Tanner Barton has been tabbed as the next head coach of the Bowling Green State swimming & diving program, Director of Athletics Derek van der Merwe announced Tuesday.
Barton will take over the head coaching position from Rickey Perkins, who did not have his contract renewed following the conclusion of the 2024 Mid-American Conference (MAC) Championships in early March.
Perkins led the team for almost six years.
Barton heads to Bowling Green, which only sponsors a women’s swim & dive program, after spending four seasons as the head coach at Division III John Carroll University.
The JCU men’s team dealt with several key graduations this past offseason, but in 2023, they finished 15th in the NCAA Division III team race with outgoing senior Liam McDonnell finishing as the runner-up in the 100 back.
Neither team scored at the 2024 NCAAs.
It’s clear Barton was appreciated during his run at John Carroll, which included winning the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) title for men and women in each of his four seasons, as the school issued a press release upon his hiring at BGSU to thank him for his time there.
NEWS: Tanner Barton has accepted an offer to become the next head swimming & diving coach at Division I Bowling Green State University.
Thank you for a great 4 years, Coach! ⚡️
📰 https://t.co/Xj0oc1AE6M pic.twitter.com/g3Uc1Ns6Z8— John Carroll Sports (@jcusports) April 3, 2024
“Upon coming to campus, I quickly learned how BGSU is at the heart of this city,” said Barton. “As a relational leader, I am eager to become a member of the community and build meaningful partnerships.
“I want to thank President Rogers, Derek van der Merwe, Stacy Kosciak and Chet Hesson for entrusting me to lead the women’s swimming and diving team. With steadfast commitment to bettering ourselves in and out of the pool, I am confident the current and all future Falcons will proudly represent BGSU. I am extremely excited to begin, and the future is bright!”
Barton’s tenure at JCU also included 21 CSCAA First Team All-American honors for his athletes, 11 First-Team Scholar All-Americans, and a total of 27 OAC conference records to go along with 104 conference titles.
He and his staff earned OAC Coach of the Year honors seven times out of eight opportunities (men and women combined) during his four seasons.
“We are incredibly grateful to Tanner for the contributions that he has made to our swimming & diving programs over the last several years,” said JCU Director of Athletics Brian Polian.
“Not only did he continue the strong tradition of competitive excellence here at John Carroll, he raised the standard. He has been an outstanding coach and mentor to our student-athletes, a wonderful ambassador for our university, and a great friend within the department. We are excited for him to get his opportunity at the Division I level and wish him nothing but the best.”
Prior to JCU, Barton spent one season as the head coach at Anderson University (D2), coaching the team’s first Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) champion and helping form the school’s diving program.
Before being hired at Anderson, the Dublin, Ohio native served as an assistant coach at Cleveland State for one season in 2018-19. He was the lead coach of Molly McNamara, the 2019 Horizon League Women’s Swimming & Diving Athlete of the Year during the campaign.
Prior to his coaching career, Barton swam collegiately at Ball State, where he was a team captain in his junior and senior seasons and was a four-year finalist at the MAC Championships.
The Bowling Green Falcons are coming off a basement finish, eighth place out of eight teams, at the MAC Championships, a position they finished in three of Perkins’ six seasons at the helm.
Opinions are opinions, but can we agree that BGSU needed a change in head coach?
This comments section is lighting up even though the guy hasn’t even started yet. When Rickey got let go, nobody stuck up for him in the comments or let alone disagreed that it wasn’t the right move for that program.
I’d give the guy a chance, the only way this program can go is up. It’s not going to be a quick turnaround, but I think we all agree that he genuinely cares about helping these girls improve as a team and finding ways to make them more successful long-term.
Great all around hire. He’s a great teacher and mentor from mechanics and form to all around high character of the athlete. Despite decline in numbers enrolling in colleges nationally post COVID, he’s been able to have classes above the national average. An asset needed to turn this program around and excel towards consecutive winning seasons as he’s done through his storied career.
BGSU is a great community and team, I hope the best for them in this hire.
This is an interesting choice. Will be curious to see how this pans out, the MAC Conf is no joke. I’ll be following BG next season for sure.
As a former swimmer at JCU, I am glad that Tanner has found another team to coach. During his time at Carroll the team size has gone from 28 swimmers on the guys’ side and 23 on the women’s side (2019-2020) to barely being able to fill a scoring roster on both sides having 19 and 17 swimmers (2023-2024) by the end of his tenure. I feel for the girls at BG and hope they do not fall to the same fate in a decrease in numbers as well as not lose their love of the sport as many of the swimmers have under Tanner’s tenure.
To be fair though, you have to account for a decrease in enrollment nationally. Especially since COVID. Those are still encouraging numbers.
To be fair about half of the numbers of decline were a direct result of poor organizational skills, favoritism, blackballing injured athletes, firing the assistant coach the team voted to replace Fino, driving numbers away from the team.
Don’t let this guy plan any alumni events he will plan them on a workday so no one can come
Looking at Tanner’s resume to Rickey, how is this an upgrade for BG? How will they climb out of the basement into even the top half of the MAC Conference?
I don’t disagree, but you have to imagine the position itself isn’t going to gain much interest as a whole
I heard there were 60+ people interested and 30+ people that applied for the position. My figures are based off the press conference today when the AD talked about the coaching search process.
So I disagree that interest in the position was higher than you’d might think.
60 people were interested but only 30 applied? What? Wasn’t the job posted like 3 weeks ago? Pretty quick interview process for so many applications
I had the privilege to Swim “with” Tanner while in college, and he has a wealth of information and knowledge on swimming. The depths of his knowledge are only bound by the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day for him to learn and understand the sport.
Tanner will be an asset to BG and lead them to heights they have not seen since Daisy Platts left for Auburn.
Are you trying to say with instead of for? Or did you physically swim with him? Some of these comments are so poorly written
Bowling Green hasn’t properly resourced this program for years and is paying off fired former head football, men’s basketball and now a hockey coach. Ricky had ups and downs but no matter who the coach is they need funds to be able to keep a staff and be able to recruit properly.Its unfortunate as this program has a proud and accomplished history but now seems like the school uses it to check off boxes for minimum sports sponsorships in D1. The AD started last year so perhaps he will upgrade things. He hasn’t been shy about changing coaches since he arrived
Good luck bgsu women, have fun being treated like babies!!
Carrying some luggage, are you, Watson?