Bill Henderson - Head Coach

Bill Henderson begins his third year at the helm of the UW-River Falls men's and women's swimming and diving teams.

Henderson's coaching experience covers just about every level of swimming competition from summer recreation to elite, olympic trial qualifiers and from high school junior varsity to NCAA Div. I competition. His swimmers have garnered over 50 national Top 16 rankings in club swimming, over 20 high school All-American rankings, and more than a dozen junior college All-American rankings. He also coached junior college water polo in California for 12 seasons.

Before coming to UWRF, Henderson served as a volunteer assistant at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo where he worked with old friend, Richard Firman. During this time he also served as head age group coach for the San Luis Obispo Seahawks. He was the head coach
of men's and women's swimming and diving at Foothill College as well as the head coach of women's water polo team. Before that he was the head coach of men's and women's swimming and diving teams at Solano Community College and head coach of the men's water polo team. He also served as head coach of the Sierra Marlins swim team, a
year round swim club, from 1984-1995. During this time he coached the Sierra College men's water polo team from 1985-93.

As a competitor, Henderson was an age group national champion and top five finisher more than 20 times. He garnered high school All-American honors at Rio Americano High
School in Sacramento, Calif., and junior college All-American honors at American River College. He was captain of the Cal State University of Sacramento swim team his senior year. In 1997 he was Pacific Masters champion in the 1650-yard freestyle and finished second in the nation in the master's rankings that year.

Henderson earned his M.S. degree in physical education in 1995 and his B.A. degree in journalism in 1985, both at Cal. State Sacramento.

Aside from his duties with the UWRF teams he served as a coach for the U.S. Paralympic swim team and traveled to Athens in September of 2004 for the Paralympic Games.

He teaches in the UW-RF Health & Human Performance department.

Contact Coach Bill Henderson

The Henderson File