With the hiring of Michael Lovett as the Ball State University soccer coach Monday, Abby Richter lost her title as interim head coach and possibly her job at Ball State.
Richter became the interim head coach when Michelle Salmon left Ball State to take the head coaching position at the University of Cincinnati Jan. 10. Now Richter resumes her title as assistant head coach, which she had for two seasons under Salmon, but Lovett said she is not guaranteed to keep the position.
"I plan on opening the position up, but I want to bring in or have the best possible person, someone that I can trust and the team can trust and build upon," Lovett said.
In her time at Ball State, Richter has been responsible for the goalkeepers, the team's academics and assisting in recruiting.
Lovett, who has six years collegiate coaching experience as an assistant, has been responsible for the goalkeepers at Virginia Tech and Murray State University. He also played goalkeeper at the University of South Alabama.
Lovett said he will consider Richter for the position, but he is undecided about who will ultimately be his assistant coach.
"I spoke with him briefly on Saturday and he wants me to keep the program running until he gets here [Friday]," Richter said.
Richter said she was disappointed that she did not get the head coaching position. However, she said she backs Ball State's decision as Lovett definitely is qualified with the experience he has.
Lovett and Richter have not had a chance to talk about her future with the team in depth, Richter said. She said she wants to talk to him and get a better feel about him and the future of the program.
"I haven't really decided anything right now," she said. "I'm just trying to keep my options open."
The other time a there was a coaching change with the Ball State soccer team was when Ron Rainey left to take the head coaching position at the University of Iowa after the 2005 season and Salmon replaced him.
Eileen Narcotta, Rainey's assistant coach at Ball State when he took the position at Iowa, followed him to Iowa, and Salmon brought in her assistant coach, Richter.
Salmon said she will announce the hiring of her first assistant coach at Cincinnati today, the former head coach at Jacksonville University. Salmon said she has one more full-time assistant coaching position to fill in the upcoming months.
"I'm not ready to move on that position quite yet," she said.
Salmon said she has not talked to Richter yet but she will be open to the possibility when picking her second assistant coach.
Richter said Cincinnati was not in her plans as she has not yet talked to Salmon about a position. She said she has other options open as an assistant coach at other universities.
"I've gotten interest from a couple other schools but I'm just trying to decide what is best for myself and my husband," she said.
Salmon said more experience as an assistant is always beneficial, and Richter not getting the Ball State head coaching job does not devalue her at all. Richter's time to be a head coach will come, Salmon said, and she will be a great asset to any program as an assistant.
"Abby's been a first class assistant coach," Salmon said. "I think it would be a great loss for Ball State to lose somebody with Abby's credentials."
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