HAMILTON – For Colgate head coach Dan Hunt, the decision was pretty easy. A no-brainer, actually.
 
Anna Brooks Thomas has all the credentials necessary to be the program's next Director of Football Operations.
 
Thomas on March 1 began her post as just the second woman to hold the football operations' position in the Patriot League, joining Fordham's Samantha Diamond. Thomas is believed to be one of fewer than 20 women in the job on the FCS level, and one of fewer than 30 in the entirety of Division I football.

"She has an impressive resume," Hunt said. "You could tell right away that she would be able to handle everything the job is going to need, and she brings great energy.
 
"But what is really great is she sees down the road. She can anticipate what is coming and get ahead of things. That's a quality that makes the job go."
 
Among Thomas' responsibilities to begin her tenure are team travel, video ops, career planning and the life skills program.
 
"It's great to have the opportunity to run the operations program here at Colgate and take Coach's vision to the next level," Thomas said. "The athletics motto of An Inclusive Community of Competitive Excellence – my goal is for this program and Coach Hunt to live that day to day."
 
Plenty of Division I Experience
A native of Tappahannock, Virginia, Thomas arrives after one year as the football operations assistant at Richmond. Before that, she worked as a compliance assistant at Virginia while completing her graduate degree.
 
She got her start as a student recruitment team member and then football compliance intern for the Alabama football program during her undergraduate days.
 
"It's a relatively new position for us," Hunt said. "But Anna Brooks brings experience from other levels of Division I football and is going to add to this position things we didn't even know about. And that's exciting."
 
During her Richmond stay, Thomas collaborated with the director of strength and conditioning to manage preseason camp, supervised team movements on game weekends, created home and away travel checklists and itineraries, and organized travel team meals, among other job functions.
 
"It really meant a lot to me to be brought into this position as a female," Thomas said. "Now to see the coaches taking what they said during the interviews, trusting me and putting their words into action every day – that has been such a big thing for me."
 
Solid Mentors Along the Way
In the Virginia Athletics Department Office of Compliance, Thomas oversaw the entire student assistance fund and created monthly student-athlete compliance newsletters. She got her start in compliance during her final year at Alabama, where she reviewed football student-athlete ticket requests and compiled and organized all eligible football student-athlete NFL Draft materials.
 
Thomas credits three individuals as instrumental in her career advancement: Gerry Capone, Virginia associate AD for football administration; Brandon Lacey, formerly at Richmond and now the defensive line coach at Southern Miss; and Tiffini Grimes, Alabama deputy director of athletics and senior woman administrator.
 
"My first day on the job here, Gerry sent me an email congratulating me and telling me, 'You know more than you think you do; keep a log of everything you're doing because you are going to need it,'" Thomas said. "It made me tear up to read that and know he's still supporting me."