Well, it certainly has been one long, tiring year.

During 2016, I thankfully served as sports editor here at the College Heights Herald in the spring and fall semesters.

Next semester however, I will be turning the position over to one of my talented sports reporters as my last semester on the Hill will see me back as a sports reporter.

With a new sports editor comes a new weekly column, and my time as a columnist has officially come to an end.

I tried to make this admittedly odd-named column relevant and meaningful by writing about serious topics such as Rick Stansbury’s National Anthem comments and the now infamous controversy which hit the WKU men’s basketball program in the spring.

But when I wasn’t writing about something serious, I tried my hardest to be entertaining whether it was my takedown of MTSU’s fan base or Nick Saban’s still hilarious tirade of offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin in WKU’s matchup with Alabama.

So with this being the last ‘Reecer’s Piece’ I spent a long time thinking about what exactly to write about.

Then a particular moment came to my mind when I was a freshman in high school and I attended one of my first WKU football games.

I don’t particularly remember who the Hilltoppers were playing, but I do remember that they lost by a landslide. This game was in middle of the incredibly long losing streak the Tops suffered in their transition to the highest level of competition in NCAA Football.

However, what stood out to me wasn’t the blowout or the lack of fans that were in the stands.

Instead, the lasting memory of that game was when my friends and I were leaving the stadium we got caught walking behind two obviously intoxicated WKU students.

How did I know they were intoxicated you might ask? It was because they were drunkenly screaming at every car passing by on University Boulevard about how bad of a football program WKU had.

Flash forward about seven years to the present and look how far athletics as a whole has come at this university.

No longer does the WKU football team make students drunkenly share how embarrassed they are to go this school. Now, students drunkenly share just how proud they are of athletics here.

All kidding aside, I’ve lived in this region all of my life and I have never seen a time when it was better to be a student at this school or a fan of its athletic teams.

A big part of that is in thanks to some incredible head coaches like Jason Neidell of WKU soccer, Jeff Brohm of WKU football and Michelle Clark-Heard of the women’s basketball team just to name a few.

Having world-class athletes like senior wide receiver Taywan Taylor, junior forward Justin Johnson and senior guard Kendall Noble also helps things out as well.

But most importantly, what is making athletics here improve is the effort that is steadily being shown by the fans.

Fan support could honestly be better in just about every sport here in my opinion. That’s just a hard truth that the city of Bowling Green and this campus needs to prove false.

However, support has steadily increased with overall morale around athletics here gradually increasing. Such events like last year’s national ranking in the AP football poll and the recent signing of five-star basketball recruit Mitchell Robinson have been large boosts are just few examples of these morale boosts.

The good times are a rolling right now if you are a Hilltopper fan, but this fan base needs a serious reality check.

Supporting athletics means more than just going to six home football games every year then leaving at halftime because you are too intoxicated to stay longer after that.

Through the good times of championships and victories, and the bad times of coaches leaving and devastating losses; fans must continue to make an honest effort to support all of the teams on campus.

So come out this Saturday to watch the WKU football team at home one last time this season as they play for another conference championship.

But while you are there, remember how far athletics here has come and think about what you are going to do next to keep the good times rolling on the Hill.

Until next time, you stay classy WKU.

Reporter John Reecer can be reached at 270-745-6291 and [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @Reece_12_Falcon.