• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jul 26, 2009 - UPDATED: 6:35 p.m.

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Southern University has agreed to a three-year contract with longtime baseball coach Roger Cador, who had interviewed twice this month for the same post at the University of New Orleans.

SU Chancellor Kofi Lomotey said the school will pay Cador $125,000 per year and has agreed to allow Cador to raise up to an additional $25,000 per year. Cador, who coached without a contract last season, said he had been paid $83,000 per year, with a housing allowance paying him an additional $12,000.

Cador, who played baseball and basketball at the school, has been Southern's baseball coach for the past 25 seasons. During that span, his teams have won 14 Southwestern Athletic Conference championships and produced top talent like Rickie Weeks and Fred Lewis.

"We're very pleased about this agreement," Lomotey said.

At the Sunday evening news conference, also attended by SU Board of Supervisors Chairman Tony Clayton and SU Athletic Director Greg LaFleur at the law office of Cleo Fields, the sides also talked about furthering the university's commitment to the baseball program as being a part of the negotiations to retain Cador.

That includes, the sides say, finding a way to hire a pitching coach, which Southern has not had two of the last three seasons, including the past season, when the Jaguars won the SWAC, and finally building an facility with offices, meeting rooms and locker rooms next to Lee-Hines Field.

"We intend to re-double those efforts to make sure the stadium is in appropriate condition for us to move forward with baseball at Southern University," Lomotey said.

Clayton said he hoped the facility, for which money has been allocated, could be completed within 18 months.

"Getting that facility, that clubhouse, for the kids is way overdue," Cador said.

Cador said the possibility of leaving for UNO had been enticing.

"The last week has been very difficult on me," Cador said.

Clayton said Cador was "synonymous" with Southern baseball and that not having Cador at the school would be like "Kellogg's without the Corn Flakes."

"When we first started conversing, the main issue was the kids," Clayton said. "… Timetable is an issue. I propose we'll probably have it done in the next 18 months. Of course, that wasn't acceptable to them. We have the architectural plans, and I will push it. … The money is already out there."