Andrew Wu brings experience from New England liberal arts schools as he transitions to new role as MC’s Interim Athletic Director

With many changes underfoot in the Maryville College Athletic Department, one of the new faces is that of Interim Athletic Director Andrew Wu, who took on the role this August. Wu hails most recently from Goucher College in Maryland, following in the steps of his friend and mentor Dr. Bryan Coker.

At Goucher, Wu was one of Coker’s first hires, and the two worked closely together as he took on the role of assistant dean. Wu accredits Coker as one of the most important figures in his professional life, and when the opportunity arose, Wu took a leap of faith and came to Tennessee.

“Dr. Coker has spoken so highly of the community, the people, the students, and of how beautiful it is down here,” said Wu. Now that he has seen firsthand, he agrees with Coker.

While the opportunity and timing were right, it was not an easy decision for Wu to leave his position.

“I was at Goucher for 11 years,” he said. “It was probably the biggest challenge in my professional career. I took over right after a winter where both basketball teams went winless,” he added, which doesn’t happen very often, especially in college athletics.

“It was all about progress, growth and getting in the right direction,” Wu said. “We were making big changes within the department—changes in the staff, challenging the coaches.”

“We had to make a lot of difficult decisions. By the end of three or four years of rocky changes, we had the most all conference selections ever,” he said. “Going from winless to making the playoffs was one of the coolest things to happen.”

This hits on another point that Wu emphasizes—the importance of competition in an athletic department, which is one of the reasons he was so drawn to Maryville College.

“I’ve been following the College and athletic department,” he added. “I’ve been seeing positive progress, and have been an admirer.”

“The community understands why [competition] is important for the institution. It helps us thrive in the challenging world of higher education,” he said. “[At Goucher], It was a culture where the expectation was to fill the rosters and give a good experience and hopefully you will win a little bit.”

He explained that he is “competitive to a fault sometimes.” While his priority is in the student athletic experience in tandem with their education, especially at a D3 school like MC, he wants athletics to be a positive aspect in students’ lives.

“Winning helps with that. Winning helps with the fun, with the affinity with the school, commitment to the program, and ability to recruit. It makes everything better and more fun,” Wu said.

“My previous school, we got better competitively, but it was an uphill battle. The potential here is for national prominence, and that’s really exciting.”

Different career moves prior to his role at Goucher have led him to this position, most notably his role at Bennington College in Vermont.

“It was the smartest decision for my career that I could have made. I was just coming off serving as a men’s soccer coach at a small Division-1 institution,” he said. “The Division-1 experience was cool for me, but coaching in D1 was a very different animal with different priorities. And I’m very much a D3 guy.”

Wu’s experience at Bennington was a change of pace from what he had done as a coach and from his athletic-centered undergraduate experience.

“It showed me a different perspective of college life that was outside of athletics. The school didn’t even have NCAA athletics.”

He added that this position springboarded his career in student affairs, allowing him to develop the skills and resume that landed him the job at Goucher, with Coker.

While Bennington College was a unique experience, Wu said that he “found the community up there similar to here. People are really friendly, you can walk around and people say hi to you.” 

With a friendly atmosphere on campus, and close connections between coaches and athletes, many factors make our school a good fit for Wu.

“Feeling the love and support is awesome,” he said, referencing his recent and successful board meeting. “I felt like everybody was attentive, excited and interested in the current state of and the future of athletics here.”

It was a leap of faith for Wu to transfer from a long term athletic director role to one of an interim athletic director, but MC is grateful for his contributions thus far and the future of the program under his direction. 

“I want to stay in athletics,” he added. “I have to have athletics in my professional life in some way. It was the right time and the right situation and I’m very happy about it.”