Chris Hansen, former head coach at Virginia Tech, has joined the North Carolina swimming staff as the full-time assistant coach, Head Coach Frank Comfort announced Thursday.

Hansen joins the UNC staff after coaching at Old Dominion in the 2002-03 school year and then working in the restaurant industry during the past year. Hansen is a former Tar Heel assistant coach who served on Comfort¹s staff in 1994-95. He left Chapel Hill to be an assistant coach at Villanova for one year and then spent two years as the head coach at Virginia Tech from 1996-98.

Hansen replaces Bill Tramel, who spent nine years as the full-time assistant on Comfort¹s staff from 1995-2004. Tramel began his duties as an assistant coach at Minnesota on Thursday.

"I¹m thrilled to have Chris Hansen return to our staff," says Comfort. "Hansen has spent a year previously on our staff here in Chapel Hill and knows our program well. He has coached at a myriad of schools and brings a varied resume to our program."

Hansen left Virginia Tech in 1998 to become an assistant coach at UNLV where he served from 1998-2002. He then moved on to Old Dominion where he coached one season. Prior to joining the UNC staff for the first time in 1994, Hansen coached at East Carolina for two years from 1992-94. Hansen earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in health and physical education in May 1991 from Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J. In May 1994, he received a Master of Arts degree in exercise and sports science from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. His concentration was in sport and athletic administration.