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Now in her 36th year at her alma mater,
Sallie Beard is in her seventh year as Missouri Southern s athletics director.
For 25 years prior to the 2001-02 academic year, Beard helped lead the growth
and development of Missouri Southern s women s athletics program, as she served
as MSSU s women s athletics director. Since beginning as the school s sole athletics director, Beard has played an integral role in several projects. During the 2002-03 academic year, she oversaw the Lion Pride Restoration Project, an effort to replace track and artificial football playing surfaces at Missouri Southern s Fred G. Hughes Stadium. Beard also led the effort to split the MSSU soccer programs. The men s and women s teams had previously operated under one head coach until 2003. More recently, Southern has announced plans on developing the 110 acres of land East of Duquesne Road for use by six varsity sports, which will include improvements to Fred Hughes Stadium. Beard currently serves on the NCAA Division II Management Council, the Division II Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee, the Management Council Identity Subcommittee and the NCAA Convention Planning Subcommittee. She has previously served on the Division II Nominating and Voting Committees, as well as the Committee on Women s Athletics. Beard has held a leading role in the MIAA, serving as the conference s president from 1999 until 2001. She filled the position after serving as vice president of the MIAA in the 1998-99 school year. Since serving as the first head coach of the women s basketball, softball, track and field and tennis teams, Beard has seen the department grow in both size and stature as Southern now offers eight women s varsity sports and has attained NCAA Division II status and membership in the MIAA. During her tenure, the Southern women have won four conference basketball championships, four softball titles, two cross country titles, and one conference crown each in volleyball, tennis and track & field. Beard served as tournament director for the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Division II Softball Championships. Southern won the Championship in 1992. This past year, the Missouri Southern athletic program finished 46th nationally in the Division II Directors Cup Standings. Nine of the 16 programs advanced to NCAA post season play in 2006-07 and Missouri Southern will also serve as the host for the 2007 NCAA Division II Men s and Women s Cross Country Championships. Always taking pride in the academic success the program has consistently shown, Missouri Southern ranks among the best in the MIAA. The conference and the NCAA chart the academic success rates (ASR) of member institutions over a six-year period. They take into count two separate rates, one for scholarship athletes, and another for all athletes. This past period, under Beard's leadership, Missouri Southern had an ASR of 87 percent, which is 36 percent higher than the general population at MSSU, and the highest differential within the MIAA. A native of Joplin, Beard earned her bachelor s degree in physical education from Southern in 1972. She was hired as an instructor in the University s physical education department in August of that year. After earning a master s degree in physical education from Pittsburg State University in 1973, Beard was called upon by several students in 1974 to organize Southern s first women s basketball, softball and tennis teams. She coached all three sports until 1976, when she relinquished her softball duties to become women s athletics director and head coach of the first MSSU women s track & field team. She later stepped down as basketball coach in 1977 and as tennis coach in 1978. During her stint as track & field coach, Beard was twice named NAIA District 16 Coach of the Year, including in 1983 when she led Southern to the district outdoor title. She also served as an assistant coach for the U.S. team at the 1981 World University Games in Romania and for the North squad at the 1983 National Sports Festival in Colorado Springs, Colo. She was also on the games committees for the NAIA Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Championships from 1979-83. Beard and her husband, Larry, have two children, a daughter, Meghan Klosterman, and a son, Andrew. Andrew is a graduate of the University of Tulsa and has just accepted a position as an applications support analyst with Allegro in Dallas, Texas. Meghan and her husband, Shawn have a daughter, Camryn.
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