Boys & Girls Swim/Dive: VanDriessche hired as Head Coach of Kingsmen

John VanDriessche, the Indiana High School Swimming Coaches Association 2024 State Coach of the Year, will be the next head coach of Penn High School’s Boys and Girls Swim/Dive Teams.

Penn High School Athletic Director Jeff Hart announced that VanDriessche has been hired pending approval by the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp. Board of Trustees.

VanDriessche has been the Boys Swim/Dive Head Coach at South Bend Riley since 2000 and took over the Girls Swim/Dive program at Riley last season. He follows Jess Preston as the Kingsmen Swim/Dive Head Coach. Preston has been named the Swim/Dive Head Coach at Noblesville. Preston guided Penn to a state runner-up finish in both the Boys and Girls Swim/Dive State Championships in 2024.

In his illustrious career, VanDriessche has coached three individual state champions, two relay state champions, and 39 All-Americans. He has coached 95 individual Sectional Champions. 

VanDriessche coached Riley Boys Swim/Dive to two state runner-up finishes. He has seen his Riley teams claim the championship at the South Bend City Meet 20 times, and has coached his teams to nine Sectional Championships and seven Northern Indiana Conference Championships.

“We are thrilled to announce the hiring of Coach VanDriessche to become our next Boys and Girls Head Swim Coach,” Hart said. “Coach VanDriessche is an elite High School Coach, as his 2024 Indiana State Coach of the Year Award can attest to, but more importantly, he understands and embraces the importance of education-based athletics.

“Coach VanDriessche has had an undeniable positive impact on the historic success of the South Bend Riley swim program over the last 20-plus years, and his passion for developing fast, mentally-tough, team-first swimmers at both the high school and club level will be a perfect fit for the Penn athletic family,” Hart added.

VanDriessche boasts a 272-50-1 overall dual-meet record. 

“I’m excited to take on this new challenge and opportunity,” VanDriessche said of taking over the Kingsmen program. “Penn High School is one of the premier swimming programs in the state, and I feel grateful to have been selected to lead this team. I look forward to building on their success and plan to make Penn High School the top swimming program in Indiana.”

VanDriessche graduated from Ball State University in 1993, and earned a Masters Degree in 2007. He has coached multiple swimmers to championships from divisionals through Junior Nationals. His coaching experience including South Bend Swim Club (of which he is the founder), Irish Aquatics, Michiana Marlins, Starke County Blue Dolphins, Elkhart Area Swim Team, and was the head coach at Knox High School.

Highly regarded in Indiana for his training techniques for swimmers, VanDriessche designed and taught all strength and conditioning classes at Riley.