Southeast Missouri State softball coach not offered new contract

For more than three decades Lana Richmond had been at the helm of the Southeast Missouri State softball program, so she was understandably conflicted after being told Wednesday her contract would not be renewed.

"First of all, I do have mixed emotions on my time ending as the SEMO softball coach after 32 years," Richmond said. "As the pendulum swings, you're going to have down years and you're going to have good years, and patience is not a thing from our present administration now. Mark Alnutt was probably 8 years old when I started my career at SEMO. There's a lot of wins that I have achieved in my career, and hopefully this does not define my career."

That pendulum has been on a downswing as of late and the team failed to meet goals set by athletic director Mark Alnutt before the season. The Redhawks finished this season 11-34 overall and 3-20 in the Ohio Valley Conference and failed to make the OVC tournament for the third consecutive season.

Southeast's last winning season came in 2011 when the Redhawks finished 31-30. Their last OVC regular-season and tournament titles came in 1999.

There were plenty of upswings in Richmond's career. She compiled a record of 884-710-2 during her career at Southeast, and her teams won five Ohio Valley Conference regular-season titles, five OVC tournament titles and made five NCAA tournament appearances.

Richmond said Wednesday she believes Southeast's athletic department administration is focused too much on immediate results and commented on the youth of Alnutt, who declined an opportunity to reply to Richmond's remarks through a department spokesperson.

"People don't realize this profession is so exhausting," Richmond said. "You know, you're on call 24/7 with kids, and you are raising other people's kids. I haven't had a parent in my career call me about their daughter's batting average or their earned run average. Their calls have been about classes, career paths, medical emergencies or aspects involving their daughters or solving some kind of dilemma they have encountered along the way of going through, you know, we get them at adolescence at 18 years old and try to get them to adulthood at 22.

"This administration is about wins and wins right now. I've done it right for 32 years. I've handled problems 24/7 with kids. I have sat in hospitals while kids have been sick, had emergency surgeries. Taken kids home when their dorm rooms have caught on fire. I mean, over 32 years there's just numerous [things] that [have] happened, stood by pened, stood by them in very difficult situations. But you know, that's our profession. I've held kids accountable for their choices and held them accountable for their future plans and placed emphasis that softball was not going to make their living. Do I have any regrets? Absolutely not. I have scores of alumni who will back up my legacy of preparing academics for profession and that I treated every mother's daughter like I would my own."

Alnutt said earlier Wednesday that during an evaluation meeting after the 2013 season, when Southeast finished 15-33, expectations for this year were set, including standards for on-field performance.

"With a young pitching staff -- I knew I had freshmen coming in -- I told him, I said, 'We're not going to win the OVC. But we're going to be better,'" Richmond said. "Their goal was for me to be .500. I lost five starters along the way at one time or another during the season, but I'm making no excuses. We had inconsistent freshman pitching. Our batting average was 50 points less. It was a tough year."

The Redhawks fell well short of the .500 mark, and Richmond expected it could be her final season. She was informed Wednesday her contract would not be renewed after the decision was finalized Tuesday, according to Alnutt.

"I am OK. I am really good with it," Richmond said. "I've done this 32 years. I could have retired four years ago; I was eligible for retirement four years ago. But honestly, you keep doing this because there's something there. There's a passion. I've always said that everybody's got a calling, and I felt like this has definitely been my calling. But it gets to the point where there's a fight, I have to fight with a new administration, and like I said, the pendulum swings. You're going to have up years, you're going to have downs years. You've got to have some patience in between. We've got a great recruiting class coming in, and I hope all the kids still come in."

Southeast will begin a national search for a new coach immediately.

Alnutt said senior associate director of athletics Cindy Gannon will lead a committee in charge of finding a new coach, and his goal is to have the position filled by July 1.

Alnutt said the search committee will try to find a candidate that fits the university's values, someone that focuses on academics and preparing student-athletes for their futures after college as well as someone that can lead the program to success in the conference and in the NCAA.

Richmond does not have any definite future plans at this time.

"I have a daughter that's a junior at SEMO, so I've got to see her through, but I also have an 81-year-old mother that for the last 32 years I haven't got to spend a lot of time with," Richmond said. "So I am going to enjoy my time, just figure some things out and relax."