Linda Anderson, former Truman State associate athletics director, recently returned to her hometown to become the assistant athletic director for internal affairs at Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska.
Anderson, who was also the senior women’s administrator for the athletic department during her eight years at Truman, took over the position at Wayne State March 1. Anderson’s primary responsibility at Truman was senior compliance officer, ensuring all student athletes and their respective teams follow NCAA guidelines. Anderson says she came to the conclusion years ago that she would retire in Wayne. When she heard about the job opening during December, she says she saw it as an opportunity to return home sooner.
“In the compliance world, it’s really a nice time to leave because there is not as much going on,” Anderson says. “For me, it gives me time to learn the system before things hit, and hopefully Truman can hire somebody before mid-April, when the next [National Letter of Intent] signing period is.”
Anderson says her duties at Wayne State College are similar to what she did at Truman. She says she still is in charge of athletic compliance and oversees its Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Anderson says she isn’t involved in as much game management. She now supervises Wayne State’s 13 intercollegiate sports, a decrease from Truman’s 20. Wayne State is a fellow Div. II member and competes in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
Prior to Anderson’s 2007 arrival at Truman, she served as the athletic director at Maryville University in St. Louis for three years. Anderson says Truman was her first opportunity to enter the Div. II level after a 22-year tenure at Div. III and says her time in Kirksville opened the door for her to take a position such as her current job.
“I liked working at Truman,” Anderson says. “I enjoyed it. I wouldn’t have left Truman unless I was really coming to my hometown. That’s the only reason the Wayne State position was attractiveto me. I wasn’t looking to leave Truman — I was looking to go home.”
Truman Athletics Director Jerry Wollmering says Anderson was easy to work with during her time at Truman. Wollmering says she was professional, treating each sport with the same accountability. Wollmering says administrators currently are in the process of reviewing applicants and hope to fill the position by the end of April. He says administrators have advertised the job online, and if has received a good amount of interest.
Wollmering says there are still plenty of things to do as the end of the school year approaches, but administrators are moving as quickly as they can. He says the department’s next administrator potentially could serve a number of different roles but certainly will be in charge of overseeing compliance, and he says he is willing to be flexible on the division of the workload.
“Compliance is a tough job because a lot of times you have to tell people no,” Wollmering says. “Trying to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’ when you’re keeping track of 450 student athletes for one person is a major task. That’s why we need someone with that compliance experience to be able to step in.”