UPDATED: Van der Merwe named finalist in Ferris State AD search

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Updated: 5 p.m. Friday

The Central Michigan athletics department is close to losing one of its senior members.

CMU Senior Associate Athletics Director Derek van der Merwe has been named one of three finalists in Ferris State University’s search for a new athletics director.

Van der Merwe, who has been with the CMU athletics department for 13 years, was named a finalist on Aug. 10 in FSU’s national search to replace its former athletics director Tom Kirinovic, who announced his retirement on June 2 after 10 years on the job.

Glen Krupica, deputy director of athletics at Northern Illinois University, and Perk Weisenburger, associate director of athletics for external operations at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, are the other two candidates for the position.

FSU Vice President for Administration and Finance Jerry Scoby said Friday a decision will be made over the next few days as to who will fill the vacant position.

“We had 77 candidates nationally,” Scoby said. “It was a very talented candidate pool. It was just a wealth of experience.

“Looking at the candidates and their qualifications, Derek was one of them.”

Van der Merwe had an official interview on Tuesday. Krupica and Weisenburger were interviewed last week.

A member of the CMU football team from 1991-95, van der Merwe joined the school’s athletics department in 1997 and was promoted to associate athletics director in 2005. He is currently responsible for overlooking the department’s business, compliance, facilities and event management areas while directly overseeing the CMU wrestling team.

Van der Merwe and CMU Athletics Director Dave Heeke declined comment on Friday.

Keep checking cm-life.com for more on this developing story.