From High School Coach to College: The Dermot Anderson Story

[jksander]

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.

[jksander]

Coach Info
Name: Dermot Anderson (26)
Contract: $100,000 / 3 years
Record: 0-0
Ambition: Very High
Academics: Very High
Discipline: High
Temper: Low
Integrity: High
Offense: 15%
Defense: 30%
Recruiting: 40%
Scouting: 25%
Decelopment: 40%
Reputation: 10%
Job Security: Secure

School Info
School: Western Illinois
Mascot: Leathernecks
Location: Macomb, Ill.
Arena: Western Hall (5,139 seats)
Facilities: C-
Academics: C
Conference: Summit
Conf. Prestige: 16%
Team Prestige: 19%
Min. SAT: 880

Team Goals
Win 10+ Games
Don't Finish Last in Conference

Team History
Overall Record: 432-599 (0.419)

No NCAA, NIT or CBI appearances. Two appearances in the CollegeInsider Tournament.

The program's budget is $159,500, which, subtracting assistant coaching costs, leaves $62,500 for overall recruiting operations. After purchasing the Gold Report for the Midwest ($30,000) and choosing not to attend any camps, we'll have $32,500 with which to fill three scholarships.

[PointGuard]

Marvin Stephens, an active member of the Leatherneck Club, wrote the following letter to the editor:

I entered Western Illinois as an undergrad in 1981. The following year our basketball team won 20 games. That was one of three seasons in the 37 years I've been following the team that the Leathernecks have won 20 or more games. And in most of the other 34 seasons, our team has been a disappointment (in the past 19 years our team is 89-215 in the weak Summit League), but I've remained a loyal fan throughout the entire period. So yeah, it's way past time for a big change. A change that gives the team and its fans hope. But now the Athletic Department has hired a wet-behind-the-ears kid to coach the team. This kid has never coached a college team and has only a few years experience coaching a high school team. It's obvious the university has given up. The mentality appears to be: "Hire anyone. Just make sure we don't have to pay him much." This guy is barely older than his players and knows nothing about college basketball coaching. And now he's coaching in Division 1. What the hell? We fans deserve better...an experienced coach who has proven himself at the college level.