(PRESS RELEASE / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
AY ZIGGY ZOOMBA … Bowling Green State University athletic director Derek van der Merwe (left) told Archbold Rotarians that his path to athletics was very non-traditional growing up in South Africa. In fact, he never played organized sports until high school. The program was arranged by Rotarian and BGSU football alum Marc Fruth (center). Former Archbold baseball coach Dick Selgo also attended the meeting.
PRESS RELEASE – In the two and a half years that Derek van der Merwe has been the athletic director at Bowling Green State University he has hired nine head coaches, including Ohio State University Heisman trophy winner Eddie George who is beginning his first season as the Falcons’ head football coach this fall.
Granted, van der Merwe has served some 25 years in various capacities of college sports administration at Central Michigan University, Austin Peay State University in Tennessee and the University of Arizona before coming to Bowling Green; however, he never played organized sports until he decided he wanted to play high school football when growing up in South Africa.
He told Rotarians that his missionary family was into musical performance rather than athletics. So, he was trained as a classical musician for most of his youth.
However, he enrolled at Central Michigan University as a walk-on football player and through grit and hard work he was named a co-captain of the CMU football team in 1995.
He credits the persistence and commitment to practice and improvement that he learned through music to his success in sports. “Not quitting is what separates athletes. There will always be someone bigger, stronger and smarter, but you have to work harder.”
He explained that he has also taken a slightly different approach to athletic administration.
When hiring coaches or others, he said the first thing he looks for in potential hires is whether they have a commitment to serve others. Organizations grow and succeed when they build a community or support system around them.
When asked about NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) in college athletics, he explained that at Bowling Green he is in charge of that.
He noted that he will spend most of June traveling the country and attending events with various BGSU alumni groups and other stakeholders to raise money for Bowling Green athletes.
“We won’t raise the most money for NIL in the Mid-American Conference, but we will raise enough to demonstrate to recruits that we’ll support our athletes as best we can,” he said.
“Teams that succeed (in this new era of college sports) will be teams with athletes who are committed to each other, support and encourage each other.
“I don’t believe mercenary sports will work. Countries that hire mercenary soldiers to fight for them usually don’t win,” he said.