Shippensburg Head Coach Tim Verge Announces Retirement
Tim Verge, who has been the head coach at Shippensburg University for 27 years, announced his intent to retire at the end of the season.
Verge’s retirement is effective June 30. The 1989 graduate of Ship has been at the helm of his alma mater since the 1998-99 season, with a one-year hiatus in 2009-10 to serve as the university’s assistant director of athletics.
“It has been a wonderful journey,” Verge said in a press release. “I’ve been very blessed over the years as a coach to experience some euphoric moments with some wonderful student-athletes. I’ve always been very proud of the commitment my teams have put into striving for great academic success. Personally, one of the things I feel the best about is that I’ve never missed a graduation in all my years.”
Verge has led the Division II program to prominence in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. His women’s teams have finished in the top five in the conference on 15 occasions, including four top-three finishes. The men’s teams have nine top-four and five top-three finishes in the conference.
Verged coached seven All-American swimmers, all on the women’s side, led by 2004 graduate Erin Goodhardt, a 17-time honor. He mentored more than 25 qualifiers for women’s NCAAs, including seven honorable mention All-Americans from 2009-12, and three men were named honorable mention All-Americans.
“I think I’ve enjoyed my teams lately more than I did years ago; I’ve probably gotten softer,” Verge said. “It has made it a lot of fun these last few years especially. But it’s just time. I think I’ve just run out of gas to give it my everything every day which the team deserves.”
Verge has coached for 36 years at the college level, starting in 1989 as an assistant at Edinboro. After three years there, he spent two seasons as an assistant at Northern Arizona and one at Arizona State. He was named the head coach at Ashland University in 1995, holding that position for three years.
He swam for Shippensburg from 1986-89, serving as a co-captain as a senior for a team that finished fourth at NCAAs, the highest finish in program history.
