OVC, Southeast to collaborate on growing interest in women's hoops

Southeast Missouri State women's basketball coach Rekha Patterson watches her team compete at the Show Me Center earlier in her tenure with the Redhawks.

Southeast Missourian file

The start of the Southeast Missouri State women’s basketball season is months away, but Southeast, in conjunction with the Ohio Valley Conference, is already strategizing on how to get fans interested in the upcoming campaign and beyond.

The genesis was a motion passed at the OVC Spring Meetings last month that allocated funds to “provide a professional development opportunity for women’s basketball coaches and marketing staffs to help grow the sport.” OVC schools plan to take advantage when coaches, athletic directors and marketing staffers gather for a one-day meeting sometime in the near future to discuss ways to improve exposure in the women’s game.

A conference official will likely spearhead the meeting, according to Southeast athletic director Brady Barke. A date hasn’t been set yet, nor a location, although Barke said the one-day meetup would likely be in Nashville, Tennessee. Either way, Southeast is looking forward to the opportunity to collaborate with other programs.

“I think it’s great that the conference office is committed to helping grow the game,” Redhawks coach Rekha Patterson said. “That’s a big thing, even with the NCAA women’s basketball national championship, is growing the game and how to do it. So from the NCAA to our conference, making that a priority. Anytime you put an emphasis on something, good things can come from that. It’s exciting, and we’re looking forward to new ideas on how to get the people of Cape Girardeau and the local area to support women’s basketball.”

Recently, the conference realized there were leftover funds designated for women’s basketball, and with a little extra cash to work with, the coaches and athletic directors came up with the idea for a brainstorming session.

Along with Patterson and Barke, Phillip Lady, the coordinator of marketing and promotions, will likely attend the meeting along with possibly a graduate assistant from that department.

“It was something, as we talked about, maybe there’s a way for people to come together without a lot of institutional expense to be able to further develop our staff but also to try to accomplish the objective of being able to improve the interest around the sport,” Barke said. “That was really the driving factor for it.”

Southeast was eighth in the 12-team OVC this past season with an average of 664 fans at home games. Tennessee Tech led the conference in average home attendance with a mark of 1,817. The average for conference home games was 1,007 fans.

The national average across Division I programs was 770, according to an NCAA report. South Carolina led the nation with an average of 10,406, according to the same report.

Now, the OVC schools will have a chance to work at improving their numbers. It’s an opportunity, that although in the early stages, Barke and Patterson hope will lead to something more.

“It has a lot of potential,” Barke said. “Anytime you get people in the same room just to share ideas and talk through some of their challenges and what works on their market and their campus, I think that’s a really healthy exercise and I think people will benefit from it.”