Barke articulates vision upon his announcement as Southeast Missouri State athletic director

One of the first things Brady Barke did after he was introduced as Southeast Missouri State's athletic director on Tuesday was run through his list of thank yous.

He thanked his parents, who were watching the press conference online, and wished them a happy anniversary.

He thanked his three older brothers, including Rhett, a "converted Redhawk" who traveled from Carbondale, Illinois, home of regional rival Southern Illinois to sit in the front row at the announcement ceremony in Academic Hall.

He choked up a bit when he thanked his wife Halley, who was sitting front and center with two of his three children, Mabrie and Jackson.

Halley Barke and children, Jackson and Mabrie, received gifts after Brady Barke was named Southeast Missouri State's athletic director at Tuesday's news conference.

"You're my rock," Barke said. "I wouldn't be here without you and I certainly wouldn't be able to do the things that I've done thus far and I wouldn't be ready to do this if it weren't for you."

About six minutes after that he added a thank you for Southeast baseball coach Steve Bieser.

Barke spent some time last week in Starkville, Mississippi, where Bieser's Redhawks baseball team was competing in an NCAA Regional for the first time since 2002.

"It kind of gave me a taste of that success that I think everyone's looking for and it was nice to see some people travel down there, but to be quite honest, I walked away from there hungry for a lot more success not only in baseball but in a lot of our sports," Barke said. "Those are the opportunities, and I think that Coach Bieser can tell you that any of his student-athletes walk away thinking, 'That's what I came to participate at Southeast Missouri State University for.'

"We're going to graduate the student-athletes. We're going to figure that part out. We can control all of that. We have to make sure that competitively that we can get our programs to where our student-athletes get that type of experience, and we're going to do that. That really just left me hungry for more. Thanks, Coach Bieser, for giving me that little bit of a taste because I think that gives us something else that we're looking for departmentally."

The past 11 months Barke -- who said the community and university "deserves a winner" -- has heard plenty of times how successful Southeast athletics was when it was in Division II and been asked if that success can ever be found at the Division I level for the Redhawks.

"The answer is we can and we will," Barke said.

His vision for that includes giving coaches the resources needed to recruit the right players, providing competitive salaries and upgrading facilities.

He's shared that vision a lot, but didn't necessarily feel it was his place to push for it too much in the interim, so one of his first priorities in the first 100 days on the job is to get out into the community and articulate that plan.

Barke, who was directly involved in the hirings of football coach Tom Matukewicz and men's basketball coach Rick Ray and signed Bieser to a four-year contract extension last September, said that it's the "best group of head coaches, collectively, that we've had since I've been here. Without a doubt."

He expressed the desire to have coaches that create programs at Southeast that are so successful that other universities come knocking on their door, but when that happens he hopes they'll be able to provide them with a contract that will make them want to stay.

"Part of the challenge is keeping them because we know that with success comes opportunity and oftentimes they have opportunities to move on, and that's OK," Barke said. "We want this to be a place where people want to come and be able to move on and be able to be better and further their careers because that means we're doing something right here."

Barke had two things he's most proud of from his time in the interim, the first being the Holcomb Success Center, which included an upgraded weightroom, the acquisition of the South Recreation Center for sports medicine and plans for a renovated academic space.

The second is the Redhawks BRIDGE program, a life skills program, that was launched earlier this year. He's excited about the added preparation for life after athletics that it will provide the student-athletes.

The university also reached an agreement in April with the City of Cape Girardeau for a turf field and other upgrades at Capaha Field, and discussions of an indoor hitting facility/locker room at the ballpark are underway.

The Show Me Center underwent a renovation last year as well.

"There's a lot more that's on the horizon," Barke said. "There's a lot more that if anyone wants to stick around we'll talk about it because I'll talk all day about things that we can do and things that we can identify to get better. Those are the types of things that we have to continue to be able to keep an eye on. We can't get caught in the day to day. We have to still be looking forward about how can we get better because it's the only way for us to be able to catch up to some of those folks that have spread themselves and furthered the gap from us."

Barke feels strongly that now is the time for the department to make big strides, as universities in Illinois and Kentucky are dealing with budget cuts.

Some of his future plans include an indoor hitting facility at the Southeast Softball Complex and locker rooms for tennis and track & field.

The locker rooms at the Show Me Center also need to be addressed because it is "still really inadequate," and Houck Stadium is also on his mind.

The latter likely would take more time as it's "a much larger-scope project that's probably going to take something beyond just raising some private gifts through a fundraising campaign. We're going to have to be able to identify a larger funding source to be able to make improvements, but that's something that probably in the next five years we have to be ready to address."

"I'm going to work as hard as I can. That's the only way I know how," Barke said. "I won't have all the answers. I'm going to have to figure some things out as I go, but hey, that's the way it works."