After losing one of her budding young stars to homesickness, Southern Illinois University head softball coach Kerri Blaylock replaced her with potential wunderkind Alex Peters from Crowder College.

Are you surprised she was able to find quality talent this late in the recruiting season? I'm not.

Blaylock has spent a decade at the helm of the Saluki machine and has proven an expert at finding the right places to apply the grease to keep the wheels turning.

As SIU coach, Blaylock has never had a losing season. The closest she came was 2008 when the team finished 30-24. But the Salukis responded with a 33-13 season in 2009, including nine weeks ranked in the top 25.

That's coaching.

There will always be arguments as to what SIU's bread-and-butter sport is, but softball has proven to be one of the most consistent. The reasons are simple - respect, honesty and accountability.

When I first interviewed Blaylock for the season preview in February, she admitted she didn't handle the 2008 season very well in losing more games than she was used to. She wasn't asked about that but freely brought it up.

That's coaching.

I've talked to more than a few players that regard Blaylock as a second mom. She can be stern, but she is fair. She protects her players in the media but isn't afraid to publically identify what they need to improve upon.

That's coaching.

Blaylock understands better than most the relationship between sports and the media assigned to cover them. Her players are always available for interviews. Even recruits, once their paperwork has come through, are a phone call to her office away. Blaylock has made it easy to cover her teams.

Some may nit-pick and point out that SIU still has never won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament and last won a conference title in 1991 as a part of the Gateway Conference.

But Blaylock has made a career out of turning a mid-major into a high-major. She loves being the underdog but with 10 years of success that argument is losing traction. You have to have talent to do that, and Blaylock has brought some of the best to Carbondale.

It is clear she is treasured at SIU. She has served on coaching search committees, and it's hard not to mention SIU softball without including Kerri Blaylock in the same sentence.

On the national scene, she has become synonymous with the sport she coaches and the university she coaches it for.

And that's coaching.

Pete Spitler is a sports reporter for The Southern Illinoisan. He can be reached at 618-351-5073