BOWLING GREEN — The new face of Bowling Green athletics has hardly taken a conventional path to his new job.
Born in South Africa, Derek van der Merwe only took up football his senior year of high school. He succeeded, however, and it set him on a path to the highest echelons of college athletics — to decision-making roles at Central Michigan, Austin Peay, and Arizona, and now as an athletic director with the Falcons.
The Blade talked to van der Merwe to learn more about his journey to this position and his vision for the future of Bowling Green athletics in the short and long term.