Rekha Patterson named Southeast women's basketball coach

Rekha Patterson will be the next coach for the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball program, Athletic Director Mark Alnutt announced on April 15 at the Show Me Center.

Patterson agreed to a four-year contract that runs through 2019 worth $94,000 per year with a $10,000 annuity. When the agreement is official, Patterson will become the eighth coach of the Southeast women's program and the first female head coach for Southeast in its NCAA Division I era.

Patterson previously served on the coaching staff as an associate to the head coach, Brady Sallee, at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana.

Alnutt said there were a total of nine candidates for the Southeast coaching job. These nine were interviewed in April during the women's final four in Tampa, Florida.

"When you arrange these candidates and you are going to meet with them, Rekha was number one, and if we would have known what the results of that interview was going to be, you know what, we would have stopped then and there," Alnutt said.

After a long 11-hour day of interviewing candidates, Alnutt and the senior associate director of athletics/senior woman administrator Cindy Gannon couldn't forget about Patterson and the interview earlier in the day.

"Cindy and I agreed. We kept going back to Rekha," Alnutt said.

Coaching as an assistant for 13 years, Patterson had always wanted to have the chance to be a head coach of a program, but was going to choose wisely.

"I was very selective about the program I wanted to interview for, or even send my information," Patterson said. "I wanted it to be the right fit, and I wanted it to be a place I feel like I could win and I would have support, and you guys have that here."

Patterson met with her players Wednesday morning prior to her press conference and gave them her message of commitment to the university saying, "We both have made a commitment to Southeast."

Patterson hopes to influence her players with her own traits.

"I'm energetic and I'm passionate, and I am going to give that to my young ladies," Patterson said.

Patterson has already begun setting expectations for her team.

"I truly believe that if you set your expectations high and push and motivate these young ladies, they will reach their expectations," Patterson said.

Patterson can now start her recruiting process.

"I do have young ladies in mind," Patterson said. "Obviously being in the Midwest you're aware of some players, but I've got my list and now I can start making phone calls."

Patterson comes into a struggling Southeast women's basketball program that has compiled a record of 37-78 over the past four seasons. Patterson replaces Ty Margenthaler, who resigned in late March. Margenthaler decided to resign after the season since the program was under investigation by the NCAA.

During the meeting in Tampa, Florida, Patterson was informed of the ongoing NCAA investigation of the program.

"Whatever it is, it is, and we are going to work with it," Patterson said. "Things that I can't control, I'm not going to worry about them. I am going to work on my team, make sure they are good young women, they go to class, they graduate and we win."

Patterson said she doesn't have a set coaching style, but added that her style is going to be whatever it takes to win.