Sintim putting in the time
Happy to be practicing, UVa linebacker sweating the details
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 27, 2007

The mad dash for the locker room did not include Clint Sintim.

The hard-hitting linebacker lingered on the practice field Saturday for about five minutes as the sweat accumulated.

“I am trying to keep my weight down,” Sintim explained.

The rising junior has another priority.

“This spring is a little different because I am a lot older now,” he said. “I don’t think I have the luxury of making the same silly mistakes. I am really trying to advance my game to a whole new level.

“I am trying to put myself in a position where I can dominate on every play. That’s the focus this spring … I am doing a lot of technique work and stuff like that.”

The fact that Sintim was on the field in full pads surprised many.

Virginia coach Al Groh pointed out before spring practice that Sintim, who had surgery on his left shoulder just days after the Cavaliers’ final loss at Virginia Tech, would be limited and monitored daily.

“His offseason has gone well, he is ready to do a lot of stuff,” Groh said, “but we will not put him in full-bore action.”

Sintim said he approached Virginia’s offensive linemen to remind them of the injury and has mainly been using his right side.

“I am making a lot of contact with my right hand but a lot of the guys know my situation,” Sintim said. “At the same time, I am going pretty hard and trying to maintain and progress and not worry too much about the injury unless it is really bothering me. I am just trying to play through it.”

Sintim admitted he played through other injuries that slowed him last year, but he still managed 45 stops, including 10 tackles for a loss.

“I played with the injury and injuries are part of the game that you just play through,” he added. “It is what it is. There are other players around the nation who have more injuries than I did and they are still playing and they are All-Americans.

“Sometimes you have to play through it. You don’t have a choice.”

Sintim said it has been apparent early in spring practice that Virginia’s defense, which returns 10 starters, should be one of the best in the nation.

“I am so excited,” Sintim said. “Last year during the spring, we were running around and wrecking shop and now we have everybody back except Marcus [Hamilton] and Tony [Franklin], and those were big-play guys, but we have dudes out here competing every day.”

 

Guyer slams GMU
Virginia showcases depth in 23rd victory of season
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 28, 2007

Brian O’Connor had let it be known before Tuesday’s game that he was planning on making it a “staff day” on the mound.

Virginia’s baseball coach might as well have called it a “team day” at the plate, too.

Thanks to 20 hits and a lopsided first inning, UVa blasted George Mason, 17-6, at Davenport Field by a score more fitting for a football game at Scott Stadium.

Seven different Cavaliers registered multi-hit games and helped the program improve to 23-5 overall. George Mason, a program that played in the first-ever Charlottesville Regional in 2004, fell to 11-12 on the season.

“Everybody contributes to our success,” O’Connor said. “The tough thing is that a group of our players do 90 percent of the playing. We have got injuries so you give guys opportunities and they can step up as they did today.”

O’Connor was mainly describing Ryan Hudson and John Scaglione, who made rare starts for the Cavaliers, and combined for five hits, six runs and three RBI.

“Those guys are competitive and they want to play,” O’Connor said. “When they get their opportunities, they make the most of it.”

Hudson and Scaglione had help.

In fact, eight different Cavaliers scored at least one run and outfielders Brandon Guyer and Mike Mitchell each drove in four runs.

Guyer’s RBI came on one swing of the bat - he belted a two-strike pitch from GMU starter Kris Mengle over the left-field wall for his first collegiate grand slam - and helped fuel an eight-run first inning.

“I had two strikes on me and I was just trying to put it in play and he hung a slider,” said Guyer, who now has two homers on the season. “I didn’t think it was going over. For a second it looked like [GMU left fielder Scott Krieger] was camped under it. “It just kept going and, I guess, the wind helped it. I will certainly take it.”

Virginia added crooked numbers onto the scoreboard in the second, fourth and fifth innings and took a commanding 17-4 lead after the seventh inning.

It was more than enough run support for the three Virginia’s pitchers who saw action.

Neal Davis, who started and got the win, Robert Poutier (2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER) and Jeff Lorick (3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 SO) scattered 12 George Mason hits and stranded nine runners on base.

Virginia, which is off to the best start in program history, returns to action today against Longwood at 5 p.m.

Extra bases …

… Virginia sophomore Greg Miclat, who is enjoying an 18-game hitting streak, was held out of the lineup on Tuesday with shoulder tendonitis, O’Connor said.

“It was stiff on him and I just didn’t want to take any chances,” the fourth-year coach added. “We are going to get him looked at to see if anything has changed in the last 24 hours.

“He has been going through a progressive throwing program and we feel like it has been going pretty well, but all of a sudden when he showed up [Tuesday] it didn’t loosen up and it stiffened on him.”

O’Connor hopes to have Miclat back for the weekend series at Virginia Tech, which starts on Friday.

“I am hoping and praying that he will be back in the lineup by this weekend,” O’Connor said. … Guyer’s first inning homer extended his hitting streak to 13 games. … Lorick was credited with the first save of his career. … Virginia pounded out five extra-base hits.

 

'HOOS WHO: Staton Jobe
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 28, 2007

Al Groh typically avoids throwing around praise for walk-on players.

Apparently, Staton Jobe is not a typical walk-on.

While the spring practice period remains in its early stages, the redshirt freshman wideout has drawn high praise from Groh on two separate occasions.

“[Jobe] has good speed and he has a lot of moxie to him,” Groh said. “He has got a good commitment to this, he has a good work ethic and you can see his passion for football.

“I would certainly put him in the mix of those guys who have a real good chance to compete.”

Listed at 6-foot and 177 pounds, Jobe does not have the size of Maurice Covington (6-4, 215) or the experience of Kevin Ogletree (59 career receptions).

That has not stopped Jobe, however, from throwing his body around the field to retrieve passes.

“When you are fighting for playing time, that is what you have to do,” Jobe said. “You have to have that mentality that you are going to go 100 percent on every single play. Anything less and it is hard to work your way up the depth chart.”

Jobe, who is from Austin, Texas, said he is fulfilling his life-long dream at Virginia, even if that process does not include scholarship money.

“I had offers to some smaller places, service academies and that sort of deal, but I have always loved UVa,” Jobe said. “I have had some family friends that have come here and just loved it, and Virginia has a great reputation down there in Austin.

“A lot people from there want to come here and with the opportunity to do that, I wanted to take advantage of it.”

At this point, Jobe has no idea what his role will be next season. Whatever it is, expect to see a bright smile on his face. “I am really having a great time,” Jobe said. “I just love playing football.”

 

Holland's moment was special
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
March 28, 2007

Virginia’s basketball season may be over, but there was one moment from this campaign that will live forever, one that was hardly noticed when it occurred back in November.

A grand opening

It was opening night at John Paul Jones Arena and there was simply too many great moments all squeezed into one evening to fully appreciate some of them, all perhaps overshadowed by the first game in the new building and the upset win over Arizona.

We didn’t have the time to enjoy the hanging of Curtis Staples’ jersey in the rafters, or the naming of the practice court for Barry Parkhill or the naming of the arena’s basketball hall of fame for Wally Walker. The biggest moment of the night was the naming of the men’s basketball locker room for former Virginia coach Terry Holland.

Because there were so many activities on the night’s agenda, some of them didn’t get the attention they deserved and certainly the Holland moment was one of those. There was so much more to the story, a story that had to be told even if it came after the season.

Walker’s willingness

Walker, who earned the nickname of “Wonderful” during his playing days as a Cavalier, went on to play in the NBA before becoming president of the Seattle SuperSonics, a role he has since relinquished.

He had already made a significant contribution to the building fund for JPJ, but wanted to do something more and honoring his old coach was the perfect idea. Walker put up $250,000 to name the locker room after Holland, a matching challenge to be met by other former Holland players, assistant coaches, managers and friends of the program.

Get it rolling

The movement really got kicking when Rick Carlisle, coach of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, became really involved in the project to help Walker raise the remaining money. Carlisle, who played in the early 1980s, was in Charlottesville last summer for a Bruce Hornsby concert. An accomplished pianist, Carlisle even found himself on Hornsby’s stage to play a tune.

While here, Carlisle met with Parkhill and the ball got rolling with Walker.

Before long, 30 to 40 people contributed to the cause, mostly former players, and they raised the half-million so that the locker room could bear Holland’s name.

“I can only speak for myself, but I’ve never felt so good about any contribution I’ve ever made or any check I’ve ever written as that one,” Walker said from his home in Seattle.

“Terry’s more than a coach. While he’s a great coach who taught me a lot about playing the game, he taught me about life,” Walker said. “As the years have unfolded, he’s been a coach, a mentor and a great friend. He’s always been there to help people. Anyone involved with the program at any level, he’s been there for them, which is why we got the response we did when we raised the money.”

While there were suggestions to hold this short ceremony (which was held at halftime of the Arizona game) at another game to make a bigger deal out of it, Virginia officials decided to go ahead with it because Walker would be in attendance, and because it was opening night.

The biggest challenge though, was to get Holland, who is now athletics director at East Carolina University, to the opening without letting him know why. Walker and others wanted it to be a surprise.

Holland isn’t easily fooled. For 16 seasons he went head-to-head against some of the greatest coaches in the game, Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Lefty Driesell, to name a few. He is the winningest men’s coach in UVa history with a record of 326-173 (.653), including two Final Fours, 13 postseason appearances and a lifetime of memories for Wahoo fans.

The person to take on that challenge was one of Holland’s daughters, Kate Holland Baynard.

“Kate and Craig Littlepage (who was on Holland’s coaching staff twice and succeeded him as Virginia’s AD) kept beating me up to be there for that game, but we already had a huge weekend here in Greenville, (N.C.),” Holland said Tuesday.

Holland’s wife, Ann, was involved in her mother’s induction into the ECU Education School’s Hall of Fame and the following day was her mother’s 94th birthday. Family was coming into Greenville from all over. If that wasn’t enough, Holland was scheduled to take an early Monday morning flight to Colorado Springs for USA Basketball meetings.

Fearing he wouldn’t come to Charlottesville because of the heavy schedule, Kate and Littlepage finally told Holland the reason he needed to be there was to recognize the naming of the hall of fame for Walker and the practice court for Parkhill.

Holland wouldn’t have missed that for anything.

Kate arranged for an ECU alum to fly the Holland family to the Charlottesville airport. They took taxis to the arena, but Holland still had no clue about what was to be bestowed upon him until he hit the floor at halftime.

“He didn’t know until we walked out onto the court,” Walker said. “I didn’t have a chance to elaborate on it because it was such a short ceremony, but I talked to him afterward and he kind of lumped up. Kate explained all the details to him on the way home.”

Practically no one outside the players and those who raised the funds knew the inside story.

“To say that I was surprised and honored would be an understatement,” Holland said, reflecting on the moment. “And certainly I realize that my name on the locker room is only there to represent all the players and coaches who were part of the Holland family’s time at the University of Virginia.

“It would be most appropriate that we find some way to provide recognition for all those players and coaches who contributed during those days as well as those who contributed financially to the locker room naming project,” Holland said.

Knowing “The Big Whistle,” a nickname Holland picked up during his coaching days, he’ll find a way to do so.

Holland, who spearheaded the arena project before leaving to take the ECU job, said he loves the environment of the new arena.

“I would like to publicly thank Paul Tudor Jones and all those great Wahoos who made this building a reality,” Holland said. “And coach Dave Leitao, his coaches and players, certainly provided an exciting first season and record. Congratulations to them on a job well done and for bringing home a regular-season championship and an ACC Coach of the Year award.”

Holland said he hopes that someday in the not-too-distant future that JPJ will be the home of “the big championship trophy.”

Walker probably already has a spot picked out.

 

Cavaliers ready to face vaunted Dukes' offense
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 28, 2007

When the Virginia women’s lacrosse team travels to Harrisonburg to take on James Madison this evening, there won’t be any doubt as to what its main objective is.

The Dukes feature two of the top players in the country in Kelly Berger and Annie Wagner.

Berger and Wagner, who have already combined for 41 goals and 13 assists, are both are on the Tewaaraton Trophy “Watch List” (the trophy is awarded annually to the best player in the country).

The duo is the main reason why seventh-ranked JMU (6-1) hasn’t lost since its season opener to Notre Dame (and that defeat came in double overtime).

“They just go so hard and are fearless,” said Virginia coach Julie Myers. “They’ll go into a pack of defenders, use their stick work and speed, and usually end up with great shots coming out of the pack.

“When the goalie least expects somebody to shoot through, they’re actually [shooting] through, so they can be very dangerous.”

Third-ranked Virginia (8-1), which is coming off a good win over Princeton on Saturday, will try and limit Berger and Wagner’s touches. Myers said defenders Jen Holden, Jessy Morgan and Claire Bordley will draw the defensive assignment.

Bordley, according to Myers, has been coming into her own this season.

“Last year she was just so excited to be playing and scared to lose [her] spot,” Myers said. “This year she’s like, ‘You know what? I belong.’”

Myers is pleased with the way her team has responded after its lackluster 16-7 loss to North Carolina on March 17. Virginia, which has won two straight, hosts fifth-ranked Duke on Saturday.

But Myers said her team’s focus in squarely on JMU.

“They’re legitimately a very good team,” she said. “They’re on a roll and are doing a lot of things right and would love to beat us, so they’re dangerous on all fronts.

“We’ll start thinking about Duke on the bus ride back.”

Ground balls

Virginia and JMU have been playing each other in women’s lacrosse since 1977. UVa, which won last year’s meeting in Charlottesville, leads the all-time series 24-10-1. … Myers said senior Jess Wasilewski, who suffered a broken nose that required stitches against Maryland on March 13, will likely wear the protective mask that she’s been wearing for the rest of the season. … Sophomore Whit Hagerman, who underwent recent foot surgery, will be able to take a medical redshirt since she only played in two games, according to Myers.

 

Back to fullback for Cavs' offense
Versatile Jackson says role will offer more than blocking
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Mar 28, 2007

CHARLOTTESVILLE In a conversation not long after his team's disappointing 2006 season ended, University of Virginia football coach Al Groh made it clear that changes were coming. Among them:

"I want to have a true fullback again," Groh said.

In Rashawn Jackson, Groh believed he had the perfect candidate. A reserve inside linebacker as a redshirt freshman in 2006, Jackson also played fullback in Virginia's goal-line offense. He'd starred at running back for St. Peter's Prep in Jersey City, N.J., and was amenable to assuming yet another role at U.Va., where he'd begun his career as a tailback.

"Coach called me in and asked me what I thought about it," Jack- son said last week. "He didn't put pressure on me. So it was of my own will, pretty much, and I understood the significance of having a true fullback in our offense, and I figured, 'If it's going to help us win, why not?'" And so spectators at U.Va.'s open practices this spring have seen No. 31 working full time in the offensive backfield, usually with No. 32, first-year tailback Keith Payne. The 6-1 Jackson weighs about 255 pounds; the 6-3 Payne, about 235.

"It's going to be tough for defenders to stop both of us back there at the same time," Jackson said.

St. Peter's opponents had trouble stopping Jackson. As a senior, he scored 25 touchdowns and rushed 91 times for 938 yards. He also caught 11 passes for 113 yards. For a man his size, Jackson has tremendously quick feet.

"I'm not just a blocker," he said. "That's what me and Coach Groh talk about, and I'm hoping he sticks to the plan."

U.Va. hasn't had a fullback as versatile as Jackson since Jason Snelling moved to tailback midway through the 2005 season. Snelling completed his eligibility last season.

"With a player like Rashawn, much like Jason was, this is not just a bulldozer in there," Groh said. "This is a player who was a very effective high school running back, who can catch the ball and who's got running ability."

A season ago, Josh Zidenberg was listed as Virginia's No. 1 fullback, but at 213 pounds, he was light for the position. U.Va. rarely employed a fullback, instead playing two tight ends at a time, with one often in the backfield.

The Cavaliers, whose offense ranked among the ACC's least productive in 2006, plan to use more formations with two running backs, two wideouts and one tight end this season. That's where Jackson comes in.

"There's certain things we want to do in the game when we have that group in there," Groh said, "and he gives us more versatility in doing those things than a sledgehammer [fullback] would."

Jackson said: "I'm very excited. I can help the team in a big way, and I feel like I want to contribute any way possible."

 

Optimism creeps in for Duke parents
Families of accused hope charges to be dismissed soon
By Jeff Barker
Sun Reporter
Originally published March 28, 2007

Washington // For Duke University men's lacrosse parents, this season's games are a little less meaningful, the tailgates a little more somber.
With three former players still accused of sexual assault, there are more solemn concerns than winning games.

"Let's have those three boys get exonerated. That's the only win that really matters," said Patricia Dowd of Northport, N.Y., whose son, Kyle, played for Duke last year but is not among the players charged.

A year after charges were filed, Duke parents are cautiously allowing themselves to believe they will soon get their wish.

With the North Carolina attorney general's office about to complete its investigation, parents say they have reason to expect that charges against Bethesda's David Evans and former teammates Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann will be dropped by prosecutors within the next few weeks. "That's what we've been hearing," said Sally Fogarty of Chevy Chase, whose son, Gibbs, is a sophomore Duke player.

As they ate sandwiches and drank Bloody Marys in a damp parking lot before the Blue Devils defeated Georgetown here Saturday, a handful of other Duke parents said they had heard much the same thing. Some of the parents' optimism comes from indications they've received from defense attorneys, and some from talking to players who have been interviewed by prosecutors.

The attorney general's office wouldn't discuss the direction of its investigation. "Our review of the case, including reviewing documents and conducting interviews, is continuing," Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Roy Cooper, said in an e-mail.

But Talley also said: "Yes, we expect the review to be completed in the next few weeks."

Fogarty and other parents were guarded about discussing what they're hearing because they don't want to seem presumptuous or antagonize the prosecutors. "It could make the special prosecutors feel bullied," said John Walsh of Bethesda, whose son, Johnny, is a senior on the team.

At the least, Duke parents said they can begin to visualize the end of a year some describe as "horrible" or "surreal." It's a period, they said, in which they have tried to keep their lives from being poisoned by their rage at a district attorney they believe brought an unwarranted case.

"You would go to cocktail parties and people would say, 'Well, something must have happened,' " said John Walsh, a health administrator. "And you're looking at these people and saying, 'C'mon, you know my son.' "

The charges were filed after a stripper -- a student at North Carolina Central University -- alleged that she was pulled into a bathroom and raped during a March 2006 party at an off-campus house rented by three lacrosse captains. The season was canceled after eight games, but the program was reinstated for this year.

Durham County District Attorney Michael Nifong turned the case over to the attorney general's office in January and is defending himself against ethics complaints. Nifong earlier had dismissed rape charges but left others intact.

For the Georgetown game, the Duke parents wore school colors and sat on wooden bleachers on a raw, overcast day, shouting encouragement to their sons on the field.

The parents displayed an easy familiarity. One of the indicted players -- Evans, who graduated last year -- circulated at a pre-game tailgate, receiving hugs and well wishes. Evans, who had addressed the team before its March 2 game at Maryland, greeted his former teammates after the game Saturday. He declined to be interviewed.

Evans' parents also attended the game. Kevin Finnerty, whose son, Collin, would have been a junior if he had returned to school, didn't attend but called one of the parents to wish the team well.

While many of the parents were already friends, they say the events of the last year have brought them closer.

"You usually don't meet and make best friends at our age and we all have," said Bruce Thompson of Chevy Chase. Thompson is a government relations executive whose son, Bret, was a senior captain of the team last season.

At home games, parents often stay at the same hotel overlooking a golf course on Duke's campus, congregating frequently before and after games.

"Who else can you talk to about something like this?" Sally Fogarty said. "To go through something like this is just mind-blowing, especially the first few months when everyone was so fearful" about who would be charged, she said.

Fogarty's husband's auto dealership is raffling off a car to raise money for the defendants' legal defense.

"You can't equate what the rest of the parents have been through with what the Evanses and the Finnertys and the Seligmanns have been through," Sally Fogarty said.

Said Baltimore's Ed Douglas, a team co-captain: "They've really been through a lot, just as we have. And just as we have, they've leaned on each other."

News of the accuser's allegations broke in March, but charges weren't lodged until April and May. The period in between was particularly stressful, parents said. While there were some disputes and some frayed feelings, Thompson said: "Some people were worried this would all break apart and people would point fingers, but that didn't happen."

Many parents say they will be more relieved than joyous if charges are dropped. They say exonerating the defendants wouldn't undo harm already done.

"When somebody asks what is the effect of all this on the boys, I say it's too soon to tell," said Larry Lamade of Chevy Chase, whose son, Peter, is on this year's team.

"Only the individual who has faced indictment for a heinous crime he did not commit -- and suffered the hatred directed at him by those who did not choose to know the facts -- can tell you the deleterious effect it can have on him for the rest of his life," Lamade said.