Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University’s athletic department looked like it was close to filling its’ final open positions, as the calendar neared July, but the last days of June into the first days of July saw two coaches leave the department.
The first was Lady Govs head softball coach Stephanie Paris, who informed interim athletics director Cheryl Holt on June 28th that she was stepping down from her position that she had held for three seasons to go into private industry.
Paris’ departure marks the second APSU head coach not to return following the 2014-15 school year, with women’s head basketball coach Carrie Daniels not having her contract renewed by the university in March.
Gibson leaving marked the second men’s basketball assistant to leave this summer, with Charles ‘Bubba’ Wells leaving the program to take a position at Ohio Valley Conference opponent Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in early May, while also coming on the heels of the return of assistant coach Jay Bowen to the men’s basketball team as an assistant – after 13 years since his first stint on head coach Dave Loos’ staff.
Paris’ departure leaves the University with a couple of different directions it could go in to fill her vacated position, with the option to elevate current assist coach Shane Showalter into an interim head coach of the softball program or open it up for a national search for a new head coach.
If the University does move Showalter into the position, he will bring with him 259 career wins in 14 years as a head coaching, with 10 years at Division II Colorado State-Pueblo – including a trip to the NCAA Division II National Tournament in 2009 — and four seasons at Division III Colorado College.
On the men’s basketball side, Loos will not only be replacing his second assistant this summer, but replacing Gibson will mark the 24-year head coach having had replace his entire staff from the 2013-14 season.
So with the University reaching its final stage of finding a new athletics director this month, Govs fans will also be keeping an eye on who will be joining men’s basketball as a new assistant coach and who will be the new mentor for the women’s softball program.
