Longtime Saint Leo softball coach resigns after investigation

The conclusion of a 10-day investigation by the Saint Leo University administration, has led to a major change in the Lions' athletic department.

Longtime softball coach Christi Wade resigned following that inquiry after making what Saint Leo's student newspaper, The Lions' Pride Online, termed "racially charged comments."

"Saint Leo has a certain code of values that are intended to shape our words and action and how we conduct ourselves and our interaction with students, colleagues and community," said Fran Reidy, Saint Leo's director of athletics. "We all are part of those values and are supposed to live those values and unfortunately, the coach's behavior did not meet that code and after discussion the situation with Coach, she resigned the positions at the university."

The investigation began Feb. 17 and ended with her resignation March 2.

Wade was in the midst of her 14th season as the Lions softball coach and Senior Woman Administrator positions as well as in her second year as Saint Leo's associate athletic director.

During her tenure with the softball team, the University of West Alabama graduate amassed a 436-300 record, having compiled nine winning seasons. That record gave her the winningest ledger of any coach at Saint Leo. She guided five of her teams to the NCAA Division II tournament.
In 2007, Wade was inducted into the university's hall of fame as part of its 20th class of inductees.

According to the University of Tampa's student paper, The Minaret, Wade was verbally and physically aggressive with her players. The Minaret was told by an unidentified, former Saint Leo softball player, Wade addressed one player as a "lazy (racial slur) ."

The news caught both Land O' Lakes softball coach Jamie Martin and Land O' Lakes athletic director Karen Coss off guard. Martin played at Saint Leo from 2000-01 after transferring from a junior college, while Coss played from 1997-2000.

"She was always good to me," Martin said. "And as far as throwing around the 'n word,'I didn't really think she was a racist at all because half my family is black. My mom is half black and she loved my mom, she loved my family, too. She even came over to our house and had dinner."

Martin played softball at Palm Beach Community College and while there, broke her ankle in five spots and her foot in three. Even while on the mend, Wade brought her to Saint Leo on a softball scholarship.

"I saw none of this when I was there, and I was there four years," Coss added. "My four years there were her first four years there, but I didn't see any of it. I'm a little shocked."

Assistant coach Jana Fields has assumed the interim coaching position. Fields is in her second stint at Saint Leo. She arrived at the school in 1997 as the pitching coach. She left to take the head coach position at Eckerd College, where she remained until 2004. In 2004 she returned to Saint Leo.

"It was certainly difficult," Reidy said of the resignation. "But I believe our values are quite clear, therefore she did what needed to be done."