Bill Tyler
Office Phone: (413)-265-2452
Office E-mail: tylerw@elms.edu

Bill Tyler is in his fourth season as head coach of the men and women's swimming programs.

Coach Tyler, the Great Northeast Conference's (GNAC) Coach of the Year the past two seasons, was also named the 2006-07 New England Intercollegiate Swimming & Diving (NEISDA) Association Coach of the Year after leading the women's team to program-record finishes at both the GNAC and NEISDA Championships last season.

Coach Tyler brings more than 25 years of coaching and competitive swimming experience to the Blazers' programs.

From 2001-2003, he served as head coach of both the boy and girl's swimming programs at Amherst (MA) Regional High School. During that time, he coached three high school All-Americans, one Massachusetts State Swimmer of the Year (2002-03), and led the Hurricanes boys' team to a pair of top three finishes at the western Massachusetts championship.

Three years ago, Coach Tyler worked as an assistant coach with the UMass-Amherst women's swimming team.

Coach Tyler has also worked as a coach for several youth and adult swimming clubs, including the Amherst Tritons and Valley Masters Swim Club (1980-86), the Laguna Mar Swim Camps of Curacao and Venezuela (1993 and 1996), and the Rams Swim Club of South Kingston, Rhode Island (1992-95).

As a competitive swimmer at Amherst High School in the 1970s, Coach Tyler won western Massachusetts individual titles in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly, and was a part of two relay teams that won both state and New England championships. As a high school senior, he was named the western Massachusetts Most Valuable Swimmer and was the New England champion in the 100-yard freestyle.

Coach Tyler later swam for two years at UMass-Amherst, and was a letter winner for the Minutemen. In 1995, he was ranked in the top 10 nationally as a master's swimmer in the 200-meter butterfly and 100-meter freestyle.

Coach Tyler earned his bachelor's degree in fisheries biology and his master's of education from UMass-Amherst. He is a faculty member in the Elms College physical education department.