U.VA. NOTES
Tuesday, Jun 10, 2008 - 12:06 AM Updated: 07:25 AM

Football
Virginia hit double digits yesterday when Fauquier High School junior Connor McCartin joined its 2009 recruiting class.

A 6-4, 215-pound linebacker, McCartin is the 10th player from this state to commit to Virginia for 2009. That continues a remarkable turnaround for the Cavaliers, who landed only three in-state players in the Class of 2008.

In 2007, McCartin made 135 tackles, forced four fumbles, blocked three punts, intercepted two passes and was named to the all-Northwest Region team. McCartin, who won't turn 17 until November, also plays basketball for Fauquier.

His older brother, Kyle, a recent graduate of Fauquier, is headed to U.Va. as a recruited walk-on this summer. Kyle McCartin, a 6-4 quarterback, passed for 1,296 yards and nine touchdowns and rushed for 621 yards and 10 TDs as junior in 2006. His senior season ended with a knee injury.

U.Va. is hosting a gathering Saturday for prospects in the Class of 2009, so McCartin's commitment may not be the last one coach Al Groh receives this month.

In other football news, defensive lineman Kevin Crawford has been re-admitted to U.Va. and is expected to rejoin the team this summer. Crawford appeared in five games as a redshirt freshman in 2006, starting one. He finished the season with five tackles. Academic issues kept him out of U.Va. in 2007-08.

Men's basketball
Tristan Spurlock, who's at or near the top of Virginia coach Dave Leitao's wish list for 2009-10, is among the high school stars who'll take part in the NBA Players Association's Top 100 camp at John Paul Jones Arena next week.

Spurlock, a 6-6 small forward who lives in Woodbridge, is a rising senior at Montrose Christian School in Rockville, Md. Rivals.com ranks him No. 66 nationally in the Class of 2009.

Others invited to the NBA Players Association camp include 6-6 Travis McKie, from John Marshall High School in Richmond. A first-team All-Metro pick as a sophomore in 2007-08, McKie recently received a scholarship offer from U.Va.

Baseball
More than a dozen players with ties to the U.Va. program were chosen in last week's Major League Baseball draft.

Six players from this year's team were selected, tying the school record set in 2007. Seven of U.Va.'s incoming recruits were drafted, led by Peter Hissey, an outfielder from Pennsylvania whom the Red Sox selected in the fourth round.

In addition to Hissey, U.Va. recruits drafted were pitcher Danny Hultzen (10th round, Diamondbacks), first baseman Tyler Massey (14th, Rockies), Goochland High School catcher John Hicks (31st, Angels), pitcher/first baseman Scott Silverstein (32nd, Nationals), third baseman Steven Proscia (39th, Twins) and Maggie Walker Governor's School pitcher Will Roberts (49th, Angels).

Coach Brian O'Connor said Hissey is the only U.Va. recruit who's unlikely to enroll this summer.

Men's lacrosse
Among the players planning to sign with U.Va. in November is attackman/midfielder Mark Cockerton, an 11th-grader from Oshawa, Ontario.

Cockerton's father, Stan, was a four-time all-ACC performer in the 1970s for N.C. State, which has since dropped lacrosse. Stan Cockerton, who led Canada to the world championship in 1978, was the ACC's all-time leading scorer until this year, when Duke's Matt Danowski set a new record. The elder Cockerton scored 280 points, on 193 goals and 87 assists, for the Wolfpack.

Mark Cockerton's older brother Matt, a 12th-grader this season, plans to transfer to U.Va. in 2009 after spending the coming school year at a college in Canada.

Also headed to U.Va. is midfielder Jacob Ghitelman, a 12th-grader from Long Island, N.Y. His brother, Adam, a rising sophomore, is expected to be the Cavaliers' starting goalie next season. Jacob Ghitelman will spend 2008-09 at a prep school and then enroll at Virginia next summer. - Jeff White

 

Virginia continues search for new voice
By Jay Jenkins
Published: June 11, 2008

When Virginia entertains Southern Cal the last Saturday in August, all eyes will be on the new-look Cavaliers.
All ears, however, will be tuned into the new Director of Broadcasting for Virginia Sports Properties.
For now, the play-by-play voice describing the game’s activities on the airwaves throughout the state remains unknown.
That is expected to change later this month as the methodical search process that included over 100 applications comes to a close.
“We have gone through an exhaustive search and have utilized an organization called STAA [Sportscasters Talent Agency of America],” said Doug Paschal, Vice President and General Manager of CBS Collegiate Sports Properties. “We have utilized their help in gathering an enormous amount of interest via that organization’s connections with talent.
“We have gone through our initial look-through at a variety of people and are fast approaching [a hire], trying to narrow it down to a manageable group.”
The pool of finalists is expected to be four or five individuals that CBS Collegiate Sports Properties “think fit the bill for what we are looking for and what we would expect the University of Virginia and its athletic department would expect, as well,” Paschal said.
At least one radio talent that drew early support from a portion of the fanbase will not be included in that final in-person process.
Jed Williams, 28, the former play-by-play voice of Virginia women’s basketball, a sideline reporter for Virginia football and the original host of WINA’s “Best Seat in the House” program did not have five years experience handling the play-by-play for college or professional football, an original job requirement when the vacancy created by the resignation of long-time announcer Mac McDonald in May.
Being excluded last week during one of the final cuts did not sour the process for Williams.
“This caught everybody by surprise when it opened up, and these jobs don’t come along very often and they are very significant and very special,” he said. “I absolutely was flattered to be a part of the process with my alma mater and I am a Virginia guy and will always be a Virginia guy.
“I will certainly be absolutely supportive of whoever they choose and it sounds like — while it will be a difficult decision — it will be an easy decision in the sense that they will be selecting from a number of qualified guys.”
Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage said officials in his department have been thoroughly pleased with how CBS Collegiate Sports Properties, previously known as Viacom Sports, has handled the search. CBS Collegiate Sports Properties has served as the marketing rights partner with UVa since 1998 and inked a 10-year contract extension with the school in 2006.
“We have trusted the work that CBS Sports Properties does and feel that over time that this relationship will continue to grow as it has in the previous years that we have been with them,” Littlepage said.
“We are very enthused about the manner in which they have carried out the area of their responsibility, and know that there are a lot of good people out there that might have had an interest in the position and feel very good about what it is that will come out with as a final selection.”
Littlepage also pointed out that it was important to remember that the hiring itself amounts to more than an act of sports journalism during games.
“I think from a department of athletics standpoint and a university standpoint, it is not just the voice of the football team and the basketball team, but the voice of Virginia athletics,” Littlepage said. “In a sense, it almost becomes the voice of the University of Virginia, as well.
“Whether it is strictly what they do as a play-by-play person or what they do with some of our special events in terms of emceeing events and so forth, and for obvious reasons, this is a very important position and one that is held in high regard.”
While a timetable was not given to have the new play-by-play voice in place, the ever-approaching football campaign set a de facto deadline for the start of July.
“I would say that based on the start of the season being just a couple of months away and wanting to make sure that there is a good period of time for an orientation preparation for the season that that sort of timing would make sense,” Littlepage said. “It is not as easy as sitting down in front of the microphone and talking about what you see, but there is a lot of background work and research that is done in terms for a season, let alone preparing for an individual game at some point and time.
“You need weeks of preparation so the [July 1] timeline would make sense, but I don’t know the precise timeline myself.”

 

Cavs’ juniors sort out fates
By Jay Jenkins
Published: June 11, 2008

David Adams is staying in his home state. Jeremy Farrell is inching closer to an agreement. Greg Miclat is heading north. Jacob Thompson remains in limbo.
As of Tuesday, the four Virginia baseball players with a year of eligibility remaining are at opposite ends of the post-MLB draft spectrum.
Adams, who was taken in the third round by the New York Yankees, agreed to a contract late Monday and the second baseman is planning his departure from his childhood home in Miami for the organization’s Gulf Coast League facility in Tampa.
Appreciative of his time and opportunity at Virginia as an everyday starter, Adams said it was always his dream to become a professional baseball player.
While work with hitting instructors awaits at the Yankee Complex for the next two weeks, Adams could be assigned later this month to the short-season Class A team in Staten Island, N.Y., or with the Tampa Yankees, a Class A team in the Florida State League.
Farrell, as expected, is working out the final details of his contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who selected him in the eighth round of the draft. Farrell, who slugged a career-best 11 homers this season, could sign as early as Wednesday, sources confirmed.
Miclat, taken in the fifth round by the Baltimore Orioles, discussed his demands with his advisor and elected to drive Tuesday to Yarmouth, Mass., where he will begin play in the Cape Cod League for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox on Saturday. The Orioles have until the league-wide deadline of Aug. 15 to sign Miclat.
“My advisor called them and told them that he would be waiting to hear back from them,” Miclat said.
Returning to Virginia for his senior season would allow Miclat to chase the ACC’s career stolen base record. Miclat, currently with 83 career steals, would need 45 more to pass former Georgia Tech standout Ty Griffin, a figure that he was on pace to obtain in 2007 when he stole 32 in 45 games before having season-ending shoulder surgery.
Drafted in the fifth round by the Atlanta Braves, Thompson is in a holding pattern with his demands. Atlanta, however, is offering slot money near $156,000, sources confirmed, and is not expected to budge from that offer in the near future — if at all.
Virginia senior pitcher Pat McAnaney also told The Daily Progress that he expects to sign with the Arizona Diamondbacks by the end of the week. McAnaney was drafted in the eighth round.

Getting honored

Former Virginia outfielder Mike Mitchell, now with the Asheville Tourists, was voted into the South Atlantic League All-Star game. Mitchell will play with the Southern Division all-stars in a contest that will be played Tuesday in Greensboro, N.C.
Mitchell, who plays centerfield for the Colorado Rockies’ Class A affiliate, is currently hitting .320 with three homers, 26 RBI and 24 stolen bases. He also ranks among the league’s best with a .374 on-base percentage.
Another Cavalier, first baseman Sean Doolittle, was also named to an All-Star game. A supplemental pick last year by the Oakland A’s, Doolittle was selected to represent the California League All-Stars on June 24 in the California/Carolina League All-Star game in Myrtle Beach.
Doolittle is currently hitting .319 with 15 homers and 51 RBI for the Stockton (Calif.) Ports.

 

U.Va. women's coach says she's not done yet
By Vicki Friedman
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 11, 2008
CHARLOTTESVILLE

Two years after the inaugural game was played at John Paul Jones Arena, Debbie Ryan has pictures waiting to be hung on the walls of her office, which sits below the court and just down the hall from the locker room that bears her name.

Still so much to be done, she says, standing inside the lavish Virginia women's basketball suite. That's appropriate, considering that Ryan will tell you, "I feel like I just started myself."

Hardly.

After 30 years as coach at Virginia, the petite Ryan is a giant in her field, compiling a 651-278 mark, 20 seasons of 20 or more victories and two 30-plus-win campaigns.

She has led the Cavaliers to 21 NCAA tournament s, including three consecutive Final Fours. No other team in the ACC has been ranked more times than Virginia.

That consistency is one reason Ryan, 55, was among five inductees this year into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. The 10th-anniversary class will be honored Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn.

"The Hall of Fame is not about me," insisted Ryan, relaxing in warmups and propping up sandal-clad, pedicured feet that barely reach the coffee table. "It's about the people who played the game. It's everybody who's been involved in your career - from the officials to the fans to all the people at your university.

"It's all the people that helped you along the way, from your very first basketball coach to your teachers, people who helped make you who you are. More than anything, I think it's a great honor for the University

of Virginia. For me, it brings great pride to know I brought this honor to the university."

WNBA president Val Ackerman and former Virginia athletic director Gene Corrigan will handle Ryan's two-part induction ceremony. Ackerman was Ryan's first scholarship player; Corrigan, the first athletic director Ryan worked with, is also her uncle.

"It's great to have one of our own in there, the state's first," Old Dominion coach Wendy Larry said. "It's a great thing for Debbie and I'm proud for her."

As honored as she is about a lifetime achievement award, Ryan is equally excited to talk about the upcoming season. Many figured she would have left coaching by now, given her bout with pancreatic cancer and some lean years for the Cavalier program.

Before last season, Virginia had back-to-back seasons without advancing to the national tournament. Player transfers and injuries hurt and many didn't hesitate on Internet message boards to ask if the game had passed Ryan by. The heir apparent - Dawn Staley, one of Ryan's former point guards - was mentioned as a replacement.

Ryan shut herself away from much of what she calls "the negative," though she admitted, "Hearing that was painful for both Dawn and me." Ryan never considered quitting.

"My approach was, 'I need to fix this,'" Ryan said. "People have been saying my career has been winding down for the last seven years and I think the illness started all that. I never said any of those words. I think that going through that was hard, but I'm just the same person as I was before."

That person is still a coach who considers herself in the prime of her career. The rumor mill has gone dry now that Staley was hired to coach South Carolina and Virginia looks to be in its best shape in years.

One preseason poll ranks the Cavaliers in the top 15 for next season. If not for Jazzmin Walters' clutch 3-pointer last March at the Constant Center, Virginia could have been coming off a Sweet 16 trip instead of Old Dominion.

Ryan still loves being in the thick of a growing game. Unlike many of her contemporaries, she has never had a problem relating to the kids she brings into the program.

"I've always been fairly in tune with my players, what they're doing and not doing, what they like and don't like," she said. "I love 'Gossip Girls' and 'The Hills,' but I don't watch those shows to stay current with my players. I watch them because I like them."

It was Ryan's idea to take her team to Africa last summer, a first for an NCAA basketball team. Ryan talks fondly of the Cavaliers' "life-changing" trip, which included four days in Dakar, a tour of Goree Island and Bandia Wild Animal Park.

"I remember driving down a dirt road, heading to the market. We were all dirty because dirt was flying everywhere, but it didn't matter," she said. "Our players just got so much out of watching the people barter at the market. It was an incredible experience watching how people would live in huts with no electricity and women would carry mangoes on top of their head, tons and tons of them, and walk miles and miles where they would sit all day with their children."

Ryan's struggle with cancer in 2000 was also life-altering. Pancreatic cancer kills most within a year of diagnosis. Her growth was small enough to be surgically removed and, after six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy, Ryan was pronounced cancer-free. She has since become an advocate for cancer awareness, a role as important to her as coaching.

"There isn't a day that goes by that I don't get a reminder about cancer," she said.

Sometimes it's a letter, like the one she keeps on her bookshelf, from a teenager stricken with the disease. Other times, the nightly news reporting the latest on Sen. Edward Kennedy's brain tumor will provide a jolt. Or it's the doctor chasing her down for that annual blood test.

Ryan never forgets what she survived and how appreciative she is to have survived it. If she fails to stop and smell the roses, she doesn't stray for long.

"It doesn't take me long to realize when I'm getting away from that," said Ryan, who constantly reminds her staff not to stress out over the small stuff. She says her adage is: "It's not going to matter in the long run."

And, while Ryan enjoys the outdoors, particularly boating and fishing, nothing quite compares to coaching. She has a special fondness for the bonds in the ACC among the coaches and was particularly touched when they chipped in to buy her commemorative Hall-of-Fame ring.

"I have great friendships in this league," said Ryan, adding, "I don't know that I enjoy coaching more today; I embrace the opportunities more. Like any maturation process, you get better. You get better at handling the opportunities that come your way."

The crowded landscape that has become women's basketball energizes her and she believes the Cavaliers can return to the elite status that defined them in the early '90s.

"It's changed a lot, but it's remained the same, too. Once you get there, you know what it takes," she said. "And we're not that far away."

 

Can Virginia beat USC?
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 | Posted by Chris Preston
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Because of the presence of the mighty Trojans, Virginia’s 2008 Aug. 30 home opener against USC will be played in front of a national ESPN2 audience. Like USC, the Cavaliers qualified for a New Year’s Day Bowl (Gator) themselves last January, but they will undoubtedly be cast in a supporting role to the Boys from Troy when the ESPN hype machine revs up late in the summer.

But that would all change should UVA somehow prevail. It goes without saying: That will be no easy task. Loaded as always, the Trojans have again been unanimously tabbed as a top-five preseason team. The Hullabahoos are fresh off a solid 9-4 season, but they lost their leader and best player -- All-America defensive end Chris Long -- to graduation (and to the St. Louis Rams as the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft), along with fellow first-round selection Branden Albert, an offensive tackle, and starting quarterback Jameel Sewell. The latter came as a surprise, as the two-year starter got the boot for academic shortcomings, as did would-be top returning defensive player Jeffrey Fitzgerald and cornerback Chris Cook. In other words, Virginia football is in rebuilding mode. No one is expecting to hear much from the Hoos in ’08 after a surprisingly noisy ’07.

Still, there are some nice pieces returning. The running game, much improved last season, remains largely intact thanks to the return of Cedric Peerman (5.2 yards per carry prior to going down with a midseason injury) and Mikell Simpson (over 1,000 all-purpose yards). The linebacking corps boasts both talent and experience, headed by seniors Clint Sintim, Antonio Appleby and Jon Copper, who had more tackles than Long in ’07. And Virginia has always had an endless supply of ball-catching tight ends in the Al Groh era.

Those factors alone probably won’t be nearly enough against the much deeper and athletically superior Trojans, but it’s not as if the cupboard is bare in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers have been a consistently solid, if not spectacular, outfit under Groh, qualifying for a bowl game in five of his seven seasons as head coach. They are not a national power, but they are almost always competitive. With a fired-up, likely record-setting crowd behind them for opening night against the Trojans, perhaps the Hoos could catch lightning in a bottle and derail USC’s national title aspirations before they even start.

Not likely, of course. But then again, perhaps because of its decade of dominance, USC has developed a tendency to overlook lesser opponents in recent years. Just ask Stanford.
 

Ben Rubeor Named Second-Team Academic All-America
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 06/10/2008

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – Lacrosse player Ben Rubeor has been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America At-Large second team announced today. This is the second year in a row he has received Academic All-America recognition; last season he was a third-team member.

Rubeor is the 11th student-athlete in school history—and first lacrosse player—to receive Academic All-America honors more than once.

He was one of five lacrosse players named to the three Division I Academic All-America At-Large teams. Player of the Year Mike Leveille from Syracuse was named to the first team, while Tim Balise of UMass and Paul Rabil from Johns Hopkins join him on the second team. Duke’s Max Quinzani was a third-team choice.

Rubeor was also named a Scholar All-American by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) following the season.

A finalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy as the nation’s top player this season, he graduated last month with a degree in English while compiling a 3.517 GPA. He was a second-team All-American this season after leading the team with 38 goals. He finished his career ranked fifth in UVa history with 136 goals and sixth in total points (212).

He is playing professionally with the Long Island Lizards of Major League Lacrosse and scored three goals vs. Philadelphia last week in his debut.

To be eligible for the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Team an athlete must be a starter or significant reserve and boast at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average. The student-athlete must be at least a sophomore and must have completed one full year at his or her current institution. In addition to lacrosse, the At-Large team includes athletes from fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, rifle, skiing, swimming, tennis, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.


 

Grovatt Earns Second Freshman All-America Award
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 06/10/2008

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia outfielder Dan Grovatt (Tabernacle, N.J.) has earned Second Team Freshman All-America honors from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Pro-Line Athletic. It marks Grovatt’s second freshman All-America award after he was named to the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America Team last week.

ACC players dominated the NCBWA squad with nine members on the first and second teams. Conference USA and the SEC each had four selections.

Grovatt hit .324 with three home runs and 46 runs batted in as he played in 58 games during his rookie campaign. He finished with a Virginia freshman-record 22 doubles, as he fell one double short of the UVa single-season record. Nearly one-third of his hits were doubles, as he finished with 68 hits – second on the team. His total of 22 doubles ranks third in the ACC.

He also ranked second on the team in slugging percentage (.481), total bases (101) and hit by pitch (9) and was third in on base percentage (.418).

Grovatt is UVa’s first freshman All-American since 2006, when the Cavaliers boasted four – David Adams, Jeremy Farrell, Greg Miclat and Jacob Thompson.