Southern retains Cador as Head Baseball Coach.

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SU keeps Cador as baseball coach

By JASON RUSSELL
Advocate sportswriter
Published: Jun 18, 2006

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Southern University baseball fans can breathe a sigh of relief: Roger Cador is not going anywhere.

Despite being courted by Southwestern Athletic Conference rival Jackson State in recent weeks, the school and Cador plan to hold a news conference at 2:30 p.m. today at Satterfield’s Restaurant in New Roads to announce the 21-year head coach will remain with the Jaguars.

Cador, who had no comment when reached Saturday night, had been concerned about upgrades to SU’s facilities as well as scholarship cutbacks for the baseball program.

SU Board of Supervisors member Tony Clayton said after a meeting with Cador and board chairman Johnny Anderson on Friday, those problems were worked out.

“(Cador) met with me and the chairman of the board Friday,” Clayton said. “(Everybody) wanted to keep him. Coach Cador is an honorable man. He didn’t ask for anything for himself. It was all for his kids.”

Clayton said the biggest issue was facilities, and a proposal before the governor’s office should take care of that.

The proposal is necessary because of a law passed several years ago by Sen. Joe McPherson which stated that should a public university want to privately finance a project, it must first get approval from the state.

Clayton said Southern wants to sell its own bonds on Wall Street and use the money to improve its facilities.

“Our facilities upgrade is hanging in the balance until the issue is signed on Wednesday,” he said. “Once the governor’s office signs off on it, you won’t hear another complaint about Southern’s facilities.”

Clayton said the proposal is scheduled to go before the governor’s office and Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc on Wednesday.

“Until then, we just have to keep our fingers crossed,” Clayton said. “When it is signed, Southern University will be well on its way to being the premier black college university in the country.

“It will cost the taxpayers nothing. This is the first time a historically black college is asking to pay its own way, so I’m begging Mr. LeBlanc to sign the (proposal).”

Attempts to reach LeBlanc were unsuccessful.

Clayton said he was frustrated as well with the lack of decent facilities at the school.

“For some reason, Southern hasn’t done anything for its facilities,” he said. “There has been no renovation here since 1942.

“We’re on the verge of something big and we assured Coach Cador of that and told him to stick with us. I think the governor and Legislature are all looking to help out Southern in any way that they can.”

The other issue Cador had with the university was the reduction of scholarships from 11.7 to nine in 2003.

Clayton said once the bond issue is signed, the scholarships will take care of themselves.

“Once we get the money for the facilities, we will be able to return those scholarships,” he said. “We’ve done everything we can do.”

Clayton said Cador was not given a pay raise nor was it asked for by the coach.

“He didn’t have a money issue with us,” Clayton said. “He is an honorable man. We didn’t have to give him a raise.

“He didn’t ask for anything for himself. It was all for the kids.”

Cador has two more seasons left, through 2008, on a contract that pays him $83,000 in base salary, with another $12,000 in housing allowance plus up to $7,000 in bonus money for winning the SWAC tournament and thereby qualifying for the NCAA tournament.

Clayton said he had talked to Jackson State Athletic Director Robert Braddy and told him Cador, who is 629-337-1 and a 1991 inductee into the school’s athletic hall of fame, was staying in Baton Rouge.

I told him we love our coach and he’s staying here,” Clayton said.

Cador’s interview at JSU had been scheduled for next week after being postponed Thursday.

Clayton said he jokingly told Cador he already had a potential successor lined up if the Jackson State job was too good to pass up.

“I told him ‘If you leave, we’ll call Smoke Laval. I heard he’s looking for a job,’” Clayton said. “(Cador) just fell out laughing.”

Southern Athletic Director Greg LaFleur was ecstatic about Cador’s decision.

“We are excited that we didn’t have to hire a baseball coach,” LaFleur said. “Coach Cador has done an outstanding job. We are just excited that he decided to stay. The timing just seemed to work out.”

Story originally published in The Advocate