WELCOME HEAD COACH HANS PETERS

After a lengthy search that attracted strong candidates from coast-to-coast, Maverick Swim Club has hired Hans Peters as the second head coach in the team’s history.

Hans will be introduced officially to the whole Maverick family during the team’s 30th anniversary celebration on Sunday, Aug. 25, at North Central College.

Hans will be in charge when Short Course practice begins Sept. 3 — but longtime head coach Mark Townsend will stay on as a part-time assistant to help facilitate the transition.

"It is an honor to have the opportunity to be the new Maverick head coach,” Hans said. “I am very excited to be working with Coach Mark and continue the legacy that he has created with this amazing program. I look forward to meeting all of you."

“I am super-excited about Hans,” Mark said. “I believe he will be a head coach that swimmers, parents, board members and coaches appreciate and enjoy working with.”

Hans, 31, currently serves as the head age group coach for the Hillsboro Heat, a USA Swimming Silver Medal Club located 20 miles west of Portland, Oregon. Prior to Hillsboro, Hans served as head coach for the Watertown Area Swim Team in South Dakota — where he coached the club’s first Futures qualifier — and as an age group coach for Olympic Cascade Aquatics in Washington. 

But Hans also has strong ties to Naperville. When he was 14 years old, he and his family moved from the Netherlands to Naperville and he swam for Neuqua Valley and FOX throughout his high school years.

Focusing on freestyle and fly, Hans was a 12-time high school All-American and helped Neuqua win the 2008 IHSA state title and finish second in 2009 and 2010. At the 2010 Summer Juniors, he swam the anchor leg on a relay with Grant Betulius, future Olympian Kevin Cordes and Conner Jager that took second in the 400 medley. Hans went on to swim at the University of the Pacific and UW-Stevens Point and completed his college career at the 2015 Division III NCAA Championships. He graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology.

Hans met his wife, Jacquelyn, while they were students at UW-Stevens Point. They are proud parents of an 8-month-old boy, Finn, and are looking forward to planting roots here.