EIU Announces New Head Swim Coach

"I would like to welcome Tyler and his wife Emma to Charleston and the Panther family,” said Michael.  “He has great enthusiasm for the sport of swimming and despite the difficult circumstances all collegiate athletes competed through last season, his teams were able to set numerous school records and excel in the classroom.  Tyler brings extensive experience coaching and working at the club level and I’m excited for him to be able to coach our program.”

Donges comes to Eastern Illinois following a successful one-year stop at Anderson University where he coached swimmers on the men’s and women’s teams to 22 school records last season.  Coupled with their success in the pool, both programs earned the CSCAA Scholar All-America Team Award for their work in the classroom. 

In addition to serving as the head coach at Anderson University, Donges worked as the coach and aquatics director at The Bridgewater Club in Carmel, Ind. 

In that role he oversaw all maintenance of the aquatic centers and was in charge of hiring and training the aquatic staff.

In 2019, Donges was head coach at the EXOS/Bryan Glazer Jewish Community Center in Tampa, Florida. He developed the swimming fitness program for the team and was in charge of recruiting for the club.  He coached for seven years with Yorktown Swim Club, beginning in 2012, taking over as head coach in 2015. During his time as head coach, Donges oversaw the direction of swimming for all athletes at the Yorktown Swim Club. He also took the lead in marketing and recruitment associated with Yorktown Swim Club.

Donges owned and operated a diving club based out of Yorktown High School that was a member of USA Diving from 2011-17. The team primarily consisted of athletes out of east central Indiana.  He served as an assistant coach at Yorktown High School and Yorktown Middle School from 2011-19. During his time as assistant coach, the Tigers combined for four state champions, six medalists and 37 state qualifiers.

“I’d like to thank Dr. Glassman, Tom Michael, Mark Bonnstetter and the rest of the hiring committee for choosing me,” said Donges.  “Being chosen for this position is literally a dream come true and I’m looking forward to bringing my talents to a higher level of competition and work with so many talented athletes.  EIU swimming has a long history of talent and success and I’m looking forward to leading the team to new heights.”

Donges holds both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Ball State University.  In addition to his work as a swim coach Donges served two years as an academic advisor at Ball State.  During that time, Donges oversaw 450 undergraduate psychological science students.  He instructed in the psychology department for two years at Ivy Tech and spent six months as a math teacher at Southside Middle School in Muncie.