Since Coach Swanson was born, he has had a love and passion for sports. He vividly remembers the cold winter day in his hometown of Watertown, South Dakota, when he made his first-ever shot on a ten-foot hoop. He remembers the big winter mittens and jacket he was wearing and the joy this achievement gave him. He said, “It’s a memory I’ll never forget.” Coach remembers the first time he threw a fastball and saw it move. He says, “The memory of my first one-handed catch in recess football is seared in my mind.” Coach Swanson has always had a love for sports, and when he was trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life as a junior in high school, he said, “It just clicked, I’m going to teach math, and I’m going to be a coach.” Once Coach Swanson got into coaching, he never thought one day he would become a head coach, but the more involved with sports he became, the more he wanted to reach the next step and become a head coach.
Coach Swanson began his coaching career in Watertown, where he coached the 6th-grade basketball team at Mellette Elementary School for a year. That year the Watertown High School Basketball Team won state, and Coach Swanson was able to be around this success, which led to his promotion to coach the Freshman B team at Watertown High School. Over the next few years, Coach Swanson was promoted to Freshman A team coach and became a varsity assistant at Watertown High. After seven years of coaching and teaching in Watertown, Swanson decided he needed a change of scenery. He was tired of South Dakota’s freezing temperatures that lasted half the year and wanted to move to a bigger city. Coach Swanson and his girlfriend decided Austin provided just what they needed, and they both got jobs in the Northwest Hills neighborhood. Swanson was hired at Anderson to teach math and was recruited by new head coaches Daniel Pittsford and Jeff Rhoads as the Freshman A Team basketball coach and receivers coach. Coach Swanson got many new coaching jobs in the football program, like the Head JV Coach and the Varsity Special Teams Coordinator. But his big promotion was when after a couple of years, Coach Pitt chose him to become the new Varsity Assistant. He says that he was able to transfer his success in Watertown to Anderson, which caught Coach Pitt’s eye, “I led by example and was the first one in the gym and the last one out, which built a culture of competition which Coach Pittsford saw.” Coach Swanson became integral to Anderson’s regular season and playoff success by influencing the Anderson Basketball Program through his work ethic and mentality. As a former player, I can attest to how he pushed me to improve every time he worked with me. The type of impact Swanson had on the Anderson Basketball Program made him the clear successor to Coach Pitt when he announced his resignation.
As the new head coach, Coach Swanson says he wants to continue doing what has given Anderson success throughout the past decade. “I want to build off the foundation Coach Pittsford and I have been able to build over the past nine years to help guys understand that through hard work and dedication, their potential is really high.” Coach Swanson wants Campbell Duncan and Jaxon Gill to play similar roles to what Bennett Blackerby and Mitchell Witlow played last year. Bennett and Mitch helped connect and lead last year’s team, which allowed them to make an incredible late-season playoff push. Campbell and Jaxon started on varsity last year and know exactly what goes into a successful team that plays in important games. Coach Swanson also mentioned Owen Shafer, Adrian Popps, and Kaden Williford because although they did not play many minutes last year, they were in all the varsity practices, weight room sessions, and film sessions, which puts them in a great position to lead. Coach Swanson likes how the incoming senior group loves being around each other and says, “Basketball is such a chemistry-oriented sport, and the bond the upcoming seniors have is going to give us a good foundation to build off.” He is excited to build a team around five seniors who know what it means to be part of a team because there will be a lot of inexperience on next year’s varsity squad. Coach Swanson will look to guys like Campbell and Jaxon to help bridge this inexperience. He also wants to continue reaching out to Anderson’s feeder schools, like Murchison Middle School and Doss Elementary School to help inspire students who go to those schools. In addition, Coach Swanson says he will emphasize working with nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity to “build holistic athletes.”
Although Coach Swanson is optimistic about the future of the Anderson program, he has also coached many great players in his years as Coach Pittsford’s assistant, who have stuck out and influenced him. The first person he mentioned was Max Smith, who he says was “a culture and program-changing type of kid because of his work ethic and mentality.” Coach Swanson says you could not tell Max no when it came to putting work in, “He would ask me if I could open the gym at 5:00 A.M. on a school day so he could get 1000 shots up.” He also mentioned Gavin Graham, who graduated in 2015 and went to play football at Air Force for a year before transferring to Texas State. Gavin was able to get past any obstacle that came his way at Anderson, which transferred to getting through multiple injuries during his college career. Next, coach Swasonson mentioned Braden Buckman, who was in Gavin’s class and walked on to Texas A&M. He also mentioned leaders in the class of 2020, like Josh Hall and Carson Gross, who were ultimate leaders in Anderson athletics. Coach Swason hopes that “Jackson and Campbell can be those next great leaders.” Next year Coach Swanson will be coaching in a tough 6A division, but with his experience and prior success, he hopes to lead a great team of his own.
Also, a quick reminder to please keep donating to the scholarship fund. We are almost halfway to our goal, but we still need your help to reach it! Check out the gofundme and apply today!
