Gillespie, Holm, Bovee sign extensions with Redbird women’s basketball, baseball, track

Posted on November 12, 2019

By Greg Halbleib

NORMAL – Illinois State has announced women’s basketball coach Kristen Gillespie, baseball coach Steve Holm and director of track and field and cross country Jeff Bovee have signed contract extensions through 2024.

Gillespie is in her third season with the Redbirds. She signed a two-year extension after leading Illinois State to a 19-12 record last season, the most wins in six years. The 11-7 mark in the Missouri Valley Conference was the best since 2012-13.

In her first two seasons, the Redbirds claimed the Missouri Valley Conference’s Newcomer of the Year in Simone Goods and TeTe Maggett with both also earning All-MVC First Team honors.

“Kristen has made significant improvements in our women’s basketball program in a short period of time,” Illinois State Director of Athletics Larry Lyons said in a release. “We look forward to competing for championships for years to come under her leadership.”

Illinois State is 1-1 and is next in action at Illinois Saturday at 2 p.m.

Holm signed a one-year extension after leading the baseball Redbirds to the NCAA tournament and a share of the Missouri Valley Conference title in his first season last spring. The Redbirds finished 2019 with a record of 36-26, a 14-win improvement over 2018 and the most wins since 2013. The 36 wins were the most ever for a first-year coach in Redbird program history. In the NCAA regional, Illinois State defeated Big Ten champion Indiana and host Louisville before falling to Louisville in the Redbirds’ first-ever regional final.

“Steve made it very clear in his first year as a head coach that he has a very high skill set and our young men responded to his coaching,” Lyons said in a release. “We expect good things to continue to happen at Duffy Bass Field.”

Redbird baseball opens the 2020 season Feb. 20 at Little Rock.

Bovee is in his sixth year as director of track and field and cross country and his 13th year overall at Illinois State. The Redbirds swept the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in 2018 for the first time since 1999, earning him MVC Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year. Bovee’s extension is for two years.

Sports Director Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year. It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city. Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University. We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk. Going to work every day for some people means…