Ward preps for new challenge
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
June 7, 2006

When Matt Ward talks about having won this year’s Tewaaraton Trophy - the award given annually to the top player in college lacrosse - he sounds slightly incredulous.

“It’s amazing,” said Ward, speaking by telephone from his home in Oakton. “When I first started playing lacrosse I never thought I would be able to get to a stage like that, but I have to thank my teammates.

“Often times I was able to sit back and just capitalize on the opportunities that they were creating. Without those guys, I wouldn’t have even had the [chance to win the award].”

Just nine days ago Ward led Virginia to the NCAA Championship and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Now he’s embarking on his professional career.

On May 31, Ward was drafted - along with former teammate Kyle Dixon - by the Baltimore Bayhawks of Major League Lacrosse. The pair makes its professional debut for the defending MLL champions on Sunday against the New Jersey Pride.

Ward, who plans on starting law school at the University of Baltimore in the fall, said he’s looking forward to playing in the MLL, which runs from May 20 to Aug. 27.

“I’m going to try and do it for as long as possible, for as long as it stays relatively convenient and my body’s in good health,” he said. “I’ll be out there competing and trying to make the sport as big as possible.”

Having Dixon - who was also a finalist for the Tewaaraton - as a teammate should ease Ward’s assimilation to the pro ranks.

“Going someplace for the first time and not knowing anybody - certainly having one of your best friends there should make the transition a lot better,” Ward said.

Ward and Dixon, both first-team All-Americans this past season, wanted to continue playing together. In a way, they lucked out in the fact that Baltimore had two of the first four picks in the draft.

“The league kind of focuses around convenience, where people live and what team people want to play for,” Ward said. “Both of us playing for Baltimore is what Kyle and I were hoping for. They never really discussed it with us, but we were hoping we would go to the Bayhawks.

“For us to be able to play together again in the future is something we’re certainly going to enjoy.”

In Virginia’s 15-7 shellacking of Massachusetts in the NCAA final, Ward scored five goals. UVa finished the season a perfect 17-0, becoming the first team in school history to go undefeated.

Ward said the biggest thing he will have to adjust to in the MLL is the size and speed of players. However, he believes he has an edge coming in.

“I think players from Virginia may be one step ahead because we like to play that [fast] pace,” Ward said. “This year we tried to push the envelope as much as possible, and I think that will be something that helps us adjust more quickly to the MLL.”

Ward, who just moved out of his Charlottesville apartment and into his parents’ home in Oakton, said he’s missing Charlottesville already. However, as soon as he starts playing games, he may feel like he never left the grounds.

Ward and Dixon will be seeing plenty of familiar faces. When they take the field Sunday against New Jersey, they’ll see former Virginia captain Brett Hughes, who graduated from UVa in 2004.

On June 16, Baltimore plays Rochester, which features J.J. Morrissey, a star midfielder on this year’s Virginia title team. Morrissey was the Rattlers’ fifth-round pick.

On July 8, Ward and Dixon will see Matt Poskay when Baltimore plays host to the Boston Cannons. Poskay, who was the Cannons’ second-round choice, set a record for UVa midfielders by scoring 41 goals this season.

Ward and Dixon won’t face Michael Culver - the fifth member from this year’s Virginia team to be drafted - unless Baltimore and Chicago meet in the playoffs. The teams already squared off on May 27 while the college season was still running.

“It’s going to be weird playing against guys who were your teammates,” Ward said, “but just having the ability to keep playing lacrosse is well worth it. It’s strange, but then after the game we’ll all meet up and things will be back to normal.”

Ward said he doesn’t expect anybody to think twice about laying huge hits on each other.

“It’s just like when we were scrimmaging in practice this year,” Ward said. “There was no taking it easy. Every one of the kids on our team had the same mentality.”

 

Picking up the pieces
Cavs ponder collapse, look ahead to next season
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
June 7, 2006

Omaha remains 1,186 miles away from Charlottesville. That’s not changing.

For the Virginia baseball program, however, the home of the College World Series is also merely a goal after a quicker-than-expected exit from the four-team regional hosted by the Cavaliers.

Having been unable to get to the Sweet Sixteen for the third straight year, UVa coach Brian O’Connor knows that all too well.

While Evansville and eventual winner South Carolina battled for the prized trip to a super regional on the very field that O’Connor calls home, the skipper had to say premature goodbyes to a group of players that set a number of school records, including wins (47) in a season.

The squad, which went 2-4 in the postseason, knew that it would not be easy to win a regional with SEC powerhouse South Carolina, a program that has now advanced in six of the last seven years to the super-regional round.

That did little to ease the pain for O’Connor.

“Quite frankly, I have to sit down and reevaluate myself as a coach and how I have handled the situation,” O’Connor admitted. “I think every good coach does that. You have got to look back and see how you dealt with the team throughout the end of the season and decide [if] are there some things that you need to do differently.

“We have had a lot of success in the last three years, but I can tell you that I’m not going to stop until we kick this door in and have a chance to play beyond [the regionals].”

Don’t expect drastic changes from the manager. Virginia will continue to put pressure on its opponents on the bases, and building depth on the mound will remain a focal point.

O’Connor said he might, however, rethink how decisions he makes throughout the season, including the amount of work pitchers and role players get during a regular season.

The desired location will undoubtedly remain the same.

“Omaha will always be the goal of this program, without a doubt,” O’Connor said.

Getting there next year could be easier as practically every regular in the batting order returns.

The same can be said for the pitching staff, which likely returns eight of the nine-most used members.

“We have everybody in our lineup coming back, with the exception of Tom Hagan,” O’Connor said. “You have Sean Doolittle, your Friday night starter back. You have Jacob Thompson, your Saturday starter back. Obviously, we will miss Mike Ballard, but I know we have some very good arms coming into the program.”

Ballard has a year of eligibility left, but has little reason to return with his undergraduate degree completed and a contract from the Texas Rangers on the table. Texas drafted Ballard on Tuesday in the 14th round.

O’Connor signed one of the nation’s best recruiting classes in the country.

“I feel like we have the best recruiting class in the ACC,” O’Connor said. “We have some kids that really are difference makers that are coming into our program, both on the mound and position-player wise.”

Doolittle, who was the ACC Player of the Year, is confident the additions will make a difference.

“I think we are going to reload well,” Doolittle said. “We had a very young team this year. We have a lot of guys coming back. The guys that aren’t coming back set the bar really high for this program, and I know the guys that are here are really excited about going to the next level, getting past this first round.”

Virginia’s offense produced 464 runs and a .322 batting average and included three freshmen - David Adams, Jeremy Farrell and Greg Miclat - and a number of newcomers, including Brandon Marsh, the team’s best hitter.

“Do I think we are a better offensive ballclub this year than we have been the last two years? You’re darn right we are. We are better,” O’Connor said, “but we are not there yet. We don’t have the offensive ballclub that can take us to Omaha right now, and we need to build on that.”

Virginia entered the season picked to finish seventh in the ACC’s preseason poll. The Cavaliers shattered those expectations, finishing third overall and just one game out of first place in the Coastal Division behind North Carolina.

O’Connor knows that the play on the field during the past three years has fans wanting more. The coach said he would have it no other way.

“The environment that is created here now in our stadium, hosting a regional, largest crowd ever, expectations, everything … things have changed,” O’Connor said. “That’s great. We are not afraid of that. I have got no problem at people in the stands screaming at the coach about decisions that are made because that means that there are people out there that care.

“A while ago, I don’t know if that was the case. We have come a long a long way and the expectations have risen. We have got to meet those. It is going to be a tough one to handle, but I know our kids have a lot of pride and they will come back next year ready to go.”

It will help, Hagan said, if the memories of a Charlottesville Regional gone awry stay fresh in the players’ minds.

“The young guys coming back need to learn from this,” Hagan said, “and really turn it up in playoff time.”

 

Rangers nab UVa's Ballard in Round 14
MLB Amateur Draft
From staff reports / Charlottesville Daily Progress
June 7, 2006

Mike Ballard’s college career likely came to an end on Tuesday.

The Texas Rangers drafted the Virginia pitcher in the 14th round of the amateur draft.

Ballard, a left-hander, has a year of eligibility remaining thanks to a redshirt season in 2004, but has already received his undergraduate degree.

"I’m really having a hard time finding a reason why it wouldn’t be the right time right now," Ballard said of turning pro. "I’m pretty pumped. It was pretty cool."

Ballard had been told that he would be drafted anywhere from the 10th to the 20th round.

This season, Ballard went 9-3 with a 4.08 earned run average and finished his career with 19 wins, a mark that ties the Virginia Beach native for sixth-most in program history.

Ballard was not the only player drafted with ties to the Cavalier program.

UVa commitment Ryan Kalish, a versatile high school outfielder from New Jersey, was picked in the ninth round by the Boston Red Sox. Kalish has until the start of the 2006 academic year to sign with the Red Sox.

Also, two former Cavaliers, first baseman Anthony Martinez and pitcher Ryan Ouellette, were both drafted by Baltimore.

Both players had transferred from UVa after the 2005 season. Martinez, who hit 13 homers at Louisburg College (N.C.), was taken in the 11th round. A 13th-round pick, Ouellette pitched for Indian River Community College (Fla.) this year.

Virginia designated hitter Tom Hagan could be a draft pick today as the final 32 rounds are completed.

 

Coach notes Campagna's sacrifice
A readin goes here and here and here four decks.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

When Virginia baseball coach Brian O'Connor moved his team away from the grandstand for one last on-field meeting, one of the first people he praised Sunday was senior infielder Mike Campagna.

Campagna had come into the game at second base in the eighth inning, at which point the Cavaliers trailed Evansville 15-3, and he struck out swinging in the ninth as the Cavaliers were eliminated from the NCAA tournament 15-4.

It was Campagna's first appearance of the weekend and only the 20th game in which he had seen action for the Cavaliers (47-15).

One year earlier, Campagna had started 52 of 58 games at shortstop for a UVa team that went 41-20.

"If anybody walks out of that locker room at the end of the year and doesn't learn from the example set by Mike Campagna, they're cheating themselves," O'Connor said. "It's an unbelievable lesson.

"This kid started practically every game as a junior. He comes in this year and he might have started four or five games because I made the decision to play a freshman, Greg Miclat. That is a very difficult thing for a young man to deal with.

"He handled it with an incredible amount of unselfishness and poise. Not once was he standing in front of my office door, questioning why he wasn't playing. I learned a lot from him."

Of the 33 players on UVa's postseason roster, six were seniors and only two of them were major contributors, All-ACC designated hitter Tom Hagan from Roanoke and starting pitcher Mike Ballard.

Ballard has a redshirt year at his disposal, but was selected in the 14th round by the Texas Rangers on Tuesday during major-league baseball's annual draft.

"You tell me another team in the country that started a true freshman at third base, second base and shortstop and made the NCAA tournament," O'Connor said. "We have everybody coming back from our lineup except for Tom Hagan, and I feel like we had the best recruiting class in the ACC."

O'Connor's concern Tuesday was whether he could hold onto most of his recruits, most notably power hitter Ryan Kalish, the No. 1 prospect in New Jersey. Kalish was selected in the ninth round by the Boston Red Sox.

O'Connor has known for a while that one of his fall signees would not be coming. Drew Miller, a junior-college pitcher, was drafted by San Diego in the 37th round after his freshman year at Seminole (Okla.) State. The Padres sweetened the pot this spring after his fastball was clocked at 96 mph and he struck out 76 batters in 50 innings, and he signed days before he would have re-entered the draft.

Sister act

Women's basketball recruit Jayna Hartig from Highlands Ranch, Colo., hasn't arrived at Virginia and already the Cavaliers have an oral commitment from her younger and taller sister, Kelly, Jayna's teammate this past season at ThunderRidge High School.

At 6-foot-1, Jayna Hartig helped lead ThunderRidge to the state semifinals and was named to the five-player all-state team, which includes all classifications. At 6-3, Kelly did not post eye-catching numbers but was recruited nationally, ThunderRidge coach Bill Bradley said Tuesday.

"She shoots the mid-range jumper well, she puts the ball on the floor well and has the ability to play with her back to the basket," said Bradley of the younger Hartig. "She really exploded as a prospect this spring."

Precedent setting?

Virginia hasn't accepted a football recruit at mid-year since Ahmad Brooks in 2003 but, this past January, women's golfer Jennie Arseneault was allowed to enroll for the second semester after her December graduation from the Pendleton School, which is affiliated with David Leadbetter's golf academy in Bradenton, Fla.

Arseneault this week qualified for the U.S. Women's Open as the co-medalist at the West Bloomfield, Mich., sectional qualifier.

Full circle

Nikki Lieb, a first-team All-America midfielder for the UVa women's lacrosse team, has exhausted her lacrosse eligibility but will be returning to the UVa women's soccer team next fall as a fifth-year student. Lieb, recruited for both sports out of Radnor, Pa., played in 19 of 22 games for the Cavaliers' top-10 soccer team in 2002 before electing to concentrate on lacrosse.
 

For U.Va. basketball coach, there is no offseason
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© June 7, 2006

NORFOLK - Summertime, and the living is easy for college basketball coaches, right?

Not exactly. Consider the agenda awaiting Dave Leitao, second-year coach at Virginia.

Leitao's first order of business this month is reconvening a team that scattered after the school year, one that includes six new players.

Next up is finding a replacement for assistant coach Gene Cross, who left to take a similar job at Notre Dame, and getting the new hire in place before the July recruiting period. Leitao said he's been flooded with phone calls and e-mails and has yet to begin sorting through applications.

July is a month spent mostly on the road. Come August, Leitao and his staff move across the street to the new John Paul Jones Arena.

"We're in a little bit of a lull right now," Leitao said Tuesday, before speaking to a local chapter of the Virginia Athletics Foundation. "Starting next week, we'll have everybody back for summer school."

Several players are already back in Charlottesville, working with strength and conditioning coach Shaun Brown . Brown's task is to add muscle to a team that lacked it last season.

"Our frontcourt looked like everyone else's backcourt," Leitao said.

Virginia made do with just eight scholarship players last year, putting together a surprising 15-15 season and reaching the NIT after being picked to finish last in the ACC.

All those players return, led by All-ACC guard Sean Singletary, who is recovering from postseason hip surgery, and third-team All-ACC guard J.R. Reynolds .

Leitao signed four players for next season and has also added two nonscholarship players. Virginia is holding a scholarship for 6-foot-5 swingman Solomon Tat, who has made a verbal commitment but has not signed because of problems with his visa. Tat is a native of Nigeria who attended high school in Georgia and must have his visa renewed to stay in the country.

NCAA rules limit what Leitao can say about Tat, or any other recruit who is yet to sign. But he said that during recent months there have been weeks when he's been optimistic Tat would sign, and weeks when he was pessimistic.

"This is an optimistic week," he said.

Tat would join a class that includes 6-8 Jamil Tucker, 6-6 Will Harris, 6-9 Jerome Meyinsse and 6-9 Ryan Pettinella, a transfer from Penn.

"We wanted to improve ourselves size-wise, and I think we did that," Leitao said. "We wanted some depth, and I think we did that. Now we've got to find out how they'll fit in and how much they'll contribute."

Virginia also added 6-8 walk-on Andy Burns, from Fairfax. Calvin Baker, the leading scorer at William and Mary last season, will join the team as a walk-on in 2007-08. He can practice with the team next season.

Leitao said he thought Tucker and Harris could be ready to help immediately. But he added: "I'm a big believer in experience. I'm not a big friend of freshmen. They'll have to earn it."

 

What does it take to get a college athletic program shut down?
BY TOM POWERS
St. Paul Pioneer Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Golden Gophers football players had enough sense to take visiting recruits by the hand and lead them to strip clubs. At least there they have the proper dance poles, beefy security guards and ATM machines. (It's my understanding that the dancers gratefully accept tips.)

But unlike Minnesota's Strippergate episode of 2004, the privileged young men of the Duke lacrosse team decided to order home delivery. And now we have a scandal that might yet reach O.J.-like proportions.

Get ready for a continuing onslaught of national media coverage now that Duke President Richard Brodhead has announced that he is reinstating the team for the 2007 season. But don't worry. Brodhead said all the players agreed to a mission statement that emphasizes academics and tolerance.

Cool. Apparently this means they agreed to be more tolerant of exotic dancers and not, you know, abuse them.

Furthermore, the players, at least those who aren't convicted of rape, also must adhere to a Vikings-like code of conduct. This code cracks down on, among other things, underage drinking and public urination. According to an in-house investigation, both had been staples of the team's routine.

Even the Vikings rarely go to the bathroom in public.

Rarely.

What does it take to get a college athletic program shut down? We certainly don't have the answer here in Minnesota. Up until the Dookies went haywire, I thought the U of M's mishandling of the academic fraud scandal set the standard for ineptness.

Remember when then-President Mark Yudof thanked men's basketball coach Clem Haskins for his service, wished him well and sent him off without contesting a seven-figure annuity? He did everything but emcee a testimonial dinner for him. And even as he smiled and waved au revoir to Haskins, many people were hollering: "Wait. Slow Down. You'll be sorry."

Later, of course, Yudof realized he had been duped, and he tried to recoup some of the money. By that time he reminded me of the rube who fell off the turnip truck as it rumbled through town.

Duke's Brodhead is delivering a Yudof-like performance in the aftermath of rape charges, lewd behavior and according to Duke's own investigation "a history of disciplinary problems."

Here is a situation in which any university president would have been justified in announcing: "Enough, this program is more trouble than it's worth. We'll revisit the situation in five years."

That's probably something Minnesota should have done after the widespread academic fraud was discovered in its men's basketball program - a program that had a history of violations and sordid incidents.

Now Duke also declines the option. And the lurid details of the scandal have made the school fodder for the tabloids and have attracted a voyeuristic nationwide audience.

An off-campus party attended by about 40 lacrosse players resulted in rape charges by one of two exotic dancers hired to supply the evening's entertainment. This one has all the elements: racial tension, a prosecutor looking to make political headway, wealthy and privileged young athletes, and the checkered past and credibility issues of the alleged victims.

From the details that have been made public, the prosecution's case appears shaky. But whether any of the rape charges stick should be irrelevant to the future of the program. There is little doubt that the overall behavior was quite disgusting. There is little doubt that awful racial slurs were directed at the two women.

This goes beyond the usual explanation of "kids having a lapse in judgment."

It seems more along the lines of privileged kids thinking they can get away with anything. According to an excellent story in Newsweek, members of the men's lacrosse team have quite a reputation for doing pretty much whatever they feel like doing.

There will be more sordid details coming out as time passes. A trial could turn into a real circus. I wonder if any of the involved parties drives a white Bronco.

 

Duke interim coach ready to lead program
25-year-old Kevin Cassese says he supports players charged with rape
By Aaron Beard
The Associated Press
Originally published June 6, 2006, 7:51 PM EDT

DURHAM, N.C. // The Duke lacrosse team will resume play next season under a microscope, with strict monitoring, a new code of conduct and a 25-year-old interim coach who is essentially auditioning for the permanent job.

None of that seems to rattle Kevin Cassese.

"You can't be nervous," the Blue Devils coach said Tuesday, "when you believe so dearly in something."

One day after the team was cleared to carry on, the two-time Duke captain promised to hold his players--some of them former teammates--accountable for their behavior.

And he offered a single statement on the rape scandal that has rocked the program: He supports the three players who were charged.

Several Blue Devils players crowded into the back of the press room at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday to greet their former assistant coach as he met with the media. Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, football coach Ted Roof and women's lacrosse coach Kerstin Kimel also showed to support the newest coach at the Atlantic Coast Conference school.

As he tries to restore the "bruised reputation" of his alma mater--a mere three years after his own college graduation--Cassese said he would focus on recruiting and scheduling games for a program that has been on hiatus for the past two months.

"All we needed was that shot to get back out there and now we've been afforded that shot and we're looking forward to it very much," Cassese said. "We here at Duke lacrosse are a proud bunch and we are a resilient bunch and we will come out of this stronger and more united than ever."

Cassese will lead the program while Duke completes a national search for a replacement for longtime coach Mike Pressler, who resigned in April in the wake of the rape allegations. Athletics director Joe Alleva said Cassese would be a candidate for the permanent job and that he was the "right face" for the program as it begins preparing to compete again.

University President Richard Brodhead canceled the team's season after an exotic dancer who had been hired to perform at a team party in March told police she was raped by three team members at an off-campus house. A grand jury in April indicted team members Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual assault. Team co-captain David Evans was indicted on the same charges last month.

Defense attorneys and Evans have strongly proclaimed the players' innocence.

In offering his support of the players, Cassese specifically mentioned Evans, who played as a freshman during Cassese's senior season.

"Based on what I know of David's character, I find it impossible to believe he could have done the things he's being accused of," Cassese said. "While I never had the opportunity to play alongside Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, I will--as with David Evans--support them until there is evidence and a court decision that leads me to conclude otherwise."

Cassese takes over a team with a history of disciplinary problems, including underage drinking and public urination. A faculty committee had recommended the team resume play next season, but only with strict monitoring of the players.

Brodhead said Monday he did not decide to reinstate the team until this weekend, after all remaining players agreed to a mission statement that emphasizes academics, tolerance and a code of conduct that, among other things, prohibits underage drinking.

Cassese said he is in "full support" of the behavior guidelines.

"I intend to hold all team members accountable to the set of team standards they have presented," he said.

The former U.S. national team player was an assistant coach with Duke last season under Pressler. Before arriving in Durham last summer, Cassese was an assistant at Stony Brook in 2004. As a player, he led Duke to three NCAA tournaments and two Atlantic Coast Conference titles.

"That respect has been there from day one with him," said Casey Carroll, a rising senior defenseman. "He's a guy we've all looked up to for a long time."

The canceled season followed a year in which Duke set an NCAA record with 17 victories and reached the national-title game. The Blue Devils had been considered championship contenders again this year and were 6-2 when their season ended.

Duke granted permission for players and incoming recruits to contact other schools about playing elsewhere given the uncertain future of the program. No players have announced plans to transfer, though at least three of seven recruits plan to play elsewhere.

Man May Reclaim Bowling Endurance Title

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Dave Wilson spent a lot of time in the fast lane — bowling for more than four days straight in an attempt to reclaim his world record for the sport's endurance title.

Wilson, 40, of Mason, on Saturday finished the last of 481 games played over more 102 hours, 1 minute and 25 seconds. He reported bowling a 236 in one game, but it wasn't strikes and spares he was after.

The feat raised more than $13,000 in pledges from spectators, which Wilson is donating to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the Building Blocks Foundation, which helps children with medical needs.

Wilson is awaiting official confirmation from the Guinness World Records. He held the record for about five days last June after bowling for 64 hours, 22 minutes, but a Canadian broke it by going 100 hours.

The first thing he did after he finished? Drink a Guinness Stout to celebrate.

Wilson was allowed a 15-minute break after every eight hours of bowling, according to Guinness rules, but he skipped the last break after a donor pledged $1 for every pin he knocked down after 6 p.m. Saturday. Wilson finished at about 10 p.m. and collected $1,410 from that pledge.