Anna Brooks Thomas was named Colgate's Director of Football Operations in March 2021.
Thomas became 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 post on the FCS level, and one of fewer than 30 in the entirety of Division I football.
Among Thomas’ responsibilities are team travel, video ops, career planning and the life skills program.
A native of Tappahannock, Virginia, Thomas arrived 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.
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.
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.
Thomas was a Dean’s List student at Alabama, graduating in 2017 with a degree in history. She then earned her master’s at Virginia in higher education, specializing in intercollegiate athletics administration.
