SEMO sues former women’s basketball coach for breach of contract

Southeast Missouri State University is suing former women’s basketball coach Rekha Patterson for breach of contract.

After leading the Redhawks to the Ohio Valley Conference championship, Patterson signed a contract extension July 21, 2020, lasting through the 2024-25 season.

After finishing the 2023-24 season with a 9-20 record, Patterson accepted an assistant coaching position at the University of Central Florida in Orlando with one year remaining on her contract. She was officially added to the UCF coaching staff May 6.

Per the lawsuit, the contract agreement required Patterson to provide SEMO written notice of her intent to find employment elsewhere and terminate the agreement. After accepting a new job at an NCAA institution such as UCF, Patterson was required per the agreement to compensate SEMO the lesser amount of either $30,000 or her remaining base salary.

According to the lawsuit, the contract's termination fee was due within 30 days either after Patterson accepted her position at UCF or terminated the contract agreement with SEMO, whichever was earlier. Patterson submitted her formal resignation May 3 and officially left SEMO on May 10.

The court document states “the termination fee was expressly structured to compensate SEMO for the ‘administrative, recruiting and resettlement costs and loss of ticket revenues’ if Patterson were to terminate the Agreement early, as well as other associated costs.”

Patterson filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit Wednesday, Oct. 9, arguing that the termination fee “constitutes an overbroad and unenforceable non-compete restriction.”

The motion to dismiss also states that the Missouri Courts routinely refuse to enforce non-competition agreements that are not narrowly tailored to protect the employer’s trade secrets. SEMO and UCF are two schools of different conferences and are not on each other's schedules, which makes the non-compete moot, the motion contends.

A case review hearing has been scheduled for Monday, Dec. 9, in Jackson.

SEMO officials and Patterson declined to comment on the litigation.