If You Fall on Your Face, at Least You’ll Hit the Water

Hanna Huston never set out to be a coach. In fact, she actively resisted it. Her father was the head coach at Rice University, and she wanted to carve her own path. But somewhere between chasing down summer league rivals, out-sprinting her dad in an open-water swim and guiding athletes at Rice, Huston found herself right back on deck — and she hasn’t left since, with her next stop being the 2025 World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore. 

Swimming was always in the family, but it wasn’t forced. 

“My dad just insisted I be active,” Huston said. 

She got hooked after setting a simple goal: beat the girl who kept out-touching her in summer league. She trained for a full year, won and never looked back. 

At Rice, Huston specialized in distance events and open-water races, competing in national championships that, to her amusement, were held in Kansas. 

“Not exactly the ocean, but it was still a ton of fun,” she said. 

When she stepped into a graduate assistant role at Rice, coaching snuck up on her. 

“I really kind of liked it,” she said with a laugh. 

Suddenly, the path she once resisted started to feel like the right one. 

Huston’s first steps into Para swimming came thanks to Ahalya Lettenberger, a U.S. Paralympian and Rice student-athlete. Lettenberger kept urging her coach to get Para certified. 

“She was hounding me about it,” Huston said. “I thought, ‘I have the time, so I can.’” 

Certification led straight to international experience. Huston traveled to Italy for a World Para Swimming World Series meet and later worked multiple U.S. Paralympics Swimming nationals. At the world series stop in Indianapolis, longtime coach Peggy Ewald encouraged her to apply for the world championship staff. Huston did, and before long she was wearing the red, white and blue. 

What Huston loves most about Para swimming is the creativity it demands. At an emerging athletes camp, she worked with swimmers who all had lower-limb amputations, yet no two moved through the water the same way. She enjoyed helping each athlete figure out balance, stroke efficiency and starts. 

“If you fall on your face, at least you’ll hit the water,” she joked. 

Her approach is less about dictating and more about facilitating. 

“When the lightbulb goes off, when the communication becomes two-way — that’s the best part,” she said. 

Her calm presence has already made a difference. At an international meet in Italy, Lettenberger had a shaky opening swim. Huston steadied her nerves, helped her reset, and in the 400-meter freestyle Lettenberger nearly matched her Paralympic pace. 

“Seeing her realize that one race doesn’t define the rest of the meet — that was huge,” Huston said. 

She has also guided athletes through tough moments, like the swimmer who choked on water mid-race and climbed out. With Huston’s support, the athlete returned to competition later in the season, regained confidence and eventually broke five minutes in the 400 individual medley at the conference championships. 

Since 2022, Huston has been head coach at St. Thomas University in Houston, where she relishes working with motivated college athletes. 

“They really want to be here,” she said. 

She hopes to grow the program while recruiting Para swimmers, blending collegiate and Para squads into one team. 

“I don’t want ‘this is your Para squad and this is your collegiate squad,’” she said. “I want them integrated.” 

On the international stage, she’s entrusted with a pod of three Team USA swimmers at major championships. 

“At this level, they know what they’re doing. I’m just there to support them.” 

Huston admits she’s a woman of few words, but the words she does share — and the way she coaches — pack a punch. She wants to continue building St. Thomas, inspire more schools to recruit Para athletes and keep helping Team USA shine. 

And if she’s ever worried about the long flights that come with international travel? 

“I might be doing some push-ups in the aisle,” she joked. 

For Huston, it all comes back to trust — between coach and athlete, college and Para, effort and results. She celebrates the moments when athletes believe in themselves and know they’re ready. 

“That’s the best part,” she said.