Chris Bushelman

Senior Assistant Coach

Coach Chris grew up in the Cincinnati, Ohio Area. He grew up swimming for the Cincinnati Marlins and then Anderson Barracudas. He attended St. Xavier High School where he was a member of three High School State Championship Teams. In 2001, St. Xavier won the ‘mythical’ High School National Championship Meet (Virtual Meet) Growing up in Cincinnati presented Chris with the opportunity to swim for some of the best coaches in the sport, including Susie Vianello, Karen Keenan, Becky Wilson, Cary Belyea, Ken Stopkotte, and Ed Bachman. All of these coaches have influenced the way Chris trains and interacts with athletes. Coach Chris began coaching in 2006 at the Coffman Family YMCA under Norm Wright, current Ohio State Assistant Coach. Coach Chris begain working with 11-12 athletes at Coffman and instantly fell in love with coaching. He continued his coaching career after finishing his degree at Ohio State. In 2010, Chris became the Head Age Group Coach at storied KEY Swimming in Kettering, Ohio under the mentorship of Eric Wentzel. While at KEY, Chris coached many athletes to YMCA National Championships, some of them even finaling as age group swimmers. In 2012, Coach Chris took on his biggest challenge when he became Head Coach and Director of Competitive Swimming at the Great Miami Valley YMCA. This multi-site program was in a re-building phase when Chris took over. From 2012-2015, Chris helped grow the team from just over 60 athletes to almost 150 athletes. While at GMVY, Coach Chris had the opportunity to develop and train some very special athletes. Mark Andrew ended up winning 2015 Summer Juniors in the 400 IM and made the National Junior Team in the 200 and 400 IM. Mark went on to be a four year repeat champion and school and league record holder at the University of Pennsylvania. Zach Apple won multiple YMCA National Championships and went on to swim at Auburn University and Indiana University. There he became a member of the US National Team and won multiple medals in World Championships and World University Games. Zach also qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics where he was a member of several relays that won Gold Medals and even one that set a world record! Following his time at GMVY, Chris moved his family to North Carolina to take over as the Associate Director of Swimming for the YMCA of the Triangle Swim Team (YOTA). Chris came to YOTA to learn from all of the highly decorate and professional staff. Head Coach Chad Onken has become a great mentor and friend to Coach Chris. Chris has learned a lot about communication, relationship building, and professionalism from Coach Chad. While at YOTA, Chris developed the Chapel Hill/Durham Senior site from 5 athletes to over 70 by 2019. These athletes achieved at high levels in the sport including YMCA National Finalists, Junior National Qualifiers, and Olympic Trial Qualifiers. While at YOTA Chris also developed USA Deaf Olympian Collin Davis. Many of his swimmers have gone on to swim in college, and have become successful in life as well. In 2019, Coach Chris moved to Richmond, Virginia to join Jonathan Kaplan at SwimRVA as Associate Head Coach. SwimRVA was still in its first year of operations but the team had 288 kids the first year due to Jonathan’s unique approach and charisma. When Chris joined, he helped Jonathan and the staff grow the team to over 500 swimmers. Many of these swimmers have gone onto achieve great things in Virginia and Collegiate Swimming. Following the Pandemic, Coach Chris was hired on to Quest Swimming by his friend and mentor, Chad Onken. Chris was originally hired to work with the Homeschool group and fill in where he was needed. After that first year, Chris’ role was more solidified into where he is now. He is the Senior Assistant Coach on staff and works primarily with Quest’s development senior group. He also works with the top level senior group one day a week. In addition to coaching, Chris also maintains and develops Quest’s Website and is the meet director for all Quest hosted meets. While at Quest, Chris has had the opportunity to work with Junior National athletes, Olympic Trial Qualifiers, and Emerson Callis, the 2025 Richmond Metro Swimmer of the Year and Virginia Swimming 2024 Swimmer of the Year.