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One in a series of profiles from the Spring 2011 issue of Champion magazine.

Leadership role: Lynn Oberbillig

By Gary Brown
NCAA.org

There’s a reason Lynn Oberbillig received a standing ovation from 1,000 delegates attending the Convention business session in January when she was recognized for her term as chair of the Division III Management Council.

People genuinely appreciate her leadership.

That kind of applause – and the kind of leadership to prompt it – are both hard to come by. For Oberbillig, the longtime athletics director at Smith and former coach at Nicholls State, her ability to craft consensus, achieve goals and abide by a vision comes naturally to a degree, but she’s also learned along the way.

“In a leadership role, it’s not about your opinion – it’s about trying to get everybody else to reach an agreement without rushing to it,” Oberbillig said.

Her leadership “instructors” include former Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women Presidents Christine Grant and Peg Burke at Iowa, where Oberbillig enrolled after attending high school in Des Moines. The state of Iowa was a groundbreaker at the time with girls sports at the high school level, but Oberbillig’s inner-city district was among the last to get them. Thus, the self-acclaimed “tomboy” didn’t start participating in organized sports until her junior year.

“In a leadership role, it’s not about your opinion – it’s about trying to get everybody else to reach an agreement without rushing to it,” Oberbillig said.

The irony, though,  is that she ended up playing on one of only five basketball teams that were coached by women of the 500 teams in the state. She also had a female volleyball coach.

“In the rest of the country, you’d frequently have women coaching girls and women’s teams, but girls sports had been around long enough in Iowa that the men had assumed most of those jobs by that time,” she said.

Lynn Oberbillig bio

Position: Athletics director at Smith.

Previous positions: Facilities manager at Smith, founding softball coach at Nicholls State.

Education: Bachelor of Arts in social studies education from Iowa (where she also played basketball and softball); master’s in athletic administration from Iowa; MBA from Nicholls State.

NCAA Committee Service: Women’s Rowing Committee (1996-2001); Division III Women’s Rowing Committee (2001-03); Softball Rules Committee (2004-09); Division III Strategic Planning and Finance Committee (1998-2000 and 2009-10); NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics (2007-11); Division III Championships Committee (2009-11); Division III Management Council (2007-11).

What you didn’t know: “Out of college, I didn’t want to work in the deep South or the East Coast (she’s done both). I didn’t plan that kind of stuff, but when you see a good opportunity, you take it. It’s important to be a part of your community.”

 

That affected an academically accomplished Oberbillig, who had thought that pursuing a career in sports “would be letting people down.”

That notion abated at Iowa, where she saw female coaches and administrators as high achievers and role models. Thus, her leadership seed – already germinated by a teenage growth spurt that made her the tallest girl in her class – flourished. She finished her master’s in athletics administration at Iowa and then got an MBA at Nicholls State, where she also founded the school’s softball program and had the team in the national tournament by her second year and nationally ranked by 1984.

When she went to Smith in 1990, it was as a facilities manager – a learning experience for someone toying with the idea of being an AD. That plan came together more quickly than she thought when the top job was vacated three years later and Oberbillig was named to the interim role. One search process later, Oberbillig got the post she’s had for 17 years.

Along the way came the opportunity to lead. In addition to chairing the Management Council, Oberbillig has chaired the Division III Women’s Rowing Committee and the Softball Rules Committee. She also has served on the Association-wide Committee on Women’s Athletics and has been president of the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference for two years.

As for what’s changed between then and now in her capacity to move the agenda, Oberbillig said she has “a different language” these days.

“I used to be more passionate about how I felt,” she said. “But when you’re in a leadership position, while it’s OK to say how you feel, you can’t be too passionate about it because it shuts conversation off. The key is trying to build consensus without going overboard. You can’t always be a Quaker, so sometimes you have to say that you’ve heard everyone’s input and this is the way it’s going to be.”

All Oberbillig has done in her 30-plus years in athletics administration is help move the NCAA forward. And she’s not looking back, either.

“I have a love of education,” said the woman who continues to teach in a graduate program for coaches at Smith. “I like the whole notion of teaching kids and working with young people.”

And they – like the Division III delegates – applaud her leadership.