Missouri fires Softball Coach

[slot canyon 1,327]

Apparently this morning the AD fired Coach Earleywine  on basis of "lost confidence in Coach Earleywine's leadership and to foster the type of healthy environment we expect for our student athletes".  He has been the subject of controversy for a couple of years.  An interim coach is to be announced next week.  Earleywine has a 0.726 winning record in 11 seasons.  

[AU64 10,122]

4 hours ago, slot canyon said:

Apparently this morning the AD fired Coach Earleywine  on basis of "lost confidence in Coach Earleywine's leadership and to foster the type of healthy environment we expect for our student athletes".  He has been the subject of controversy for a couple of years.  An interim coach is to be announced next week.  Earleywine has a 0.726 winning record in 11 seasons.  

Heard he came close to being fired last year....timing is pretty interesting.....must have been some things come up in early season practice. 

[saminbama 740]

Feel sorry for those kids.  If they were close to firing him last year they should have done it then, not 2 weeks before this year's season starts.  Now the team has to suffer because of mismanagement.  

[around4ever 4,139]

Why wait until two weeks before the season starts?   This has been festering for a couple of years.  It should have been done at the end of last season.  It's not fair to the team to wait until now. 

[GBAU83 212]

Who knows, with rumors of what was going on at AU last year, and this Nasser thing in the headlines, if one of the players said something t the AD, He may have responded that he isn't Emertt and gonna nip it early.  If there have been problems, may have finally blew up and the AD said enough is enough.

I suspect it will hurt the program some as he was a winning coach.

[slot canyon 1,327]

Agree with GBAU83.  I believe recent events involving Women's athletics has lowered the tolerance level for any type of "abuse" in women's athletics.  AD's and administrators don't want to get dragged into that situation as recently witnessed at MSU.  As an aside....the SEC championship is played in Columbia, Missouri this year.

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Here's a link to Earlywine's statement:  http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/mizzou/earleywine-defiantly-responds-to-firing-at-mizzou/article_0869f4ce-5f02-5ff5-911d-6a506dcd3291.html?mode=comments 

[slot canyon 1,327]

Don't know if related but Page Lowery pitched there 2 seasons up through 2016 prior to transfer to Oklahoma. She was selected to WCWS All Tournament Team 2017. Also, the youngest Fagan sister (Cameron) is a commit for 2020.

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Lowery was hit just above the right eye by a line drive in the 2016 Nutter Classic.  Earlywine is widely criticized for allowing her to return to the circle after sitting on the bench 15 minutes.  She passed the concussion protocol and wanted to return.

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Missouri has named Gina Fogue, an assistant under Earleywine, as interim head coach for the 2018 season.  She played at Mizzou and has been an assistant there for about 4 years.

[GBAU83 212]

13 hours ago, OlderWhiskey said:

Missouri has named Gina Fogue, an assistant under Earleywine, as interim head coach for the 2018 season.  She played at Mizzou and has been an assistant there for about 4 years.

That is probably about the best transition you could hope at this point of the season.  And also shows that whatever the reason to fire Earleywine, it was not a systematic staff problem.