Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: Sports

When news broke early Thursday that Eastern women's basketball assistant coach Jackie Moore died at the age of 28, it visibly shook the athletic department.

It's not uncommon for the numerous teams around campus to become close during the course of the players' athletic careers. After all, they share many of the same facilities. They're trained by the same athletic staff, healed by the same trainers and often study under the same roof.

So when grief falls upon one specific group of an athletic department, it affects the department as a whole. Everyone from the volleyball team that shared the same court as Moore, to the men's basketball team that shared the same offices as Moore, to the numerous coaches, athletes and administrators who have gotten to know her over the years felt the impact of her death.

When Eastern athletic director Barbara Burke made the decision Thursday to cancel all Eastern athletic events during the weekend in wake of Moore's death, it came as no surprise.

After all, the entire department is in mourning for the loss of one of its own. And the difficulty of going on with something like sports, something so simplistic and meaningless in the large scale of things, seems pointless.

The thing is, this weekend more than any other would be the perfect time to honor Moore's memory.

This weekend is the busiest of the entire year for Eastern athletics and features two Senior Days -- rugby and men's soccer.

For an athletic department whose teams are so close to one another, what better way to honor Moore than to band together, game after game, match after match, throughout the weekend and play in her memory?

Hold moments of silence, wear patches with "JM" embroidered on uniforms and play with pride knowing it's likely what Moore would have wanted.

Now I'm not saying the women's basketball team should play its meaningless exhibition contest Saturday against Illinois-Springfield. In a moment of such grief, playing a game with so little impact both emotionally and schematically would be pointless. But let's see the rest of athletics out there. Let rugby and men's soccer have their respective Senior Days. Let men's and women's swimming continue their season. Let volleyball try and build on its late-season hot streak.

They would all do it with heavy hearts, keeping their grieving friends in their minds. But they'd do it with pride. They'd do it to escape the sadness. They'd do it for coach Jackie.

Collin Whitchurch can be reached at
581-7944 or cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.

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