collegiate pool, to open water, and triathlons. Being a 5'2" woman, she likes to swim smarter and learn to leverage what she's made of. Janelle has teaching experience with Kindergarten through eighth grade students and swim coaching experience at the local, national, and international stages of swimming competition. She believes that swimming is a life-long sport that offers great opportunities to learn skills that will help with life outside of the pool. After living in Maine from April 2019-June 2023, she is happy to be back in Bozeman and coaching for the Barracudas Swim Team again!