Eastern has received the Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner’s Cup for the 2009-2010 school year after going through many misfortunes.

The Commissioner’s Cup is an award for athletic excellence in all male and female sports within the conference-sponsored championships.

Eastern finished with 100.5 points, beating last year’s Commissioner winner, Murray State, by seven points.

The award consists of scoring a university’s four main sports (football, volleyball, men’s basketball and women’s basketball) along with the remaining eight highest scoring sports.

This year, the athletic department suffered with two coaches quitting the Track and Field team and the death of women’s assistant basketball coach Jackie Moore, and assistant football coach Jeff Hoover.

Despite all the blows to the athletic department, the teams that suffered the most helped Eastern tremendously: women’s basketball, football, and track and field all finished first in the conference.

Bob Spoo, the head coach of the football team, felt that much of their success was attributed to athletic director Barbara Burke.

“She has brought life to the program and everybody’s sport,” he said. “She’s been very helpful in so many ways and we’re all proud of the fact that we were able to excel from her support.”

Brady Sallee, the head coach of the women’s basketball team, also felt that much of their success came from Burke who helped them cope with the unexpected death of Moore. “You learn a lot about someone’s character as they face that type of adversity,” said Sallee. “Barbara showed a lot of leadership.”

Sallee also said much of their success came from Burke putting all the right people in the right places and how these people encouraged the athletes.

“In these types of situations there’s no manual and you don’t just win something like that (the Commissioner’s cup) by accident,” he said. “It was a tough year and I think to do what we did under the adversity we faced speaks volumes.”

Both Spoo and Sallee are looking forward to their next seasons.

Spoo feels optimistic about the upcoming football season and about the new strength and conditioning coach Barbara Burke hired, Eric Cash.

“We’re working extremely hard. I think we’ve gotten considerably stronger and as a result more athletic to his efforts,” Spoo said. “It’s all up in the air because we haven’t gotten into pre-season. If we all stay healthy, I think we’ll be very competitive.”

Eastern Kentucky finished third for the Commissioner’s Cup (92), followed by Morehead State (88), Jacksonville State (84), Tennessee Tech (76), Austin Peay (74), Southeast Missouri (69.5), UT Martin (59.5) and Tennessee State (45).

Harrison Bueno can be reached at 581-7942 or at hbueno@eiu.edu.