Days after MAC Championships, Bowling Green Terminates Coach Rickey Perkins
Bowling Green has let go of women’s swimming and diving head coach Rickey Perkins days after the end of the MAC Championships.
Perkins has been at the helm of BGSU for six seasons. The team went 1-5 in dual meets this year and finished eighth out of eight teams at the 2024 MAC Championships.
“We are extremely appreciative of Coach Rickey Perkins’ contributions and commitment to Women’s Swim & Dive at Bowling Green State University over the last six years,” said a statement attributed to BGSU director of athletics Derek van der Merwe. “He has positively impacted the lives of student-athletes, not only in competition but also influencing their lives beyond the pool. We are grateful for Rickey’s service to Bowling Green State University Swim & Dive.”
Perkins was hired by Bowling Green on Aug. 9, 2018. He arrived at BGSU after more than a decade leading the men’s and women’s teams at the University of Evansville, where he was a five-time Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year. He was previously an assistant coach at the University of Washington from 1999-2002, a national coach for Barracuda Swim Club in the Bahamas, and a head coach at his alma mater, University of Alaska-Anchorage, from 1994-98.
The Falcons were 8-5 in Perkins’ first season and finished sixth at the 2019 MAC Championships. They were fifth a year later, with a two-time conference champion in backstroker Daisy Platts and a three-time MAC Diver of the Year in Talisa Lemke. Bowling Green was eighth at the MAC Championships in three of the last four years.
It would be great if they used this as an opportunity to reinstate Menks swimming and rebuild the program.