Shepherd quits position at Virginia
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
May 19, 2004

When Virginia men’s basketball coach Pete Gillen was retained at the school in April, changes to the program were promised.

Changes have and continue to occur as it was announced Tuesday.

Scott Shepherd, a member of the UVa men’s basketball staff the last five years, has resigned his position immediately to pursue other basketball opportunities detailed a release from the school Tuesday.

Phone calls to both Gillen and Shepherd were not immediately returned Tuesday.

Shepherd’s resignation follows that of fellow assistant coach Rod Jensen last month.

Sources had indicated and Gillen had even hinted that a second coaching change was possible for the past several weeks.

Shepherd spent four of his five years at Virginia as an assistant coach. He was an assistant coach his first three seasons with the program (1999-00 season through 2001-02 season) and again during the 2003-04 season. He was the program’s director of basketball operations in 2002-03. Shepherd and fellow assistant Alexis Sherard had essentially flip-flopped the recruiting and basketball operations duties over the past two seasons once Jensen joined the staff in the summer of 2002.

Shepherd spent five seasons as the head post-graduate basketball coach at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, before joining the Virginia staff. His teams at Hargrave compiled an overall record of 127-18 (.876). His 1997-98 Hargrave team had an overall record of 26-1 and his 1998-99 Hargrave team was 27-3. Before assuming the head coaching position in 1994, Shepherd served as the assistant post-graduate basketball coach at Hargrave for the 1993-94 season. Prior to arriving at Hargrave, he was an assistant coach at Ferrum College in Ferrum.

Gillen interviewed former Clemson coach Larry Shyatt last month for the spot vacated by Jensen but Shyatt later accepted a position at the University of Florida.

Sources indicate that there is some pressure to hire a coach with some Virginia ties for one of the positions. Among former Virginia players currently in the Division I coaching ranks are Jason Williford (Boston University), Ted Jeffries (William & Mary) and Richard Morgan (Hampton). Former Cavalier and Waynesboro native Cory Alexander has also expressed some interest into entering the coaching field.
 

Cavaliers earn win vs. Flames
From staff reports / Charlottesville Daily Progress
May 19, 2004

LYNCHBURG - With its ACC tournament seeding out of its hands, the Virginia baseball team entered the week with two final tune-ups against Liberty.

One down, one to go.

On Tuesday, the Cavaliers jumped out early and a trio of relievers shutout Liberty over the final 4.1 innings to earn a

6-4 victory at Worthington Stadium.

“I thought that we played pretty well,” said UVa coach Brian O’Connor, whose team is now

30 games over .500 at 41-11. “We came ready to play and we got up on them early and we got the job done.”

Mark Reynolds got the Cavaliers on the scoreboard in the first inning as he led off the game with a solo homer to left field. It was the 10th homer of the season for the junior shortstop.

Liberty (22-29) answered in the bottom-half of the frame with a solo shot from their leadoff hitter, Jeremiah Boles.

UVa added to their lead with two runs in the third and fourth innings.

In the third inning, Scott Headd doubled in a run and later scored on a RBI-single from Paul Gillispie.

One inning later, Reynolds scored on a sacrifice fly from Ryan Zimmerman, and Headd plated Matt Dunn with a single up the middle.

The Flames trimmed the lead to 5-4 in the bottom of the fifth inning with three runs off Virginia’s starter Matt Avery, before Shooter Starr struck out Liberty’s cleanup hitter Jeffrey Brown to end the frame.

O’Connor said after the game that Avery wasn’t chased from the game, but was rather on a strict pitch count. Avery, who didn’t strike out or walk a batter, went 4.2 innings, allowing six hits and four earned runs.

Starr, who only faced one batter, recorded the win and improved to 3-0 on the season.

Chris Gale pitched three scoreless inning of relief, before Casey Lambert closed out the game in the ninth inning for his seventh save of the year.

“Chris Gale came in and threw the ball really well,” O’Connor said. “I thought that he was the story of the game. He came in when it was 5-4 and threw three shutout innings to give it to Lambert in the ninth.”

Virginia added an insurance run in the ninth inning as Dunn scored on a single by Tom Hagan.

Of the six runs that the Cavaliers scored, three of them came as a result of a two-out hit.

“We had a few clutch hits, especially with two outs and that was the difference in the game,” said O’Connor, whose team pounded out 10 hits for the third straight game.

Virginia (41-11) will go for the two-game sweep tonight at 7 p.m. in their regular season finale at home against the Flames.

Note. Virginia left 10 runners on base in the game, while the Flames left six. … O’Connor said that Andrew Dobies would start on the mound tonight against the Flames. … Tonight’s game is senior night. The seniors on the team will be honored before the contest.
 

Hoyas are on the horizon
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
May 18, 2004

By the time the Virginia women’s lacrosse team had reached halftime, the murmurs had already spread through the Klockner Stadium crowd: Georgetown had upset Maryland in one of the other NCAA quarterfinals played Sunday.

The second-seeded Cav-aliers went on to win their game against Northwestern, 15-11, to reach their second straight Final Four.

Their opponent this Friday in the national semifinals in Princeton, N.J., will now be Georgetown, not Maryland.

The Cavaliers have won their past three meetings with Maryland after losing 16 of the previous 17. But such history - either recent or past - did not seem to result in any emotion from the Virginia players after the victory Sunday.

“No one let us know about the Maryland game and it wouldn’t have mattered. We had to focus on the task at hand today and who we play on Friday is something we will deal with in practice this week,” said junior Amy Appelt, who had four goals against Northwestern.

Certainly there is a tad of freshness in playing Georgetown and not Maryland … again. The Cavaliers defeated the Terrapins in last year’s NCAA semifinals and have defeated them twice this season.

“I think we all expected that it would be Maryland again so there is a freshness in playing Georgetown. It will make it more fun to prepare for and because it’s a new opponent, it will give us everyone’s attention,” said UVa coach Julie Myers. “It’s a great opportunity for us. I think it’s hard to play a team three times. I’m excited to play Georgetown for the first time and I think everyone would agree with that.”

Virginia has not played Georgetown since defeating it 16-9 in last season’s NCAA quarterfinals. The Cavs sport a 5-0 all-time record against the Hoyas. The Hoyas enter the game having won three games in a row and four of their last five.

While the six graduating members of the team had a special graduation ceremony Monday, they know that a trip to the beach or a trip to any other exotic locale is not in the offing this week. Instead it will be a week filled with practice and preparation but that suits them just fine.

“We think that it all will be worth it. Everyone we know is at the beach or having fun in some way but we’ll be competing for a national championship,” Appelt said.
 

Gillen's staff changes again
Scott Shepherd is the second assistant to resign since the end of the UVa men's basketball season.
By Doug Doughty
doug.doughty@roanoke.com
981-3129

Scott Shepherd, a member of the Virginia men's basketball staff for the past five years, has become the second victim of a program review in which athletic director Craig Littlepage asked for changes.

Head coach Pete Gillen would not say if Shepherd's announced resignation was voluntary, "but, as you know, expectations are high," Gillen said by telephone before a speaking engagement Tuesday in Salem.

"He's a loyal guy, he's a great guy, he did a great job in scouting future opponents, he did a great job with our camps. He's a good person, a good soldier. We're definitely sad to see him go."

Shepherd returned phone messages but said he did not want to comment publicly.

Shepherd's departure came almost exactly one month after the announced resignation of two-year assistant Rod Jensen. UVa is left with Gillen and assistants Walt Fuller and Alexis Sherard from last season's five-man operation.

Sherard, named director of basketball operations after switching jobs with Shepherd, will return to full-time coaching status.

Gillen is looking for another full-time assistant and a new director of basketball operations. Former Clemson head coach Larry Shyatt was interviewed for Jensen's position but last week joined the staff at Florida.

"He liked us a lot," Gillen said of Shyatt. "Florida has been doing better, I'll be honest with you. I feel there's stability here but there's more stability at Florida. They've been in the NCAA the last four years and we've been in the NIT for the last three years. I think that was it."

Next week, Gillen will interview Greg Herenda, an assistant for the past four seasons at East Carolina. Herenda previously coached at Seton Hall, Yale and Holy Cross. He is a fellow Merrimack College alumnus of former Gillen aide Tommy Herrion, now the head coach at College of Charleston. Herenda has worked for Herrion's brother, Bill, at East Carolina.

"We've got other names," Gillen said, "but he's the only guy we're having in right now."

Most recently, Gillen had been in Phoenix, where he visited with Devin Smith. Smith was convalescing from a back operation performed by a specialist recommended by UVa's medical staff. Since then, Smith has returned to his home in New Castle, Del.

"I don't know if he had two herniated disks," Gillen said, "but they operated on both disks. One was herniated and the other had the potential to be herniated. The success rate is pretty high, but he's got to be pretty careful."

Gillen's trip west had nothing to do with a soon-to-be-announced four-game series with Arizona, starting next year in Charlottesville. Gillen was not involved in scheduling the series, which was negotiated by senior associate athletic director Jon Oliver.

"It's a four-year deal, so I think they're thinking about the new arena," said Gillen, referring to the projected 2006-07 opening of UVa's 15,000-seat John Paul Jones Arena. "I have no problem with that. I don't mind playing great teams. I just like a balance."

 

Reaction makes matter seem sleazier
Published May 18 2004
Dave Fairbank

So, Virginia Tech fans, how was that for some light weekend reading?

Liquor and lapdances. Tearful testimony by a 15-year-old girl. Suggestive photos that apparently were just the tip of the iceberg. A film clip that looked like an audition for a rap video.

The words "sex" and "fondle" and "blood" and "vagina" - words that are never good when they appear in a sports story.

At the end of a very long, very bad day in court, Virginia Tech football players Marcus Vick, Mike Imoh and Brenden Hill were convicted of three counts apiece of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, dating back to a Jan. 27 incident off campus with three girls under the age of 16.

A judge sentenced all three to jail time and fines, pending appeal.

However, none of the three players missed a second of spring practice. If they were disciplined at all, it was so internal that even the CIA wouldn't know about it.

Barring the unusual, Vick, Imoh and Hill will be Hokies in good standing when summer practice starts in August.

Makes you want to pull out your checkbook and fork over $1,002 for those Zone Club seats with the roomier chairs and Stadium Club privileges, doesn't it?

Last Friday's trial in Montgomery County achieved a remarkable result: It made a sleazy, embarrassing encounter between college-age athletes and underage girls appear even sleazier and more embarrassing than originally described.

Everybody was tarred with this brush. Vick, Imoh and Hill are guilty, first, of stunningly poor judgment and taking indecent liberties with minors.

The three girls aren't entirely blameless, either. Minors or not, they misrepresented themselves and were willing participants up to a point.

Unfortunately, the most troubling behavior belongs to the adults at Tech, who hid behind the legal system and the school's own Comprehensive Action Plan for dealing with athletes.

Even after the verdicts were handed down Friday, coach Frank Beamer said during an appearance the following afternoon at Richmond International Raceway, "I don't think that thing is over. I'm going to reserve my statements until the whole thing's over."

Yet Beamer booted two other players from the football program this spring for different trangressions and has made similar decisions in past years.

He is not totally constrained by the CAP and can run his program as he sees fit. Athletic Director Jim Weaver broke his silence Monday with a prepared statement. Under the provisions of the CAP, misdemeanor convictions give him the disciplinary hammer.

He said he will levy sanctions against the players this coming season and, though private, they will be apparent. Translation: game suspensions.

The message: Treat underage women like objects, miss playing time. How do the decision makers at Tech, from president Charles Steger to the lowliest assistant football coach, explain this to their wives and daughters and the females in their lives?

Tech has held a summer football camp for women the past couple of years that's become a big hit. If the Hokies' staff holds one again this summer, here's hoping that somebody interrupts the descriptions of a "boundary" cornerback and "mike" linebacker and asks Beamer: What's your disciplinary policy if a player sexually assaults a woman? Is there a difference between how you would handle a case involving a woman and one involving an underage girl?

Here's another remark from Beamer:

"If one person's charged, it's one too many as far as I'm concerned, and we've had too many people charged. But any rules and regulations that's thought about by the university,

"I don't think are going to be any tougher than what we're going to do already, or are in the process of doing."

He said that on Dec. 19, 1996, after a spate of football player arrests and when the Comprehensive Action Plan was nothing more than a seed in the minds of Tech officials. More than seven years later, we've seen what they've done.

This time, it wasn't enough.
 

ACC, JP seal football TV deal
BY NEIL AMATO : The Herald-Sun
namato@heraldsun.com
May 19, 2004 : 12:05 am ET

The ACC and its syndicated broadcast partners today will announce a renegotiated football contract that gives viewers two more weeks of games and more regional broadcast splits in the expanded league.

Ed Hull, the president of Jefferson Pilot Sports, said the new contract replaces one set to end after the 2005 season. The new deal, agreed to after the ACC added three schools, will last through the 2010 season.

It raises from nine to 11 the number of weeks Jefferson Pilot and broadcast partner Raycom Sports can televise games. The syndicated game, generally with a 12:10 p.m. kickoff, is chosen after ABC and ESPN choose their games, usually 12 days in advance.

"What makes it better is we have three more schools that will be participating," Hull said Tuesday. "With that, we have a better selection of games."

Starting this season, football megapower Miami and consistent winner Virginia Tech join the ACC. In 2005, Boston College becomes the 12th league member.

JP Sports traditionally has split broadcasts during the November ratings period and will continue to, possibly earlier in the season. One example would be Nov. 6, when the schedule includes Maryland at Virginia and Georgia Tech at N.C. State. If neither game is picked up by ABC or ESPN, both could be shown as part of the syndicated package -- Maryland-Virginia in the ACC's northern realm and Georgia Tech-N.C. State in the rest of the market.

Hull said that the ACC's syndicated package has been in Florida markets for several years. Florida State entered the league for the 1992 season, and Miami's arrival creates more interest in the populous Sunshine State.

"This will enhance where we've been in the past," Hull said.

The announcement follows by a week the ACC's new deal with ABC and ESPN, also through 2010, which pays the league almost $38 million a year. Financial terms of the Jefferson Pilot deal were not disclosed.

Raycom, which holds the ACC's basketball broadcast rights, already has a deal in place through the 2010-11 season.

Hull said the broadcast team of Steve Martin, Doc Walker and Mike Hogewood would continue to call the games. In the case of splits, the second group of broadcasters would be determined based on availability.