SYRACUSE - Wawasee High School swimming coach Roger Karns has announced his resignation from Wawasee to accept a position as the assistant swimming coach and assistant aquatics director at Grand Valley State University near Grand Rapids, Mich.
Karns will begin his duties at GVSU Monday."Grand Valley is fast growing school, with excellent student opportunities," Karns said. "They have an exciting dynamic and excellent mission. I am sad to leave Wawasee and the great students, swimmers and their families. The Wawasee community has been so good to us, it has been a wonderful place to raise and educate our family. The school is a first-rate place to teach and coach, and I will miss it and my Wawasee family intensely. GVSU head coach Andy Boyce has assigned my recruiting area to be Northern Indiana. I am sure that I will be back many times to recruit in this area since there is such fantastic swimming."
Karns spent the last 19 years at Wawasee, where he coached three state champions and four state runners-up in individual events. His teams won nine boys' sectional titles and three girls' titles. Wawasee also garnered four girls' Northern Lakes Conference titles and three boys' NLC titles. His boys' team was state runner-up in 1994 and finished in the top 10 three other times. In 1999, he was named the Ball State Alumni Coach of the Year, as well as being honored as the NLC and Sectional Coach of the Year 18 times.
Prior to coaching at Wawasee, Karns led NorthWood High School swimmers for six years, giving him 25 years coaching experience in NLC. The NorthWood girls team was NLC champions in 1988, when Nate Lelle was named an all-american.
Karns credits the advice of a fellow coach as helping him make the move.
"Gary Kinkead is a good friend of mine and the head coach at the University of Indianapolis," Karns said. "He has encouraged me to conside making the move for several years. Over the years, I have looked into some positions, but nothing really seemed right. Grand Valley State is just the perfect opportunity for my family and me.
"Accepting this position was extremely difficult for me," he added. "There was no good reason to leave Wawasee. I love it here and I felt that the swimming program was going well, and I had the best teaching assignment at the high school. However, the GVSU opportunity was too good to turn down and who could predict when I would get another opportunity to do something that I have always wanted to do?"
