Gannon ready to help however possible

Few people have invested as much of their lives in Southeast Missouri State as Cindy Gannon.

That's why Gannon didn't blink when she was asked to lead the university's athletics department, which recently was racked by another round of allegations of NCAA violations in the men's and women's basketball programs.

Gannon was named Southeast's interim director of athletics Oct. 9, following the departure of Don Kaverman, who the same day was placed on administrative leave until the end of his contract, which will be terminated Feb. 9.

Also on Oct. 9, men's basketball coach Scott Edgar was placed on administrative leave pending the results of the NCAA investigation.

"I'm a team player," said Gannon, an associate director of athletics since 2004 and formerly Southeast's volleyball coach. "If you're on a team and you're on the bench and the coach asks you to go in, you can't say no.

"But this is not about me. It's what's best for the program, and it's a total team effort. I'm a small part of it."

Gannon sees her new responsibility as trying to help lend a steadying influence to a place she holds dear to her heart.

"It's my responsibility to steady the ship, to make things as smooth as possible for whoever takes over the program [as director of athletics]," Gannon said.

Gannon, 46, has been involved with Southeast more than half of her life, ever since 1982 when she arrived as a student and joined the volleyball team as a walk-on. Save for a six-month period, she never left.

"Southeast has been a huge part of my life, an important part of my life," Gannon said. "This place means a lot to me."

From De Soto to Southeast

Gannon, a native of De Soto, Mo., was a three-sport athlete at De Soto High School who played both volleyball and basketball at Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Mo.

She enrolled at Southeast in 1982 and intended to "just basically come here as a student."

But Gannon decided to try out for the volleyball team and made the squad as a walk-on. An injury ended her playing career before it got started, but she stayed with the program as a student assistant under Lana Richmond.

Gannon earned her undergraduate degree from Southeast in 1985 and taught for six months at Jackson High School.

"I enjoyed it at Jackson," she said. "It was a great place. But I realized that high school coaching wasn't something I wanted to do."

Gannon returned to Southeast to work on her master's degree, and became a graduate assistant under Richmond. She remained on Richmond's staff after finishing her studies in 1987.

Richmond was the coach for both volleyball and softball at the time. But in 1989, with Southeast preparing to make the move from Division II to Division I, the university decided to split Richmond's duties.

"At first I was going to be the softball coach and Lana was going to be the volleyball coach," Gannon said. "We both said we'd rather coach the other sport. I think it worked out well for both of us."

Indeed.

Richmond, still active, is the winningest softball coach in Ohio Valley Conference history and among the nation's winningest softball coaches.

And Gannon was no slouch with volleyball. She compiled a 16-year record of 366-211 and led Southeast to eight OVC regular-season titles along with four NCAA tournament appearances. She was named OVC Coach of the Year four times.

In 2002, Gannon added duties as assistant director of athletics, a position she assumed full-time in 2004 after stepping down as volleyball coach.

Asked whether she missed coaching, Gannon laughed.

"Absolutely, especially the last few days," she said, referring to the sudden upheaval at Southeast. "But it was time for me to move on and Renata [Nowacki, the current volleyball coach] is doing a fantastic job.

"I was blessed to get into administration, something I really wanted to do. I thank Don [Kaverman] for that."

On the subject of Kaverman, who was Southeast's director of athletics for nearly 10 years, Gannon said: "Don did some great things in this program. I don't want people to forget that."

Not interested in position

Gannon has made it clear that she is not interested in the director of athletics position, which will be filled following a national search that has not started yet.

"I love what I do," said Gannon, whose primary duties as associate director of athletics for internal operations include event management, sports supervision, personnel recruitment, monitoring the department's compliance with gender equity and serving as an institutional representative to the OVC. "I'm very fortunate to have the position I have.

"I'm not saying some time in my life I don't want to be an athletic director. But at this point, I think new leadership, someone else coming in, is best for the program."

Gannon acknowledges that right now the Southeast athletics department is being looked at in a negative light by a lot of people.

That's due to the new round of allegations of NCAA violations in the basketball programs and the previous NCAA investigation in the basketball programs. Those results were released in June and resulted in the athletics department being placed on two years probation.

Southeast has been criticized for lack of institutional control in both investigations.

"Every university experiences trying times," Gannon said. "You probably can't go across the country and find a university that has not experienced trying times with their athletic program.

"It's a position we didn't want to be in, but you can't go back and change anything. You can only move forward."

Gannon is confident Southeast will do that -- and with flying colors.

"We will weather this and move forward, like we always have," she said. "I've spent most of my life here. I consider myself a fairly optimistic person.

"We are working every day to make things better. Brighter days are ahead for Southeast."