Faithful fans

KUDOS TO the handful of Southeast Missouri State students that made the short trip to Martin, Tenn., on Dec. 3 to cheer on the Redhawks. The group sat directly behind the Southeast, which was right next to the UT-Martin students, and both groups created quite an atmosphere. There were only 3,000 in the arena, but the atmosphere was better than any larger crowd at the Show Me Center. I realize that the Southeast marketing department helped to create the "Rowdy Fans" student group, but you know things are really going downhill when it takes organizing a student cheer group to come out to the games. The Southeast students get in free to all Redhawk events. What more incentive do they need?

Black and white issue

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI State is like any other school when it comes to giving black coaches a fair shake. I would like to know why athletic director Don Kaverman did not retain any of the black assistant coaches associated with the football program. He has a mixture of players, so why not a mixture of coaches?The politically correct thing would have been to retain one white and one ethnic coach.

Coach needs help

THE NEW Southeast football coach will have his job cut out for him. Whatever athletic director Don Kaverman or the president, Dr. Ken Dobbins, have promised, the new coach better get it in writing and share it with the community to hold their feet to the fire. I hope the new coach will get the support and finances from the school that the others did not have. I wish him good luck.

Coverage critique

OVER THE last few years, I have been really disappointed with your sports page. Your coverage of the games is pathetic. If a school is lucky, they have two sentences of coverage. There are hardly ever any quotes from the coaches of the small schools about their games. During basketball season, I subscribe to the Dexter Daily Statesman, which also is owned by Rust Communications. If they can provide adequate coverage, why can't you?

(Thanks for purchasing the Dexter paper. As an afternoon paper, the Daily Statesman has the luxury of several hours to compile their high school coverage each night, whereas the Southeast Missourian staff sometimes has just minutes from the end of games until our deadlines. In addition, the Daily Statesman coverage area includes eight schools; the Southeast Missourian covers 21 plus Southeast Missouri State while also offering regional and national coverage for sports fans interested in more than local high school coverage.)

Ready to run

WE HAVE a lot of healthy people running around Cape these days. They might like to participate in an untimed 5-kilometer run at HealthPoint Fitness on New Year's Day. Many of these people might enjoy running in a large group without anyone recording their time or age in the newspaper. I challenge them to tell the local running club to start a new "timeless" division in all of the local runs. Some of us don't want to tell our age and time.

Love the blog

I LOVE the new sportsblog on your Web site. Mike Mitchell is awesome. I don't agree with him always, but he's never bashful with his opinion. And the replies to his comments are priceless.

(Mitchell's blog can be found at www.semissorian.com/-sportsblog.)

Extend B.J.'s contract

TENNESSEE STATE took the interim title from basketball coach Tracee Jones after an 11-17 season with a four-year deal, and Samford signed Mike Morris to an extension through 2009-10 after a 13-15 record that was the second-best mark in program's history. Is Southeast Missouri State athletic director Don Kaverman paying attention? The first ingredient to a winning program -- and you don't have many at Southeast -- is stability on the coaching staff. This needs to be addressed now, not at the end of the season when B.J. Smith's contract runs out.