Dec. 17 will not only mark the last day of finals for Sacramento State, but it will also end one of the greatest athletic semesters in university history.

For a commuter school and a campus community that does not pay a whole lot of attention to its Division I athletics, the fall 2010 semester has witnessed a monumental shift of success and progress.

With some championship game heroics by Elece McBride and Rory O’Day, both the men’s and women’s soccer teams won their respective conference championships and advanced to the NCAA tournament. This is the first time both soccer teams have won the conference championship in the same year since playing in Division I.

Our men’s soccer team found its way back into the second round of the NCAA tournament in back-to-back years while having an undefeated record at home since 2008, 16-0-5 at Hornet Field.

Freshman goalie Cesar Castillo has been the backbone for the men’s soccer team and recently got named to the Freshman All-America team by goal.com for his spectacular play this season including the most shutouts in school history, with eight.

Men’s tennis standout Kiryl Harbatsiuk became the first player in school history to win the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Northwest Regional Championship title. He advanced to the quarterfinals of the ITA National Championships, and along the way beat the No. 4-ranked player in the nation.

For anyone who has ever watched a college football or basketball game on ESPN, it is not hard to notice the packed stadium and the crazy student section. The students are making the most out of their college years because they care about their school’s sports.

They take pride in doing school cheers in the stands and yelling and celebrating when their team does well. They get disappointed when their team loses, yet they wear their school colors with pride. Now would be a great time for Sac State students to jump on the bandwagon.

Attendance for football games dropped 23.75 percent this year, the same year our team posted a winning record for the first time since 2000 and beat two ranked teams. In a stadium that fits 21,000, fewer than 8,000 people on average showed up.

Students do not have to pay a penny for any game on campus. Clearly, the interest for sports on campus has been left behind.

Looking deeper into the football team’s 6-5 overall record, the team was only 11 points away from holding a 10-1 record and having the best record in Division I-AA football. The losses were all to ranked teams and UC Davis.

Sac State sports now have appeal, which comes with good results. Our hardworking players and coaching staffs are not content on anything besides winning.

Coaches and recruiters can let the results speak for themselves when recruiting high school and transfer athletes to Sac State. It doesn’t take a whole lot of talking if an athlete wants to go to a successful university.

And it is not looking like Sac State athletics is calling it quits after one semester. Women’s basketball star Kylie Kuhns is leading the entire NCAA in rebounds with 13.4 per game. The women’s gymnastics team is also looking to capture its seventh conference championship in 11 years.

Progress is being made at Sac State. School records were broken in just about every fall sport this semester. Coming from a school where the campus has been used to disappointing results, this is a significant shift. Change is here.

The editorial staff can be reached at [email protected].