Bowling Green State University Athletics
Women's Swimming & Diving
- Title:
- Assistant Swimming Coach
- Email:
- ibishop@bgsu.edu
Ian Bishop enters his third season as assistant swimming coach and recruiting coordinator for Bowling Green in 2026-27.
Bishop followed head coach Tanner Barton to Bowling Green in 2024-25 after two seasons together at Division III John Carroll University, where Bishop also served as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He has been part of the Falcons' staff in the program's steady ascent under Barton, including a strong 2025-26 season that saw Bowling Green open 12-0, claim its first MAC dual win since 2022 over Miami (Ohio), defeat Toledo in the Battle of I-75 and helped coach multiple swimmers to top 10 all-time program performances.
At John Carroll, Bishop helped lead the Blue Streaks to two men's and two women's Ohio Athletic Conference championships and was part of four combined OAC Coaching Staff of the Year honors. On both the men's and women's sides, he helped guide three different OAC Swimmer of the Year recipients, nine NCAA Division III Championships qualifiers, six First and Second Team All-Americans and 26 OAC champion swimmers, while the program set seven combined OAC records under his tutelage. As recruiting coordinator, he brought in 31 swimmers and divers over two years, three of whom arrived with incoming times faster than existing program records. In 2024, Bishop was one of six collegiate coaches across all divisions to receive the Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America's Jean Freeman Award.
Before John Carroll, Bishop was a volunteer assistant coach at Division III Albion College, helping lead the Britons to third-place finishes at the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championships on both the men's and women's sides, and served as head coach of the Parkside Middle School swim team in Jackson, Michigan. Since 2019, he has coached at swim camps for NC State, Georgia, Indiana and Wisconsin, and spent five years as a clinician coach for Wolverine Swim Clinics under former Michigan coach Jim Richardson.
Bishop graduated from Northern Michigan University in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in secondary education and physical education, and earned a master's degree in sports leadership from John Carroll. A former collegiate swimmer, he began his career at Olivet College in sprint freestyle and backstroke before transferring to Northern Michigan, where he competed as a diver before becoming a student assistant coach for his final two seasons.
A native of Jackson, Michigan, Bishop graduated from Jackson High School in 2017, where he also served as an assistant coach in 2021.
