Football player shot at UVa
Student sought in first on-campus shooting in years
By Reed Williams / Daily Progress staff writer
April 28, 2004

A former University of Virginia football player who had just signed with the New York Giants was shot in the leg Wednesday, and authorities have charged another student with malicious wounding.

Jamaine Winborne, who played the last four seasons for UVa, was shot outside Hench dormitory after a dispute with another man, authorities said. The injury was not life threatening, police said.

It was the first shooting on campus in more than 10 years, not counting suicides, said UVa police Capt. Michael A. Coleman. The only other shooting Coleman could recall in 26 years with the department occurred at the UVa Medical Center and did not involve students, he said.

Police were searching late Wednesday for Aaron Joshua Robinson, a 23-year-old UVa engineering student, who faced a felony charge in Winborne’s shooting.

The violent incident put an end to a night of celebrating the last day of spring classes.

Within an hour of the shooting, three other football players were arrested after a group of students refused to leave the crime scene and cursed at officers, police said.

Marques Hagans, who is projected to start as quarterback next season, and Brandon Lee, a defensive back, were charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.

Wide receiver Kenneth Tynes was charged with vandalism, also a misdemeanor. He is accused of hurling a chair through a window near the shooting scene.

The three players were not involved in the shooting, police said.

UVa police Sgt. Melissa Fielding said the players apparently were upset and shocked that their teammate had been shot.

“Emotions were running high,” she said.

The three players’ status on the team was uncertain Wednesday. Craig K. Littlepage, director of UVa athletics, said in a statement that no decision about any punishment would be made until the investigation was completed.

Neither he nor coach Al Groh could be reached for comment, but UVa spokeswoman Carol Wood said, “People have been suspended from teams in the past for behavior that a coach deems inappropriate.”

Such cases are looked at case-by-case she said, and the decision is up to Groh and Littlepage.

“Our primary concern right now,” she added, “is the health and well-being of the student who was shot and working with the police for the apprehension of the attacker.”

Winborne, who was an honorable mention All-Atlantic Coast Conference player as a senior, had hoped to be picked last weekend in the NFL Draft. After going unselected in the seven-round draft, he signed a three-year contract Tuesday with the Giants.

Winborne also was awarded UVa’s Joe Palumbo Award for self-sacrifice and enthusiasm after last season.

Wednesday’s incident took place at Faulkner Residence Area, a group of three dorms off Massie Road. On Tuesday evening, students had thronged a courtyard that is the centerpiece of the three dorms for a cookout celebrating the last day of classes. Several students estimated that more than 100 people attended.

Shortly after midnight, witnesses heard a loud argument outside where a crowd had gathered.

Melissa Lam, a UVa junior, stepped outside her room after hearing what sounded like a fight and saw a man shouting at someone who was obscured from view.

“I heard a guy yelling up the stairway, ‘You can’t do anything about it’ and waving his arms,” she said. “There were so many people arguing.” She said she was still standing nearby, on a balcony, when she heard the gunshots.

“I felt safe. I never thought I’d hear a gunshot” at UVa, she said. “It didn’t sound like pretend.”

Another student, Matt Cederholm, said he saw two men shoving each other. “Someone pulled out an object - I didn’t see what he pulled out,” Cederholm said. “Then I heard … it sounded like a loud firecracker. People started scattering.”

Authorities declined to discuss the details surrounding the shooting, except to say that it followed a disagreement.

The three football players charged with misdemeanors each were free on $2,500 bond Wednesday, but none could be reached for comment.

Wood, the UVa spokeswoman, said that Robinson, the suspect in the shooting, and the three football players all could face disciplinary action of varying degrees should someone file charges against them with the University Judiciary Committee.

“The sanctions go broadly from an admonition to a disciplinary probation all the way to a suspension or an expulsion,” Wood said.

Robinson is described as a black man who is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs about 210 pounds. Authorities are asking anyone with information on his whereabouts to call 911 or Crimestoppers at (434) 977-4000.

The campus shooting comes less than a month after a man tried to rape an 18-year-old student outside her dorm and less than six months after another student was charged with murder in the stabbing death of a volunteer firefighter.

“It’s unusual for us,” Sgt. Fielding said, “to have the number of incidents that we’re having.”
 

Mapp to play at D-II West Georgia
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
April 29, 2004

Majestic Mapp will play another season of college basketball, it just won’t be at Virginia.

Mapp, who Virginia coach Pete Gillen said last November would not return next season, will play at the Division II State University of West Georgia next season.

Mapp was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Mapp will be eligible to play immediately at the school because of a successful petition to the NCAA.

Mapp tore the ACL in his right knee in August 2000 and then missed two-and-a-half seasons as he needed at least four surgeries for the knee to heal properly or at least to a point which he could return to the court.

Mapp received a standing ovation from the Virginia crowd upon his return on January 11, 2003, against North Carolina at U-Hall. Mapp then played in the final 18 games of the 2003-04 season.

In June 2003, Gillen and his staff received an early commitment from highly-touted point guard Sean Singletary of Philadelphia. That event, in many ways, hastened Mapp’s departure.

Mapp had to petition the NCAA for a rare sixth season of eligibility and given his medical situation likely would have been granted one but ultimately was told that would not occur at Virginia.

Gillen, citing playing time issues and the development of both Singletary and then-freshman T.J. Bannister, decided not to have Mapp return for another season.

“We all have difficult decisions to make and the decision not to offer Majestic Mapp the possibility of a sixth year was a difficult one for me. I respect and admire what Majestic has done to get back on the court,” Gillen said at the time. “I explained my decision to Majestic. The decision is based on what I believe is best for the University of Virginia men’s basketball program. In the long term, I believe this allows for the development of our young backcourt.”

Mapp, whose role and playing time dwindled this past season with the emergence of Bannister, was silent on the situation for most of the season but did indicate in March that he planned to continue his basketball at a Division II or III school pending the NCAA petition. That petition was then successful this spring.

West Georgia was 21-9 last season. Among Mapp’s new teammates will be senior Darnell Miller. Miller and Mapp were high school teammates at St. Raymond’s in the Bronx, N.Y.
 

Tough road win adds luster to U.Va.’s baseball resurgence
By TOM ROBINSON, The Virginian-Pilot
© April 27, 2004

Don’t focus on the score, although it’s tough to ignore 22-3. That’s how badly fourth-ranked Miami shellacked Virginia in baseball Saturday night in Coral Gables, Fla., piling 25 hits upon U.Va.’s seven errors.

The clearer measure of the resurgent Cavaliers is Sunday afternoon’s result — a 4-3 victory over Miami on a two-run, ninth-inning rally.

The Cavaliers, this week ranked 10th in one national poll and 17th in another, were blanked 8-0 on Friday and humiliated on Saturday. By Sunday, you’d think their plane couldn’t have gotten out of Miami fast enough.

But somewhere, the Cavs found the brass to hang with the Hurricanes. Then, to tie them at 2 in the seventh. And finally to take their first and only lead of the series in the weekend’s very last inning, and to hold on.

“At the end of the season, that win is going to be critical for this team,” Brian O’Connor, Virginia’s rookie head coach, said from his office Monday morning, not long after the Cavs’ wee-hours arrival in Charlottesville.

“It has real NCAA tournament implications.”

U.Va. followers haven’t noticed many of those lately, to say nothing of winning ACC seasons. The Cavaliers, who are 35-9 overall and lead the ACC at 14-4, last played in the postseason in 1996, although they finished below .500 in ACC play.

The fact is, the last time the Cavs’ heads finished above water in one of the country’s top-shelf baseball conferences was 1988 — at 11-10.

But as Sunday showed again, Virginia baseball is full of rallies.

A few years ago, remember, baseball was nearly on U.Va.’s endangered list. A committee of budget-crunchers tagged the sport for financial de-emphasis, a recommendation rejected by U.Va.’s board of visitors.

Still, the school’s baseball boosters — including the author John Grisham, a Charlottesville resident — were moved to mobilize. Money was raised, a new stadium erected. And O’Connor, a nine-year assistant at Notre Dame with a sparkling reputation, replaced long-timer Dennis Womack, who in his final season had the Cavs approaching better days.

O’Connor took on a largely veteran team that went 29-25 overall and 11-12 in the ACC in ’03. The new guy, as they say, hasn’t looked back.

Virginia, which opened 17-2, had a school-record 14-game winning streak end at Miami, which joins the ACC next season.

But Virginia’s nine-game ACC streak — including sweeps of Georgia Tech and Clemson — will be intact when it hosts another perennial power, Florida State, for three the weekend of May 7.

“At any level, the two main constants have to be pitching and defense,” said O’Connor, whose team is second in the ACC in both categories. “We’ve done those well all year.

“We have kids who really care, who want to do the little things every day to give us a chance to be a championship ball club.”

The Virginia Beach guys in O’Connor’s infield — junior shortstop Mark Reynolds and sophomore third baseman Ryan Zimmerman — have plenty to do with bringing a league title into play.

First Colonial’s Reynolds has nine home runs, a .308 batting average and a probable date with baseball’s June amateur draft.

“A very, very talented player,” O’Connor said of his No. 2 hitter in the order. “He’s capable of hitting the ball 400 feet, and then stealing a base. Mark does a lot of different things for us.”

Kellam’s Zimmerman, meanwhile, bats behind Reynolds, carries a .348 average and leads the Cavs with 64 hits.

Plus, O’Connor said, “Ryan is as good a defensive player, if not the best, that you’ll see in college baseball. He makes some unbelievably outstanding plays.”

Suddenly, for U.Va. baseball, outstanding has become a familiar word.
 

Hairy contributor
Brian Barthelmes gives all he's got to UVa football, except for his hair, which will go to Locks for Love.
By Doug Doughty
doug.doughty@roanoke.com
981-3125

CHARLOTTESVILLE - On a hulking man adorned with tattoos and pierced ears, shoulder-length hair definitely fits one image of Brian Barthelmes.

There is another image Barthelmes has cultivated for the past 18 months, the length of time since his last haircut.

Barthelmes, a 21-year-old Virginia football player, might have gotten his hair cut several times had he not made a commitment to a nonprofit organization, Locks of Love.

At the time that Barthelmes' hair reaches 10 inches in length, it will be shaved and used to make a wig for children suffering from long-term hair loss.

"When I wash it, it actually looks nice," said Barthelmes, a 6-foot-7, 286-pound offensive lineman. "Throw a little conditioner in there and it has a nice shine to it.

"It's not so much that I'm tired of it. I'd keep it. I like it, fashionably, but it's selfish for me to keep it when I can donate it to a kid who can't afford to buy a wig."

Barthelmes' hair had reached the 5-inch mark before he first saw an advertisement for Locks of Love.

"What an easy thing to do!" Barthelmes said. "You just walk around and it grows. Besides, once I get it cut, I can always grow it back."

Barthelmes was going to get his hair cut before the UVa spring game, but it was measured at only 9 1/2 inches. The minimum donation is 10 inches.

"A lot of people, when I tell them, they'll say, 'What a good idea!" Barthelmes said. "People buy into it. If it's not a trend that's already going, hopefully it will catch on."

Barthelmes said he has been unsuccessful in persuading any of his teammates to join the movement because "there's a little bit of maintenance involved," and while head coach Al Groh considers it a noble cause, he does not share Barthelmes' luxurious hair texture.

"It should be quite obvious that I donated mine a long time ago," said Groh, 59.

Groh is aware of Barthelmes' eagerness to sacrifice from the football field, where Barthelmes has started 15 games at left guard over the past two seasons and also has gotten time at right guard and right tackle.

Barthelmes played tackle this spring. He didn't always run with the first team, but Groh likes his versatility and hesitates when asked if he'd like to see Barthelmes do anything differently.

"Just keep on being Bart," Groh said of the advice he would give Barthelmes. "That's a pretty good thing. He's been everything we've asked him to be since he's been here.

"He's very responsible academically. He's done well there. He's one of the most energetic and diligent weight-room workers. All he wants to do is win. He doesn't care if he plays guard or tackle [or] how you bounce him around. He's tough. He's dedicated. There's everything to like about him."

Especially his hair.

 

Cavs' Schaub joins the fray
QB will join Kerney in a Falcons' nest that's full of Hokies
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Apr 29, 2004

Matt Schaub's arrival in Atlanta means former University of Virginia football star Patrick Kerney won't feel quite so outnumbered this season.

In 2003, the Falcons' roster included three former Virginia Tech standouts - quarterback Michael Vick and safeties Keion Carpenter and Kevin McCadam. Kerney was Atlanta's only player from U.Va.

Kerney, a sixth-year defensive end, will have some company in'04. The Falcons picked another Hokie, cornerback DeAngelo Hall, in the first round of last weekend's NFL draft, but they also added a'Hoo - Schaub - in the third.

Schaub said he met Kerney "when I was being recruited [by U.Va.]. That was his last year, and whenever he'd come back I'd talk to him. I know him pretty well."

With Schaub playing a leading role - he passed for 358 yards and two touchdowns - U.Va. rallied to beat Hall and the Hokies 35-21 at Scott Stadium last season, the Cavaliers' first victory in the series since 1998. The teams meet again Nov. 27 in Blacksburg.

"I'm sure there'll be some heated discussions on that game" in the Falcons' locker room in November, Schaub said.

Yesterday found Schaub in Charlottesville, preparing for the next chapter of his life. Today, he'll be at the Falcons' training facility in Flowery Branch, Ga., for rookie orientation. A three-day mini-camp starts tomorrow.

"I think it's a good fit," said Schaub, whose parents have lived near Atlanta, in Marietta, for several years.

Atlanta has a new coach, Jim Mora Jr., and a new offensive coordinator, Greg Knapp. The Falcons plan to install the West Coast offense, one reason they drafted Schaub, who thrived in that system at U.Va. Atlanta loved that Schaub's offensive coordinator and position coach in 2001 and'02 was Bill Musgrave, who's entering his second season as the Jacksonville Jaguars' offensive coordinator.

"I think our feeling is the learning curve shouldn't be very long," Rich McKay, the Falcons' president and general manager, told reporters. "He's played in this system, he's played in this terminology, and he was extremely productive."

Make no mistake: Schaub was drafted to back up Vick. Only one QB will wear jersey No. 7 in Atlanta this season, and it won't be Schaub. Still, if Schaub is unhappy about playing behind Vick, it's not apparent. Schaub said he looks forward to learning from one of the NFL's marquee players.

"I think it's good opportunity for me," said Schaub, who holds virtually every passing record at U.Va. "I'm excited to get on the team and show what I can do and just help the team in whatever way I can.

"As backup quarterback or even third-string quarterback, you're only a play away from the game. You never know what will happen."

Atlanta waived quarterback Kurt Kittner this week, which leaves Schaub and veteran Ty Detmer as Vick's backups. Kittner appeared in seven games for Atlanta in 2003 - he started four - and completed 44 of 114 passes for 391 yards and two touchdowns. He threw six interceptions.

Kittner's release reflects the Falcons' confidence that Schaub will adjust quickly to the NFL. Atlanta could have picked up a veteran quarterback instead of drafting Schaub, McKay said, but the team "wanted to add somebody where we could at least say, 'Let's not worry about this position for a number of years.'

"Is he a veteran? No. But are we comfortable that he can come in and be pretty productive pretty fast? Yes."