EIUPanthers Podcast

Welcome as we kick of our third season of EIU Panthers Podcast visiting with with former EIU football player Jamie Pilson who has gone on to be a successful businessman in the local community.  He talks about the experience of playing for former head coach Bob Spoo along with a couple of new initiatives taking place surrounding the EIU Football Program with the Panther Football Players Association...

Our spring season of EIUPanthers Podcast continues as this week we visit with former Eastern Illinois women’s basketball player Mariah King.   We talk to King about her career playing for the Panthers, touch on her playing career professionally overseas and discuss the Panthers success this season as she is in her first season as an assistant coach on the team.  The women are set to play as the No...

We start up the spring segments of our EIUPanthers Podcast series as we visit with recently hired EIU women’s soccer head coach Dirk Bennett.  Bennett discusses his long relationship with both the local area, Eastern Illinois and Panther soccer as he embarks on his first head coaching role at the collegiate level.   Along we talk a little soccer and some of the styles of play that intrigue him.  E...

Welcome back to our latest episode of EIUpanthers Podcast (No. 89).  Eastern Illinois baseball has had three players selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball Draft most recently with the selection of Trey Sweeney in 2021 by the New York Yankees.  Tim Pyznarski was the first of those three Panthers selected when the Oakland A’s tabbed him with the 15th pick of the 1981 MLB Draft.  H...

This week in our return to the EIUPanthers Podcast series we sit down with Eastern Illinois Head Athletic Trainer Jim Nave. Nave has been in the athletic training business for more than 20 years and discusses what first got him into the profession and what things he has seen evolve over the past two decades.  In addition he talks about how he has built his athletic training staff here at EIU and h...

Our Eastern Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame series continues this week on EIUPanthers Podcast (Episode 87) with Marlise Davidson.  Davidson was a three-sport athlete at Eastern Illinois which is a unique feat in these modern times when athletes excelling at just one sport is hard enough.  Davidson was a standout in the pool as a sprint swimmer, a member of the EIU women’s rugby team playing in a u...

Welcome to this week’s edition of EIUPanthers Podcast (episode 86) as we continue our 2022 EIU Athletic Hall of Fame series this week as we talk with Dino Fanti.  Fanti was a member of three EIU FCS playoff teams earning Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2015 en route to earning first team All-American honors.  Fanti did not follow the professional football route like h...

This week on EIUPanthers Podcast we start our Hall of Fame series talking over the next couple of weeks with members of the 2022 Eastern Illinois Athletic Hall of Fame.  First up is Tom Akers who will be inducted as a coach following a dominating career leading the Panthers track and field programs.  During his tenure, EIU won 45 Ohio Valley Conference track and field championships between the men...

This week we visit with another of the Panthers new head coaches as EIUPanthers Podcast (Episode 84) sits down with head swimming coach Johnathan Jordan.  Jordan was hired late in the summer and hit the ground running at EIU in early August.  He has a couple of previous head coaching stops and last fall had the unique chance to serve as an Olympic Coach for the team from the Marshall Islands.  Jor...

Welcome to this week’s episode of EIUPanthers Podcast (No. 83 in our series).  Eastern Illinois pitcher Hayden Birdsong was selected in the sixth round of this year’s Major League Baseball Draft by the San Francisco Giants.  We catch up with Hayden on one of his off days as he is down in Arizona preparing for an abbreviated first season of professional baseball.  He gives us some insight on the dr...

Episode 82 of EIUPanthers Podcast - this week we talk to new Eastern Illinois men’s soccer coach Josh Oakley. Oakley grew up a local kid at nearby Mattoon High School and previously worked as an assistant coach with the Panthers men’s soccer program.  We talk to him about his coaching journey and what has brought him full circle as he gets to coach a program that he knows a little something about....

Welcome back to EIUPanthers Podcast as we begin our third season of episodes covering Eastern Illinois Athletics with interviews with current and former coaches, athletes and administrators.  Season three (Episode 81) kicks off with a conversation with former EIU golfer Ryanne Jackson.   Jackson recently competed in the inaugural USGA Adadaptive Open placing second in the women’s field.  She talks...

Episode 80 of EIUPanthers Podcast visits with former Eastern Illinois men’s basketball player Tyler Laser.  Laser played for the Panthers during the late 2000’s and then overcame some miraculous odds to go on and have a successful professional career playing in Europe.  This week we talk to Laser about some of his experiences which during part of his career took him to Eastern Europe along with hi...

This week we piggyback off of friends at WEIU TV & Radio.  A few weeks ago they had EIU Athletic Hall of Fame member Ken Wooddell on as a guest for their Issues and Attitudes program.  Wooddell was a long time fixture in the radio industry in the Coles County area and served as the Voice of the Panther Football team during the 1980’s and 1990’s.   With their permission, this week’s episode of EIUP...

The Eastern Illinois baseball team is off to the best start in the program’s NCAA Division I history as the Panthers head into mid-April leading the Ohio Valley Conference race with 22 wins.   Part of that success has been with the play of transfer outfielder Nathan Aide along with strong performances by several other Panthers.  Recently Aide accomplished one of the harder feats to do in offensive...

Episode 77 of EIUPanthers Podcast visits with EIU softball player Hannah Cravens.  Cravens played the role of hero in both of the Panthers softball games on Wednesday night (April 6) as she added to her season totals in doubles, home runs and RBI.  She is currently chasing the single season school record in several categories, some of those held by her current teammates.  We talk to Cravens about...

Episode 76 of EIUPanthers Podcast visits with former Eastern Illinois women’s soccer player Dr. Carole Griggs.  Griggs was a standout player on the pitch for the Panthers in the early days of the program helping EIU win an OVC Tournament Championship while earning All-League honors.  Since graduation she has gone on to create and run a successful consulting business that involves executive coachin...

In the fall of 2021 Eastern Illinois Athletics announced that it would add the sport of beach volleyball to begin play in the spring of 2022.  Fast forward eight months and the Panthers will play their inaugural NCAA Beach Volleyball competition on March 22 against Missouri Baptist.   Our guest today for episode 75 of EIUPanthers Podcast is EIU associate volleyball head coach Manolo Concepcion who...

Episode 74 of EIUPanthers Podcast, on this week’s episode we visit with EIU women’s basketball seniors Kira Arthofer and Jordyn Hughes as both prepare to play their final home games for the Panthers this weekend at First Mid Court at Lantz Arena.  Both came into the program four years ago and have played through the ups and downs of dealing with COVID seasons.  Each recalls what it was that brough...

Episode 73 of EIUPanthers Podcast as this week we visit with recently hired EIU football coach Chris Wilkerson.  Wilkerson, a former EIU player and assistant coach, talks about his time playing and coaching for the Panthers, some memories of stops he has had along the way and what it is like to follow in the footsteps of one of his coaching mentors as the head coach at Eastern Illinois.  

Welcome to episode 72 of EIUPanthers Podcast as thie week we visit with former EIU swimmer Nancy Williams.   Williams was a top free style sprint swimmer for the Panthers in the late 1990’s that still ranks in the EIU career top ten.  Her original career path took her to Texas and a job with State Farm.  Since that time she has followed a different passion opening up her own Cookie Company called...

Welcome to episode 71 of EIUPanthers Podcast as this week we catch-up with former Eastern Illinois women’s basketball player Alece Shumpert.  Shumpert currently works for Nissan and talks about how a chance encounter during a car repair helped lead to her current career with the company.  In addition we talk to Shumpert about her playing days at EIU and what its like to watch her younger brother W...

Episode 70 of EIUPanthers Podcast as we visit with former Eastern Illinois running back Ron Jordan.  Jordan played football for the Panthers in the last 2000’s and talks about how those experiences as a member of the EIU football team helped shape him for career as an entrepreneur.   He currently runs Jordan Hospitality and was recently featured in Inside INdiana Business magazine about his franch...

Episode 69 of EIUPanthers Podcast; this week we talk with EIU head baseball coach Jason Anderson as the Panthers prepare to open what will be his 7th season at the helm.   Over the past three seasons EIU has had four players drafted under Anderson’s watch including Trey Sweeney, a first round selection this past season.  Anderson talks about those players, the Panthers program and his own journey...

Episode 68 of EIUPanthers Podcast.  The term go-getter might be an understatement when describing our guest this week as we talk with former Eastern Illinois football player Keithan Hedrick.  Hedrick earned his degree from EIU in three years while being a full-time student-athlete and guardian to two younger siblings.  He has since gone on to earn his law degree, start both a family and a company...