Swim Coach serves as Assistant Coach for World Para Championships

University of St. Thomas Swim Coach, Hanna Huston, has been chosen as considered one of 5 assistant coaches to symbolize Team USA on the 2025 World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore. This worldwide occasion, which serves as the highest competitors for Para swimmers outdoors of the Paralympic Games, will happen from Sept. 21-27, and have greater than 600 athletes from greater than 60 international locations.  Huston joins an elite teaching group supporting Head Coach Dave Modzelewski, with every member bringing top-tier expertise to assist information the U.S. athletes. Huston, who holds a Level Two teaching certification, continues to make a mark within the sport, and her choice to this employees displays her dedication to excellence and the affect she has made each at UST and past.  

For Huston, it’s not only a skilled honor – it is a continuation of her ardour for elevating swimmers to the very best ranges of competitors. 

 “I really like coaching para swimming,” Huston stated. “I like the teaching aspect – it forces you to be way more creative than when coaching non-disabled swimmers because there’s impairments that athletes have that don’t allow them to do certain things. Sometimes I feel like in non-disabled swimming you get stuck in one zone and you get comfortable, but coaching para swimming makes you think outside the box.” 

The 2025 World Championships mark the twelfth version of the occasion and serves as the ultimate main worldwide meet within the first yr of the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic quad. Huston is bringing this wealth of expertise to the UST swim staff and is trying ahead to the upcoming 2025-26 season. With 21 athletes throughout the boys’s and girls’s groups, Huston has excessive hopes for each groups, anticipating a prime 4 convention end for the boys and continued success for the ladies. 

“I’m really more concerned about building the foundation of St. Thomas swimming,” Huston stated. “Speed is going to come when the team’s close knit, and so I want to continue building the camaraderie of the team, the closeness. It makes coming to work more fun.” 

With this system being so younger, they’ll proceed to get pleasure from their underdog standing as most groups have no idea what to anticipate from the squad. But Huston is aware of she has diamonds in her squad. A standout is Luke Newman, who had a improbable freshman yr and hopes to construct on that in his sophomore yr. Two extra leaders, Lucas Plato and Kelsey Elder, have excessive expectations for his or her performances this yr too. Additionally, Huston has recruited a slew of incoming freshmen whom she will refine and polish throughout the course of this season. 

“Beyond athletics, I want our swimmers to go out into the world and feel prepared, and take lessons they learned from the program into real life,” Huston stated. “That’s my philosophy, coaching the whole person. And so hopefully they see that and I don’t just see them as swimmers. They should be just who they are, without the label.”  For extra data on UST Athletics, go to ustcelts.com.