Trey Whitty received the Unsung Hero award on the Virginia men’s lacrosse team last season. These days it is easy to find those who will sing his praises as one of the nation’s top long-stick midfielders.
A few years ago, however, UVa coach Dom Starsia might have given Whitty the Underacheiver Award, if there was such a thing. On the field and in the classroom, it was evident Whitty wasn’t doing his best.
“The summer after his sophomore season, his father and I read him the riot act,” Starsia said.
And for good reason.
“It was deserved – they had good cases against me,” Whitty said with a smile. “It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.”
That summer, the senior from Timonium, Md., turned his life around in a number of ways. His relationships with friends and family. The way he approached school. His dedication to lacrosse. All changed dramatically, he says.
The result, by all indications, is a happy, humble student-athlete whose collegiate career is looking like a success on many fronts. As one of four team captains, he will lead the third-ranked Cavaliers (10-2) against Denver (8-6) in their regular-season finale tonight at Klockner Stadium.
“Trey is one of my best friends and it’s great to see what he’s done,” said senior midfielder Chris Rotelli. “It’s like all of a sudden there was a switch that went off and he was like, I’m going to start doing everything the right way.”
Whitty is the first to admit he wasn’t doing many things right early in his UVa career. He nearly flunked out of school as a sophomore. He also didn’t enjoy his role as a backup, sulking even after victories and acting like “kind of a pain in the butt,” Starsia said.
“I think I was probably a little cocky, a little selfish. I wasn’t really a team player,” Whitty said. “I made the biggest changes of my life the summer after my sophomore year. I don’t know exactly what it was that made me do it. Once I got over myself a little bit, something just clicked.”
The lectures from Starsia and his father helped spur the transformation, but Whitty says he already knew things had to change. Almost overnight, he became a more solid student and a much better player and teammate.
Whitty came back to school in the fall of 2002 and won over his coaches and teammates with his work ethic and team-first attitude. “A completely different guy,” Starsia said.
“I knew I had something to prove to them,” Whitty said. “A lot of people probably looked down on me after my sophomore season, but I came back wanting to work harder in everything – in school, in the weight room, on the field. I came back wanting to be a leader as a junior. That’s not easy, but I was pretty determined to do it.”
Whitty proved himself with an outstanding junior season. He excelled at shutting down the opponent’s top offensive middie – his most important role – and also helped initiate Virginia’s transition game. Rangy and quick with superb stick skills, the 6-foot-3 Whitty often picked off opponent’s passes and took off in the other direction.
He finished with eight points (three goals, five assists) – the most by a UVa long-stick midfielder in 15 years – and also set a school record for his position by picking up 77 ground balls.
This season has been more of the same for Whitty, who has one goal and five assists along with 56 ground balls, second on the team. Just as important, he has assumed a leadership role as captain that would have been hard to imagine a few years ago.
“He’s been one of the best leaders on the team,” Rotelli said. “He’s stepped up and taken accountability for himself and for his teammates. … I think it was just a matter of growing up a little bit. He knows that it’s worth it to try to do things the right way.”
In that respect, Whitty is representative of his class. The team’s 11 seniors, who will play their final regular-season home game tonight, have had very different careers. Rotelli, for instance, has been a key player since his freshman season. Some have grown into prominent roles, like Whitty, midfielder A.J. Shannon and defensemen Ned Bowen and David Burman, while others still receive little or no playing time.

What they all share, however, is a similar attitude.

“Our class is unbelievable. I’ve never been around so many guys who care so much about the team,” Whitty said. “Our only goal is to win the national championship. That’s the way all of us want to end our careers here.”
 

 

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese’s ill-timed whimpering last week concerning the ACC’s desire to wreck his league may blow up in his face like an exploding cigar.
While Tranghese’s statements were meant to stop any rumors of defections from his league to the ACC, his outburst only fueled discussion. Now the issue is public as opposed to behind-the-scenes stuff and really has to make you wonder if several Big East teams would jump if they were invited.
The Big East boss accused ACC officials for operating in the dark, making covert approaches to Miami, Syracuse, Boston College and Virginia Tech. Certainly there has been some contact, mostly between the ACC and Miami. But that has been a two-way street.

What-Ifs
It has been a feel-them-out game of What-Ifs. You know, ‘What if we decided to expand? What if you decided to leave your conference? Would this be something you’re interested in?’
Obviously Miami holds the key to ACC expansion, so it’s no wonder that the folks in Greensboro have talked on and off to the Hurricanes over recent years. In fact, Miami athletic director Paul Dee even confirmed it and said his school could see itself as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“There have been all kinds of conversations, but none of them have led to an invitation,” said Dee. “We have not been approached by them [with an invitation]. No one has ever offered us an invitation to the ACC. We don’t have a sign that reads, ‘We’re in’ or a sign that reads ‘We’re out,’ and we don’t have a sign that says ‘We’re available.’ But you have to be prepared if somebody makes an invitation.”
What Dee then said must have sent ripples throughout the Big East.
“I do think there are formal conversations that go on in informal ways,” said Dee. “The ACC would be a place where the University of Miami would feel comfortable.”

Others would follow
In the aftermath, athletic directors from Syracuse and Boston College both said that if Miami jumped to the ACC, they would have to look closely at following.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Tranghese. You stirred the pot with your comments and now you have three of your premiere schools thinking aloud about ‘What If?’
Can you imagine the shock waves that would rock the ACC if Clemson officials came out tomorrow and said they were happy in the ACC but that if Florida State jumped to the SEC, then Clemson would have to consider following? Then, imagine Georgia Tech making the same statement.
Well that’s what Tranghese faces Monday when he returns to his office after spending last week at the BCS meetings out west, where by the way, he was in the same room with ACC commish John Swofford. Wouldn’t you have loved to been around to see that first handshake between the two?

Crouthamel’s thoughts
Syracuse AD Jake Crouthamel said he believes the
ACC is genuinely interested in expanding. League officials have admitted that at every meeting of the nine-team conference there is discussion about expansion in one form or another and that for years, the league has kept an updated list of potential candidates the ACC would be interested in courting should expansion come up.
If the league does expand, it would be by three teams in order to have two divisions, which would allow the ACC to conduct a conference championship football game just like the SEC and Big 12.

Money and exposure. While expansion would be a football-driven issue, adding Syracuse to the league’s basketball roster wouldn’t exactly be a bad thing. It’s all about money and exposure. Adding Syracuse, Boston College and Miami would open up huge TV markets in fertile recruiting territories.
“Somebody asked me, would you go to the ACC if you were invited to be a member?” said Syracuse’s Crouthamel. “I said, ‘What are the conditions? Am I the only school being offered by the ACC? If that’s the case, my answer is no. If Miami and BC are already in, then I’ve got to rethink my answer.”
Crouthamel said the ACC is a better basketball conference from a financial standpoint than the Big East. Adding those three teams would make the ACC one of the best football conference’s in the nation as well.
“We certainly would not be a Bowl Championship conference,” said the Syracuse AD about a Miami defection. “We would lose a good bit of TV revenue and exposure. And we would be a conference of seven [football schools].”
Boston College AD Gene DeFilippo said that if Miami made the jump, “that would change everything for us because then this would never be the same football league without [the Hurricanes].”

No denying it. DeFilippo didn’t deny conversations with ACC officials about the topic. In fact he said he has regular conversations with Swofford, Florida State AD Dave Hart and Georgia Tech AD Dave Braine. Hart and Braine are the most active of ACC athletic directors pushing for expansion.
Boston College football coach Tom O’Brien was a little clearer about the subject. O’Brien, a longtime assistant to George Welsh at Virginia, put it this way about what would happen if Miami joined the ACC:

“I’d be concerned,” said O’Brien. “There is no Big East without Miami. That’s the No. 1 reason. Without Miami, I don’t see the Big East as a viable football conference.”

O’Brien said that if Miami jumped, then BC would “absolutely” have to follow.

Maybe it’s just a game of ‘what-ifs’ at this point and something interesting to talk about at the ACC’s spring meetings next month in Florida. Maybe the only thing that would speed things up would be more whining by Tranghese.

 

With a flurry of first-quarter goals, the No. 3 Virginia men’s lacrosse team went for the early knockout against No. 15 Penn State on Saturday.
 The Cavaliers didn’t get it, but they did end up going the distance for a critical 11-10 victory at Klockner Stadium.
“It was a gutty win,” said UVa coach Dom Starsia, whose team improved to 10-2 with its fifth straight triumph. “It wasn’t the prettiest game. I thought we had a couple chances to put them away but we couldn’t quite bury them. But I thought we made the plays we needed to make at the end.”
The Cavaliers took a 5-0 lead behind three goals from freshman Matt Ward in the first 11 minutes. Ward finished with a career-high four goals and an assist.
But the Nittany Lions (6-6), who upset Virginia 13-8 last season, fought back and cut the deficit to a single goal on three occasions. They had a chance to tie in the final minute but defenseman Brett Hughes knocked down Luke Ogelsby’s pass. David Burman scooped up the ground ball, allowing the Cavaliers to run out the final 17 seconds.
The victory, coupled with No. 2 Princeton’s 13-6 loss to No. 20 Dartmouth, means Virginia is all but certain to move up to No. 2 and receive the second seed in the NCAA tournament if it beats Denver on Monday night in its regular-season finale at Klockner.
“We’ll take this one gladly,” Starsia said. “Penn State is probably the best lacrosse team no one knows about. They’re not a really good matchup for us.
They are one of the few teams as athletic as we are. And their goalie had a good day, so give them credit.”
The Cavaliers dominated most of the key statistics, holding large advantages in shots (47 to 28), ground balls (62 to 37) and faceoffs (17 to 7).
But Chris Garrity made 20 saves and the Nittany Lions, fighting for a potential NCAA tournament berth, scored four times on six extra-man opportunities to stay in contention.
Penn State closed within 5-4 in the second quarter before Joe Yevoli and John Christmas combined for three goals in 42 seconds to push UVa’s advantage to 8-4.
Down 9-5 at the half, the Nittany Lions stormed back with a 4-1 third quarter. A.J. Shannon’s extra-man goal in the fourth made it 11-9.
Mike Jacober then scored for Penn State, which failed to get the equalizer at the end.
Yevoli finished with two goals and two assists, while Christmas and Shannon each scored twice for the Cavaliers. John Eremus led PSU with three goals and two assists.
“I was always confident we were going to win,” Starsia said. “I don’t ever think we lost our poise. We were close to burying them and couldn’t quite get that done, but under the circumstances it was a very good win.”

 

A long day of waiting came to a sudden end for two Cavaliers as linebacker Angelo Crowell and receiver Billy McMullen were chosen with consecutive selections late in the third round of the NFL draft Saturday.
Crowell was picked by the Buffalo Bills with the 94th overall selection at about 8:45 p.m., with McMullen going to the Philadelphia Eagles moments later.
Neither player was available to comment late Saturday, but it was surely a day of high anxiety for both of them. The draft began at noon and the third round ended shortly after 9 p.m. with 97 players picked. The final four rounds will be held today.
McMullen set a school record with 210 receptions, second in ACC history, and Virginia coach Al Groh had called him the best college wideout in the country. But questions about his speed caused his stock to drop. He was the 12th receiver selected in the draft.
Still, McMullen said last week that Philadelphia was an NFL team that favors big receivers over short, fast ones. At 6-4 and 210 pounds, he fits the bill.
McMullen is the first UVa receiver to be picked since Germane Crowell went to the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 1998 draft.
Angelo Crowell, Germane’s brother, has the two most prolific seasons by a Cavalier defender in terms of tackles. He made 144 in 2001 and 155 in 2002.
Crowell is the first Virginia linebacker selected since 2000, when San Diego took Shannon Taylor in the sixth round.
In fact, this is the first time any Cavalier has been chosen in the first three rounds since 2000, when tailback Thomas Jones went to Arizona in the first round and St. Louis selected center John St. Clair in the third round.
Among the UVa players who may be picked today are linebacker Merrill Robertson and safety Jerton Evans. Offensive tackle Mike Mullins and safeties Chris Williams and Shernard Newby have agents and may try to get a tryout as free agents.

Virginia completed its recruiting class Friday when 6-foot-9 forward Jason Cain of Philadelphia committed to the Cavaliers.
Cain averaged 14 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists and five blocks for John Bartram High School this season as the school finished 24-4 and captured the Philadelphia Public League Championship.
Cain, who visited Charlottesville two weeks ago, chose Virginia over hometown Villanova.
“I like Virginia and I liked the school and the coaches. Those were the big things that attracted me to Virginia,” said Cain, whose high school also produced Earl “the Pearl” Monroe and Joe Bryant, a former 76ers standout and the father of Kobe Bryant.
Certainly an additional factor in the decision was that Joseph Jones, the Villanova assistant involved in his recruitment, recently was named the head coach at Columbia.
“It was really down between Virginia and Villanova and the main recruiter at Villanova had left and that just really solidified my answer,” said Cain, who had a visit to Villanova planned.
According to Bartram coach Lou Biester, Cain has unique qualities for a player of his size.
“His greatest assets are that he’s 6-9 and handles the ball extremely well, he’s an excellent passer and a quick jumper,” said Bartram coach Lou Biester. “Watching the NCAA tournament, I’ve tried to pick out a player that I think Jason plays like. I think [Luke] Walton is similar in the way he can handle the ball and pass as well.”
That ball handling and passing ability is attributed to the fact that Cain began his prep career as a guard but a growth spurt that began during his freshman year turned him into the player he is now.
“I had a growth spurt in ninth grade and then it was like two inches every year after that. I think that I might have a little more growing to do. I was 6-9 before this season and now I’m 6-10 so we will see,” said Cain, who is fully qualified academically.
Virginia assistant coach Walt Fuller, a Philadelphia native himself, was the primary recruiter involved with Cain and his local ties apparently were a benefit to UVa’s cause.
“I think it did help. It allowed me to connect with him a little bit more,” Cain said.
Virginia had two perimeter players, 6-2 Roanoke native J.R. Reynolds and 6-6 swingman Gary Forbes of Brooklyn, sign in November.
Point guard T.J. Bannister of Jacksonville, Fla., committed to the Cavaliers in March as did 6-8 Donte Minter, originally from Mt. Ulla, N.C., who spent this past season at nearby Fork Union Military Academy.
Fork Union coach Fletcher Arritt confirmed Thursday night that Minter had recently signed his letter of intent with Virginia. Bannister signed his LOI with Virginia at a ceremony at his school, Arlington Country Day School, earlier this month.
According to Mike Sullivan of rivalshoops.com, Virginia’s overall class should rank around 15th nationally. He indicates there is immediate help in this class and UVa has filled some needed roles.

 

The University of Virginia Pep Band will play at three lacrosse games today, Sunday and Monday, the band’s director said Friday afternoon.
“We are ‘go’ for the lacrosse games,” Scott Hayes said.
Band members picked up many of their instruments, locked away earlier in the week by the athletics department, Friday evening, allowing them to perform at the lacrosse games. Others will retrieve instruments today, according to the athletics department.
Pep Band musicians and the rest of the UVa community learned Thursday of a $23.5 million gift from UVa alumnus Carl W. Smith and his wife, Hunter Smith, that will be put toward a new performing-arts center and a marching band, which will replace the Pep Band at athletic events.
Although the marching band is not expected to play until the fall of 2004, the frequently controversial Pep Band will stop performing at athletic events after this school year.
UVa officials said the reason for the decision was that school resources, including $70,000 the Pep Band receives annually from the athletics department, are needed to start the new band.
Former band director Adam Lorentson discovered Tuesday that the locks had been changed on the instrument closet in Onesty Hall.
After lengthy discussions this week, the band set a time with Director of Athletics Craig Littlepage to retrieve their instruments.
“Adam very clearly was told that someone would contact him,” Littlepage said Friday morning. “We’ll set up times, whether they want to get them today or wait through the weekend.”
As for complaints that some students needed their instruments for jobs or study, Littlepage said the athletics office was doing all it could to accommodate the musicians.
“One young man got his trombone yesterday,” he noted.
The office changed the locks earlier this week after it learned of the $1.5 million endowment for a marching band and the decision to exclude the Pep Band from this fall’s games.
“We just didn’t want any arguments between students,” Littlepage said. “I just didn’t want any disagreements over who owned what.”
Lorentson, however, said band members have never disagreed in the past over who owns which instruments and added: “It’s not a situation where we’re going to start now.”
Although many of the instruments in the storage closet are owned by students or by the Pep Band itself, some of the equipment, such as music stands, is owned by the athletics department, Littlepage said.
Despite some mending of fences Friday, many Pep Band musicians were critical of the decision to exclude the group from games.
Hayes issued a news release complaining that the athletics department “has repressed the band continuously” and did not answer questions about the changed locks until Thursday, when the Smiths’ donation was made public.
Littlepage noted later Friday that, “I talked to Scott today and the conversation we had was very productive.” As for the criticism, “there’s nothing to respond to.”
UVa administrators also were targeted in Hayes’ statement: “The university now plans to introduce a marching band, despite the fact that Pep Band [board members] have repeatedly been told that the prospect of a marching band is far off.
“Certain members of the UVa community less affected by this decision have also known [about the marching band] for a great length of time — leaving the Pep Band members themselves as the last ones to know.”
But Hayes added that the Pep Band, which will continue to exist as an independent student organization, “remains committed to supporting the whole range of athletic teams at UVa.”