July 4, 2018
Western Illinois Leatherneck fans are abuzz with news that the basketball program has been taken over by a young coaching phenom named Dermot Anderson, a 26-year-old who has built a name for himself in the area as head coach of the Macomb Bombers basketball team over the past five seasons.
During that span, he took the team to three consecutive Illinois High School Association State Finals appearances and a State Title during the 2017-18 season. Through his five seasons as head coach, all of his players graduated, and more than ninety percent went on to earn college scholarships, primarily on academic merit.
This got the attention of the Western Illinois administration, coming off a 12-16 campaign and the loss of their head coach. The Leathernecks haven't had a winning season since the 22-9 run they went on in 2012-13, and the athletic department and fans alike are looking to build a winning program the right way. They've determined bringing in a young leader like Anderson is the way to go. But can a high school coach succeed in the cutthroat world of Division I college basketball?
So far word is he's been targeting recruits throughout the state of Illinois, and has been focusing primarily on academics as a winnowing point – early lists of rumored recruits suggest no students with less than a 2.7 high school GPA are even on the Leathernecks' list this year. But the state has a really deep class of potential recruits this season, and competition will be fierce. With three open scholarship spots to fill during his first season, all eyes are on Macomb's coaching enigma as fans hope he proves to be exactly what the program needs.