CSB Athletic department announces new AD

The effort to replace former CSB athletic director Glen Werner finally ended July 1st.

Taking over following long stints in both the MIAC front office and Augsburg’s athletic department, Kelly Anderson-Diercks is finally settled into St. Joseph as CSB’s new athletic director. Anderson-Diercks also serves as the commissioner of the Midwest Lacrosse Conference, due in part to her work bringing varsity women’s lacrosse to Augsburg.

Anderson- Diercks, a former Gustavus athlete herself, has no shortage of ambition.

“I want to have the premier Division III women’s athletics department in the country,” Dierks-Anderson said.

Achieving that will require a five-pillar plan: cultivating a premier student athlete experience, support and affinity, outstanding academics, athletic excellence, community service engagement.

“If we’re doing what we need to do in those five areas we are going to be unbeatable.”

Increasing student athlete engagement with the community is of particular interest to Anderson-Dierks.

“I’m going to ask each sport to do one [community service act] in the fall and one in the spring… We’re going to challenge those coaches and programs who aren’t already doing that to figure out something that would be really impactful for their student athletes,” Anderson-Dierks said.

Anderson-Dierks insists that this component of her plan is not indicative of a will to change the culture of the St. Ben’s athletic department.

“I think the culture is really good here… everyone knows that St. Ben’s is a very good school, it’s a very good athletic department. Being comfortable saying ‘we want to be great,’ ‘we want to be the best,’ those are words I don’t hear everywhere,” Anderson-Diercks said.

Excellence is the objective of any athletic department and St. Ben’s is certainly no exception. With a dominant department in St. Thomas officially out of the MIAC, Anderson-Diercks has one goal in mind.

“St. Thomas has won the last 10 all-sport trophies in a row, who’s going to win it this year? Why not us? Let’s make that our goal.”

Anderson- Dierks comes to CSB at a time of great transformation for the MIAC. The College of St. Scholastica, a fellow Benedictine liberal arts institution based in Duluth, was just welcomed into the conference for the 2021-22 season. The NCAA is also in the process of working through a Division III regional realignment. That plan is expected to be fully tersed out by the end of this year.

“We want to be the best department in our conference and this is a great opportunity and a great time to do that..As our conference restructures and moves things around, let’s step into being great… the opportunity to become great here is what really excites me,” Anderson-Dierks said.

Anderson-Dierks also reflected on what drew her to St. Ben’s despite opportunities elsewhere in collegiate athletics. “I love the MIAC, I love Division III, this is a great academic institution and I think it’s really poised to do some pretty exciting things in the future.” Anderson-Dierks said.

“I love that every day is different. I love that I get to know the students on a different level than a Division I athletic department… It’s a different philosophy [in DIII programs] where you’re supported in exploring your passions as part of your athletic experience,” Anderson-Dierks said.

Anderson- Dierks began her career as an intern at the MIAC front office after graduating a semester early from Gustavus. Over a decade of experience working in the MIAC will certainly help her carry out what she sees as her most important responsibility.

“For me, the number one thing an athletic director does is hire and retain the best possible coaching staff because, yes, student athletes choose a program for the school, but they’re also choosing it to come and play for a coach,” Anderson-Dierks said.

Anderson-Dierks’ philosophy as an athletic director, and by extension the premise upon which this department will function for the foreseeable future can be summarized quite breifly.

“It’s okay to do things differently…What’s the best for our student athletes? What’s the best for our coaching staff? What’s the best for our athletic department?”, Anderson-Dierks said.

These may be simple questions to ask, but they are not simple questions to answer. Nonetheless, Anderson-Dierks sees the opportunity in front of her and certainly knows where she wants to take
the department.