Anderssen brings swimming expertise, passion for Christ to men's swim program as graduate assistant
8/29/2023 4:35:00 PM | Men's Swimming
A former NAIA national champion at Concordia (Calif.) University who made the 2012 Olympic Trials, will pursue his Master of Arts in Church Planting.
Of all the recruits Liberty University men's swimming Head Coach Heath Grishaw has landed in his six seasons with the program, he considers new Graduate Assistant Coach James Anderssen to be one of the biggest.
"He'll be the most experienced assistant coach the program has ever had, in terms of both swimming and coaching," Grishaw said. "He is going to add a lot of value to our program, in experience, that I don't have. I was not a college swimmer. I didn't go to the Olympic Trials. His experience, what he has gone through, is going to be a really great leg up for our team these next two years."
Anderssen, 35, grew up in Colorado and swam collegiately at Ventura (Calif.) College and Concordia (Calif.) University, winning a national title in the 400-yard freestyle relay with that NAIA program, before advancing to the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb., in the 50 free. He coached club swimmers in California, Colorado, North Carolina, and Wisconsin before rising Flames sophomore Max Phillips reached out to tell him about the job at Liberty.
"Actually, his mom told me about the position last year when I was down coaching in North Carolina," Anderssen said of Phillips, who he had coached as an early teenager on a club team in Colorado. "That ended up falling through and I was selling furniture up in Waukesha, Wis. I started praying and asking the Lord about a month ago and Max texted me out of the blue and said, 'Hey, there's a potential spot open. Would you consider it?' I told him I would pray about it and asked him, 'What do you think about Liberty?' He was like, 'It's like heaven on earth,' and I said, 'How could anybody say, 'No?''"
When he arrived last week and toured the facilities, including the Liberty Natatorium shared by the men's College Club Swimming (CCS) and women's NCAA Division I teams, Anderssen confirmed Phillips' assessment.Â
"This was my first time ever on campus," Anderssen said. "The view of the (Blue Ridge) Mountains reminds me of Colorado. It's just beautiful. The facilities are incredible. Heath is an awesome guy. I am blessed right now. I'm really excited."
The sport of swimming was a lifesaver for Anderssen, who grew up in a single-parent home.
"For me, growing up was tough," he said. "My dad wasn't in the picture much, and my mom worked three jobs to try to provide for us. She was never home, so from a young age, I started having my own free rein on the world out in Colorado. I started doing drugs at a young age, started doing a lot of foolish things. There was no God in the home."
However, God was watching over him, and rescued him from drowning in the riptides of the world.
"One of the things the Lord kind of did was He gave me a gift in swimming," Anderssen said. "Swimming is kind of what kept me alive. It has been the thing I've done best, the thing I know very well from experience and from having a passion about it."
After swimming for two years at Ventura College, he took a year off from the sport and survived a heroin overdose before receiving a scholarship offer to Concordia.
"(Concordia is) a Christian college, and that's where I actually met the Lord," Anderssen said. "My dorm mate was there to become a pastor. He was a lacrosse player and a former drug addict, too. We had some interesting conversations."
Upon graduating with a liberal arts degree with a concentration in exercise science, and launching his club swim coaching career in California, Anderssen grew steadily in his faith. He recently spent two years in the mission field in Honduras.
"That's where the Lord really changed my heart and that's really what I believe He's calling me to in the future," said Anderssen, who will be pursuing his M.A. in Church Planting through the Rawlings School of Divinity. "I have a really wonderful small church in a little mountain town called Valley of Angels that I put a lot of my blood, sweat, and tears into and right now they actually don't have a pastor. The church broke up, so I would like to be able to go back down there."
He knows the plans the Lord has for him are beyond his imagination, starting with the opportunity to pour into some of the best and brightest men's College Club Swimming prospects in the nation.
"Every time I've gone through things in life, whenever things fall apart or I'm having a hard time with something, the Lord just brings me back to the pool, back to the water," Anderssen said. "To me, (coaching is) not a job. I just get to show up and do what I love to do."
Though he was a competitive sprinter, Anderssen will focus on working with the Flames' distance swimmers, as have Grishaw's previous assistant coaches.
"I'm trying right now not to put a lot of expectations and really I just want to be supportive to Heath in any way that I can, to really come alongside him and try to help back him up with his vision and his desire to build a culture," Anderssen said.
After this week's tryouts, which started on Friday before the final team is announced on Saturday, he will emphasize relationship-building in Liberty's first week of practices.
"Usually, I'll sit down with most of my athletes early in the season and do a goal-setting session, to see where their heads are at, what they're hoping for, what their expectations are, and try to get to know them as best that I can," Anderssen said. "From there, when you build a relationship, that relationship is what drives the trust that allows them to really step out of their comfort zone. When they know that you are trustworthy and that when you are yelling at them, that it's not about who they are but it's about what they can become, it is a huge, huge motivator."
Having a club coach that intervened and threw him a lifeline when he was struggling at home, Anderssen knows how vital an encouraging voice can be, to speak life, give hope, and inspire greatness.
"I consider it an honor to be in a position where I can give back what I was given to anybody who's struggling, (as well as) to anybody who says, 'I want to be an Olympian,'" Anderssen said. "You should never tell them, 'That's impossible,' but 'All right, let's go! I can't tell the future, and neither can you. Let's go make it happen.'"
Looking back on his coaching career and ahead to future missionary opportunities, Anderssen has learned to trust in the Lord's lead.
"God uses our experiences for our future," Anderssen said. "I'm just praying about it and letting the Lord open the doors as they come. He's the pilot and I'm the co-pilot. When I become the pilot and He becomes the co-pilot, things get turbulent."
Anderssen has lofty aspirations for the program as a whole, which align with Grishaw's.
"Something's brewing for the team and it's going to be a good thing," Grishaw said. "James has a wealth of knowledge that I'm going to be learning from and getting to watch him work is going to be special. Our distance program is going to flourish. I'm thankful he gets to come here because he gets to be a part of that vision and mission now. I'm fired up."
They will be training with a purpose, to see the Flames glorify God in every meet and race they swim, targeting the CCS National Championships set for April 5-7 at IUPUI in Indianapolis. That was the site of Anderssen's last competitive meet of his swimming career, the U.S. Open in 2012.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer