Lucas out as Rattler diamond coach

Interim Florida A&M athletic director Mike Smith confirmed last week the dismissal of head baseball coach Robert Lucas, eight days after the Rattlers missed the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament for the first time in four years. FAMU finished 10-31-1 overall and 3-15 in MEAC play, tied with Maryland- Eastern Shore, which edged them out for the final tournament spot thanks to winning their head-to-head three game series in April.

“We want to see our team compete like the top echelon of our conference so we can have an opportunity to be in the MEAC tournament,” Smith said. “We’ve got to do that.” Lucas was put on administrative leave until August and was told his year-to-year contract won’t be renewed. “I’m not bitter because they let me go,” Lucas said. “They asked me to come as a coach and they have a right to let me go as a coach….. You can’t put it on the kids. I think it was the fact that we didn’t have the money to recruit and get what it takes to compete.”

Smith responded to that by saying he agreed that getting top-flight student-athletes requires putting more money into recruiting, although he believes it will take time. “We are going to have to go back and look at our recruiting efforts,” he said. “I know we’ve got to give the coaches and the staff an opportunity to get out and see who those student-athletes are based on the dollars we have to put into the program. All this is not going to happen in one year.”

In the meantime, assistant head coach Brett Richardson will stay on to handle the day-to-day operation of the program until a replacement is hired, Smith said. A national search will begin soon to find a replacement, said Smith, who also said he expects Richardson to be a candidate.

Lucas was in his third tenure with the baseball program. He started as an assistant under Costa Kittles in 1977, and then left for several years before returning as head coach in 1986. He stayed until 1990, winning three conference titles in 1987, 1988 and 1990, and then he came back in 2006 as an assistant and became head coach again in 2008. Lucas, a former scout and minor league team manager for the Atlanta Braves organization, took the Rattlers to the MEAC tournament twice (2008, 2009) in his second tour, missing the tournament with him as coach for the first time this season.