"How do you take a top 3 in your conference program and force it to bottom 3 within your first few years coaching? Be Derek Perkins. So much hype online, on our instagram page and on media day for what? What you see at the surface couldn’t be further from the truth. We look ridiculous. I don’t know if it’s a humiliation thing but Derek is completely out of touch with what he thinks he’s doing here and it’s embarrassing to say the least. The complete and almost total erasure of this programs history speaks for itself. Why hide all the pictures where they can barely be seen? Why attempt to keep the banners in storage? How Derek runs this program into the ground by mismanaging, contributing to toxic behaviors, engaging in inappropriate favouritism, and overall just being a horrible person is why we have been pushed completely away from all of Eastern athletics and barely recognized at all, why else would you want the past to show everyone just how far you’ve fallen. Have you seen anyone publicly thank Derek for what he’s done for them? Have you seen anyone publicly acknowledge Eastern Michigan University swimming? Have you seen Eastern Michigan athletics publicly acknowledge the swim program? Aside from those AI generated post swim meet articles. Have you seen the MAC publicly post anything regarding Eastern Michigan swimming to any of their pages aside from athletes winning “blank of the week”? It was my first year here this past season and I am just bewildered. Upon first glance on my trip and what I saw later on instagram, I thought I was joining a top program. It looks like they had money that a top program would have. If anything, what an amazing cover up for such a waste of time. I used to love swimming and now I wake up in despair at the thought of spending even 1 second with Derek as my coach or just him bringing there. I am hardly talked to by him anyways so that saves me from grief but god forbid I upset him over spilt milk and he makes sure that the whole team ignores you for however long he sees fit. Everything said by anyone before is entirely true and has continued to get worse and worse while Eastern athletics strings Derek along instead of just letting him go. He is so paranoid that it seeps into everything. I don’t know how he is still coaching here in all honesty after hearing from seniors that he’s thrown chairs across the pool deck in frustration. Do everyone a favor and just let him go. This program and the history it holds deserves better than be shoved away by an incompetent coach who in every way except verbally tells everyone how big of a loser he is. Local coaches dislike him and he’s I don’t think any coach in our conference likes him either with the way they were all avoiding him like the plague at MACS. Dump Derek, Save the program"

"All the negative comments are true. Unless you are willing to bow down to him, you are left on your own. I watched him suck the love of swimming out of many of the swimmers. It breaks my heart what he has done to my daughter who used to love the sport of swimming and now refuses to get in the pool. As has been said multiple times, if you are not his favorite (which means talent PLUS being his puppet and spy), you are disregarded. If you have no morals and are a talented swimmer, this is where you should be. "

"I’m not sure that I’ll be able to add on to what was mentioned in other ratings but one thing I wanted to bring up was the fact that he is AWFUL with scholarships. He promises almost every incoming freshman scholarship with money he doesn’t have to give so he takes it from returning swimmers. Not just any returning swimmers. Swimmers who deserve an increase because they’re top point scorers consistently at every single meet and into MACs. Derek also loves to give scholarship money to people who don’t score points period all because they’re “loud at meets” or appear to be good teammates from his eyes but in reality they’re the ones who treat others the worst. Derek has an engineering degree but can’t figure out how to allocate proper scholarship money. The goal is to be rewarded with your performance throughout your career and hopefully earn more because of your success… not have it ripped away and given to anyone whom it seems Derek blindly picked their name from a hat."

"To keep it short (ish), Eastern has a great group of girls on the swim team. The majority of girls are very real and genuinely care for each other, the problem is when drama inevitably arises Derek has no clue how to handle it. He has no clue how to handle girls with injuries, girls with insecurities, girls that are under performing and pretty much just girls in general. If you are not one of the favorites, then you will not get attention at practice from the coaches in a positive and helpful way, period. There is so much potential with this team, and this program has such a great history and really good support within the athletic staff - Derek just needs to go. His way of coaching and mentality is simply not suited for this program and it is damaging the college careers of many athletes that come through. I could give countless examples of why he should not be coaching this team - and I don’t consider my experience to be the worst especially compared to some of the girls I’ve seen him treat terribly. He does have some okay swim knowledge, but thats about where I draw the line with positives. As the years have gone by he seems to care less and less in the way he tries to motivate the team, and its really unfortunate to see a team of girls with great potential get no results because of the way we were coached, tapered, and treated overall."

"Worst coach I have ever experienced as a parent. Hearing my daughter tell me that he’s sent her and her teammates pictures of his feet, forming inappropriate relationships with others and treating everyone completely different based on how easily they would do things for him is disturbing to say the least. Cannot believe this adult man uses his job to take advantage of these poor girls during what is supposed to be their once in a lifetime college athlete experience. Horrible."

"I have no words in how disappointed I am in EMU swimming and athletics overall with how horrible my experience was with Derek. Here are some of my core memories from swimming under Derek: - he threw an expo marker at us after not making splits in a Saturday morning practice (after a week of working our asses off) - he left practice multiple times after yelling at us for not making splits - became distant with me after I tore my labrum and couldn’t compete - I remember coming to practice in the mornings (even though I could not participate because of my torn shoulder) and he would not even say hello to me If you truly love this sport, and want to have a positive experience, you will not swim for Derek Perkins. In the off chance that you get injured, he will not look your way and will treat you like crap. "

"When you first meet Derek he seems like the kindest, most genuine coach there is. On my recruiting trip he showed great communication through his athletes and treated them with respect. This and the team environment is why I chose to swim here (along with many things promised to me, like an Olympic sized pool, athletes to train with, and other nice training equipment). The whole recruiting trip was a complete lie. When I arrived on campus, he was not interested in welcoming anyone. He neglected to tell me that the pool he showed me on my recruiting trip had been broken for at least 2 years. We were left to swim in a 6 lanes pool with some of the worst air quality I have experienced. Lastly, all of the training equipment I was shown on my visit was actually for the all of the other teams except for the swim team. The disappointment did not stop there. The entire time I was there I felt like I was hated by the entire team. I was constantly questioned on my work ethic (which I never in my life have been questioned on). As well as my intentions with swimming, and whether or not I was telling the truth about my torn ligaments to which I had medical proof for. Though he was only my coach for 1 year I learned quite enough about him. He is the most immature person I have ever met. Constantly storming his way out of practice, telling us we are average and never going to succeed. There is a complete lack of communication between the team, the team captains, and him. Beware of what comes out of your mouth around the team captains because whatever you say or even allude to will go back to Derek and he will rip you apart. I remember vividly being call 5 times at 7pm to go down to his office because he needed to talk to me. Throughout those calls he hung up on me mid sentence. Finally when I got there he had himself and the team captains waiting for me to tell me that I was a liar and wasn’t working hard enough despite working out 20 hours a week with a torn labrum. He attempted to slam and door on me and straight after ask my fellow teammates why they would ever be friends with a person like me. During this year my mental state was at a rock bottom. You are told to leave everything that makes you human at the door. Do not have a bad day. Do not feel unwell. God forbid something on your body hurts because everyone will hate you. The team mentality is to act like everyone is faking something to get out of practice. Derek is the least understanding person ever. I had a family emergency which took at lot of courage for me to tell him about in great detail. He responded with I need to call your mom to make sure you are telling the truth. He preaches school work but when it comes down to it he throws a fit if you aren’t at practice. While I was apart of this team I noticed he only gave attention to people that were actively succeeding. I know this because I was a person who was succeeding at the beginning of the season. As my injury got worse he slowly began ignoring me and treating me like a liar. When my results for my MRI came in and screamed at me on the pool deck and told me to leave and did not say a word to me for 2 weeks. If you are not the best one on the team he will treat you like a pawn in his game of chess to help someone else get better. I understand everyone has their own experiences and he can be nice if you are one of his few favorites. This man does not care about you or your livelihood. The only thing he cares about is winning, which he will never succeed at through his coaching style. "

"Coach Derek Perkins is a terrible person and an even worse coach. He’s the reason I lost the love, passion, and drive I had for the sport. I would not recommend Coach Derek to ANYONE, not even my worst enemy. "

"I was coached by Peter Linn for my first few years at EMU, and then I finished my few years with Derek. I was very nervous about the coaching change, but it turned out to be something really great. Growing up I had a hard time believing in myself and I would oftentimes psych myself out before races. Peter Linn did a phenomenal job of kicking my butt into gear and pushing me to work harder. Derek did a fabulous job of teaching me to believe in myself and reach for the stars. Under the coaching of Derek, I crushed practices that I never thought I could complete in years prior. He was someone who believed in me when I struggled to do it. Great coaches get good results in the pool. Exceptional coaches help you outside of the pool and make a positive impact on your life. As I look at myself now, I have gained so many great traits from the help of Derek. I get excited for hard obstacles, I set high goals for myself, and I know how strong I am. Derek helped me gain confidence in myself and my abilities, and for that I am forever grateful."

"Everyone has their own experiences and I understand that, however, he is the most unprofessional, manipulative and childish adult I have ever had the displeasure of meeting and knowing. His coaching style is sporadic and never tailored towards any training group in particular. SEVERAL athletes, including myself, have required surgery or intensive rehabilitation due to injuries that sparked from Derek’s training, to be able to do simple things apart from swimming. The pointless and pandering training had constantly made me question what the point of training was as there was never an incentive to improve your technique or performance. It was just swim until you physically can’t anymore and keep going so you can finish practice. I’ve seen girls crying DURING practice, rolling their eyes, complaining or just expressing overall unhappiness in and around Derek’s practices during my time swimming for him. Apart from the swimming, Derek made it so that FRESHMAN were made to feel that they weren’t doing enough for the team regardless of performance and that they needed to “step up”. Sophomores had to take on the responsibility of Juniors, Seniors either had to do everything for Derek or weren’t liked enough to be asked to do anything. There was no time to learn what you’re supposed to, it was immense responsibility shoved on you when you don’t need or expect it, especially for the freshman’s. Those who Derek really liked were made captains, it wasn’t up to the team as it had been in the past. I once had a meeting with Derek to talk about becoming captain as he had been pandering to me the entire season before that I would be “because I was a role model for the team”, come to this meeting for him to say that the team thinks i’m irresponsible and overall generally not liked enough, contrasting what he had said to me prior and with no evidence of the team expressing that as we all filled in forms about each other during the season. If you’ve ever gone on a recruiting trip and wondered “do they like me?” or “why do they seem so irritated or uninterested?”, They don’t and they are. During my time there and i’m assuming now as well, the team loathed recruiting trips and recruits. It was enough having to deal with each other and Derek but now we have to pretend we actually like each other an being here. Team activity and bonding felt so forced and unnatural that it was eventually just watching to see who says what and incriminates themselves so that people could have something to talk about. My quality of life had significantly decreased as he had essentially groomed a team of girls to either care for you if you fit in, hate you if you don’t, or tolerate you until you made a mistake and then shun you once you do. It was a toxic mind field of disgusting behavior towards teammates and mental gymnastics with him that genuinely had me question if I belong on the team or in the swim community in general. I understand i’m not a perfect person, no one is, but I shouldn’t be made out to be a horrible person for having interests outside of swimming, taking care of my mental and physical health when I fall sick, taking time to myself or to spend time with people who are not swimmers. These are all things Derek would get upset at me and others for and at one point threatened the scholarship I had because I was injured and was unable to get treatment for the injury. (some background: at the time I had no car, my roommates and other teammates schedules were all very different and didn’t align with mine, and the injury had caused me to be unable to walk. You tell me how i’m supposed to get to a facility a mile away at least). After Peter Linn left, there was a sense of normalcy that seemed to have quickly faded with Derek’s gossip over communication approach, as he constantly would ask girls on the team how someone else was and what they were doing instead of just asking the person directly. You had no personal life or relationships with people apart from the team and that was made very clear by the judgment from the people I thought were my friends when i’d express interest in making friends outside of the team or just talking to others. No personal relationship was private, everyone knew everything regardless if you wanted the team to know or not and would bring it to Derek to use against you when his favourite girls decided they did not want you on the team anymore. Truly, if you value being a person with normal struggles or just in general want to live your life without being stalked by a man child I would go ANYWHERE that Derek Perkins and his gaggle are. If you have any sort of instability in your life mentally, physically, etc, protect yourself and your time as you will not be valued or appreciated whatsoever. Again, I want to reiterate, I have never heard kind words about Derek, even from coaches in the surrounding area. It shocked me entirely to see the comments made here from past teammates of mine. I do not believe it is fair to post so nicely about him when in reality I have seen and heard how he made you feel. if you value yourself, your relationships with other people, your health and your money, avoid Derek Perkins and Eastern Michigan University Swimming entirely."

"The team culture at EMU is truly something special!! Starting with Derek, the attitude for the team is expecting to win. This team is full of girls that like to have fun but at the end of the day all share the common goal of wanting to improve and excel at the sport they love. "

"Great coach! Helps build your confidence as a student-athlete, he was definitely one of my favorite coaches."

"Derek Perkins is a generally new head coach, recently completing his third year at Eastern Michigan University, with many years of coaching under his belt. This leads to an informed coach, who knows not only the sport inside and out but also exemplifies extensive knowledge of stroke technique and training programs. He creates detail-oriented and personalized weekly training programs for each swimmer that rotate periodically throughout the season, and is always open to hear swimmers' opinions on how they feel their training is going. Derek is approachable, fun-loving, and passionate about his team's success. Even when dealt challenges, Derek continues to show his swimmers the bright side of every situation or even create the bright side himself. As a new head coach, there are some skills Derek puts effort into such as developing a team atmosphere (which the girls on the team do a seriously amazing job of themselves!), fairness, organization, and valuing academics over athletics that may require more years of head coaching experience to fully evolve. Following after the head coach, the team atmosphere is fun-loving as well, and supportive to a tee. The girls on this team rely on one another in and out of the pool, and have a close-knit family bond amongst one another. They strive to hold each other accountable for their actions, and communicate through issues. They expect one another to put in 110% to each and every workout, to foster not only their own success but their teammates' as well. A fond memory held from being apart of this team is when during a training trip practice Derek had promised the team after a very challenging morning practice that he would go head-to-head against the team's best backstroker in a 50 underwater that evening. Derek strolled out of the locker room in picture-perfect Dad-length swim trunks, and pleaded with the swimmers that he be allowed to wear fins for a fair race. The deal was made that if he lost the race, evening practice would be finished. Not only did he lose, but a Florida thunderstorm quickly approached, making the evening practice just as well finished. The entire team huddled together in the pouring rain, smiles beaming all around, and chanted the EMU fight song. "