The final buzzer sounded for 34 Eastern student-athletes at the end of the fall sports season.

With the buzzer, seniors from each of the fall sports teams played their last games as Panthers.

For the past several years, Eastern athletics has been a huge part of these athletes’ lives. They have practiced, played and conditioned nearly non-stop for anywhere from two to five years.

Dr. Brent Walker, a professor in the kinesiology and sports science department and a sports psychologist, said that many senior athletes face an identity crisis once their careers are over.

For a long time they have identified themselves as athletes and now that’s kind of taken away, he said.

Senior volleyball player Alex Zwettler said the very end of her last game was difficult.

“It’s really tough that very last play when the ball falls,” Zwettler said. “Anyone at the college level is used to a certain level of competition, and they realize they are never going to get that again.”

Red-shirt senior football player Rashad Haynes could only describe feeling one emotion after his final game: shock.

“I couldn’t even grasp reality that my college career was really done and over,” Haynes said.

Haynes said he did not truly come to realize that his college football career was over until a week after his final game. He was at home watching college football on a Saturday, something he had not been able to do hardly ever while playing for the Panthers.

Haynes said he has made some memories as a Panther that he will never forget.

“My first game ever here I got an interception,” Haynes said. “I was in the wrong coverage, but I made the interception.”

Two other games he said he will always remember were his first multiple interception game, which was against Southeast Missouri, and the first game in which he was a part of an overtime win, which happened this year against Tennessee State.

With the end of a college athletics career also comes the end of relationships with teammates and coaches, some four or five years in the making.

The first thing that came to Zwettler’s mind when asked what she would miss about her sport was her teammates. Her teammates have become family to her, Zwettler said.

“Records, numbers, stats won’t be remembered, but the relationships will,” she said.

Also, Zwettler said she would miss the camaraderie of all of the different sports teams at Eastern.

“We’re 21 teams but one family,” Zwettler said.

Zwettler also has some regrets now that her career at Eastern is over. One regret is fresh on her mind.

The Panther volleyball team could have clinched a trip to the Ohio Valley Conference tournament the last week of its season if it had won its Nov. 12 match against Tennessee Tech.

The Panthers failed to defeat the Golden Eagles and Zwettler’s last season ended without a trip to the conference tournament.

Walker was a two-sport athlete at Bradley University before he graduated in 1994. He said that regrets from past sports careers can stick with an athlete for a very long time.

“I lost in the conference championship game and when my teammates and I get together we still talk about that,” Walker said.

Haynes said he has no regrets from his time as a college athlete.

“I think I played hard and the best I could,” Haynes said. “Some things don’t turn out the way you want to but I don’t have any regrets.”

The drive to continue to compete pushed Zwettler and Haynes to find ways to continue to play their sport after their final seasons ended.

Haynes said he will continue to train and get bigger, faster and stronger in order to see if he can make it at the professional level.

Haynes’s coaches have said that some people have expressed interest in him, he said. He plans to prepare for Eastern’s pro day next semester to see if he has a shot at playing professional football.

All of Eastern’s football players who want to try going pro will participate in the pro day to give professional scouts a chance to test the players’ skills.

Zwettler said she has already talked to her coaches about helping the team practice during the spring semester even though she cannot play the next fall.

She also plans to play in some summer volleyball leagues or for club teams near her hometown of Madison, Wisc.

Also, Zwettler said she would love to coach volleyball some day.

The end of a college sports career also brings some things to enjoy.

Without the strain of a college sports schedule Zwettler and Haynes will have more time to spend how they choose.

“I am really looking forward to working out and doing things on my own time,” Zwettler said.

Haynes said he definitely will not miss getting up early for winter conditioning.

During winter conditioning football players wake up at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. in order to run or perform other conditioning drills with the team.

Jordan Boner can be reached at 581-7944 or jeboner@eiu.edu