The Buccaneer football team faced one of their toughest schedules in recent years, but still managed to secure a second consecutive winning record at 6-5, and 4-4 in conference play.
The Bucs faced Colorado State University, who have been ranked as high as 25th in the Division I football polls, and they faced conference rivals Georgia Southern, Appalachian State and Furman, all of which have been in the top 10 of the Division I-AA polls at some time during the year.
“I’m very proud of this football team,” ETSU Head Football Coach Paul Hamilton said. “We faced a lot of questions coming in, we lost a lot of quality names.”
The Bucs had several impressive victories throughout the course of the season, including victories at the Citadel and Chattanooga, and a victory over the fourth ranked Furman Paladins, a 23-21 nail biter at Memorial Center.
“This is a good football team at East Tennessee State,” Hamilton said. “This football team raised the level of this program.”
The Bucs were led throughout the season by All-Conference candidate quarterback Todd Wells, who set several records during his senior campaign including ETSU’s total offense mark with 8,713 yards during his career.
Wells also set ETSU’s single season passing record, with 2, 624 passing yards, and he broke the single season total offense mark as he compiled 2,959 yards surpassing his own record he set as a freshman.
“Todd as a sophomore came off a couple of tough games, after an impressive freshman year,” Hamilton said. “But I said then that he’d come off as one of the best quarterbacks at ETSU.”
Besides the ETSU records, Wells set the all-time Southern Conference total offense record.
The Buccaneer players and coaches were pleased with their winning season, but know if a couple of plays had swayed in their favor they may have been a contender for an I-AA playoff berth.
“This football team was three plays away from being 8-3, and 6-2 in the conference,” Hamilton said.
For the Buccaneer Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams it was a rebuilding year that will provide both teams with experience for the future.
“We did as well as we could,” said ETSU Cross Country/ Track and Field Coach Matt High. “It’s hard to ask the freshmen to come out and compete for the conference title when they don’t know what to expect.”
The Men’s team finished 9th in the Southern Conference and the Women’s team 8th.
The Men were led by Junior Greg Sprowl, who made the All-Southern Conference Cross Country Team with a 7th place finish at the Southern Conference Cross Country Championships at Appalachian State University.
The Lady Bucs were led by Senior Emily Campbell, the lone senior on both squads, who also made the All-Conference team with an 8th place finish as the conference championships.
Campbell also concluded her collegiate cross country career with a 25th place finish at the NCAA District 9 Championships, earning All-District honors.
“It was an impressive honor for Campbell,” High said. “Not many women have earned All-District honors in recent years at ETSU.”
The Lady Bucs Soccer team showed much improvement from year’s past and are establishing a program that is getting better every year.
The Lady Bucs set six school records this past season including most wins in a season as they finished 6-12 (0-9 in conference play).
“We’re building on last year,” said ETSU Head Soccer Coach Heather Henson. “We would have liked a better record, we’re not as happy, but we’ve shown definite improvement.”
The Lady Bucs were led by seniors Carey Sheaffer, a former All-Conference selection, and Becka Eisenberg, both have been with the program since it came into existence when they were freshmen.
The team will miss Sheaffer and Eisenberg, but will have a majority of the team returning including leading scorer Junior Kristin Redfern.
The Lady Bucs had key victories over Radford University, 3-2, in an overtime thriller, and the University of North Carolina Asheville, 4-1. Both were teams that the Lady Bucs fell to in the 1999 season.
They were also involved in a close contest with Davidson College, a team ranked in the South Region top 10.
Although the Lady Bucs dropped that game 2-1, it was the team’s best conference game played and served notice to Southern Conference coaches of the improvement of the Lady Bucs soccer program.

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