Baseball coach Steve Bieser signs four-year extension

Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Steve Bieser had one year left on his contract after winning back-to-back regular season Ohio Valley Conference Championships.

After more than a month of conversations with interim athletic director Brady Barke, Bieser signed a new four-year contract worth approximately $90,000 a year on Sept. 28.

This new contract will keep Bieser at the helm through the 2019 season. According to Barke, new incentives are in place for him now after proving that he can keep the baseball team playing at a high level.

"There's always some type of performance incentives that are incorporated into coaching contracts, we try to kind of outline those incentives to provide additional benefits as the team continues to progress through the postseason," Barke said. "I think it's a much more competitive contract that got him kind of on par with the other programs in the Ohio Valley Conference that are upper epsilon programs. He's proven that's where his program will remain in the top part of the league, and we felt like we needed to make sure that his contract was competitive with the rest of those teams that are up there."

Barke took over as the athletic director a few weeks before the semester started and getting Bieser a new contract was one of his first priorities.

Barke consulted with Southeast President Dr. Carlos Vargas about putting together a new contract for Bieser.

Vargas was supportive of getting the new deal done after hearing about what the baseball team has accomplished with Bieser as its coach.

"I'm excited about the extension, but quite honestly I've always felt that if you do your job and do it the right way, whether it's a one-year contract or whether it's a four-year contract, to me it doesn't make any difference," Bieser said. "I don't approach my day any differently -- if I was on a one-year deal I'd be doing the same thing that I'm doing on a four-year deal because I think it takes that effort every single day, and I don't look at it as now we can sit back and relax because there are so many things out there that we haven't accomplished yet that I feel we can accomplish."

Bieser has an overall record of 99-76 and 58-32 in OVC play over his three years as Southeast's coach.

The Southeast baseball team has advanced to the OVC Tournament 21 straight times and advanced to the conference tournament championship round last season before falling to Morehead State 16-3.

Bieser talked with Barke about the future of the baseball program during contract negations and can now try and fulfill his aspirations for the team moving forward.

"My goal is to continue to do better things and there's still some things out there that as a team we want to accomplish and obviously our goal is to get into regional and try to make that push to the College World Series," Bieser said. "Even being a mid-major, we feel that's very doable here. There are some things I want to see happen here, and I think with that I think we're going to have the opportunity to see those things. Getting better facilities, working on the facilities and getting a team nationally, Top 25 nationally, ranked team. I think those things are very doable here at Southeast and that's kind of the goal of mine and the goal of my staff and the goal of the players as well."

The baseball team has yet to advance to the NCAA Regional Tournament under Bieser, but he believes this team has what it takes.

"We've been able to be pretty dominant in the conference the last couple of years, now the next step is winning that conference tournament and getting to a regional," Bieser said. "Basically surprising people with the talent and the system that we have here, and I think the hard work is going to pay off this year and we're going to have a really solid squad."

What validated Bieser for Barke other than his success while coaching at Southeast and winning two state championships at St. John Vianney were the former student-athletes who reached out to him after the announcement of the extension.

"It really speaks to the type of mentor that he is and how he instills values into student-athletes to try and help shape them," Barke said. "He really does lead by example both on and off the field and we see it. We see his team in the community being contributors, we see the success they have academically and we see him get the most out of his student-athletes on the field, too.

"You don't see it with necessarily one or two superstars, you see him with a lot of players that are just getting the most out of their ability, and I think that's the true test for coaches. Are you able to year in and year out take the players that you have and be able to make them better and compete with them, and he's able to do that."

Barke said he thinks it is vital for Southeast to secure its successful coaches for as long as possible for the department to move forward.

"Once they're successful, there'll come a time where they'll have opportunities to move on to bigger institutions that are able to compensate them more for what they're doing," Barke said. "I think we need to continue to do that and try and build upon the success they've been able to accomplish and so that's really a big thing for me to be able to keep Steve and there are several other coaches I'm having conversations with about, 'Hey, we really appreciate what you're doing and we want to make sure that you know that and you know that we want to keep you here.' I think that's important, and that's how we're going to continue to build our programs."