Carol Bonnes enters her third season (Fall 2012) as the head coach of the Carson-Newman Lady Eagles.

In her first season as Carson-Newman head coach, Bonnes led the Lady Eagles to an 8-1 mark in South Atlantic Conference play and the regular season conference title.

C-N pulled off key road wins over Wingate and rival-Tusculum to battle through an injury riddled season and claim the school’s sixth SAC regular season title. The Lady Eagles finished the season 11-7 against a schedule that included six NCAA Tournament participants and a recent NAIA National Champion.

The 2010 squad featured All-American midfielder Morgan Grunenfelder and forward Trenna Howell, who is in the SAC’s Top 10 list of all time scorers with 50 career goals in her career.

In her four seasons as a head coach, Bonnes is 36-33-2 overall. This past season (2011), she coached a Lady Eagles roster that featured two fourth-year seniors and 15 true freshmen.

Bonnes, who is the C-N program's fifth head coach since it began in 1991, joined Carson-Newman from Concord University (W.Va.) where she served as head coach for the last two seasons.

Bonnes led Concord to a 24-15-1 mark overall and a 16-4 record in West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play during her two seasons as the Mountain Lions' head coach. She guided the Mountain Lions to back-to-back appearances in the WVIAC Tournament finals.

Her squad finished second in the WVIAC in 2008, posting a 9-1 mark in conference play.

In 2009, Concord finished 12-7 overall and was 7-3 in league play, good for a third-place finish in the WVIAC standings. She had ten players named to the All-WVIAC squads in her two seasons at Concord, including three who earned first-team honors, and one All-Region selection.

Bonnes took over as Concord's head coach before the 2008 season after serving the program as a graduate assistant since 2006. The Mountain Lions won the WVIAC regular season title in 2006, her first season as an assistant at Concord, as they went undefeated in regular season conference play and allowed just two goals during that span. Concord advanced to the WVIAC Tournament finals that season, where it lost to Wheeling Jesuit, 1-0.

During her collegiate career, the Ballyclare, Northern Ireland native was a first team All-West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference midfielder for the Mountain Lions in 2001 and 2002. In her first year at Concord, she led the team in scoring as a central midfielder and was named the team's Player of the Year. In 2002, Bonnes helped lead Concord to its first-ever WVIAC Tournament title. A knee injury plagued Bonnes' final season with the Mountain Lions, but she still managed to receive honorable mention All-WVIAC honors.

Prior to transferring to Concord, Bonnes played her freshman season at Virginia Intermont and captained the team to victory in the conference and regional tournament, earning All-Conference honors along the way and leading her team to a No. 5 national ranking.

Aside from her collegiate accomplishments, Bonnes was a member of Northern Ireland's U-16, U-21 and Senior national teams. She was also a standout for the Newtownabbey Strikers at the club level. The Strikers have been very successful in the premiership for a number of years and made it to the UEFA Champions league in Sweden (2002) and Romania (2004). Bonnes was the first person to score in the inaugural Nationwide Cup in 2004.

Bonnes has also coached in association with the Irish Football Association and holds her UEFA B license and is currently working towards her UEFA A license. She has been the youth development officer for the Newtownabbey Strikers and extensively coached all age levels.