Twenty minutes before the start of the Eastern women’s basketball game against Tennessee Tech on Tuesday night, the stands behind the Panthers’ bench looked more like a family reunion than a basketball crowd.

Parents of the players screamed across the bleachers to one another, embraced each other as they traveled up the stairs to their seats and talked as if they had been friends since birth.

Joanne Canale, mother of senior guard Ellen Canale, said that not only have the players come together on the court, but the whole program has as well.

From coaches, to players, and to parents, they have become one big family.

“All the parents travel together, when we’re all together I talk to everybody,” Joanne Canale said. “I love this group of people. That just shows you how good the girls are, they come from great families.”

Darrell Sims, Sr. father of red-shirt junior guard Dominique Sims, said he has adopted each one of the women on the team like they were a member of his own and is proud of their achievements.

Joanne Canale said she would do anything for the team, which includes making the team dinner.

“We like to cook for them, and they’ll eat anything,” she said. “It’s been fun.”

For these parents, not traveling to see the women play in Nashville this weekend would be nothing short of sacrilegious.

Sims, Sr., who lives in Wichita Falls, Texas, said he has attended about 75 percent of the women’s games this season.

“I have to take a plane to get there,” he said. “That tells you how far it is.”

Sims, Sr. said they will have seven or eight family members at the game including family from Texas and Louisville, Ky.

Ralph and Joanne Canale said they were at the OVC Tournament last season, but this year it would be more exciting if they could win the whole thing.

They said they don’t buy their tickets until they reach the stadium because it is general admission and typically does not sell out.

They will also have a large number of people on hand to support the Panthers.

“Ellen’s sister and brother-in-law are going to be there,” Ralph Canale said. “Our real good friends coming from the Detroit area (are also coming).”

Senior forward Lindsey Kluempers’ family will be in a unique situation this weekend.

Not only is their daughter playing in her final OVC Tournament, but Lindsey’s sister Kristen Kluempers is a freshman forward on Murray State’s squad.

“This is a better story,” Lindsey’s father Kurt Kluempers said. “When the core class came here they were a little down and out. This group has really built up and done a nice job. Last year at the same time is where they sprung forward, and I think they’re going to do it this year too.”

Kurt Kluempers said their hotel room will be filled with six or seven people, including a couple of hangers-on. In addition, the room will have two different rooting alliances.

“It’s going to be odd because in our room we are going to have Lindsey’s boyfriend and Kristen’s boyfriend, who is a Murray State guy,” he said.

Regardless of whether the women cut down the nets or not, the Panther parents could not be more proud of their daughters.

“(It has) been a great season for our girls,” Ralph Canale said. “We have been here for four years, since the first season in, and every year we have seen them get better and better. We have all just kind of gelled together this year and we are ready to kick some butt.”

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected].