Some thoughts on an up-and-down weekend in Buccaneer athletics
Three steps forward, one giant step back for the football team.
After a dominant second half against Chattanooga, the Bucs figured to at least have a shot at winning five straight to close the season with a 7-4 record. After Saturday’s 24-3 debacle at Wofford, the best the Bucs can muster is a third consecutive 6-5 finish.
As head coach Paul Hamilton is quick to point out, not since a stretch of four consecutive winning seasons from 1952-55 has ETSU put together as many as three +.500 campaigns in a row.
Yet, 6-5 is still, undeniably, mediocre. And annual mediocrity can’t be considered perennial conference championship contention – Hamilton’s stated goal for the program.
At the beginning of the season, one could point to the Wofford game as a pendulum.
If the Bucs could establish themselves as one rung above the Terriers, perhaps in subsequent seasons they could begin to seriously compete with Appalachian State, Furman and Georgia Southern.
The stunning upset of the Eagles notwithstanding, ETSU still has miles to go to begin to compete with the Southern Conference elite and accomplish its long-term goal.
Hamilton, though, recognizes the team’s shortcomings, and, with the way the young defense has played, Buc faithful can be optimistic about the future.
What a crushing blow Chattanooga dealt to ETSU volleyball in the first round of the SoCon tournament.
The very day senior setter Carey Cavanaugh was named conference player of the year, she and her teammates could not give the program its first tournament victory in Cavanaugh’s tenure.
Though the sting of the five-set loss will take a while to subside, the team, which at 20-6 overall compiled the best winning percentage (.769) in school history, can be proud of plenty.
In his first year as coach, Deane Webb built a cohesive unit that won a school-record tying 10 straight and finished as high as second in conference regular season play for the first time since 1992.
Certainly, Cavanaugh cemented her place as one of the greats in ETSU history, adding to the school tradition of stellar setters. She became the fourth Buc to record 3,000 career assists, and she did it in a mere three seasons after transferring from Ohio State.
Despite the honor she received, Nov. 16 undoubtedly will remain a bittersweet date in her mind. Nonetheless, nothing can erase the myriad memories of gritty efforts she made look so easy.
As the fall sports wind down, the winter sports get going by the hot stove.
The main attraction this year will indubitably be the defending Southern Conference North Division champion men’s basketball team.
Though they were picked to finish third in both preseason polls, those in the know say they’re underrated.
With a recruiting class said to be superior to the one that had everyone talking last year, it should be an intriguing few months ahead.
Adding to the fun is that the Bucs have all the parts to play an entertaining, up-tempo, street-ball kind of game. Sophomore Jerald Fields and freshman Tiras Wade have led the new-schoolers in the early going.
Don’t look now, but some comparisons to the successful days of the early ’90s are beginning to bear fruit. Fields blocked six shots against Guilford Friday, tying Greg Dennis’ school mark.
Far be it from me to point out error in USA Today, but in their special college basketball preview section Nov. 9, they alluded to UNC-Greensboro, and not ETSU, as last year’s North Division champions.
On Jan. 14 at Greensboro and Feb. 12 at ETSU, the Bucs will have two chances to make the Spartans wish the editors had checked over that page one more time.

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