THE LATEST LINE: SEMO NEEDS TO TAKE SOME ACCOUNTABILITY

You won't get much out of school officials or administrators -- which seems to be pretty par for the course these days -- but some wild and crazy things are evidently going on with Southeast Missouri State University athletics.

First we had the men's basketball situation, which began with an in-house review and led to the NCAA investigation that resulted in the firing of coach Ron Shumate.

Despite what seemed like half of Cape Girardeau knowing that the program was being investigated and that Ohio Valley Conference commissioner Dan Beebe was on the campus asking questions as early as March, SEMO chose to say nothing. Only after the Southeast Missourian broke the original story way back on March 29 did SEMO officials make any kind of statement at all.

Then just a couple of weeks ago we had the saga of SEMO gymnastics coach Bill Hopkins, who suddenly resigned. The school and Hopkins insist that this was totally Hopkins' decision, that he just wishes to seek other career opportunities.

Yeah, right. A guy who has put in 18 years on the job and built his program into one of the nation's best all of a sudden quits out of the blue with no other job lined up?

If you believe that one, then I've got some great swamp land I'd like to talk to you about.

Plenty of sources have told me that Hopkins' program was being investigated hard (like with basketball, talk of that had been floating around town for some time, although SEMO officials never said anything), and it's likely he could have met the same fate as Shumate -- but he evidently decided to beat SEMO to the punch by resigning.

I'm not saying Hopkins or Shumate were doing things wrong in their programs. We, the public, don't know and we may never, although in the case of Shumate, the results of the ongoing NCAA investigation will ultimately tell us a great deal.

All I'm saying is that SEMO has to start taking some accountability and let us, the public, know what's really going on instead of assuming that we're all a bunch of idiots out here.

And SEMO has to realize that the media's responsibility works both ways. If the school publicizes and wants us to print all the good things that happen within the athletic program, then it also has to inform us of some of the things that maybe aren't so pleasant.

* Also on the subject of SEMO, no official statement has been made yet but sources have told me that interim athletic director Carroll Williams will remain the school's AD for at least the next two years.

* Major congratulations to Kohlfeld Capahas' manager Jess Bolen for recently recording his 1,000th victory with Cape Girardeau's semi-pro baseball team.

Bolen, with a 1,001-337 record entering play over the weekend, is in his 31st with the Capahas. He doesn't get paid, running the team strictly because he loves the game and enjoys managing so much.

Hopefully, baseball fans in the area appreciate all that Bolen has meant to the sport over the years.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian