Barke leaves fingerprints on Southeast Missouri State athletics with his first hire

The ink had barely dried on his own contract when Southeast Missouri State athletic director Brady Barke found out he was facing his first big test.

The announcement that Barke had shed his interim AD tag, which he had held since July of 2015, came on June 7. His first official day in his new standing was on July 1. But in between, just one day prior to the commencement of his new role, Southeast baseball coach Steve Bieser was announced as the new head coach at the University of Missouri.

By the time Barke had rolled out of bed on his first official day in his new official position, the calls and emails were already rolling in from eager applicants looking to be the next SEMO baseball coach.

"I think before I even was in the office, I had people who had reached out and expressed interest," Barke said. "Really starting with that day, being able to hit the ground running and spending a lot of the [July 4] holiday weekend, to be quite honest, on the phone and visiting with people about the job; just making sure that we don't miss somebody who maybe had interest but needed us to reach out or those types of things. I spent a lot of time doing that."

If there was a saving grace for Barke, it was two-fold: first, his transition was one mostly of title rather than responsibility, leaving him in a comfort zone and, secondly, the AD's pre-existing relationship with Bieser meant the two had discussed the situation earlier and that there was little surprise in the announcement.

Still, understanding the baseball coach who led the Redhawks to the top of their conference year after year might leave and actually having him walk out the door are two different animals.

"Steve and I had a great relationship. He had been very transparent with me in terms of the Mizzou job, and that that was kind of one of those jobs that was a dream job for him," Barke said. "At the time that that came open, he and I had talked and really stayed in touch all along to make sure I knew what was going on and, to be honest, to help in any way I could for him.

"That's ultimately what we want to do is see our coaches be successful, and we want them to have those opportunities. So I knew it was coming, and it gave me a little bit of time to prepare and kind of think how the process would play out or how I wanted it to play out. But still, when the time comes and you get the call, it's still a different type of situation for you."

Barke took a hands-on approach, joining forces with assistant athletic director of external affairs Nate Saverino to find the next Southeast baseball coach. The two men were tasked with responding to a bevy of inquiries, but also dragging the lake of all other potential candidates. Barke said he was involved with "a little bit of everything as part of the process," whether that was communicating with potential coaches one on one, talking to references or doing research.

The pair was granted a good deal of freedom by university president Dr. Carlos Vargas, according to Barke, to conduct the search as it wished and for the AD to find "his" coach.

When Andy Sawyers was introduced Monday as the sixth head baseball coach in program history, it was Barke who led the press conference -- this was "his" man.

"I feel really comfortable with the hire that we made," Barke said. "He's a reflection of the type of people that I look for, and I think somebody can look at him and see what type of people I try to hire. So I'm really pleased with that."

It's an opportunity for Barke to begin to really leave his mark on Southeast athletics, but that also comes with pressure -- for the first time, a hire has Barke's fingerprints all over it.

"It's a lot of pressure, obviously, given where the program has been," Barke said. "We want to be able to build that program and ultimately get to the next level, where we're talking not just about getting to a regional but how do we compete to win a regional. Having to find that right person that can still fit into this program and this community and be the type of person we're looking for from that standpoint but also still knows what it takes to win.

"It takes a long time to vet through that and talk to people, not only candidates but references and those kind of people to make sure you've got it. So it's been an exhausting last month but really excited with the outcome. I'm excited to see what Andy's going to do for us."

Sawyers and Barke maintained a back-and-forth dialogue throughout the process until the coach came for a visit on July 26. It was when Barke picked Sawyers up at his hotel and shot the breeze with him for a few minutes that he began to get a gut feeling that he had found his man.

"On paper, obviously, everybody looks good when you're to this point -- when you're competing for a head job and you've had a lot of success in your career," Barke said. "The moment that I picked him up at the hotel and we had an opportunity just to visit for a few moments, as we were getting the interview day started when he was here on campus, I really got a good feel for the type of person he was. That was the piece -- making sure he was the right fit.

"It was kind of that point where I thought, 'I think this might be the guy.'"

Two days later, coach and AD had come to terms, and a day after that, the hiring was announced.

Barke had initially laid out a goal of securing a new baseball coach by the end of July, and he hit that mark, sliding under the wire by two days.

Now that project No. 1 has been addressed, Barke is looking forward to turning his attention toward other challenges.

"There's a whole lot in the rest of the department that I need to be attentive to, so I'm looking forward now to being able to shift back out into the community, being more visible in the community for people I haven't really had a chance to [meet] yet but I really hoped to in the first 30 days and be able to begin addressing some other things," Barke said.

"The funny thing is our fall teams are already reporting back this week, so summer's over. We've got a lot of facility things that are still in the future for us, that we need to begin working on and talking to some people about -- possible future capital campaign and the Capaha project is right around the corner, those kinds of things. You really don't get to breathe, you just get to move on to other types of things."