Audra (Nothwehr) Anderson laughs now when she thinks about how her future plans quickly changed upon her arrival at Concordia University, Nebraska. She made her way to Seward in 1997 in large part because then head tennis coach Mark Lemke and then head volleyball coach Diane Mendenhall gave her the opportunity to compete in two collegiate sports. As classes began that fall, Anderson set out to study banking and finance.
However, Anderson changed her trajectory as she realized she wanted to follow her passion for athletics, specifically teaching the game of tennis.
Explains Anderson, “I met Nate Griffin, who was a year older on the men’s team, and his major was Sport Management. I had never heard of it. I asked what you could do with that, and he said you could be an athletic director or YMCA director. Immediately I changed my major at semester and went that route. My goal coming out was to eventually be an athletic director.”
Before embarking on her professional career, Anderson achieved at an especially high level as a Bulldog. She earned first team all-conference honors all four years on the tennis court and lettered each season as a defensive specialist on the volleyball court. Anderson helped the 2000 Bulldog Volleyball squad to a share of the Great Plains Athletic Conference regular season title in the first season of the league’s existence. The many accolades achieved by Anderson will result in her officially landing in the Concordia Athletics Hall of Fame on Sept. 27.
In addition to her desire to compete in tennis and volleyball, Anderson chose the Bulldogs because of family and Lutheran connections. As an elementary student in her hometown Clarinda, Iowa, Anderson attended the Gathering of the Talents and heard about the school from her father, a Concordia alum. As Anderson went through the recruitment process, she narrowed her choices down to three schools. Concordia stood out for both its athletic opportunities and Christian education.
At Concordia, Anderson found her second home. Says Anderson, “Our teams were very close. We always had team meals and would take turns doing devotions. It was cool taking turns being leaders in that aspect. I remember having a separate Bible study on Sunday nights. It was so cool to get close with your college teammates and other classmates. Concordia really did become my family even though I wasn’t that far from home.”
With only about two hours separating Seward and Clarinda, Anderson’s parents took advantage of the opportunity to see their daughter play tennis and volleyball. Anderson became an impact player the moment she stepped on campus for Coach Lemke’s tennis team. By year three, she had risen to the level of conference player of the year. An official athletics release from June 2000 referred to Anderson as having “dominated” her Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference opponents. The one NIAC foe Anderson remembers giving her trouble was a lefty, something that forced her to make an adjustment. Her tennis memories also include a day-long match at Hastings and a trip to St. Louis that was granted after Anderson lobbied for the women’s team to come along when the men played their version of CIT.
Anderson says that the parallels between tennis and volleyball kept her prepared to excel at both sports despite the time demands. As a member of the volleyball program, Anderson played a key role in the back row and aided in the 2000 GPAC championship season that saw the Bulldogs go 23-13 overall and finish with an NAIA national ranking of 18th. For that ’00 squad, Anderson averaged nearly 3.0 digs per set and was the team’s leader in serve receive percentage. Anderson enjoyed being part of a team that featured two other Clarinda natives, sisters Rachel and Sandy (maiden name Kirchner), who proved to be exceptional volleyball players.
Said Anderson of managing the two sports along with her studies, “I was a walk-on at first in volleyball. My coach at the time, Diane Mendenhall, she welcomed it. The lateral movements and forward movements with tennis and volleyball are very similar. Even though I wasn’t playing offseason volleyball, I was still working those skills on the tennis court. My tennis coach was supportive too. I’m thankful for that.”
When her undergraduate career concluded, Anderson did not want to let go of the competitive environment she thrived upon. Naturally, she served as an assistant coach for Concordia Tennis as she earned her masters degree in Post-Secondary Athletics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Fresh out of grad school, Anderson jumped at the chance to become a head coach for a college program.
The little girl who followed her older brother to tennis classes was following her dreams. Said Anderson, “I used to go to tennis class with my brother. They would have an odd number and just tell me to go play. That seemed to happen every day. Eventually they were like, ‘why don’t you have your parents sign you up for the class?’ I got into it because my brother was doing it. He would always beat me. That really fueled my fire.”
As Anderson found her footing at Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Ky., opposing coaches found it quite challenging to defeat her. Anderson served as the head coach of the volleyball and men’s and women’s tennis programs while often running three practices per day. While juggling those duties, she earned three conference coach of the year awards and posted a combined four-year men’s and women’s tennis coaching record of 141-38.
Such astounding success as a young coach even caught the attention of NCAA Division I schools. Anderson was named the head women’s tennis coach at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill., in 2007 and proceeded to carry over similar success. She was tabbed the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 2013 as part of a 10-year journey. Unfortunately, SIU chose to cut its tennis programs in 2017 and Anderson pivoted to running her own training facility, the Anderson Tennis Academy.
The success and the accolades have been a bonus, but the relationships are what makes coaching rewarding for Anderson. “Some of the coolest stuff now is that you get your former players to come back or send you a message,” Anderson said. “It’s cool to get that ‘thank you’ years down the road. Sometimes it’s a ‘thank you’ for something they didn’t want to do, but it made them a better person. That’s one of the most rewarding things. When SIU cut the program, someone organized an event for everyone to come back. That was a very emotional day where everyone talked about old times.”
As operator of her own tennis academy, Anderson now has more flexibility in her schedule. That advantage comes in handy as she and her husband Myles raise their children, Jemma and Max. The family continues to live in Carbondale. Whether she’s in Carbondale, Kentucky, her hometown Clarinda, or anywhere in between, Anderson hasn’t forgotten about her alma mater. She just didn’t expect to one day receive a letter from her alma mater that congratulated her on her selection to its Hall of Fame. The committee understood she was more than deserving of such distinction.
Said Anderson of her initial reaction, “I was surprised. It’s a real honor. It made my day for sure.”