Fan Speak Dec25

Entertained fans

I THOUGHT the Notre Dame dance team did a wonderful job at both Friday's and Saturday's games. I want to thank them for all the hard work, dedication and sacrifices they make to give their fans such amazing performances.

Glory days gone

WHILE CONVERSING with an acquaintance after the Southeast Missouri State basketball gane Dec. 16 against Division II Central Methodist, someone kept interrupting our conversation and informing us that we didn't know what we were talking about. He said we were trying to relive the glory days of Division II. While I agree Southeast probably should have stayed in Division II, that's all water under the bridge. But I get so sick of theses local yokels talking about how much better the players were back then. Otto Porter and Jewel Crawford were all excellent Division II players, but that was decades ago and they played against lesser talent. In those days, Southeast was the big fish that got to pick and choose smaller schools to beat up on. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Those past players everyone wants to pine about could not even make the team now because of the higher level of competition. If they were that good, they would have played Division I ball.

Misreported

IN THE Dec. 20 article previewing the Saint Francis Medical Center Holiday Classic, the Southeast Missourian reported that Notre Dame lost in the first round of last year's tournament to Sparta Ill. I was at that game, and Notre Dame won 44-43 on a last-second shot by Amanda Essner. The report was published in your own paper Dec. 17, 2004, in an article by the same writer, Jeremy Joffray. To misstate this fact undermines a good win by that team. To what lengths do your reporters go to get the correct facts?

Fed up

HAVING BEEN fans of Southeast Missouri State men's basketball for many years, I cannot endure it any longer. The media and the university should be screaming for a change. There has not been any passion coming from our coaching staff or players since Ron Shumate left. Where's the fire? A coach is only as good as his recruits and apparently our coaches cannot recruit.The writing is on the wall. Let's see some action before they have to change the name from Show Me Center to No-Show Center.

Keep Smith on the job

IT IS way past time for the Southeast president Dr. Kenneth Dobbins and the athletic director to renew or extend women's basketball coach B.J. Smith's contract. He is a model of integrity and has marketed and promoted his program extremely well. He also obviously is able to recruit better than most area junior colleges and colleges and Division I schools nationally. His is clearly one of the few programs -- maybe the only one -- that can say it has had any real success at Southeast in the recent past. The athletic director's record on winning since coming to Southeast hasn't been exactly sterling. Maybe we need a new president and athletic director if they can't figure out how to keep B.J. around a few more years. As last week's Fan Speak so correctly stated: What more does the coach need to do?