Cavs' Canty never at loss for words (UVa spring football notes)
Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
April 10, 2004

You can call Virginia defensive lineman Chris Canty a host of adjectives. Shy is not one of them.
The rising senior is one of the most talented defensive linemen in the country and the anchor of the Cavalier defense - he’s not afraid to let opponents know about it.
The final open practice that UVa had for the public on Friday was no exception as Canty was vocal and continued to motivate his defensive counterparts throughout the practice.
“I have given some sound bites here and there throughout my career,” Canty said with a chuckle. “I like to pump up my teammates.”
While the NFL will probably come calling the senior’s name, possibly in the first round in 2005, the outspoken Charlotte, N.C., native wants to put his verbal skills to use when his football days are over - as a football analyst.
“Of course, I am going to think about doing that,” Canty said. “I like Deion [Sanders] on the NFL Today show and I really like Michael Irvin. [ESPN’s] Tom Jackson is real good … Ron Jaworski is good. It is something I have to keep in mind.”
With a host of defensive linemen returning and additions being made to an already stellar linebacking unit, Canty is excited about the potential the group has in the upcoming season.
“I feel good about the defense. We have been together for a long time,” Canty said.
Canty believes that it all starts up front with the defensive line in the team’s 3-4 scheme. The starting unit consists of Brennan Schmidt, Andrew Hoffman and Canty.
“For any defense to be good, you have to have guys that are good up front and I think our front three are as good as any front in America,” Canty said. “We have tremendous players that can play the game and that in turn will set the tone for the defense.”

Davis continuing rehab. For Willie Davis, the 2003 season ended about three months too early.
Davis, who started at safety last season, was injured on Sept. 4 in UVa’s second game of the season at South Carolina when he was the victim of a helmet-to-helmet hit.
Virginia coach Al Groh said Davis continues to workout and has been around the team this spring.
“[Davis] is in here on a daily basis,” Groh said. “[Rehabbing] is part of what he is in here for. The other part is just to stay connected with us.”
When asked if Davis is interested in returning to the team, Groh stated: that it is “where his heart is. He was on the way to becoming a special player.”

Hardy’s return on schedule. Virginia safety Jermaine Hardy had surgery in the offseason, but Groh thinks that the Roanoke native will not skip a beat in his return to the team.
When asked about Hardy’s progress and if he felt Hardy would be ready in the fall Groh said, “there is no reason to doubt that he will be.”
Hardy, who made 48 tackles last season - the most of any non-starter, had surgery on his knee.
“He is on schedule with everything and he is feeling good about it,” Groh said. “This is a significant circumstance to come back from. I think part of the answer will remain incomplete until such time that he is able to go out there and do it all again.”

 

Siebonick joins Cavs' growing list
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
April 10, 2004

Coach Al Groh’s attempt to supersize his Virginia football team has taken a giant leap forward in the past couple of weeks with the addition of several wide body commitments. The Cavaliers gained another - their seventh high school junior commitment - on Friday when Patrick Siebonick announced his intentions.

The North Stafford High School offensive lineman chose UVa over Virginia Tech, N.C. State and West Virginia, all of which had officially offered him a grant-in-aid.

At 6-foot-5, 290 pounds, Siebonick fits the mold for what Groh wants his future teams to look like. Five of UVa’s seven early commitments measure up like this: Will Barker, 6-7, 275; Alex Field, 6-6, 248; Jason Fuller, 6-6, 220; John Phillips, 6-6, 240; and Siebonick at 6-5, 290.

While the latest member of the 2005 recruiting class has the size, strength (315 bench press, 415 squat), and speed (5.1 in the 40), Siebonick depends on his intelligence to help get the job done. With a GPA of 3.35 and an SAT score of 1300, he’s a true combination of brains and brawn.

“He’s an intelligent kid out there who can act as an extension of the coaching staff on the field,” North Stafford coach Eric Cooke said. “There’s so much of a misconception about offensive line play, that it requires a big fellow moving a brick wall. Instead, it’s very much a mental game, a game of angles.

“Patrick understands those angles and uses them to his advantage,” Cooke said. “He will use his position, the alignment of a linebacker and make whatever call is necessary.”

Cooke knows what he’s talking about. He has at least two Division I-A prospects on his team and possibly four. The other certain eye-catcher is Antonio North, who plays beside Siebonick on the offensive line. North has offers from Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland and West Virginia.

“Tony will probably make a decision in the next month or so,” Cooke said. “If these two guys were to hold out and take officials visits, we’d probably have every coach in America in here to see them.”

Siebonick didn’t think that was necessary.

“He had some vision and foresight about this going back to last year, so Patrick had become very educated about every school within a three- or four-hour radius,” Cooke said. “He researched the recruiting classes of all those schools, the academics of each program and much more. Virginia has always been kind of the front-runner with everybody else running for second.”

The Wolverines’ coach advised his player that if he felt comfortable with the research and had made an informed decision, then it would be smart to “go ahead and pull the trigger, so to speak.”

“They could wait and do the official visits and receive all the attention, but it’s of my opinion that your senior year in football that you should enjoy yourself,” Cooke said.

Siebonick visited Charlottesville last Sunday to attend UVa’s practice and apparently felt the time was right to announce his choice.

Offensive coordinator/line coach Ron Prince and quarterbacks coach Mike Groh closed the deal.

The Cavs are getting a versatile lineman who could play tackle, guard or center.

“All the recruiters who came to see him mentioned the same things,” Cooke said. “His size, technique and work ethic. He has tremendous work ethic and a real desire to get better. One of the things that drew him to UVa was the professionalism of its staff, the environment of the city and the academic-oriented atmosphere of the school.”

When Cooke thinks about his big lineman’s deed, it’s difficult to come up with any kind of statistic or highlight film that showcases his ability.

“The least glorified position is the offensive line, but when I think of Pat, the name of the game is consistency,” Cooke said. “Game in, game out, from the first quarter to the fourth quarter, Pat is consistent. Within that consistency lies his greatness. He just does his job every day.”

 

Cavaliers well aware of their predicament
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
April 10, 2004

With a 3-5 record and a minimum of four games remaining in its regular season, the members of the Virginia men’s lacrosse team is well aware of the situation
it’s in.

No one has to tell them what is necessary for the Cavaliers, the reigning national champions, to at least get a chance to defend that title.

“I think everyone understands how it works. We know a team mush finish at least .500 to be eligible to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia.

Virginia has made the past 11 NCAA fields and was last excluded in 1992.

Such history and pressure it can bring can be overwhelming, especially to a team coming off a 11-2 loss at No. 1 Maryland last Saturday.

While Starsia doesn’t want to insulate his players completely from the situation they face, he also wants the majority of their focus on specific items under their control.

“We are working toward a goal of playing well and are trying to focus on that. The only thing in our control at the moment is trying to win these final games and it’s necessary for us to have the right focus and at this point that focus has to be on simply playing well and at the level we’re capable,” Starsia said.

That focus was not evident last week at College Park when the Cavaliers were hardly ever competitive in the game as the top-ranked Terps seized control of the contest early.

“We took a day off of practice after returning from that game. That is something we’d usually do if we had won a game or played well,” Starsia said.

The result? Starsia got a strong week of practice according to him.

“We had a good week of practice and the players worked hard. We have a young team and with that you have some youth and immaturity,” Starsia said. “What happened at Maryland? I’m not completely sure. Maybe some of the guys got mystified by the moment and situation of playing Maryland at Byrd Stadium. I’m sure we were angry with the result but now we have to put the focus on this week and playing well.”

The Tar Heels, which have not beaten Virginia since 2001, are coming off consecutive losses to Maryland and then Johns Hopkins.

“This is certainly a critical game for both teams. [North Carolina] looks a lot like us in a lot of ways. They are a team playing with balance. They are not a real physical group but they’ve definitely been around the block a couple of times. They certainly look like a playoff-caliber team,” Starsia said.
 

Dobies' gem paces Virginia past Clemson
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
April 10, 2004

Before the season started, Virginia first-year baseball coach Brian O’Connor stated that he expected his team to play and beat the best teams in the country.

It is no longer looking a mission statement but more like a reality show.

On Friday, Virginia continued its winning ways in the ACC as it topped Clemson 5-1 and gave the Tigers their first loss in the conference in front of a record crowd of 2,000.

“That was a big win. It was a great crowd and an exciting atmosphere and that is the way baseball should be in Charlottesville and at UVa,” O’Connor said after his team improved to 27-7 and 9-4 in the ACC. “We have a great product. It’s some of the best baseball in the country. It was exciting and I hope we have the same support [today].”

Virginia starting pitcher Andrew Dobies limited Clemson to four hits in seven innings and closer Casey Lambert worked out of two different jams in the final two innings, stranding four runners to give the Tigers the loss. It was the seventh straight win for UVa and it snapped a nine-game win streak for Clemson.

Dobies, a southpaw, remained perfect on the season despite pitching without what O’Connor called his “A-game.”

“He is a competitor. He was a warrior out there and that’s the sign of a true No. 1 starter,” O’Connor said. “Tonight, he did not have his great stuff but he found a way to win the ballgame. That is what a true champion does.”

Clemson (18-11, 6-1 ACC) starting pitcher Tyler Lumsden matched Dobies with seven innings on the mound but allowed nine hits, three of which came with two outs in a three-run third inning for Virginia.

Clemson coach Jack Leggett felt that the Tigers hit the ball well, but were not able to capitalize on some long fly balls due to the lengthy dimensions at Davenport Field.

“We hit the ball hard but it is a big ballpark and [Virginia] knows how to play within their ballpark,” said Clemson coach Jack Leggett. “They hit the ball on the ground and that three-run inning was typical of what they have to do. You have to put the ball in play and they did it pretty well. They have a good ballclub and [Dobies] was good.”

Clemson wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard.

In the first inning, Clemson leadoff hitter Herman Demmick scored from second on an RBI single up the middle from Brad McCann.

Virginia answered with a lone run in the bottom of the first when Mark Reynolds scored from third on a RBI groundout from Joe Koshansky.

The game remained tied until the bottom of the third inning.

Ryan Zimmerman started the two-out rally with a triple into the right field corner. After UVa’s Joe Koshansky walked, Matt Dunn got an infield hit on a ball hit deep in the hole to Tiger shortstop Russell Triplett.

After a double steal, Koshansky scored on an RBI single from Paul Gillispie. Dunn, who advanced to third on Gillispie’s infield hit, scored on a wild pitch from Lumsden to make it 4-1.

Clemson, which stranded nine runners on base for the game, did not get a runner on base from the fourth to sixth innings.

“We just didn’t get enough leadoff men on base,” Legget said.

Virginia added an insurance run in the seventh inning when Zimmerman tripled for the second time in the game and scored on a sacrifice fly from Koshansky.

Lambert, a freshman and product of St. Anne’s-Belfield, allowed four Tigers to reach base in the final two innings (one hit, two walks and a hit batter) but managed to strand all four runners and sealed the win for the Cavaliers.

“The kid has a lot of guts,” said O’Connor. “I was going to keep him out there until the end. I didn’t care what happened.”

Zimmerman paced the Cavaliers at the plate with three hits and scored a pair of runs. The UVa third baseman said playing Clemson was all the motivation the team needed.

“Playing Clemson brings the best out of everyone,” Zimmerman said. “We hope that people start thinking that way about us. … We feel we can play with anyone and tonight we showed that we can play with anyone.”

In a move that was necessitated by impending weather for Sunday, the two teams will finish the series with a doubleheader today. The first game is slated to start at 1 p.m. and the second game will follow 45 minutes after the conclusion of the opener.

“We just have to take it one game at a time,” O’Connor said. “[Today] will be a long day out here and we just need to play our best baseball.”
 

Rare Tech-UVa recruiting battle shaping up in basketball
With Slebonic commitment, talk turns to teammate
By Doug Doughty
Exclusive to roanoke.com by 5 p.m. Fridays

If 6-8, 245-pound basketball prospect Laurynas Mikalauskas makes a decision between Virginia and Virginia Tech -- or if he just visits both schools -- that would be a first in recent memory.

Media gadfly Jeff White says he thinks that 1998 Virginia signee Jason Rogers had Tech on his final list. According to Roanoke Times archives, Rogers, a post man from Robert E. Lee in Staunton. had an offer from the Hokies but there is no indication he visited Tech officially.

I'm not about to say that Dell Curry in 1982 was the last big-time basketball prospect to pick the Hokies over the Cavaliers, but I can't remember anyone else.

"Nobody in the six years I was there," said new James Madison coach Dean Keener, an assistant at Tech from 1991-1995 and 1997-99. "We were involved with Colin Ducharme, but there was nobody who visited both schools. Nothing that was seriously heavy in November."

Mikalauskas, a junior at the Blue Ridge School, recently took an official visit to Tech and has been offered by the Hokies, Virginia, Clemson and West Virginia.

Mikalauskas might have been committed to the Cavaliers by now if they had been willing to take his commitment. In a strange stroke of policy, Virginia can offer a player who hasn't qualified but can't take his commitment.

Something similar to that happened last fall, when 6-9 Cornelio Guibunda from Mozambique seemed headed to UVa before suddenly disappearing from the Cavaliers' radar screen and ending up at Georgetown.

"About two weeks ago, [the Cavaliers] made an offer but they're making the offer contingent on his test score," Blue Ridge coach Bill Ramsey said earlier this week. "[UVa assistant] Walt Fuller has been tracking Laurynas all through the season, calling just about every day and he finally convinced Pete.

"I think Pete saw him and wasn't quite sure, but then Pete came up about two weeks ago and said, through me, that 'we are offering you a scholarship. As soon as you make the scores, we'll take your application over to admissions and present you.' Tech didn't wait on the scores. They went ahead and made their offer, and so did West Virginia."

Mikaluaskas wants to commit before the summer and his top three choices are Virginia, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame.

"Notre Dame is very active, too," Ramsey said. "They're writing him all the time. Of course, they have a certain appeal to a foreign student. Of course, everybody knows about Notre Dame. And, throughout Europe, Notre Dame is famous, too."

Mikalauskas arrived at Blue Ridge three years ago through the efforts of Steppes Kyrus, who has been involved in the placement of other Lithuanians and also helped direct Dutchman Tom Timmermans, a senior at Notre Dame this past season, to Blue Ridge.

No college was involved in placing Mikalauskas at Blue Ridge or arranging a deal.

"That would be illegal anyway," Ramsey said, "but it happens all the time, as you know. He came straight to me. Steppes calls me every year and tries to get a kid in here. We usually don't have enough financial aid for a Lithuanian."

Mikalauskas came to Ramsey as a skinny, 6-6, 190-pounder.

"He's gradually improved," Ramsey said. "He's always had more talent that people gave him credit for. Right now, the best thing he's got is that he's a scorer. He plain just knows how to put the ball in the basket. He's got great hands, and he's left- and right-handed. When he's in the post, he's got a left-handed hook and a right-handed hook.

"He's a good athlete. He can touch his elbow to the rim. He can get up and down the floor. He can run. He's a high jumper on the track team. This year, he says he can get over 6 feet. He can get up."

Ramsey said Mikalauskas scored in the mid-700's on his first attempt at the SAT and this week will take the ACT for the first time. He takes a college-bound curriculum, including calculus.

"I think a lot of it has to do with him not finishing the test because he can't read it fast enough," Ramsey said. "Even the math scores aren't as high as they should be because he never completes the section. I think he'll make it before the year's over."

Mikalauskas' concern with Notre Dame is the number of young frontcourt players on the Irish's roster.

"He feels that, at both Tech and Virginia, he could contribute right away," Ramsey said. "And, West Virginia says the same thing. He really likes coach [John] Beilein, but I don't think he wants to go to West Virginia."

Blue Ridge, located 40-45 minutes from Charlottesville, sent Jermaine Harper to UVa to play basketball in 2000.

Blue Ridge players "go there [for games] more than they go anywhere else," Ramsey said, "but it's not all the time. Laurynas went to a lot of Virginia games this year, though. He loves going to games and it's easier to take him there than anywhere else. We've also driven to Blacksburg. We drove to Maryland and watched Maryland and Virginia play. We got tickets from the Maryland coaches for that. They're recruiting him, too."

Virginia announced last week that head coach Pete Gillen will be returning for a seventh season in 2004-2005 but he may need to improve on this year's showing -- 18-13 overall and a seventh-place tie in the ACC -- to keep his job.

"It's definitely on [Mikalauskas'] mind," Ramsey said. "He knows that Pete got an extended year. It's hard. I think the people at Virginia need to make a commitment to him for most recruits [to feel comfortable]. I think Laurynas really likes Virginia.

"For Pete's sake, it's difficult for him, with one year, because people are going to hold that against him, but I think Laurynas wants to stay in Virginia and stay nearby."

Needless to say, rival recruiters will be hammering the stability issue.

"I'm sure Tech already did that to him," Ramsey said, "but that's the way it goes. If you go in with a hot coach ... Tom Timmermans really liked Paul Hewitt at Siena. Everybody said, 'Well, Paul Hewitt's not going to go to be at Siena.' And, he wasn't.

"You might go and play for a coach who might lose his job due to losses or, if things are going really well, that coach might leave, too."

AN UNPRECEDENTED wave of early football commitments continued Friday for Virginia, which landed 6-foot-5, 295-pound North Stafford offensive tackle Patrick Slebonic, who also had offers from Virginia Tech, North Carolina State and West Virginia.

Slebonic is the seventh junior to commit to the Cavaliers and the third since April 1. It's not too soon to think UVa may be running out of scholarships, particularly at the jumbo positions. Six of the Cavaliers' recruits are 6-5 or taller, with only quarterback Vic Hall and 6-5, 190-pound wide receiver-outside linebacker Maurice Covington qualifying as skill-position players.

"It's always a consideration," said North Stafford coach Eric Cooke of the notion that Virginia might be filling up. "I don't want to say that it was a key factor. I think it's something that Patrick and his family have thought about. They felt comfortable with Virginia at the beginning of the process and were kind of feeling everybody else out.

"I feel that the University of Virginia was the front-runner from Day One with Patrick. I know that Pat follows the recruiting process. I think he could tell you right off who the six or seven other recruits they've gotten are. He keeps up with that on the websites.

"He's of above-average intelligence and has done his research. He knows what each school has on their roster; he also has researched them academically. Coach [Al] Groh beings a hands-on coach and being involved in the spring practices that Patrick saw was a big selling point. That and the professionalism of the staff."

Slebonic has better than a 3.5 grade-point average and 1,200 on the SAT. His North Stafford linemate, 6-4, 310-pound rising senior Antonio "Tony" North, has a 3.2 GPA. North also has offers from UVa, Tech, N.C. State and WVU.

How Slebonic's commitment will affect North "has been the topic of many discussions," Cooke said. "The best way I can put it is, I'm very blessed to have Division I offensive linemen. It's just a coincidence that they're graduating at the same time and, at the same time, receiving attention.

"They're not a package deal. They have gone on a lot of visits together. It's been nice for them to have a friend who's in the exact same position at the exact same time. They're making separate decisions [and] going about this in a separate fashion. At this time, Tony is still considering the University of Virginia and other schools."

Slebonic runs 40 yards in approximately 5.3 seconds and his lifts are in the 400-pound range in the squat and 300's in the bench press. North, slightly heavier and a little shorter, has a 5.2 time in the 40 and lifts 450 pounds in the squat and 360 in the bench press.

North Stafford has two other rising seniors who are certain to attract interest, particularly if their academics improve. They are 6-3, 300-pound nose guard Cordero Thompson and 6-2, 185-pound strong safety-wide receiver Jarvis Williams.
 

It's a topsy-turvy spring at Virginia
Virginia's baseball team is making a run at the ACC title, while its defending national champion men's lacrosse team is struggling.
By Doug Doughty

In a typical spring athletic season, Virginia has come to expect an NCAA bid - and maybe even a championship run - from one of its men's programs while hoping for respectability from another.

In that respect, it has been a typical spring in Charlottesville, but with some unexpected role reversal.

After winning the Division I men's lacrosse championship last April, the Cavaliers (3-5) are in jeopardy of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time in coach Dom Starsia's 12-year tenure.

Virginia is seeking to avoid its first losing season since the Cavaliers were 6-7 in 1987, which was their only losing season in the last 37 years. It would be extra embarrassing to be sitting at home over the weekend of May 22-23, when UVa will serve as host for a pair of NCAA quarterfinal games.

"I think everybody knows what's going on," said Starsia, whose 15th-ranked Cavaliers visit No.5 North Carolina (5-3) today at 1 p.m. "From my perspective, I've tried not to dwell on that. I think that only adds to whatever burden the kids may be feeling right now."

Aside from a 9-8 overtime victory over then-No.1 Johns Hopkins, little has gone right for Starsia's team.

In contrast, little has gone wrong for the UVa baseball team, which rallied for four runs in the ninth inning Wednesday and beat William and Mary 11-9 on a night when the Cavaliers had five hits.

Virginia got as high as 19th in the Baseball America poll and, while it has dropped out of the rankings, the Cavaliers (26-7, 8-4 ACC) have more victories than any other ACC team.

UVa entertained Clemson (18-10, 6-0) and the Tigers' Tyler Lumsden from Roanoke on Friday night to start a three-game series.

The Cavaliers were 29-25 last year under Dennis Womack and there was some speculation they might receive an NCAA bid, but this year's start is unprecedented. Even in 1996, when Virginia won the ACC championship and set a school record with 44 wins, the Cavaliers were 20-13 after 33 games.

With 23 games remaining in the regular season, UVa already has won as many games as it did in 10 of the previous 15 seasons.

The Cavaliers' surge has coincided with the arrival of 32-year-old head coach Brian O'Connor, a former Martinsville Phillies pitcher who went to Charlottesville after nine years as an assistant coach at Notre Dame.

O'Connor is quick to credit Womack, who left him with seven starting position players, as well as a pair of left-handed starters in Andrew Dobies and Joe Koshansky who were a combined 13-5 last year.

In Koshansky, O'Connor had a returning first-team All-ACC player who pitched on Sundays and played first base the rest of the week. Koshansky was second on the team in batting (.320), home runs (nine) and RBI (36) last season.

Koshansky already has 10 home runs this season "and there has to be a very small handful of guys in college baseball who are doing what he does," O'Connor said.

Koshansky and Dobies are a combined 10-1 this year, and Dobies ranks third in the ACC in ERA (1.96).

Virginia has played in the NCAA tournament three times, only once (1985) as an at-large team, but the Cavaliers are moving in that direction.

"Most coaches would say, if you win 40 ballgames in the regular season, you're going to get in the tournament," O'Connor said. "I don't know if we would have to do that necessarily."

So few schools (four) sponsor men's lacrosse that the ACC champion does not receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. To make the field, Virginia somehow needs to get back to .500 against a remaining schedule that includes only one unranked opponent - Penn State - with that game on the road.

The Cavaliers dug themselves a deep hole when they ventured to Denver in late February and lost back-to-back games to Air Force 7-6 and Denver 9-7.

Starsia doesn't think that the demise of the program is imminent, but he is running out of answers for the Cavaliers' lackluster play.

"It's been really hard on all of us," he said. "You can only imagine the self-examination that goes on at a time like this. We're 10 months removed from a national championship and you feel like a horse's a--. I don't know what else to say about it."