SEMO introduces new women’s basketball coach Briley Palmer

New SEMO Women’s Basketball head coach Briley Palmer is formally introduced by Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Brady Barke at an introductory press conference on Thursday, May 16, at the Show Me Center.

Clay Herrell ~ cherrell@semoball.com

The Southeast Missouri State Redhawks welcomed Briley Palmer as the ninth women’s basketball head coach in program history with an introductory press conference on Thursday morning at the Show Me Center.

Brady Barke, SEMO vice president for intercollegiate athletics, opened the press conference detailing the process that took 12 days from posting the position to hiring Palmer.

“Talking to our players and recruits that had signed, I gave them May 15 as a date that I wanted the search to be wrapped up,” Barke said. “If it didn’t, I would be disappointed because that means something didn’t go right in the process.”

Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Brady Barke speaks during the introductory press conference introducing Briley Palmer as the 9th head coach in SEMO Women’s Basketball program history.

The importance of that timeline was because of players on the roster and signees who had to decide if SEMO was still the right fit for them.

“There’s also still a lot of roster left to fill,” Barke said. “We knew we needed to move quickly, and I was used to that.”

Barke said that when the job was posted, the first application came in just 14 minutes later.

“There aren’t a lot of Division I opportunities,” Barke said. “I knew it was going to be a good job because this is a winnable conference that we play in.”

For Palmer, the reality that she was the next Redhawks’ women’s basketball didn’t set in until last night, after pen was put to paper.

“I was laying in bed last night thinking ‘What is going on?’,” Palmer laughed. “It’s just so humbling.”

Palmer played at Mineral Area College from 2007-09 and then played at Christian Brothers University from 2009-11.

Following her playing career, Palmer served as an assistant coach at CBU from 2011-12 and then returned to MAC as an assistant coach from 2012-20 before being named head coach of the Lady Cardinals in 2020.

“You can look at D1, D2, junior college, or whatever, but everything is getting very similar with the portal stuff,” Palmer said. “I’m in a situation right now where I need to fill my roster, but I’m not scared of it because I come from JUCO, and I’m used to the chaos. We’re going to find the best student athletes we can to compete in the OVC.”

New SEMO Women’s Basketball head coach Briley Palmer speaks during her introductory press conference on Thursday, May 16, at the Show Me Center.

In her first year as head coach at Mineral Area, Palmer finished 9-13, but the next year, she was 21-11, then 22-11, and finally 25-5 a season ago.

“Figuring out my philosophy (was important),” Palmer said of her team’s continued improvement. “Figuring out the right players and who I like to coach and who I can coach is important. I’m my best when my players believe in me and what I do. I truly think that I’m going to have that here with the players that I’ve talked to.”

Prior to being hired by the Redhawks, Palmer had spent all of her career since 2007 at either MAC or CBU.

“It’s absolutely flown by,” Palmer said. “You get there, and you don’t know how long you’re going to stay. When things are going good and to have good leadership like I had at MAC for many years, it’s really easy to stay in one place.”

The sense of community was something Palmer felt immediately, especially when looking out in the crowd at the press conference this afternoon seeing fellow Redhawks coaches.

“I plan to be at every event,” Palmer said. “I think that’s important because we are all in this together. I love that SEMO Athletics has a lot of little kids too, and that’s important to me because you get each other. We’re all real people and trying to win ballgames.”

Palmer said she is most looking to the challenge that comes with being in her first Division I season.

“I’ve joked with Brady (Barke) saying huge risk, huge reward,” Palmer said. “I am a huge risk, but I have a huge reward that I plan to give, and it starts with the community.”

While her roster is still to be finalized, Palmer said she is searching for players who play hard.

“I need all my kids to play hard,” Palmer said. “I want a blue collar kid.”

Palmer, who agreed to a five-year deal at $125,000 a year, now sets her sights on finalizing her roster in preparation for the 2024-25 season.