As the Eastern Athletic Department has spent the past month dealing with two tragedies, the word “family” has been thrown around quite a bit.

The athletic department is a family, we would hear. The athletic department lost a member of its family, they would say.

The word has been used quite a bit, but what does it really mean? Can the athletic department, the individual teams we watch on a weekly basis, really be considered a family? Do they really act in such a manner?

The answer is an emphatic “Yes.”

Sitting in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Saturday afternoon and seeing the hoards of people pay their respect for Jeff Hoover was stunning. As defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni put it, “It was a bit overwhelming.”

What was even more overwhelming was to see the emotions of people who were part of Jeff Hoover’s Eastern family.

From an outside observer, one might not expect to see administrators get so emotional over the death of an assistant coach. On the surface, Jeff Hoover was their employee, one of several hundred.

But seeing Eastern Athletic Director Barbara Burke fight back tears as she spoke about the life of Jeff Hoover spoke volumes for the “family” aspect of this department.

Just like when Jackie Moore died, it affected everyone.

From Burke, to the players, to Dan Nadler, Eastern’s vice president for student affairs, who found himself emotional when speaking about Hoover as well.

Likewise, the amount of support from within the department further demonstrated the family-like atmosphere.

Rugby head coach Frank Graziano was seen in attendance Saturday, as was volleyball head coach Alan Segal, who helped man the table with information on donations to the Jeff Hoover Children Education Fund.

There were others I am likely leaving out, but the fact is that the support the department and university have shown in specific teams’ time of grief is incredible.

Hopefully the department never has to experience this kind of tragedy again, but if it were to happen, we now know how strong a unit the athletic department can be when dealing with tragedy.

We learned it in early November with Jackie Moore, and it was just further emphasized with Hoover’s death.

As Burke pointed out during the memorial: “We’re 21 teams, but we’re one sport.”

That fact has never been more apparent.

Collin Whitchurch can be reached

at 581-7944 or cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.

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