Photo Gallery Welcome Back BBQ (by Sandy King)

Eastern Illinois Athletics hosted its annual Welcome Back BBQ for student-athletes, coaches and staff on Sunday night as the semester officially began with classes today (Monday, August 19). At the annual event, EIU awarded the EPIC Trophy for the season while also recognizing the four teams that won the Ohio Valley Conference Championships last season.


This year’s EPIC Trophy Award winner was the women’s basketball team, marking the program’s second consecutive and third overall win of the award. The top three teams in EPIC scoring this year were 1.) women’s basketball, 2.) women’s soccer, and 3.) men’s soccer.


The four OVC championship teams last school year were men’s cross country, women’s cross country, volleyball and softball.


This was also the second year that the OVC began honoring Community Service Award winners from each institution in the league. This year’s winners from EIU are Chad Smith from men’s soccer and Liz Galvin from women’s soccer.


In the classroom, EIU once again excelled in the OVC with 41 Academic Medal of Honor Award winners. Two EIU teams won OVC academic team awards, with the women winning awards in soccer and women’s track and field.


The Eastern Panthers In The Community Award (EPIC) was created in 2009 by the EIU Athletic Department to encourage student-athletes’ involvement in the community and campus and to promote their personal development. Each team receives points on a different scale throughout the year based on community service, academic excellence and seasonal performance.