Nov. 5, 2009

By Jeff Honza
Southeast Missouri State Sports Information

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri State University Associate Director of Athletics and Senior Women's Administrator Cindy Gannon will be inducted into the De Soto High School Athletics Hall of Fame Friday.

Gannon (Class of 1980), Clifford Sansoucie (Class of 1955) and Kathleen (Goff) Dietz (Class of 1964) will be honored during a special reception in the De Soto High School commons area at 5:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend the induction ceremonies, which will be followed by a Veteran's Day program at 7 p.m.

Gannon was a great student, who was involved in many activities at De Soto High School. Following graduation, she continued her education at Mineral Area College and Southeast Missouri State.

After earning a bachelor's degree in Physical Education from Southeast in 1985, Gannon took over as the school's head volleyball coach in 1989. She compiled an overall record of 366-211, won eight Ohio Valley Conference Championships, earned OVC Coach-of-the-Year honors four times and made four NCAA Tournament appearances in 16 years at the Southeast helm.

She was also the recipient of the Mineral Area College Outstanding Alumni Award and Southeast Missouri State College of Education's Young Alumni Merit Award.

More importantly, Gannon founded the Dig for Life Breast Cancer Awareness Program, which is a fundraiser held annually to help promote breast cancer awareness. The program is close to the heart of Gannon, who lost her mother to the disease in 1999.

Gannon's responsibilities at Southeast include event management, sports supervision, personnel recruitment, monitoring the athletic department's compliance and gender equity, and serving as an institutional representative to the OVC. In addition, she was Southeast's interim AD until the new Director of Athletics was hired following a national search.

Gannon resides in Cape Girardeau.