Assistant Pickens leaves staff

Southeast Missourian

Andree Pickens resigned her post as women's gymnastics assistant coach at Southeast Missouri State to focus on her training to be a pole vaulter for United States in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Pickens, a 14-time NCAA All-American gymnast while at the University of Alabama, was with Southeast for one year.

She currently is training at Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Ark.

"We will truly miss Andree this coming season," Southeast coach Tom Farden said in a press release. "But she wanted to pursue her dream, and I have no doubt she will see those dreams realized, knowing her as a competitor and her work ethic to achieve what sets her mind and body out to accomplish."

Pickens, a native of Houston, won NCAA national titles on the balance beam in 1999 and the uneven bars in 2002. She was a part of Alabama's national championship team in 2002 as a senior, when she won the Honda-Broderick Award as gymnast of the year.

A member of the University of Alabama's athletic Hall of Fame, Pickens set the school's pole vaulting records for both indoor and outdoor track at the conclusion of her gymnastics career.