A new season begins
Jeff White
Feb 13, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE – The players come and go, but the coach remains the same at the University of Virginia, and so does his lacrosse team’s goal: to be playing on the last day on the season.

“Some years that’s more realistic than others,” said Dom Starsia, whose 17th season at U.Va. begins tomorrow against Drexel at Klockner Stadium.

This looks like one of those years. A season ago, had the Cavaliers not blown a second-half lead and then lost in overtime to Syracuse in the NCAA semifinals, they’d have played on the final day. From that U.Va. team, which finished 14-4, returning players include Danny Glading and Garrett Billings on attack; Brian Carroll and twins Shamel and Rhamel Bratton in the midfield; Mike Timms and Bray Malphrus at long-stick middie, and first-team All-American Ken Clausen, Matt Kelly and Ryan Nizolek on close defense.

In the goal is sophomore Adam Ghitelman, who started U.Va.’s first 10 games last season before being replaced by Bud Petit, a Collegiate School graduate who dazzled in the NCAA tournament.

“Anybody that would like to say we’re starting the season with a question mark in the cage, that’s fine, but I think [Ghitelman will] be a strength in the cage before it’s all said and done,” said Starsia, who has won three NCAA titles at Virginia.

Only one freshman is likely to play a leading role this season: Steele Stanwick, who takes over for Ben Rubeor on attack. Rubeor ranks among the greatest players in U.Va. history, but Stanwick was the top-rated recruit in the Class of 2008, and Starsia expects his attack to be formidable again.

Glading and Billings are four-year starters who combined for 66 goals and 60 assists in 2008. Glading was a second-team All-American last year and enters his final season as a leading candidate for the Tewaaraton Trophy, given annually to the top player in college lacrosse.

“Danny’s gotten a lot of attention, and he handles it fine,” Starsia said. “We understand that all this preseason attention is about to go away, and people will begin to focus on what actually happens during the course of the season.”

U.Va.’s midfielders were more productive in 2008 than they’d been in ’07. With Rubeor gone, however, Starsia says he needs another bump from that group this year. Carroll was a third-team All-American as a sophomore in 2008, when he led U.Va.’s midfielders with 37 points, on 28 goals and nine assists. He’s assured a starting job, as is Shamel Bratton. Filling out the first line will be Rhamel Bratton or senior Steve Giannone.

The much-celebrated Brattons didn’t meet the lofty expectations set for them by some in the lacrosse world last season, but they combined for 24 goals and 10 assists – excellent production for a pair of first-year midfielders.

“They have spectacular talent and tend to try to do too much at times,” Starsia said. “That’s a learning process, but they’ve worked hard, and they’re much further along than they were a year ago … If Rhamel and Shamel show just a little bit more consistency, then I really think you’re going to see something.”

A newcomer of note is graduate student Chad Gaudet, who transferred to U.Va. from Dartmouth with a year of lacrosse eligibility remaining. Gaudet, a former standout running back at Dartmouth, has established himself as Virginia’s top faceoff specialist.

Unlike most players at that position, Gaudet faces off with a long stick, and he’s “been a revelation so far,” Starsia said.

In the Wahoos’ loss to Syracuse in the NCAA semifinals, they won only eight of 27 draws, and faceoffs were a problem all season. Virginia struggled with ground balls, too, but Starsia expects improvement in that area, too.

“We haven’t been as good a groundball team as we need to be probably since 2006,“ he said in the fall. “It’s going to be a point of continued emphasis.
“There’s a toughness aspect to it. We have some tough kids, but we just haven’t been good enough at it. We have to get better at it. We’re a little like the Dallas Cowboys right there: We’re talented, we’re explosive, but we’ve got to get back to work. We have to have a harder edge.“

2009 SCHEDULE

Feb. – 14, Drexel, 1 p.m.; 16, Bryant, 4 p.m.; 21, at Stony Brook, 1 p.m.; 24, Mount St. Mary’s, 7 p.m.; 27, at Syracuse, 7 p.m.

March – 3, at VMI, 3:30 p.m.; 8, Cornell, 2:30 p.m.; 10, Vermont, 7 p.m.; 14, Towson, 1 p.m.; 21, at Johns Hopkins, 8 p.m.; 28, Maryland, noon.

April – 4, North Carolina in Big City Classic at East Rutherford, N.J., noon; 11, at Duke, 4 p.m.; 18, Dartmouth, noon; 24-26, ACC tournament at Chapel Hill, N.C.

May – 9-10, NCAA tournament first round (at home sites); 16-17, NCAA quarterfinals (at Hofstra or Navy); 23-25, NCAA final four (Foxborough, Mass.).

 

Favored Cavs ready for season
By Whitey Reid
Published: February 14, 2009

Last spring, the Virginia men’s lacrosse team could practically taste the program’s fifth NCAA championship.

Playing in the NCAA semifinals in Foxborough, Mass., UVa had a five-goal lead over rival Syracuse in the second half.

Then came the collapse.

Virginia was outscored down the stretch, 9-3, before losing in overtime, 12-11.

Making the defeat even more demoralizing, Duke — the odds-on favorite to win it all — wound up losing in the other semifinal to Johns Hopkins, whom Virginia had beaten during the regular season.

It was Syracuse who would go on to win an NCAA title.

“I think it’s something we all learned from,” said Virginia senior Danny Glading. “We realized how close the

difference is between winning a championship or having a disappointing end to a season.”

This afternoon, Virginia will take its first step toward erasing the bitter memory when it hosts Drexel at Klockner Stadium. By all indications, UVa has a pretty good chance to do so.

Virginia was tabbed as the No. 1 team in the country in three of the four preseason polls.

Glading, the preseason player of the year in numerous publications, is expected to pick up a lot of the slack for Ben Rubeor, last season’s leading goal scorer who graduated.

“He’s probably one of the few guys in the world who can handle all the attention without letting it go to his head,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia.

Indeed.

Glading, who has maintained a 4.0 grade-point average in each of his last two semesters, is a player who understands the nuances of the game, on and off the field, and what it will take for Virginia to reclaim an NCAA title (Virginia last won a championship in 2006).

“If we focus on being great every day,” said Glading, who had 30 goals and 35 assists last season, “I think we’ll get to where we want to be later in the season.”

Filling Rubeor’s spot in the attack certainly won’t be easy. Fortunately, Glading has fellow senior Garrett Billings — who scored 36 goals last season — to take some of the pressure off of him.

“Losing Rubeor is a big loss and is going to require some adjustment on everyone’s part,” Starsia said, “but nobody is going to feel sorry for an attack that starts with Glading and Billings.”

Starisa plans on replacing Rubeor on the right side with freshman Steele Stanwick, a two-time high school All-American who, coincidentally, attended Loyola Blakefield (Towson, Md.), Rubeor’s alma mater. Stanwick, who will wear Rubeor’s old uniform number (6), is one of the few first-year players who will see immediate playing time.

“It’s not the sort of deep, athletic [freshmen] class that we had a year ago,” Starsia said.

Perhaps the strongest facet of this year’s squad will be on the defensive end. Even after the loss of Matt Lovejoy to season-ending ankle surgery, the unit features seniors Mike Timms and Matt Kelly and juniors Ryan Nizolek and Ken Clausen, among others.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had a better group of long-stickers than we have right now — just with experience and athleticism,” Starsia said. “We’re big and we’re fast, so we feel like that end of the field is also in good hands.”

That’s a good thing since the goalie, sophomore Adam Ghitelman, will be looking to prove himself. Last season, Ghitelman got off to an excellent start but then slumped and was replaced by fifth-year senior Bud Petit.

“If somebody wanted to say that’s a question mark, I would have no problem with that,” Starsia said, “but I think it will be a strength for us before it’s all said and done — but we certainly need to step up there.”

The other area of slight uncertainty is in the midfield. Starsia has a ton of talent at the position — including experienced veterans Max Pomper and Steve Giannone — but is looking for more consistency.

Twin brothers Rhamel and Shamel Bratton, two of the most highly-touted freshmen last season, will also be looking to step their games up.

“I definitely feel more comfortable,” Rhamel Bratton said. “Things are starting to slow down, and I’m starting to recognize things a little bit faster.”

Starsia received an unexpected surprise in the offseason when former Dartmouth longstick midfielder Chad Gaudet joined the team. Starsia is hopeful that Gaudet — a graduate student who has one year of lacrosse eligibility remaining — can provide some of the things that former Duke player Peter Lamade did for his squad last season.

“I think he’ll be a real positive force for us,” Starsia said, “especially on face-offs.”

It was the team’s failure in that department that allowed Syracuse back into the game last spring. In the loss, Virginia dropped 19 of 27 face-offs.

“Not to say that we weren’t hungry last season,” Bratton said, “but after losing that game when you’re up by like five or something — it definitely leaves you with a bitter taste.”

Added Glading: “I think we’ve really focused on every small detail this year and have tried not to waste any time.”

Ground balls

Virginia leads the all-time series with Drexel, 7-1. However, the Dragons have always seemed to give UVa fits, including an upset win in Charlottesville to start the 2007 season. “They’re a quality lacrosse team,” Starsia said. “That program has grown up over the last few years … we’re going to have our hands full.”

 

Cavaliers Open Season vs. Drexel
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 02/13/2009

The Cavaliers open the 2009 campaign Saturday afternoon against Drexel. The game will be played at Klöckner Stadium and faceoff is set for 1 pm.

Virginia finished with a 14-4 record last year and a No. 2 ranking in the final poll. The season came to an abrupt end with a tough 12-11 double overtime loss to Syracuse in the national semifinals.

With 30 returning lettermen, including seven starters returning, Dom Starsia’s squad is viewed as one of the leading candidates to play on Memorial Day in Foxborough, Mass. His team is ranked first in the Face-Off Yearbook preseason poll and second in the preseason USILA coaches poll. While some coaches might shy away from the lofty expectations, Starsia and his players embrace them.

“We don’t run away from (being ranked No. 1),” he said. “I want to be modest but we sort of expect to live in this area. I look at it as an indication of the consistent effort of the program. It’s something to be proud of, the effort of the players and the staff, for us to be here right now.”

Leading the way for the Cavaliers will be senior attackman Danny Glading. Selected Lacrosse magazine’s Preseason Player of the Year, he has started every game of his Virginia career. He was the Cavaliers’ leading scorer with 65 total points and ranked seventh nationally. His 35 assists were second nationally and he was one of only six players to score 30 goals and add 30 assists a year ago.

Joining Glading on attack is classmate Garrett Billings, a preseason second-team All-American who notched 36 goals last spring.

“For this team with a relatively young midfield and a freshman at the third attack spot, Danny Glading and Garrett Billings, in particular, are going to have to step up for us at the offensive end and get the job done for us early on,” Starsia said.

Freshman Steele Stanwick, regarded as the top recruit in the nation by Inside Lacrosse, moves into the role opened following the graduation of Ben Rubeor.

More than half of the top-seven midfielders are sophomores. Rhamel and Shamel Bratton are the most recognized names, but Nick Elsmo and John Haldy have forced the coaching staff to find a way to get them on the field.

Shamel started last season and tied for fourth in the country among rookie middies with 14 goals, while Rhamel played in every game and tallied 10 times.

“They both had very nice freshman years for middies,” said Starsia, “which I think is a very tough adjustment to make.”

Elsmo appeared in only three games last spring, but had an explosive summer by scoring 12 goals to help lead the United State Under-19 National Team to the world championship. Haldy, meanwhile, played in five contests on attack during his freshman year and will be looked upon to use his size (6-3, 220) and athleticism effectively in the midfield.

Drexel has won a share of the CAA regular-season title in each of the last two years. Head Coach Chris Bates returns six starters from a team that advanced to the CAA title game in 2008 and finished with a 13-4 record.

Virginia scored four unanswered goals and scratched out an 11-7 win in last season's match-up in Philadelphia. But following their remarkable comeback win two years ago in Charlottesville, the Dragons certainly won’t be able to sneak up on the Cavaliers again.

“You’d like to think that the first game of the season just takes care of itself, but we’ve stressed in practice (this week) that we’re not going to take anything for granted at the same time,” said Starsia.

Glading scored twice in the game two years ago but it was not enough to stave off the Dragons’ upset bid.

“I think that right away it shows that we need to be ready to play every week,” he said. “Drexel is a good team and they are going to give us a good challenge and I think that we need to come out ready to play.”

“Drexel beat us here in 2007 and we had our hands full last year and we expect more of the same on Saturday,” Starsia said. “We need to play our best game and I expect that we will.”

Tickets Available
Tickets for the Drexel game are currently on sale. Tickets may be purchased online at VirginiaSports.com or at Klöckner Stadium beginning one hour before faceoff. Tickets are $9 (reserved seating), $7 (adult general admission), and $5 (youth, senior, faculty/staff general admission).

Single-game tickets may be purchased online at VirginiaSports.com, by phone at (800) 542-8821 or in person at the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office in Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

An All-Lacrosse Pass, a package that includes a ticket to each of the 16 men’s and women’s home games, including double-headers on March 8 and March 28, is available. All-Lacrosse Passes are $80 (reserved seating), $50 (adult general admission) and $30 (youth, senior, faculty/staff general admission).

Regular season tickets for either the men’s or women’s campaign are $50 (reserved seating), $35 (adult general admission) and $25 (youth, senior, faculty/staff general admission).

Game Notes
• This is the eighth year in a row UVa has opened against Drexel
• UVa is 42-32-1 (.567) all-time in season openers
• The Cavaliers are 7-1 all-time vs. Drexel
• Glading, M Max Pomper and LSM Mike Timms have been chosen team captains this year
• Glading and Billings are in a tight race to join UVa’s exclusive 100-goal club, whose membership currently rests at 10. Both players have scored 87 career goals and rank tied for 17th in school history



 

Next big-time OL could be at Harrisonburg
Groh identifies Tidewater recruiter
By Doug Doughty

When I called Harrisonburg High School's athletic director to inquire about one-time University of Virginia football recruit Alex Owah, I heard a name for the first time.

Harrisonburg has a 6-foot-5, 285-pound sophomore, Landon Turner, who should be a big-time recruit by his senior year.

(Actually, I had heard the name before, but Turner is no kin to the former Indiana University basketball player of the same name).

This Turner weighed in at 325 pounds for the start of football practice but currently is wrestling at 285 pounds. He suffered a broken leg in the first game of the football season.

AD Joe Carico said Turner will be a “predictor,” meaning his academic credentials, and that he has seen a rivals.com list that names Turner as one of the top sophomores in the country.

(OK, maybe rivals.com knows about him).

Carico, who doubles as the Blue Streaks’ offensive coordinator, said that Harrisonburg does not currently have any Division I-A prospects in its junior class but that another sophomore, 6-foot, 190-pound tailback Michael Holmes, has a chance.

Holmes took over when Owah was injured early in the season and the Blue Streaks barely skipped a beat.

AS FOR OWAH, the highest-rated uncommitted player on The Roanoke Times’ Top 100, it is looking increasingly unlikely that he will play Division I-A football next year.

The same academic issues that caused Virginia to reject Owah for 2009 admission are likely to make him a partial qualifier or even a non-qualifier at the Division I level.

Owah recently told the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record that he had narrowed his college choices to three but did not divulge their identity. I’m hearing that one of those teams is Division I-AA Florida International.

Some leagues do allow partial qualifiers, which would enable Owah to enroll in school and receive a scholarship but not play as a freshman (and have three years of eligibility unless he graduated in four years, in which case he would get a fifth year).

If he is a non-qualifier, he could not receive aid in his first year. It has been suggested that Owah could enroll at Fork Union Military Academy, where an older brother played several years ago, but I’m hearing that that’s unlikely.

OWAH WAS RATED No. 38 on The Roanoke Times Top 100. The next highest-rated player is No. 59 Jerrell McFadden, an all-purpose threat for Group AAA Division 6 runner-up Osbourn High School of Manassas.

McFadden, who played running back for Osbourn, is listed at 5 foot 10 and 176 pounds but may be closer to 5-9. He reportedly runs a 4.3 40 and while it may be possible that nobody can run a 4.3, we’ve got to assume that he is legitimately fast.

The reason that McFadden is “available,” and that’s using the term loosely, is that he has been reclassified. He entered the 2008 season as a junior academically but he turns 19 this summer and will be ineligible to play as a senior in 2009. As a result, McFadden has been playing catch-up academically in hopes of completing his degree requirements this year.

There is an outside chance that McFadden might qualify academically in time to play collegiately in 2009, Osbourn coach Steve Schultze said, but it’s more likely that he will go to prep school. Hargrave Military Academy has inquired about him.

I was under the impression that McFadden played some quarterback for Osbourn, but Schultze has his quarterback of the future in 6-0, 185-pound junior Tommy Keith, one of whose primary targets is his brother, Timmy, a sophomore.

Timmy Keith had 32 receptions for 582 yards and 10 touchdowns. Tommy Keith passed for 1,293 yards and 12 touchdowns, and he also rushed for 865 yards and 11 TDs.

THURSDAY’S EDITION OF the UVa Insider dealt with the Cavaliers’ options as they look for a replacement to 2008 defensive coordinator Bob Pruett.

In a phone conversation after the Insider had been posted, Al Groh said that new receivers coach Latrell Scott would take over Pruett’s recruiting territory in South Hampton Roads, Hampton and Newport News.

Scott previously had recruited those areas, as well as Richmond, in his one-year stint on Phillip Fulmer’s staff at Tennessee. After joining the UVa staff in January, Scott was instrumental in getting the Cavaliers back in the picture with Parade All-America offensive lineman Morgan Moses, who signed with them Feb. 4.

Groh said he does not feel that he needs to target a particular position coach because all of the spots on his staff are currently covered. He said that newly named defensive coordinator Bob Diaco will be responsible for the linebackers, an area to which Groh also devotes considerable attention.