Southeast Missouri State selects new softball coach

Southeast Missouri State announced the hiring of Mark Redburn as its softball coach on Thursday.

Redburn, a coach that had compiled a record of 90-175 in the last five years at the University of Evansville, was tabbed to replace Lana Richmond, who led the Redhawks to a 99-157 record over the last five seasons of her 32-year tenure.

When Richmond's contract was not renewed on May 14, Southeast athletic director Mark Alnutt said that on-field performance was a key reason why and said his senior associate athletic director Cindy Gannon would lead the search for Richmond's replacement.

"After conducting a national search, we are very pleased to introduce Mark Redburn as the new head softball coach at Southeast Missouri State," Gannon said in the press release announcing the hire Thursday afternoon. "Mark brings extensive knowledge of softball, a vast amount of coaching experience and a great passion for the sport. We are excited for Mark to begin his duties at Southeast and welcome him to the Redhawks family."

Redburn had been the softball coach at Evansville for the last five years before resigning on May 7 after the Purple Aces finished with a record of 19-32 last season. He remained at the university until May 31.

"Sometimes there's just changes in style and philosophy, and just for me I didn't feel like that was the right for me and what I wanted to achieve and what I wanted to do there," Redburn said of his resignation. "It's a great university, you know, extremely academically successful and great kids, all of those things. But I just knew that we were limited in a lot of ways and a lot of capacities. Small university -- only 2,100 students, and so it was difficult just for me and my personal desires of feeling like we had the resources and tools to help the student-athletes. Like I said, it is what it is. It's not right or wrong or bad or anything, it's just I felt like it was time for me to try to move on and just try to find a place that fit what I was looking for."

Redburn, who experienced far greater success before being hired by Evansville, believes that Southeast is a better fit for him, and said that the direction Alnutt has taken the athletic department drew him to the open position as well as the opportunity to coach in the Ohio Valley Conference.

"Just knowing that as a coach I want to have the opportunity to make sure that we have everything that's available to us to try to be the best that we can be and the things that we can do for our student athletes," Redburn said. "I just have to feel like with his professional background and that sort of thing that certainly he's coming in there and those are his directions and drive as well. I think most people want to be a part of -- whether it's professionally in business or in this case with the university -- want to be a part of teams and programs that want to move forward and be the best that they can be."

Redburn said he will start contacting returning Southeast softball players through email immediately and give them an idea of what they can expect from him as a coach. He met some of them during the interview process.

"I'm really a teacher at heart," Redburn said. "That's what my bachelor's degree is in and that's really what it's about for me. I try to teach the game, and I want our players to know and understand exactly why we are doing the things that we're doing. I'm not just trying to rely on physical talent or ability -- I want them to be smart players and understand that it's a team involvement and concept.

"Even though it's a hitter facing a pitcher it's still a total-team effort, whether it's a 20-player roster or those nine particular players on game day we have to do the little things to be successful as a team."

The next step will be to complete his coaching staff during the summer, but he has no deadline of when he'd like that to be finalized at this point.

Prior to Evansville, he was an assistant coach at the University of Missouri for three seasons, which included a trip to the College World Series by the Tigers. He served as a recruiting coordinator and worked with pitchers and catchers.

Redburn served as the head coach at St. Charles Community College from 2001-2004. In 2003 the team finished seventh in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I National Tournament after winning the Region 16 championship, and the team won a school-record 33 games the following season.

He served as the head coach of the Jefferson College softball program in its first two seasons. He was named the Midwest Community College Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2006 after leading Jefferson to a 49-16 record in its first year as well a Region 16 championship and ninth-place finish in the NJCAA Division I National Tournament.

"I think the biggest thing is just experience," Redburn said he takes away from those previous jobs. "That's the one thing that over time you cannot rush and during that time you do learn so much -- both good and bad. You look back and you think about what you will do or what you won't do or maybe what you would do different. I just think it's the experience and how I truly love what I do for a living. I don't look at this as a job. This is an opportunity to have an impact on student-athletes in so much more than just softball, and that's what I truly love about this.

"I want to help teach them and provide them with the knowledge and things for life, and how to deal with adversity and how to be dedicated and committed to what you want to be successful at. Those are the things that I really enjoy. There are some other things like being able to coach at the College World Series there in 2009 or winning a Big 12 championship or whatever. Those are great things but for me it's just having an opportunity to have a positive impact hopefully for life with the student-athletes that I come into contact with."