Last semester I was sitting in the newsroom, contemplating ways to make interesting headlines for sports stories when fellow editor Carl DeBeer dropped one of the more memorable, bulletin board quotes of my tenure at The Sentinel when he claimed, “There’s only so many ways you can say Owls lose.”
While the joke was surely amusing, there existed an inaccuracy in the statement that serves as a microcosm of the attitude the KSU student body has towards sports at our school.
The perception that KSU is a secondary athletic program that gets trounced on a weekly basis is most certainly false. It seems like since I’ve arrived at KSU that the athletics have already made leaps and bounds in success and marketing.
But, students have continued to use KSU athletics as a punchline, or simply ignore it all together. The fact that the student body not only lacks pride in the school at times, but also considers the athletic teams jokes is unfortunate.
That’s because KSU’s athletic teams have been outstanding. In fact, KSU’s Department of Athletics placed second this year in the race for the Bill Bibb Trophy, which is awarded to the top athletics program in the Atlantic Sun Conference. East Tennessee State barely beat us out.
KSU has only been in this conference since 2005, and just a few years ago became eligible to compete for championships.
And the respective varsity teams have definitely impressed on paper. Men’s and women’s golf have highlighted the department with conference titles in the past few seasons. The women’s team won the A-Sun title last season while the men’s team won it the year before—and nearly won it again last year.
The baseball team played in the A-Sun conference championship game this past season. How many students here are baseball fans and knew that? I doubt many.
The softball team had one of its best seasons in team history, putting a cherry on top of an amazing career for its head coach, Scott Whitlock, who will coach his final season this spring.
Track and cross country has produced national level competition, and has brought home conference titles.
For the athletes, it’s good to be an Owl. It should be for the students too. Students need to become fans. Not only is the fanhood warranted by great performances on the field and in the classroom by the teams, but we are big enough of a school that we can instantly create a unique environment at KSU.
Why? KSU is a 24,000 student school. It’s the third largest in the state behind Georgia and Georgia State. Not many athletic programs on KSU’s level, conference wise, have the fanbase and department to fall back on like KSU does.
The environment here is unique and branded very well now with the new logos, Adidas contract, and a wonderfully rennovated Convocation Center along with KSU Stadium, which has impressed every sports information rep that has come up to the press box to work for visiting schools.
If the students can just do their part in showing up to games, getting rowdy, and starting to support the teams instead of use them as the bud of half-assed jokes, the environment here at KSU could become fantastic.
Recruits will start picking KSU over other schools in the conference and respective tier of the NCAA if the environment here can become even more unique. Players want to play in front of fans, not empty seats.
Yes, the men’s basketball team did not win a conference game last year. But, it played its best when fans charged the atmosphere. Last year’s Mercer game was the only game where students showed up in packs. It was exhilerating and the outcome was almost KSU upsetting the top team in the conference.
Imagine how different the experience could be if fans committed to showing up on a regular basis? This year’s men’s team begins play Nov. 1 in the Convocation Center against Piedmont College.
This is where fans can begin to make a difference in the history of KSU athletics.
This isn’t the athletic program of yesteryear. We need to catch up.
