Derek Perkins was named as the ninth Head Women’s Swimming Coach at Eastern Michigan University on Aug. 30, 2019. Perkins enters his eighth season at EMU in 2026-27.

Most recently in the 2025-26 season, the Eagles finished sixth at the MAC Swimming and Diving Championships, with nine A-Final qualifiers and 30 lifetime best performances at the meet. Perkins led 11 swimmers to qualify for the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) National Invitational Championships, where they scored 148 points, the most in program history.

Perkins’ swimmers also saw a total of nine program top-10 times during the season, with three Eagles swimming two top-10 times. Nina LaRosa now holds the No. 3 100y breaststroke time (1:01.25) and the No. 9 200y breaststroke (2:17.03), Marlee Christie stands third in both the 50y freestyle (22.83) and 100y freestyle (49.77), and Nehir Oz ranks ninth in the 1650y freestyle (16:44.48), while being in spot No. 10 in the 1000y freestyle (10:07.62). Additionally, Shayne Patrick swam the No. 10 200y butterfly (2:02.86), Emma Littrell is in spot No. 10 in the 100y butterfly (55.44), and Marianna Fardella swam the ninth fastest 200y backstroke (2:01.17).

In the 2024-2025 season, Perkin’s Eagles finished seventh at the MAC Swimming and Diving Championships. Perkins led Tristen Mina and Olivia Clarino to swim the No. 5 (54.59) and No. 7 (55.08) 100y butterfly program times, respectively. Additionally, Nina Larosa improved her program top 10 100y breaststroke time from No. 8 to No. 7, with a time of 1:02.62.

Perkins also led a contingent of Eagles to prestigious postseason meets as Eastern qualified 11 swimmers to compete at the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) National Invitational Championships.

In 2023-24, Perkins led five Eagles to either improve their top-10 program times or make the top-10 program list in their events. Marlee Christie broke the EMU freshman record in the 100y freestyle, in 50.97. Abby Szadorski improved to the eighth spot in program history in the 200y breaststroke with a time of 2:16.00, along with Kiersten Russell, who improved her 100y backstroke time to move up to fifth in the program at 54.33. Taylor Harris and Nina LaRosa both swam the 100y breaststroke in 1:03.00, slotting eighth in the program top-10, just behind Szadorski, who earned the seventh spot in 1:02.84.

In 2022-23, Perkins mentored Kiersten Russell and Alexandra Kudo to All-MAC Second Team selections, respectively. Russell's 1:58.19 in the 200 backstroke at the 2022-23 MAC Championships, Feb. 22-25., was not only a personal-best mark, but went down as the No. 4 overall time in EMU program history. Kudo rounded out the group of top-10 finishers with a 16:56.88 in the 1650 freestyle event, just missing out on a top-10 program mark.

In 2021-22, Perkins helped senior Riley Hofmann notch a second-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly (1:59.11) and third in the 400-yard individual medley (4:16.76) at the MAC Championships, Feb. 26. For her efforts, Hofmann was tabbed as a First Team All-MAC selection. Perkins also guided his swimmers to 17 top-10 program finishes in 2022.

In the 2020-21 season, Perkins led the Green and White to a sixth place finish at the MAC Championships, April 17, hosted by EMU. Individually, swimmers Ali Staver and Riley Hofmann both notched season-best swims in the 200 butterfly preliminaries, with Staver making the championship final and earning sixth-place, 2:00.15, while Hofmann tabbed a spot in the consolation final with her 2:02.28 time, good for 11th in the field at the MAC Championships. Staver would also be honored as a Second Team All-MAC selection.

In his first season at the helm of the Eagles’ swimming program, Perkins guided Eastern Michigan to a third place finish at the Mid-American Conference Championships. Individually, Alyssa Shugarman became the MAC Champion in the 500 and 1,650 yard freestyle events. Shugarman and Claire Young were each named to the All-MAC First Team, while Ali Staver garnered Second Team All-MAC accolades. Also excelling academically, Perkins’ team was named a College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America Scholar All-America Team for both the fall 2019 and winter 2020 semesters and landed 18 on the Academic All-MAC squad.

A native of Georgetown, Ky., Perkins has 16 years of collegiate coaching experience, including the last eight seasons as the associate head coach at the University of Kentucky (2011-19). He also coached at Clemson University (2009-11), Emory University (2004-09), and Transylvania University (2002-04). Working with both men’s and women’s programs throughout his career, Perkins was named the 2011 CollegeSwimming.com Rising Assistant Coach of the Year.

Most recently, Perkins was the associate head coach at Kentucky after being elevated to the position prior to the 2015-16 campaign. In that role, he served as the primary middle/sprint coach. He also had additional responsibilities as the director of internal operations and academic director.

With the Wildcats, the women recorded six consecutive top-25 finishes at the NCAA Championships (2013-19), while the men recorded three top-25 finishes (2012, 2013, and 2019) in that time span. Moreover, more than 74 school records have been rewritten since 2012.

Notable of Perkins’ stint in Lexington, he helped coach then-junior Danielle Galyer to UK’s first swimming national title in 2016. She won the 200-yard backstroke with the sixth-fastest time in U.S. Open history.

Perkins swam at Kentucky from 1998-2002. He returned to UK in 2011 after serving as an assistant coach at Clemson, where he worked primarily as the Tigers’ sprint coach. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Transylvania University and has also spent time as an assistant coach at Emory University.

Perkins was named the 2011 CollegeSwimming.com Rising Assistant Coach of the Year while at Clemson and played an integral part in the Tigers’ men’s team earning its first top-25 finish in school history at the NCAA Championships. Under Perkins, Clemson had four individual NCAA qualifiers and their first men’s relay qualifier since 1989. Perkins coached the 200 medley relay and 50 freestyle event winners at the 2011 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship. Under his tutelage, 20 school records were broken at Clemson

At Emory, Perkins served as the assistant swim coach, recruiting coordinator and aquatics coordinator from 2004-09. During his five seasons at Emory, he coached back-to-back national championship teams in 2005 and 2006, 12 individual national champions, four relay national champions, 58 All-Americans and 55 conference champions. In total, an impressive 93 school records were broken in the five seasons Perkins was at EU.

Prior to his time at Emory, Perkins coached at Transylvania from 2002-04. There, he organized seasonal swim workouts and planned and designed strength and conditioning programs. He helped lead the swimming and diving program to its first-ever conference championship and coached the Transylvania Student-Athlete of the Year in 2004. Ten team records were set during Perkins’ two years as assistant coach.

Perkins closed out his swimming career at Kentucky in 2002 and graduated in 2003 with a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering.

He and his wife, Cassie, who was a standout diver for Transylvania, have two children, Halle and Riley.

The Derek Perkins File
Name:	Derek Thomas Perkins
High School:	Scott County H.S. - Georgetown, Ky.
College:	University of Kentucky - Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical engineering - 2003
Family:	Wife - Cassie; Children - Halle and Riley;

Professional Experience
Year	School/Company	Position
2019-Present	Eastern Michigan University	Head Coach
2015-19	University of Kentucky	Associate Head Coach
2011-15	University of Kentucky	Assistant Coach
2009-11	Clemson University	Assistant Coach
2004-09	Emory University	Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator
2002-04	Transylvania University	Assistant Coach
1998-2002	University of Kentucky	Swimming student-athlete

Name	Title	Phone	Email Address
Derek Perkins	Head Swimming Coach	734.487.3859	dperki16@emich.edu
Tom Gimm	Head Diving Coach		tgimm@emich.edu
Nick Stone	Assistant Swimming & Diving Coach	734.487.0322	nstone@emich.edu
Marcella Da Costa	Assistant Coach

2026-27 Swimming & Diving Staff

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