Eastern Illinois University has parted ways with head coach Tyler Donges after just one season, athletic director Tom Michael announced on May 6.
Donges spent eight months with the Panthers leading their men’s and women’s swimming programs. Neither squad took a step forward at this year’s Summit League Championships as both finished 6th out of six teams. In 2021, when the Summit League Championships featured only five teams, the men placed 4th while the women were last.
“We don’t take these changes lightly,” Michael said. “After in-depth review of the status of the program, we have made the decision to move in a different direction with the leadership for both the swim teams.”
The Division I program appeared to be building some momentum following the 2021 Summit League Championships. Eastern Illinois won five medals there, including the program’s first individual gold medal (Miguel Turcios, 200 backstroke) since 2010. But former head coach Evan Sholudko resigned last July to become head coach at Division II Lewis University. Sholudko’s swimmers set seven school records during his two seasons with the Panthers. His departure, however, came less than six weeks before the start of Eastern Illinois’ fall semester.
Donges was hired last September following a one-year stint at Anderson University that saw his men’s and women’s teams set 22 school records. The Panthers broke (W 50 free, W 200 breast, The Ball State graduate also coached for seven years at Yorktown Swim Club in Indiana.
A national search is underway for the Panthers’ third coach in four seasons since Jacqueline Michalski’s five-year tenure ended in 2019. Like Sholudko, Michalski also left for a D-II program at Gannon University.
Eastern Illinois competes in the Summit League along with Denver, Omaha, South Dakota, South Dakota State, St. Thomas, and the incoming pair of Southern Indiana and Lindenwood joining from the D-II ranks this fall.
The reality is there is no way Eastern Illinois can acquire a coach with plenty of experience and direction as well wanting to stay long term with the salary the coach is being paid.
But hey they just posted the job so good luck to getting someone decent and them having any support…hahaha
Hard to “take a leap forward” from a year when Denver had the majority of its swimmers out with covid.
And Miguel followed Evan to Lewis
Two records were broken
Womens 50 Free and Womens 200 Breast
Hired in September, fired in May.
Unless there was some kind of egregious error like the coach killed someone I can’t imagine giving up on a coach that quickly.
Third coach in four seasons doesn’t look good for the AD.
I feel like regardless of what the coach did production wise, it is unprofessional to let them go after one season. Poor decision on part of that AD
Well we aren’t in the department or on the team to know what happened. I think it’s hard to trash the AD without knowing what’s going on.
I can’t speak for the other coaches but i know someone on the team and they constantly complained about the coach cancelling practice last minute and never being at practice to begin with. He had a baby right before starting so sounds to me like he was just focusing more on being a dad than a coach.
Yes. Of course. Because your job definitely comes before your family and new born child.
Constantly complaining? That happened like twice in the whole season and never last minute. I also can’t think of any practices he missed that weren’t recruiting. He was even back 4 days after the birth…
I think someone just needed to complain
That athletic department is garbage. I think he was making under $40k per year. For two genders at the division I level, that’s insulting.
Holy shit, I guess not all div 1 programs are same. Make more being a head age group coach. But it explains why a couple of them left for D2.
I think you have to look at budget, student fees at play into the budget, other teams have a bigger budget but EIU can provide the opportunity to swim in college which a lot of schools can’t.
I’m exhausted with comments trashing teams that provide opportunities.
That is a low salary, but the cost of living in Charleston, IL is very low. The average cost of a house there is $95k
What solution do you propose?
1) Raise student fees to pay the swim coach more?
2) Cut the swim program?
3) Cut the football coach’s salary, which is also less than assistant college football coaches make in many below average cost of living cities?
I thin the reality is that some schools that are in D1 shouldn’t be in D1. There’s a massive massive financial gap between the SEC and schools like Eastern Illinois. That’s why this model is unsustainable, and why the Power 5 + a handful of other schools will probably split off in the next few years.