KENT STATE Coach Linder resigns

[geowardjr]

http://www.kentstatesports.com/news/2015/8/29/SB_0829154948.aspx

This is a shock .... her players seem to love her as a coach. So many alumni have nothing but praise for her. I hope she leaves on her terms. Coach Eric will do a fine job!

 

[WWolff]

Sad day in the softball world. Karen was one of the good ones out there. She will be dearly missed, and what a huge loss for Kent State Softball!

 

[Strohbro]

WOW!!! Didn't see this one coming!

 

[mogsoftball]

Anybody know what happened? This was a complete shock. Karen would let us bring our team in to watch one of her practices then sit and talk to the girls.

 

[FastBat]

She had such a great 2015 season! Huge loss for Kent State and the softball community. Good luck to Coach Linder in her future endeavors!

 

[eagleone]

The program is losing a good one. One of the best people and coaches I have had the pleasure to know and deal with.

 

[WalkOffHR]

Gonna be some verbaled 2016's sweating bullets. What terrible timing.

 

[lewam3]

Gonna be some verbaled 2016's sweating bullets. What terrible timing.

At least one 2016 got a phone call from the interim HC saying they are still honoring their offer, and it was a big offer.

 

[WalkOffHR]

I guess that would be the right thing to do under the circumstances. Would be really lousy for them to pull rug out from under HS seniors....but then again look what Akron did to the baseball players.

 

[manitoudan]

Same situation happened a good friend of mine and the new coach flat out pulled the offer -- to a senior athlete who had the verbal in place the prior year. It was a MAC school . Invited her to campus to the fall camp and ignored them .

 

[WalkOffHR]

Looks like they only have 3 verbals from class of 2016 and none beyond that. Wonder if this was brewing for a while and recruiting had stopped. 4 seniors graduated plus every team loses at least 1-2 that decide not to return. Would think they would have at least 4-5 verbals by now and at least a couple 2017s

 

[Pacerdad57]

Lets.hope they do the right thing and honor all of those verbals.

 

[cjs]

Looks like they only have 3 verbals from class of 2016 and none beyond that. Wonder if this was brewing for a while and recruiting had stopped. 4 seniors graduated plus every team loses at least 1-2 that decide not to return. Would think they would have at least 4-5 verbals by now and at least a couple 2017s

Just because names are not on master verbal list on the internet does not mean there aren't any verbals, verbal lists are not made by school or ncaa, they are made by players or parents sending their information to the listing websites

 

[classicpride]

I have been hearing since early July that Karen was stepping down. Probably a formality for retirement benefits or something similar. I don't think this is as sudden as it appears.

 

[WWolff]

Kent recruiting: Kent recruited a little later then a lot of schools now a days so not a big deal on the numbers at all. I talk to D1 schools almost every day and there class sizes range from 2 players to 5 or 6 or more depending on needs of that class.

Verbal list yes there are a few kids here and there not on there but most kids are.

Karen had her reason's to resign and not retire! I'm hoping we can respect that and not speculate as we move forward.

 

[K9crmfitr2]

Been trying to get on here today to respond but too busy at work to reply earlier.
I couldn't agree more with Warren.

Karen has touched the lives of so many players over the years, not just in Ohio but all over.

I have my own personal experiences with Karen as my daughter went through the recruiting process and I have first hand knowledge that she always treats everybody with dignity and respect.

And from a coach and recruiting standpoint, Karen has always been honest, approachable, and straight forward.

I remember Karen telling my daughter at Firestone Stadium: "No worries, you'll find a wonderful softball home because you're a good person and good things come to good people."

Well she has found a great home and I must thank you for your kindness and inspirational words.

It's people like you that have made this game what it is today! Selfishly, I'm sure we all hope you plan to continue your softball career but I wish you the best of luck in whatever future plans you have!

Larry Mercurio
Outlaws Pa Premier 16u

 

[Heavy Hitter]

Karen had her reason's to resign and not retire! I'm hoping we can respect that and not speculate as we move forward.

I completely disagree people should be asking why. She was the head coach of a D1 College program. She had been there for 19 years and was the winningest coach in Kent State program history. And all of a sudden she steps down without warning. Heck in the article in Kent State Sports they talk about what she has accomplished but did you notice there wasn't even a thank you to her. If it was for personal reason then the school or her could have come out and said something like "for her own reason Coach Linder has decided it was time for her to move on." End of story not getting into what the personal reason are. But, the way it is being handle there definitely seems to be more to this story.

 

[WWolff]

I completely disagree people should be asking why. She was the head coach of a D1 College program. She had been there for 19 years and was the winningest coach in Kent State program history. And all of a sudden she steps down without warning. Heck in the article in Kent State Sports they talk about what she has accomplished but did you notice there wasn't even a thank you to her. If it was for personal reason then the school or her could have come out and said something like "for her own reason Coach Linder has decided it was time for her to move on." End of story not getting into what the personal reason are. But, the way it is being handle there definitely seems to be more to this story.

No one ever said not to ask! Not sure where you got that from. All I asked was to not make up stuff.

Well she did step down for her own reasons and she didn't retire.

 

[Heavy Hitter]

You are correct, you just asked people not to speculate. i'm not sure how everyone else feels but this just seems off to me. She steps down after 19 season as KSU winningest coach and KSU doesn't really acknoweldge her or what she ment for their program. It seems KSU like, her is what she did bah, bah, bah, don't let the door hit in the butt on the way out.

 

[eagleone]

Unless you hear the reason straight from Karen herself I would not believe anything I heard and I would not believe that it was being planned since July, I was setting up a visit for a kid just last week with her.