U.VA. NOTES
Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 12:07 AM

COURT APPEARANCE: Virginia coach Brian Boland hopes to see his team crowned NCAA men's tennis champion Tuesday in Athens, Ga. To reach the final, the Cavaliers must win three more matches, the first of which comes today.

Fourth-seeded Virginia (28-3), the ACC champion, meets No.13 seed Wake Forest (23-6) at 3 p.m. The winner will meet No.5 seed Notre Dame or No.12 seed Southern California in an NCAA quarterfinal Saturday at 3 p.m. U.Va. beat Notre Dame 6-1 in Charlottesville on Jan. 26.

For the Demon Deacons, this is the first time they've advanced this far in an NCAA tourney. The Cavaliers have reached the round of 16 for the fourth consecutive season.

"So far, so good," Boland said yesterday by phone from Athens, where the Wahoos arrived Monday night.

U.Va. is 2-0 against the Deacons this season. Virginia won 4-2 at Wake on March 25 and then blanked Wake 4-0 in an ACC tournament semifinal April 21 at Cary, N.C.

Virginia lost in the round of 16 in 2004. In'05 and'06, the Cavs fell in the NCAA quarterfinals. U.Va. appears poised to take the next step this year.

"I feel good about this tournament," Boland said. "There's something about this team. I don't think I've ever felt better going into a Sweet 16."

BIG LOSS: Virginia's baseball team is going through a rough stretch. Not only have the sixth-ranked Cavaliers dropped three consecutive games, they'll probably be without sophomore Greg Miclat for the rest of the season.

Miclat, the Cavaliers' best shortstop, is expected to have season-ending surgery on the shoulder of his throwing arm. He's been limited to designated-hitter duty for much of the season. Miclat leads U.Va. with a .376 batting average and has stolen a school-record 32 bases.

U.Va. (17-9 ACC, 39-13) closes the regular season at Boston College (12-15, 24-25). The three-game series starts this afternoon at BC.

WAITING GAME: Of the 24 football recruits who signed with U.Va. in February, the large majority are in good shape academically. Offensive tackle Lamar Milstead, however, is awaiting the results of standardized tests he took recently. Milstead, a senior at Ballou High in Washington, D.C., needs to raise his score slightly to gain admission to U.Va.

Another Virginia recruit, defensive back/wideout Ras-I Dowling, has qualified academically, said Robert Prunty, who coached him last season at Hargrave Military Academy. Dowling first signed with U.Va. in February 2006 but failed to meet NCAA eligibility standards coming out of Chesapeake's Deep Creek High.

LONG DISTANCE: A week from tomorrow, the NCAA's playing rules oversight panel is expected to approve an extension of the men's basketball 3-point line to 20 feet, 9 inches. The current distance is 19-9. The rule would take effect in 2008-09.

"I'm more in favor of it than against it," U.Va. coach Dave Leitao said. "With the line where it is now, a lot of people can take it. Maybe this will curtail the number of attempts by people who really shouldn't be taking them, as well as opening up some things in the post."

U.Va. hit 257 treys in 2006-07, the most of any ACC team. Only Clemson (725) attempted more 3-pointers than Virginia (706). The Tigers, though, played four more games than the Cavs.

HOLES TO FILL: U.Va. almost certainly will enter the 2008 season as one of the favorites to win the NCAA men's lacrosse title. The most glaring questions about his team, coach Dom Starsia said Monday, will be these: Who'll be the starting goalie, and who, with Adam Fassnacht and Drew Thompson gone, will take most of the faceoffs?

Candidates to replace all-ACC goalie Kip Turner are likely to include Bud Petit, Mark Wade and incoming freshman Adam Ghitelman, widely considered the nation's No.1 high school player at that position.

Petit, a redshirt junior this season, was Turner's backup in 2005,'06 and'07. The Collegiate graduate could use his final year of eligibility at another school, but Starsia said he believes Petit plans to return to U.Va. to compete for the starting job.

Between them, Fassnacht and Thompson handled 334 of the Cavaliers' 363 faceoffs this season. Freshman Brian McDermott took 25, winning 14. Other options at the faceoff X could include Collegiate graduate Mike Thompson and Joe Dewey.

Second-seeded Virginia finished 12-4 this season after losing unexpectedly Sunday to Delaware in the NCAA tournament's first round. Due back are nine of U.Va.'s top 10 scorers, among them all-ACC attackman Ben Rubeor, who twice dislocated his right kneecap in the past month.

In addition to Fassnacht, Drew Thompson and Turner, Virginia's seniors included all-ACC defenseman Ricky Smith. His successor is likely to be Ryan Nizolek, a rising sophomore.

Candidates to replace Drew Thompson on the first midfield figure to include Max Pomper, Steve Giannone and touted recruits Rhamel and Shamel Bratton, twins from Long Island, N.Y.

"The wild card is all the freshmen," Starsia said. "We haven't seen anybody around here like the Brattons. We got a bunch of middies coming that will make us bigger and faster and more athletic. The question will be putting all the pieces together." -- Jeff White

 

Long shuns gridiron for college baseball
Doug Doughty/Roanoke Times

When a multi-sport athlete chooses baseball over college, usually it's with the idea of going directly into professional baseball.

Kyle Long might be the first football prospect of his stature to choose college baseball over college football.

Long, a junior at St. Anne's-Belfield School in Charlottesville, made that decision after returning from a weekend visit to Florida State.

Long, a 6-foot-7, 280-pound offensive and defensive lineman, was rated the No. 1 junior football prospect in Virginia by The Roanoke Times. He is the son of NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long and brother of Virginia defensive lineman and preseason All-America candidate Chris Long.

UVa was among dozens of schools that had offered football scholarships to Kyle Long, but the Cavaliers had not extended a baseball offer. Long is a left-handed pitcher and plays first base at STAB.

Long wasn't on the virginiapreps.com list of the top 20 junior baseball prospects in the state, but is expected to be in the 15-20 range on the revised list, editor Zirkle Blakey said.

If so, another revision might be in order, STAB baseball coach Alan Swanson said.

"When our players make their decision, we don't talk about the other schools they were considering," Swanson said, "but Kyle had many, many offers from baseball. He had others offers from schools that had been to Omaha [for the College World Series] recently.

"I've never seen a kid hit like he does and I'm 55. Kyle has unlimited potential for baseball. He's a line-drive hitter with power and runs under seven [seconds] for 60 yards. He's a low-90s thrower."

Swanson swears by STAB's schedule and offers little insight into UVa's decision not to offer Long.

"I can't address why not," said Swanson, who noted that Virginia coach Brian O'Connor and two of his assistants have been at STAB practices. "We play five state champions this year. We aggressively seek the hardest teams we can find. We go to Florida. At some point this year, we faced seven kids who signed with D-I teams. If somebody plays a harder schedule, I don't know who it is."

n The last football prospect of Long's stature to pick baseball was quarterback Jon Fulton of GW-Danville. Fulton was rated the No. 4 junior in Virginia following the 2001 season.

Fulton eventually signed a baseball letter-of-intent with Virginia Tech during the fall of 2002. His George Washington teammate Kenny Lewis Jr. signed a football letter-of-intent with Tech later that winter; then, both Fulton and Lewis signed professional baseball contracts.

Both Fulton and Lewis were third-round picks in the 2003 draft -- Fulton by the Florida Marlins and Lewis by the Cincinnati Reds.

Fulton is in his fourth season at the Class A level, where he twice has had 11 home runs in a season but has not batted higher than .254.

Lewis showed potential as a base stealer in the Reds' chain but left baseball after two years and joined the Virginia Tech football team last January.

Reynolds listed

Former UVa basketball star J.R. Reynolds, whose Roanoke Catholic jersey will be retired Monday as part of J.R. Reynolds Day festivities in Roanoke, is showing up on numerous mock drafts.

Draftexpress.com has Reynolds going to Golden State with the 16th pick in the second round.

Reynolds' teammate, junior guard Sean Singletary, wasn't on that list. Ex-Cavalier Derrick Byars of Vanderbilt was listed as an early second-round pick, and former Hokies guard Zabian Dowdell was projected to go in the middle of the second round.

Cavs bring pedigree to Athens
Virginia looking to make 3rd straight NCAA quarterfinal appearance
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
May 17, 2007

Coach Brian Boland is hoping that playing the nation’s toughest schedule will help his Virginia men’s tennis team move past the NCAA Tournament’s quarterfinals for the first time in school history this week in Athens, Ga.

The Cavaliers (28-3) take on a familiar opponent today in the NCAA round of 16, when they meet Wake Forest for the third time this season. UVa won both the previous matches, topping the Deacons, 4-2, in March and, 4-0, in April’s ACC Tournament. If Virginia pulls off the hat trick over Wake, it will move to Saturday’s quarterfinals match against the winner of today’s Notre Dame vs. Southern California battle.

A win today would also move UVa to the NCAA quarterfinals for the third consecutive year, a fact that makes Boland quite proud and may help some of the more experienced Cavalier players survive key matches.

“I do think it is an advantage that our program has been there year in and year out,” Boland said. “We have four new starters in the lineup, but at the same time, we’ve played the toughest schedule in the country. So, in terms of what we’ve already been through this year, I think we’re ready for the challenge ahead of us.”

Virginia breezed through its first two rounds of competition in the NCAA Tournament last weekend in Charlottesville with 4-0 wins over both Hampton and Old Dominion.

“It’s a big accomplishment to be back in the Sweet 16 for the fourth year in a row,” Boland said. “There’s hundreds of programs out there and the depth in college tennis is incredible. We have four matches left and we need to take them one at a time.”

Boland said after last weekend’s victories that he didn’t remember ever being so excited about reaching the round of 16. He believes this team is something special because of its dedication and work ethic.

Perhaps that is one reason why the Cavaliers have been on a tear of late, having won 14 consecutive matches, two shy of the school record set in 2005.

Wake Forest is 23-6 and making its first appearance in the round of 16. The Deacs edged Clemson, 4-3, in a dramatic, weather-delayed match last Saturday to advance after cruising past Charlotte, 4-0, in their opener.

The national semifinals will be held Monday, followed by the championship team match on Tuesday. The singles and doubles individual portion of the tournament will follow, concluding on May 28. All matches are being held at the University of Georgia’s Dan Magill Tennis Complex.

Virginia’s 28 wins are the most in school history. The Cavaliers and Baylor are the only two men’s teams in the country to have earned top eight tournament seeds in each of the past four seasons.

The Cavaliers are led by No. 1 singles star Somdev Devvarman, a junior who has compiled 106 singles wins in his career, ranking him third on UVa’s all-time list. Brian Vahaly, an All-American who starred for the Cavs from 1998-2001, holds the record with 125. Devvarman will play in the singles tournament and team with fellow Cavalier Treat Huey to compete in the doubles competition as well.

“The atmosphere in Athens will be different than what our guys are used to,” Boland said. “It’s one of the best college tennis atmospheres in that thousands of fans come out.”

Devvarman said the Cavaliers are ready for the challenge of reaching the final 16 teams in the country.

“We’ve improved every year that I’ve been here,” he said. “Our players are focused on the job. I’m going to look at it one match at a time. You just have to look at who you play next and maximize your potential with what’s in front of you. Take every match like you’ve taken every one in your life and not look at the magnitude of the situation and put pressure on yourself.”

 

Without Miclat, UVa looks to snap skid
O'Connor: Intensity, desire lacking
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
May 17, 2007

BOSTON - Greg Miclat headed south on Wednesday.

Now, Virginia coach Brian O’Connor has the challenge of ensuring his team is not headed down a similar path.

Owning their first three-game losing streak of the season, coupled with the unfortunate injury status for Miclat, O’Connor currently faces the challenge of jump-starting the sixth-ranked Cavaliers (39-13, 17-9) today against Boston College (24-25-1, 12-15 ACC), a program fighting for its postseason lives.

Without the speedy Miclat, who had an appointment in Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday with Dr. James Andrews and will have surgery on his right labrum (shoulder) today, the Cavaliers have a different look.

Unfortunately for UVa, O’Connor has also watched his team lose some of its trademarked intensity during the current skid. While no changes were announced with the lineup, O’Connor did not rule anything out.

“You can’t decide when you want to compete and when you don’t want to compete,” O’Connor said. “I can tell you this: I will find the nine guys that want to compete.

“Come hell or high water, I will find them.”

Perhaps a change of scenery will help Virginia. The Cavaliers have not played a road game since April 22 and endured a 10-game layoff for exams.

“Maybe we do need to get on the road and get in a different environment,” O’Connor said. “But I know that Boston College is playing for a chance to play in its first ACC Tournament so if we don’t buckle down and our approach is not right, you will see similar results.”

The Eagles are fighting with Wake Forest (12-15 ACC) and others for a spot in the eight-team ACC Tournament, which begins in Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday.

“Boston College has a very good team,” O’Connor added. “They won one game at Clemson and very easily could have won all three.”

O’Connor, however, does have the luxury of handing the ball today to his ace, right-handed pitcher Jacob Thompson. The sophomore, who is 10-0 with a 1.48 ERA, has one final chance to state his case to become the ACC Pitcher of the Year, an award that will be announced on Tuesday.

Since Thompson hurled 6.1 innings on Friday against N.C. State, the Cavaliers have not gotten more than 3.1 innings of work from a starting pitcher.

While junior Sean Doolittle is expected to start Friday in the second game of the series, the third option remains unannounced.

“We are just not getting consistency,” O’Connor said. “I have to try to find somebody that wants the job.”

Virginia, which has secured at least the No. 5 seed in the ACC Tournament, can still win the ACC’s Coastal Division - the Cavaliers currently trail North Carolina by a half-game and the Tar Heels play this weekend at Maryland.

While the title remains the team’s ultimate goal, O’Connor would settle for a newfound desire on the diamond.

“If these kids don’t change their approach quickly,” O’Connor said, “they will be a team that’s remembered like you wouldn’t want to be remembered like.”


 

Decision on ACC title game on hold till December
By TONY BARNHART
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/17/07

Amelia Island, Fla. — The ACC will decide before Christmas where it will hold its future conference championship football games, commissioner John Swofford said Wednesday.

Jacksonville will host its third straight ACC title game Dec. 1, after which the league will do a final analysis on proposals from four cities — Jacksonville, Charlotte, Tampa and Orlando — before awarding the games of 2008 and beyond.

Those cities will receive a request for proposal (RFP) from the league in June and be expected to return it in August. An RFP is a general outline of what the ACC would require from any city that wishes to host the game.

The ACC wants to wait until after this year's game in Jacksonville to determine whether it wants to stay put. The first ACC final (Florida State-Virginia Tech) sold out, but attendance at last year's game (Georgia Tech-Wake Forest) was hurt in part by bad weather.

"We don't want to predetermine a number of years or whether or not we'll move it around or stay in one site," Swofford said at the end of the ACC spring meetings. "The health of this game is very important for us."

In other ACC news Wednesday:

• League football coaches would like to create an early signing period in December. Swofford said the ACC will pursue the idea with the National Letter of Intent Program, which is run by the Collegiate Commissioners Association.

"Our coaches just feel that because we have early signing periods in so many other sports, it makes sense to do it in football," Swofford said. "If a young man is ready to sign and end the recruiting process, he should have the option to do so."

Swofford emphasized that the ACC wanted to be a part of a national movement toward an early signing date and would not do so unilaterally. Unlike college basketball, which has both early (November) and late (April) signing periods, college football has only a February period.

• Duke athletics director Joe Alleva said he was "very interested" in moving his 2010 football game with Alabama to the Georgia Dome. Alleva, who met this week with Atlanta Sports Council president Gary Stokan, said he hopes to make an announcement in the next two weeks.

• The league's ADs voted to make no changes in the men's conference basketball schedule for the next four years. There were some discussions about changing from a 16-game conference schedule to one of 18 games. But the coaches were unanimously against that idea.

The current format calls for a three-year rotation where teams play five opponents on a home-and-home basis with one game only against the other six teams.

"Over the long haul, the schedule balances out and we felt that was best for our league," Swofford said.

The first three-year basketball rotation ends with the upcoming season. At the end next cycle, the league's TV contracts will be up for renewal and this issue is expected to come up again.

• League ADs voted to make a $300,000 contribution to Virginia Tech's Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, which has been set up to aid the families of the victims and survivors of the shootings of April 16. All ACC teams will wear black arm bands to honor the school during the next academic year.

Deacons in tennis' Sweet 16 vs. Cavs
Zinn says Wake Forest can't rest on its laurels, needs to 'ride the wave'
By John Delong
JOURNAL REPORTER

Wake Forest’s men’s tennis team is in Athens, Ga., today to begin play in the NCAA Tournament.

It’s a landmark moment for the program — the first trip to the Sweet 16 in school history — and the Deacons are proud and happy to be there.

But Coach Jeff Zinn is hoping that his players aren’t just happy to be there, or content with their accomplishments.

They have been on an emotional high all week after advancing with a bizarre, dramatic, second-round victory over Clemson last weekend, and Zinn hopes that momentum carries into today’s 3 p.m. match against ACC rival Virginia.

“They’ve done something special now, and that’s the intangible,” Zinn said. “You hope they’re not done with what the whole dream is still about. You hope they go, ‘We want to keep going with it.’ I don’t want them to be content. I want them to ride the wave, ride the storm, like the poster says.”

The team’s slogan this season has been, “A storm is coming.” It was the theme for the cover of the media guide, and it represented the quest to make the NCAA’s Sweet 16 ­­— which is prestigious in tennis circles in the way that basketball’s Final Four would be — for the first time.

One of the bizarre parts of the victory over Clemson was that the Deacons rallied after a storm, with Andrew Hamar coming back to win the deciding point after a 3-hour, 55-minute weather delay. And Hamar did it by rallying from a break down in the third set and winning an 11-9 tie-breaker.

To Zinn, Wake Forest’s appearance in the Sweet 16 represents many things. It’s a testament to the hard work all his players have put in, and also a testament to the continued improvement in the program he took over 11 years ago and has been building steadily since. Beyond that, it’s a move into acknowledged elite status.

“It means everything to the program,” Zinn said. “This is what you dream about as a coach and as a player, to make the Sweet 16. Very few programs get to go, to be honest. It’s very hard to crack that group of teams that are there year in and year out, because tennis is one of those sports where once you get in you pretty much dominate. The talent is so strong at the powerhouses that there aren’t a lot of Cinderellas.

“We’ve been very, very consistent for the last six or seven years and now it’s finally paid off. We’re here with some powerhouse schools. And I think that’s neat. I’m proud of the fact that we’re in the elite now, and I’m proud of the guys for putting us in a position like that.”

The Deacons, seeded 13th, will face steep odds to get past third-seeded Virginia today.

Virginia won both matches between the teams this season, winning 4-2 in Winston-Salem on March 25 and 4-0 in the ACC Tournament on April 21. The Deacons’ top player, Todd Paul, lost in straight sets to Virginia’s Somdev Devvarman both times. Wake Forest’s points in the loss in March came in doubles and from Cory Parr in singles.

Zinn won’t reveal his lineup until match time, but NCAA rules give him little wiggle room to change the lineup from last week. Paul played No. 1 singles last week, Parr No. 2, Hamar No. 3, Mariusz Adamski No. 4, Steven Forman No. 5 and Jason Morganstern No. 6. The doubles teams were Paul and Adamski at No. 1, Hamar and Charles Sartor at No. 2, and Parr and Forman at No. 3.

Zinn said he thinks that the Deacons will have the emotional edge today.

“I love basketball, and I always think about, it’s hard to beat a team three times,” Zinn said. “It really is hard to beat a team three times. It was hard for us to beat Clemson two times. So when you have two really elite teams playing each other, that’s going to be a difficult task for them. The good thing is, we know them. The bad thing is, they know us. So we just have to come out and play better than we did the last time.

“The first time, it was anybody’s match. It could have gone either way. The second time, we didn’t play well. We really didn’t, from top to bottom. And that’s got to change. I think our belief factor, and the urgency of knowing this could be it, that helps our situation because we really do have some fine players. There’s a lot of talent on this team. So hopefully that talent will come to the top.”

If Wake Forest wins, it would advance to the quarterfinals on Saturday against the winner of today’s Southern Cal-Notre Dame match. N.C. State is also in the 16-team field and will face Texas today.
 

ACC proposes early signing date for football
Other sports offer pair of dates to choose school
KEN TYSIAC
ktysiac@charlotteobserver.com

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. --Nearly two months of nail-biting could be eliminated for high school players if an ACC initiative is adopted.

The conference will push for creation of an early signing date for football, said ACC commissioner John Swofford at the conclusion of the ACC spring meetings Wednesday.

Football has one signing date, the first Wednesday in February, while basketball and many other sports have both early and regular signing dates or periods.

ACC officials are proposing the early signing date be the Wednesday before the third week of December. The ACC wants to keep the February date for players who need more time.

"If a young man knows and has made a decision and wants to commit, you could end the recruiting process, so you don't have schools continuing to recruit kids that basically have made a decision," Swofford said.

The ACC will lobby the Collegiate Commissioners Association, which oversees the national letter of intent program, to make the change.

N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien said an early signing date would prevent coaches from going behind one another's backs to recruit players who have committed to other schools.

He said it also might prevent "de-commitments," which occur when players accept one scholarship offer, then shop around for a better one.

"We're sending the wrong message out with the de-commitments," O'Brien said. "Their numbers are getting larger and larger every year."

Though Swofford said the ACC coaches' support for the initiative is strong, reaction to the proposal varied.

"That would be great," said Tommy Knotts, who has coached many top college prospects at Independence High. "It would just eliminate a lot of hassle (for high school players)."

Scout.com regional recruiting analyst Miller Safrit has long been a proponent of an early signing period, but he questioned the December date. He said teams in bowls that get recruits to visit practices in December could gain an advantage.

He prefers an August signing date. The increase in summer commitments from players who visit camps on campuses has created a need for an early signing date, he said.

Butler High coach Mike Newsome supports an early signing date if it would prod the NCAA to allow official visits earlier. He would like players to begin official visits in the spring or summer of their junior year. Current rules allow visits beginning on the opening day of classes of the player's senior year.

Pros and Cons

Reasons for and against an early signing date for football:

PRO

• More players are committing early after attending summer camps at colleges.

• Recruiters would no longer hassle committed players if they've signed.

• It could cut down on players "de-committing" to schools.

CON

• Early signings are unwise because coaches leave or are fired after bowl season.

• Many high school players can't take official visits until mid-December.

• December isn't early enough. August would be better.
 

Dogfight task force: Don't have Vick video
By D. ORLANDO LEDBETTER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/17/07

The Virginia Animal Fighting Task Force, which is investigating dogfighting at a property that was owned by Michael Vick, does not have a videotape of the Falcons quarterback at a dogfight.

Kathy Strouse, the lead investigator, said informants indicated that a tape exists of Vick at a dogfight.

"Let's be very accurate here, because some of the reports out there are not accurate," Strouse told the Journal-Constitution on Tuesday. "We have information from informants that a tape exists of a dogfight and that Michael Vick is present. Whether that tape exists, we do not know that it exists."

Strouse, the animal-control coordinator for Chesapeake, Va., noted that the Humane Society of the United States offers rewards of $2,500 for evidence that leads to the prosecution and conviction of animal cruelty.

Gerald Poindexter, the commonwealth's attorney in Surry County, said a meeting was set for Monday to review evidence in the case. As of Wednesday morning, Strouse had not been contacted but was expecting an invitation.

"We have not handed Mr. Poindexter all of the evidence, but we're ready to lay it out for him," Strouse said.

Strouse has been qualified as an expert witness in a previous dogfighting case in Virginia. Strouse would not buy the contention that the evidence seized — which included nearly 70 dogs, four treadmills and documents — from the property owned by Vick was evidence of a kennel.

"Absolutely not," Strouse said. "Not when you find the blood-stained pit."

VicksK9Kennels.com, a Web site that advocates the breeding of dogs, has been linked to one of Vick's companies, MV7, LLC.

"Let me be very, very clear: There's no doubt in my mind that this was a dogfighting operation," Strouse said, "based not only on what we found at the property but from intelligence, documentation and other evidence we've gathered."

Strouse would not deny or confirm whether the task force had any evidence directly tying Vick to dogfighting.

"That's part of the investigation," Strouse said.

Strouse assisted in the dog investigation of the Benjamin Butts case in Surry County in 2000. A total of 33 dogs were removed and later returned after he was not prosecuted. Butts died Feb. 17.

"One of the treadmills looks identical to one we have pictures of from the Butts case," Strouse said. "One of our officers identified one of the dogs as looking very similar to one of the dogs from the Butts case."

Virginia officials believe the two operations are linked.

"We've gathered some information from some informants that would indicate that," Strouse said.

Virginia is a hotbed for dogfighting. There have been recent convictions in Richmond, Chesapeake and Spotsylvania. The most notorious Virginia case was of "Fat" Bill Reynolds, publisher of a dogfighting magazine, who spent 30 months in prison on federal charges of sending images of pit-bull fights across state lines.

"We think that it's very prevalent. That's why the task force has been formed, because it's a serious problem in Virginia," Strouse said. "The rural localities don't have the resources to work one of these cases on their own. We provide investigators, housing for the dogs and experts to testify."