Deirdre Bertotti joined the West Chester University athletics administration staff in March 2019. She brings 13 years of experience in athletic administration and compliance to her role with the Golden Rams' athletics department.
She came to West Chester from La Salle University where she spent three years as the Compliance Coordinator and focused on the student services area of the athletic department.
Prior to joining La Salle, Bertotti spent the 2015-16 academic year as an admissions coordinator at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM). She oversaw the application process for potential students at PCOM, including analysis of supplemental materials submitted by applicants and schedules for interviews.
Bertotti gained valuable experience within intercollegiate athletics at Saint Joseph's University, where she was the Assistant Director for Compliance Services from 2007-14. During that time, she had a wide variety of responsibilities, including the monitoring of prospective student-athletes' initial eligibility through the NCAA Eligibility Center and the arrangement and maintenance of prospective student-athletes’ records to ensure compliance with NCAA rules and regulations regarding official/unofficial visits to campus.
Bertotti believes that education is key for compliance in athletics; therefore, she has made a focus of her role serving as the NCAA Compliance Coordinator at WCU to educate student-athletes, coaches, and staff regarding the NCAA rules and regulations. She developed a more comprehensive educational program to provide student-athletes, coaches, administrators, staff, and outside constituents a more detailed outline of all NCAA rules that pertain to their role within the University and Department. She and her staff hold monthly educational sessions to discuss rules and regulations and provide weekly “Interp of the Week” via email to ensure that interpretation of the rules is understood and updates and changes are communicated in a timely manner.
Bertotti spearheaded the effort to transition to Teamworks, an online system used in athletic administration that streamlines processes, stores data, and automates workflows for administrators, coaches, staff, and student-athletes. She continues to develop policies and procedures that integrate the daily operations related to compliance forms, recruiting, team calendars, facilities, and communication for better consistency and accuracy throughout the university and educate users to ensure transparency, accountability, and compliance with all NCAA, conference, and university departments that work closely with the athletic department.
Bertotti developed initial educational material for coaches and staff regarding Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) and collaborated with other university colleagues to develop policies and reporting structures for student-athletes to earn compensation and promote companies outside the university.
Additionally, Bertotti monitors playing and practice season limitations and participation for all sports and maintains rosters, eligibility lists and pertinent information on student-athletes. She processes and submits PSAC and NCAA waivers on behalf of student-athletes. She serves as a liaison to the NCAA Eligibility Center regarding initial status and progress toward degree requirements. She is responsible for processing all NCAA rule violations with the NCAA and PSAC and processes all National Letter of Intent (NLI) and Athletics Grant in Aid for all student-athletes who receive athletics aid.
Bertotti makes the success of student-athletes a priority. She reviews academic transcripts to ensure all student-athletes maintain eligibility and assists student-athletes who are at risk academically. She collaborated with the Faculty Director of Academic Mentoring Program to recreate and develop a new process for the Athletic Mentor Report and streamlined communication among the coaches, athletic mentors and the coordinator to help enhance the WCU academic experience for students.
Bertotti serves as the Athletic Department Sport Liaison for baseball, gymnastics, women’s rugby, and women’s soccer. Bertotti was named Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association Administrator of the Year in 2022 and 2023.
Bertotti also oversees the Will Call office for football and men’s and women’s basketball teams. She regulated ticket distribution through Teamworks to ensure compliance with NCAA and University rules and regulations. She serves as the NCAA Drug Testing Coordinator and acts as the primary liaison between Drug Free Sport and the NCAA to ensure all policies and procedures are completed accurately based on the NCAA Drug Testing Program.
Student recognition is essential for student success. Bertotti manages the distribution of yearly awards for student-athletes who meet the criteria to receive a participation award and developed a new policy and procedure to distribute the award with more consistent criteria. She also collaborated with West Chester University Foundation to host a Senior Send Off Recognition event. Additionally, she served as the primary point of contact for the United States of America Gymnastics Collegiate National Championship when WCU hosted the competition.
Bertotti serves as a liaison to many departments within the University, such as the Registrar, Admissions, Financial Aid, Athletic Training and Human Resources. She recently served on several hiring committees for coaching positions and participated on the Search Committee for the Assistant Vice President and University Registrar. She serves on the Sports Equity Committee working to eliminate institutional gaps through technology and co-chairs the Athletic Advisory Board.
She has experience as a coach at the Division I level as she worked as an assistant gymnastics coach at Temple from 2012-15. She was named ECAC Gymnastics Coach of the Year following the 2014-15 season and was responsible for the recruitment of student-athletes as well as the planning and coordinating of multiple home meets.
Bertotti co-authored “Collaboration is Key: Using Technology as a Tool for Student-Athlete Academic Success” that was published in the December 2022 issue of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and Its Affiliates: Athletics Administration. She made presentations on NCAA rules and regulations regarding four-year and two-year transfer student-athlete eligibility in June 2023 at the National Association for Athletics Compliance Conference and statutory and policy development concentrating on the effects of Name, Image, Likeness on WCU’s campus in October 2023.
An All-American while a gymnast at Temple as an undergraduate, Deirdre (Mattocks) Bertotti graduated with a bachelor's degree in Sport and Recreation Management. She obtained her master's degree in Organizational Development and Leadership with a concentration in Adult Learning and Training from Saint Joseph's. She more recently earned a second master’s degree in Legal Studies with concentrations in Sports Law, NCAA Compliance, and Higher Education Compliance from Drexel University.
Bertotti currently resides in Glen Mills, Pa. with her husband, Steve, and son, Vincenzo.
