Sewell aims for return to U.Va.
Former Hermitage QB on track to be Cav again in 2009
Saturday, Jun 14, 2008 - 12:07 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Jameel Sewell has spent a lot of time in the classroom this year, though not at the school of his choice. In the spring, he took a business course at Piedmont Virginia Community College -- Sewell received a B+ -- and tutored seventhand eighth-graders at nearby Buford Middle School.

Come fall, the former Hermitage High football star plans to take two courses at PVCC and continue his work at Buford. He'd rather be at the University of Virginia, where he has started the past 22 games at quarterback, but that's not an option for now. In January, Sewell was one of four football players suspended from U.Va. for poor academic performance.

How he's handled his setback has impressed U.Va. coaches and officials, and Sewell will be warmly welcomed back if, as expected, he's readmitted to the university for the 2009 spring semester.

"This is a young man who, over the last few months, has done nothing but try to work hard to get back to the University of Virginia through his interactions with administration, his teammates and his coaching staff," said Jon Oliver, the school's executive associate director of athletics.

Sewell said that other than sitting out two semesters, there are no criteria he must meet for readmission "besides the obvious: Don't get in trouble with the law."

Had Sewell, 20, transferred in January to a school that competes in the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision, formerly Division I-AA, he would have had two seasons of eligibility left, starting this fall. At U.Va., the 2009 season will be the last for Sewell, who redshirted in'05.

Moreover, he figures to have to battle an incumbent, probably Peter Lalich, for the starting job at quarterback. Still, the 6-3, 225-pound left-hander said he never seriously considered leaving U.Va. for good.

"This is where I started, and I feel I've put too much into this to not see it through," Sewell said. "I want to get that U.Va. degree."

He stops by the McCue Center to see Virginia's coaches periodically. Their message to him?

"Mostly that we're supportive of and we're encouraging of him," coach Al Groh said. "He is kind of the fashioner of his own future."

Sewell has stayed active, playing lots of basketball and lifting weights occasionally, and he said his "endurance is great." His summer workouts are about to start in earnest. Sewell will head home to Henrico County every weekend to train with his father, Harry.

"Going back to my roots," Sewell said.

Playing the role of spectator at Scott Stadium won't be easy for Sewell this season, Hermitage coach Patrick Kane noted yesterday. But this is the path Sewell has chosen, and he's determined to follow it back to U.Va.

"That's where his heart is," Kane said.

 

Reynolds makes progress in Italy
By Whitey Reid
Published: June 14, 2008

J.R. Reynolds made some nice money, learned a little Italian and developed a better feel for the point-guard position.
That would be the Cliff Notes’ version of the former Virginia star’s first season as a professional basketball player in Italy.
“I went in there not knowing what to expect — going into a different country and stuff,” Reynolds said. “But it turned out to be great.”
Now Reynolds is back at Virginia. Well, sort of. The former Roanoke Catholic star has decided to make Charlottesville his home base this summer as he prepares for another shot at the NBA.
Reynolds’ plan is to train at Virginia, play NBA summer league in July, then hopefully earn an invitation to a team’s training camp in October.
The 6-foot-2 guard, who was not selected in last year’s NBA Draft, isn’t sure what he’ll do if he doesn’t make an NBA roster. His options would be returning to Europe or possibly playing in the NBA’s Developmental League.
“The D-League is good because you get call-ups every once in a while,” said Reynolds, who was an All-ACC second-team choice his senior year in 2007, “but what happens if you don’t get a call-up?”
What happens is you don’t make nearly as much money as you do in Europe. You don’t have nearly as cushy of a lifestyle. And you play in half-empty arenas in places like Albuquerque and Reno.
That’s a far cry from Italy, where Reynolds often performed in front of packed houses.
Reynolds averaged about 18 points and three assists for Vanoli Soresina and hit one of the biggest shots of his team’s season. Playing on the road, he drained an incredible shot — which can be seen on YouTube — from beyond half-court to beat rival Edimes Pavia at the buzzer.
“The [fans] thought they had won,” Reynolds said, “but then when the shot went in, everybody was just silent. If you look at the video, you can see them throwing stuff on the court. A guy came out on the court and started cussing me out in Italian.”
That incident withstanding, Reynolds really enjoyed his time in Italy.
“At first, not knowing the language was a big thing,” Reynolds said, “but then when I got used to it and had an open mind about things, it was beautiful.”
Reynolds, who only signed a one-year contract with Vanoli, is by no means fluent in Italian. He says he learned just enough to “get by.”
When pressed about what that meant exactly, he admitted it entailed being able to talk a little trash on the court and having the requisite skills to introduce himself to young ladies at various social events.
Reynolds, who turned 24 in May, said the caliber of play in Italy surprised him. It was a lot more competitive than he expected. He joked that his assist total would have been much higher if he had been playing in the states.
“Over there, the assists are a lot different,” he said, laughing. “You’ve got to like drive to the hole and damn near hand the ball off to a person shooting a layup to get an assist. If you drive and kick to a guy shooting a 3-pointer, you’re not getting an assist. It’s different.”
Reynolds, who was pretty much a shooting guard during his college career, played predominantly point guard for Vanoli — a transition that will undoubtedly make him more attractive to potential NBA teams.
Reynolds says he improved a lot as a floor general.
“It was good because I saw the game more and became more patient and learned how to control a team,” he said. “I had a great big man to work with and got better at the screen-and-roll game.
“I’m always going to be a shooter. That’s not going to change, but I’ve just got to transition myself over to the point a little bit.”
Reynolds tried to keep tabs on his alma mater as much as he could.
“It was a disappointing season, man, very dissapointing,” said Reynolds, alluding to Virginia’s 17-16 campaign. “They’ll be young next year, so you never can tell — but if they mature and follow [coach Dave] Leitao then I think they can be good.”
Reynolds says he recently got together with former teammate Sean Singletary and gave him some advice on what to expect from a career overseas. The recently graduated Singletary, who is not projected to be drafted, is currently working out for a number of NBA teams.
“We talked a little bit about everything,” Reynolds said. “I think everything will work out for him if he just keeps working hard.”
It’s the same approach Reynolds hopes will work for him — regardless of what continent he’s playing on.
“I’m just going to be patient about everything,” Reynolds said, “and let everything fall into place.”

 

Hall of Famer Ryan more than a coach
Saturday, Jun 14, 2008 - 12:07 AM
By VIC DORR JR.
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Nice guys -- and girls -- don't always finish last.

Sometimes they finish in the Hall of Fame.

Exhibit 'A': University of Virginia women's basketball coach Debbie Ryan, who will be inducted tonight into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn. Ryan is widely and justifiably recognized for her on-court success: 675 victories, 22 NCAA Tournament invitations and three Final Four appearances in 31 seasons at the helm of the Cavaliers program.

Less is known about her capacity for human decency, largely because Ryan rarely draws attention to this slice of her life. Said Dr. Michael Weber, the director of the U.Va. Cancer Center: "I can't even begin to tell you how much she has done for us. I wouldn't even know where to start. Believe me: What you know about her, or what you think you know, is only the tip of the iceberg."

Ryan, Weber said, "is one of those people who believes anything is possible as long as no one cares who gets the credit."

Ryan, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the summer of 2000, has since volunteered for duty in the vanguard of the battle against the disease. She and the late State Senator Emily Couric helped organize a pair of 2001 concerts by Grammy Award-winner Mary Chapin Carpenter that raised more than $100,000 for the school's Cancer Center. A third such concert, presented in 2005, raised more than $175,000.

Nor does the litany stop there. Weber said Ryan is "a difference-maker" who speaks frequently at dinners and fundraising events in and around Charlottesville. But her greatest contributions, he said, are exquisitely private.

"She does a lot of one-on-one work with our patients our pancreatic patients, especially. A lot of them seek her out." Pancreatic cancer, Weber said, "is a terrible disease with very few long-term survivors. Talking to Debbie and hearing her tell her story does so much to help [newly-diagnosed patients]."

Ryan's personal battle was less than two years old when unspeakable misfortune overtook Virginia Tech post player Rayna Dubose. A virulent form of bacterial meningitis shoved Dubose to death's doorstep in the spring of 2002. The youngster spent 96 days at the U.Va. Medical Center. She survived, but the price was steep. So badly compromised was her circulatory system that physicians were forced to amputate both hands and both feet.

Ryan embraced this stricken family as though it were her own. She visited frequently and didn't merely occupy a chair when she did so. She consoled and encouraged Dubose and offered a sympathetic audience to the girl's distraught parents. So strong was the bond formed among the four that Dubose now regards Ryan "as a friend, yes. But I'd have to say she's more than a friend. To me, she's family now."

Said Bonnie Henrickson, the University of Kansas coach who was the Hokies' boss in 2002: "I saw a completely different woman from the competitor I was used to seeing. She was warm and compassionate and 100 percent involved. She didn't just show up. She cared. You could see it. You could feel it." The experience, Henrickson said, "was as gut-wrenching for Debbie as it was for us."

Ryan's ability to empathize with a soul in distress extends to -- and indeed, begins with -- her own players. Former Cavaliers guard Anna Prillaman, now the head girls coach at Atlee High School, recalls the day her brother, Brett, visited Charlottesville to say goodbye before departing for military duty in Iraq.

The farewell caused Prillaman to arrive late for a scheduled weightlifting session, "which under normal circumstances was a huge no-no. I expected to be met by four angry coaches." Instead, she said, "Debbie could see in my eyes that something was not right. She pulled me aside and talked to me and asked me if I needed anything. Then she let me go lift.

"Her timing with this kind of stuff -- not just with me, but with my teammates, too -- never ceased to amaze me. I had many a [personal] conversation with her and those conversations were never, ever, strictly about basketball. Believe me: She's helped a lot of girls through a lot of life's hardships."

Predictably, perhaps, Ryan's induction into the Hall of Fame is being widely applauded, even by those who once wanted very much to beat her.

"If you ask me," Dubose said, "this should have happened a long time ago."

Said Henrickson: "I'm thrilled for her. I'm absolutely thrilled. She deserves this so much. And keep in mind -- this is coming from somebody who still has some Hokie blood in her veins."

 

Debbie’s Day: Ryan set to enter Hall of Fame
By Jay Jenkins
Published: June 14, 2008

The details are a tad fuzzy.
Thirty-plus years can do that to a memory.
For Dan Bonner, however, the intricate details of the conversation were outweighed by the actual message about his young assistant coach.
“It was a long time ago now and I don’t know whether I was told this or I was given the impression that this was the case, but they thought that Debbie Ryan would someday become Virginia’s coach. She just needed some help to get started, and they thought I would be in a better position to set up recruiting and things like that for the program,” Bonner said. “When I first met Debbie, my first impression was, ‘Hell, they don’t need me.’
“She knew exactly what she was doing.”
After replacing Bonner as the head coach at Virginia prior to the 1977-78 season, Ryan proved she “knew” what she was doing. The 675 wins, the 21 seasons of at least 20 victories and 22 NCAA tournament appearances solidify the claim with an exclamation mark.
Today, the sport Ryan has given her life to will pay homage — the 55-year-old and five other pioneers will be officially inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn. The 10th-anniversary class also includes official Patty Broderick, Central Arizona College coach Lin L. Laursen, former Penn State passing wizard Suzie McConnell-Serio and former Tennessee and Wayland Baptist All-American Jill Rankin Schneider.
The honor itself, one that has been known for almost a year, was not something Ryan pondered over during the past decade.
“I never aspired to be honored like this,” Ryan said. “I aspired to be successful and do the best I could and work as hard as I could for the University of Virginia. I figured if you do those things, good things will happen, but you don’t think about those kinds of things until it happens to you.”
Two people close to Ryan will introduce the coach today during the ceremony. That honor is bestowed to Val Ackerman, the first scholarship player that Ryan recruited at UVa and the current president of USA Basketball, and former Virginia athletic director Gene Corrigan, Ryan’s uncle.
Those that share in the moment, Ryan pointed out, stretch much further.
“From your family to your administrators to the players and the coaches that have worked with you and the fans and everyone in Virginia, they all share in this,” she said. “It is not just about Debbie Ryan. It is about a whole program, a whole school, a whole community, the whole state. Everybody has shared in this in some way shape or form.
“Honestly, all these other people belong in the Hall of Fame with me. I could never have done it alone. I have never even scored a basket for the University of Virginia.”
Entering her 32nd campaign at Virginia, Ryan’s rise to coaching stardom did not come without adversity. In the summer of 2000, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a deadly disease that she conquered. And in 2004, the Cavaliers stumbled to a 13-16 record, missing the postseason for the first time in over two decades.
At that point, Ryan’s detractors were prevalent.
“It did hurt me. It was hard on me, but you learn who your friends are and who your friends are not,” Ryan said. “People that live in this kind of protection, where everything you do is glaring on the front page of the newspaper and in the media so readily, you just learn that you have to try to do the best you can. Things happen that are out of your control so you just try to control the things you can.
“Obviously, I would never want our school or our team to be seen in a bad light and it is far more important to me that we win than anybody else. I know fans can be rabid and fanatical, but they are no more fanatical than the coach that coaches the team or someone that is in the fight.”
Ryan preserved and has the program on the brink of a resurgence — again. She’s heading up what should be a preseason Top 25 team next season and she and her staff are well ahead of the game on recruiting with several major catches headed to Virginia over the next two years. That has raised expectations for the future.
That, of course, is the only way Ryan would have it.
“Coaches are not going to say, ‘This is good enough’ — It is never good enough,” she said. “People that think that coaches feel that way … there is no way. I work as hard as anybody else and we are playing as hard as anybody else to be the best. Every coach that has ever coached this game realizes there is no end to excellence.
“I am just glad that I have the chance to continue. That is a great opportunity and I am just proud that I can do this and coach another day.”
Now, Ryan will do so as a Hall of Famer.
And Bonner, an acclaimed color analyst, can watch, offer a hearty chuckle and pat himself on the back.
“I can tell people now that I used to be the head coach of the Virginia women’s basketball
program and Debbie Ryan was my assistant coach, and people are very, very impressed and it has nothing to do with what I did,” he said. “It has to do with what Debbie did so it has been a real pleasure to watch what she has done. She has made me look very, very good.”

 

Ayeni and Grant Earn All-America Honors in Discus
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 06/13/2008

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Junior Yemi Ayeni and senior Billie-Jo Grant wrapped up their 2008 seasons earning All-America honors in the discus on Friday at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Ayeni took second in the men’s discus with a throw of 59.50m, while Grant finished eighth in the women’s competition with at mark of 50.26m.

“Yemi responded well in the finals,” head coach Randy Bungard said. “Yemi’s first throw was a big one that he took the lead with. He had two throws after that, both over the 59-meter mark, but Kentucky ended up with one throw that happened to be better than Yemi’s. But, Yemi competed well and we’re extremely proud of the way that he worked through the championships.

“We’re really proud of Billie-Jo’s performance, as well. She was mentally prepared for the championships and has managed to fight through a season-long injury that has held her back from the marks she would have liked. Although she didn’t hit the marks she wanted, she still fought hard and came up with some big throws, and we’re extremely proud of her for that.”

Ayeni earned his second-consecutive All-America honor with his runner-up finish in the discus, becoming the highest finisher of all-time for the Cavalier men in a field event at the NCAA Championships. He came into the meet ranked 10th nationally and was seeded sixth after the qualifying round with his throw of 55.80m on Wednesday. He came up just short of a national championships today, though, as the University of Kentucky’s Rashaud Scott’s throw of 60.87m was long enough to surpass Ayeni’s 59.50m to win the event.

The junior concludes his season as a two-time ACC Champion in the discus. The two-time All-American also won the discus at the prestigious Penn Relays this year and will continue to compete throughout this summer to reach Olympic standards.

Grant earned her third All-America honor with her eighth-place finish in the event. Arizona State’s Sarah Stevens won the event with a throw of 56.14m and the Sun Devils’ Jessica Pressley edged Grant out of seventh-place by one-100th of a meter, throwing 50.27m. Grant wraps up her career as the 2008 NCAA East Region Discus Champion, in addition to the 2005 ACC Champion in the discus. Grant has earned all-conference honors in each of her three seasons of competition for the Cavaliers and holds Virginia’s all-time record in the event.

Grant will learn on Monday her fate for the US Olympic Trials, as the senior has hit the qualifying mark for the meet, but will await official word as to who has been selected to compete. The Trials are scheduled to run June 27-July 6 in Eugene, Ore.

Tomorrow, junior Andrew Jesien will wrap up Virginia’s competition at the championships, racing in the finals of the 1500m at 4:24 p.m. CST. The junior is the first Cavalier since John Hinton was a three-time All-American in the event in 1985 to race in the finals of the 1500m.