There’s been a lot of talk about the success of Eastern athletics lately – and rightfully so. After all, the year isn’t even half over and the Panthers have managed to rack up five Ohio Valley Conference Championships already.

And that comes on top of last year’s success in which five teams hoisted either regular season or tournament OVC championship trophies.

It’s obvious the direct benefactors from that success are the players, coaches and the athletic department. It is those individuals who are being rewarded for their hard work throughout the year. But there are a lot of other folks that most might not think of right off the bat that also benefit from Eastern’s athletic success.

One of the first that comes to mind is the cheer teams and the Pink Panthers. These two groups log just as many practice hours as Eastern’s most successful programs to support them game in, game out. That routine couldn’t have been much fun for those two groups a few years ago when the football team was just 2-10 and Lantz Gym, um I mean Arena, was empty enough at times to hear a pin drop.

It had to be hard to get excited about cheering on mediocre teams in front of just handfuls of fans. But the cheerleaders and Pink Panthers have been rewarded for their work in the form of athletic success. The days of hum drum games are long gone, and these two squads now appear in front of capacity crowds on a regular basis and have even had the opportunity to appear on national television via football broadcasts and the men’s basketball team’s postseason success a year ago.

Of course, directly linked to the cheerleaders and Pink Panther’s payoff is increased crowd support. Athletic success has benefitted the students and community by finally giving them something to get excited about in Charleston. The Blue Crew emerged last season and many of the dormrats of this university finally found a reason to venture across campus.

Not only did athletic success give the university’s students something finally to be enthused abut,