As sports editor for the East Tennessean, it’s my job to keep up with ETSU sports. That being said, I feel like a very lonely man sometimes.

No one outside of ETSU’s athletic department or journalism circles seems to have the slightest clue as to what’s going on with ETSU athletics. My sports nerd friends can tell me exactly how many total yards any NFL team racked up last Sunday, but none of them can tell me who Scott Calabrese is (he’s the head coach for men’s soccer; come on people, he has an NCAA championship ring!).

Covering ETSU sports has really helped me appreciate all the effort and hard work that the students and coaches apply to their respective sports. The big problem I have with ETSU is that they don’t have the wins to support this hard work.

The combined record for ETSU’s fall sports teams (men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball) is 14-32-3. That’s a combined 40 percent winning average. The women’s cross country team sits at ninth place in the Atlantic Sun Conference standings with 34 points. First-place Jacksonville has 118.

The men’s cross country team has nothing to be ashamed of, as they sit at second place in the A-Sun with 106 points, just 10 points behind first-place Belmont. But, even though the achievements of outstanding runners like Kenneth Rotich and Ben Ronoh are nothing to scoff at, cross country is not what you’d call a spectator sport.

Speaking of spectators, it looks like I’m not the only one who’s noticed that ETSU is having a rough go-round this fall.

The women’s soccer team averages 233 spectators per home game. This means that roughly 1,078 seats are unfilled every game. The men’s soccer team averages 323 in attendance, so they only have 988 open seats on average. The volleyball team, on the other hand, averages a staggering 2,839 open seats per home game in Brooks Gym. Ei yi yi.

So far, 548 fewer people have gone to women’s soccer games than they had at this point last year. Men’s soccer attendance is down by 573. Again, volleyball takes the hardest hit as its attendance is down by 846 from this point last year.

Looking at these numbers, I’m reminded of the old zen postulation: if a tree falls in the forest, and no one’s there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Even though I’m pointing out that attendance is down and that wins are few and far between, I don’t mean to suggest that ETSU’s coaches and athletes are somehow subpar.

Last season, the men’s soccer team was decimated by then No. 15-ranked North Carolina by a score of 8-0. This year, the Bucs gave the No. 2-ranked Tar Heels a game, losing 2-1 in overtime. Last week, senior forward Jordan Monty of the women’s soccer team tallied two goals and three assists over two games. Monty’s performance earned her the A-Sun Player of the Week Award. And senior setter Amanda Youell of the volleyball team has 731 of ETSU’s 914 assists on the year.

The Bucs have some talent; they just don’t have the results to go with that talent. And as they slip further and further away from postseason contention, I can’t help but look to the future.

Hopefully the men’s and women’s basketball teams can help ETSU reclaim a few victories when the season opens up.

Personally, I think the women’s team is in better shape to contend this year. The Lady Bucs return last season’s A-Sun Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year in Siarre Evans and Latisha Belcher, respectively. Not to mention, the Lady Bucs have won the A-Sun title two years in a row, and head coach Karen Kemp is ETSU’s all-time leader in wins with 214.

The men’s team might have some trouble on offense, having lost both of its top scorers (Courtney Pigram and Kevin Tiggs) to graduation. Senior guard Mike Smith – the only current Buccaneer whose scoring average was in double-figures last season – may have to shoulder the load offensively. Nevertheless, it would be presumptuous to rule out the possible successes of last year’s Atlantic Sun champs.

With basketball only a few days away, ETSU and its fans may not have to wait too long before the school can chalk up a few more in the win column for 2009-2010. At this point, it would take a minor miracle for any of ETSU’s fall sports (except men’s cross country) to accomplish anything in the A-Sun. Maybe that will change in a week or so.

To reiterate, as sports editor, it’s my job to keep up with ETSU sports, no matter how stale and anti-climatic that they are.

That being said, by the time you’ve finished reading this, I might be fired.

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