Eagles go down in history

No college in America has ever made it to the post-season in their first season as a division I program.

That is, until Florida Gulf Coast University came along.

This season, the FGCU women’s basketball team clinched their entry into the WNIT tournament when they defeated Cal.St. Bakersfield 64-54 in their regular season finale. In the first round of the tournament, they defeated USF in front of their always lively home crowd. Their Cinderella story came to an end in a hard-fought and very close game to the Florida Gators.

Never before has a team currently in the Atlantic-Sun conference won a postseason game. The lady Eagles did it in their first year.

To put things in perspective, think about all of the colleges known for their athletics around the country.

Not Florida, not Florida State, not Michigan, not Ohio State. None of the big names we know were able to make their way to the postseason in their first year.

Florida Gulf Coast will soon be one of those names that you mention when you think of the big-time.

It may not be within the next few years, but you can rest assured that a school with such quick success will be around for a long time.

They put together this unlikely run without their two leading scorers from the previous season. That indicates the high-quality coaching that the girls are receiving. As an influx of new recruits come into the system and more and more quality athletes decide to attend FGCU, the school will have an athletic program that they can be very proud of.

They already do, as they stand alone in the history books until someone else can join them.