By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Derek van der Merwe started his college athletic career as a walk-on.
Born and raised in a missionary family in South Africa, he hadn’t been involved in organized sports growing up. He was a violinist.
Yet as a senior in high school he decided he wanted to play college football.
In 1991 he walked on at Central Michigan University, earning a position as an offensive lineman, and helping the team win a MAC championship in 1994.
Bowling Green State University today announced that the former walk-on would be its new athletic director.
He’s no walk-on as an administrator. He brings more than 25 years of administrative experience, in athletics and at the university level, to the position. Van der Merwe comes from the University of Arizona where he served as associate vice president and chief operating officer. He served as administrator for football while directly supervising facility and event management as well as marketing, ticketing, communications, business operations and equipment.
“I’m a former student athlete and that has defined my entire experience,” he said at the announcement of his hiring. His passion for representing his institution with pride started with that experience of overachieving.
This will be the fourth institution he will represent. He has varied experience in higher education, and “the scars’ that go along with it, he said.
He began his administrative career, as well as earning his master’s degree, at Central Michigan. His first position was as an academic advisor and life skill coordinator. He stayed until 2003, at which times he supervised four sports.
At Austin Peay University he was the director of athletics for two years before being promoted to vice president, serving on the president’s leadership team.
During his tenure as athletics director, he oversaw the construction of a $2.5 million football stadium. And he secured the naming rights agreement. In his first year, the athletics department developed a comprehensive strategic plan. That involved reworking the university’s approach to corporate sponsorship and priority seating strategies as well as rebranding campus and athletics department.
At Arizona, he supervised medical services, including oversight of physicians, strength and conditioning, athletic trainers, nutrition, and sport psychology.
He was working with the Campus Health Department to create a new medical care model to prevent catastrophic injuries and death in college sports.
BGSU President Rodney Rogers said that in conducting a national search for athletic director the university was seeking to hire someone to continue the sports legacy represented by the banners hanging from the rafters in the Stroh Center, where the announcement was made.
The environment for Division I athletics is shifting, he said, and van der Merwe brings the needed experience to navigate through those changes.
The key, Rogers said, was expanding the resource base. The university’s growing enrollment as well as enhancing the sports experience for fans will help provide those resources.
Van der Merwe replaces Bob Moosbrugger, who was fired this summer after having been in the position since 2016. Stacy Kosciak, the deputy athletic director, served as interim athletic director.
Van der Merwe will earn $300,000 with a possible 15% performance bonus. That is in line with other MAC athletic directors, said Michael Bratton, brand strategist for the university.
Van der Merwe said he was attracted to BGSU through his conversations with Rogers. “This university is committed to excellence in everything it does,” van der Merwe said.
He’s determined that includes athletics. “My commitment is to develop a strong plan to make sure we’re competitive in the MAC and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, that we are appropriately poised to compete for championships.”
He continued: “Everything we do will be intentional to the success, academically, athletically and socially of our students.”
He promised to engage the community. “This community has to see the value of this enterprise,” van der Merwe said. “The campus community has to see the value of this enterprise. The students on this campus have to understand the contribution that athletics makes in the visibility of this institution.”
Van der Merwe is married to Stephanie Paris, a former softball player and coach. He has four children, Emily, Lauren, Ian, and Patton. One is out of college and two are college students. The youngest, Patton, called “The Little General,” is 4.
He said he and his wife look forward to Bowling Green becoming their home.
Over the years he’s had occasion to visit BGSU many times. He saw the passion of Falcon fans. “We’re going to engage that army.”
