Virginia Finishes Seventh in Final Directors’ Cup Standings
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 07/01/2011

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Virginia finished seventh in the final 2010-11 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup competition for Division I schools. The final results were announced Friday by the National Association of Directors of Athletics (NACDA). The finish is the second best for the Cavaliers in the 18-year history of the Directors' Cup program and marks the fourth time the school has posted a top-10 finish. Virginia's best finish was third last year. UVa was eighth in both 1999 and 2009.

It marks the 18th consecutive year, since the program's inception, the Cavaliers have recorded a top-30 finish. UVa is one of 15 schools to rank in the top 30 of the final Directors' Cup standings in each year of the program's existence.

"The manner in which our programs have represented the University of Virginia this year is truly impressive," UVa Athletics Director Craig Littlepage said. "Earning another top-10 finish in this year's Directors' Cup demonstrates a true team effort, including the work of dedicated coaches, student-athletes and athletics department staff, support from the University administration and faculty, and the generosity of our donors. Winning conference and national championships are among our department goals and our third consecutive top-10 finish in the Directors' Cup standings reflects our continuing effort regarding our 10-year goals."

Teams or individuals in 21 of Virginia's 25 intercollegiate athletics programs advanced to postseason competition in 2010-11. UVa won two team national championships and two individual national titles. Virginia won the NCAA title in men's lacrosse and a fourth consecutive ITA National Team Indoor Championship in men's tennis.

A year after capturing the NCAA 800 meter crown indoors, sophomore Robby Andrews won the 800 meter outdoor title this spring at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Matt McLean won the 500 meter freestyle at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships to become the fourth Cavalier swimmer to win a NCAA title.

The Cavaliers also won five Atlantic Coast Conference championships in 2010-11, which tied with Maryland as the most by any league school this year. UVa won ACC titles in baseball, women's rowing, men's and women's swimming and diving and men's tennis. Virginia has won 47 ACC championships in the last nine years, the most of any school in the conference during that period.

There were 10 Cavalier student-athletes who earned some form of ACC player of the year honors in their respective sport. That list includes: McKenzie Adams (volleyball freshman of the year), Alex Domijan (men's tennis freshman of the year), Sinead Farrelly (women's soccer offensive player of the year), Danny Hultzen (baseball pitcher of the year), Ben Kohles (men's golfer of the year), Anthony Kostelac (indoor and outdoor track and field freshman of the year), Matt McLean (men's swimmer of the year), Ariana Moorer (women's basketball sixth player of the year), Lauren Perdue (women's swimmer of the year) and Steele Stanwick (men's lacrosse player of the year).

Additional highlights of Virginia's 2010-11 athletics year included:

Four coaches were named ACC coach of the year (rowing - Kevin Sauer; men's and women's swimming and diving - Mark Bernardino; men's tennis - Brian Boland; baseball - Brian O'Connor).
Assistant women's golf coach Brian Bailie was the National Golf Coaches Association's assistant coach of the year.
Steele Stanwick became the third Cavalier men's lacrosse player to win the Tewaaraton Trophy as the nation's top player
Men's golfer Ben Kohles repeated as the ACC Golfer of the Year.
Emil Heineking won his second consecutive ACC men's cross country individual title.
Baseball pitcher Danny Hultzen became the first player in ACC history to win the Pitcher of the Year Award in back-to-back seasons. A first-team All-American and a first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American, he was the second pick in the Major League Baseball draft
The women's cross country team won the NCAA Southeast Regional title.
The Cavalier women's golf team's fourth place finish at the NCAA Championships was its best postseason performance.
Baseball pitcher Tyler Wilson won the Lowes Senior CLASS Award as the most outstanding senior student-athlete in Division I baseball
The men's tennis team's Michael Shabaz was the ITA National Senior Player of the Year, Alex Domijan was the ITA National Rookie of the Year and Sanam Singh received the ITA Sportsmanship Award
The Virginia baseball team was the No. 1 national seed for the NCAA baseball championships and made its second College World Series appearance
Wrestler Chris Henrich became the program's first three-time All-American
Paige Selenski was a Honda Award semifinalist for field hockey
The men's tennis team won its fifth consecutive ACC title and placed second at the NCAA Championships, its best finish ever
The Cavalier men's and women's swimming and diving teams won their fourth straight ACC titles
Men's swimming finished eighth at the NCAA Championships, its best finish ever
Women's tennis advanced to the round of 16 at the NCAAs for the first time
Junior Lindsey Hardenbergh became the first women's tennis player to earn All-America honors
Former Cavalier women's soccer players Becky Sauerbrunn and Lori Lindsey were named to the U.S. Women's World Cup soccer team
Stanford finished first in the NCAA Division I Directors' Cup standings for the 17th consecutive year with 1550.25 points and Ohio State was second with 1277.05 points.

UVa was one of four ACC programs to finish in the top-10 of the Directors' Cup standings. Other ACC schools in the top 10 of the Directors' cup standings were Duke (5th, 1171.50), North Carolina (6th, 1160.75) and Florida State (9th, 1079.00).

There are four Learfield Sports Directors' Cup awards, one to honor the institution with the best overall athletics program in each of the NCAA's Divisions I, II and III, and the NAIA. The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between NACDA and USA Today.

2010-11 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Final Top 30 Point Standings

1. Stanford 1550.25

2. Ohio State 1277.05

3. California 1219.50

4. Florida 1212.25

5. Duke 1171.50

6. North Carolina 1160.75

7. Virginia 1092.00

8. Texas A&M 1090.50

9. Florida State 1079.00

10. Oklahoma 1064.75

11. UCLA 1020.25

12. Texas 996.75

13. Penn State 996.05

14. Southern California 990.25

15. Michigan 954.75

16. Arizona 906.00

17. Maryland 858.00

18. Notre Dame 833.00

19. LSU 831.05

20. Georgia 829.00

21. Washington 779.30

22. Tennessee 763.50

23. Illinois 731.50

24. Arkansas 726.75

25. Alabama 726.25

26. Wisconsin 706.25

27. Arizona State 692.50

28. Indiana 687.75

29. Minnesota 657.25

30. Oregon 640.75

ACC Schools in Final 2010-11 Directors' Cup Standings

5. Duke 1171.50

6. North Carolina 1160.75

7. Virginia 1092.00

9. Florida State 1079.00

17. Maryland 858.00

45. Virginia Tech 500.50

47. Clemson 485.50

51. Miami (Fla.) 416.50

59. Georgia Tech 350.75

64. Boston College 322.00

67. NC State 312.00

74. Wake Forest 261.50

Schools Ranked in the Top-30 of All 18 Directors' Cup Point Standings (1994-2011)

Arizona

Arizona State

California

Florida

Georgia

Michigan

North Carolina

Ohio State

Penn State

Southern California

Stanford

Tennessee

Texas

UCLA

Virginia

Virginia's Final Position in Each of the Directors' Cup Rankings

2011 7th

2010 3rd

2009 8th

2008 17th

2007 13th

2006 26th

2005 13th

2004 30th

2003 19th

2002 27th

2001 30th

2000 13th

1999 8th

1998 13th

1997 22nd

1996 21st

1995 19th (tie)

1994 19th

UVa Soccer Well-Represented at Women's World Cup
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 07/02/2011
By Jeff White
jwhite@virginia.edu

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Their college careers did not overlap, but they're teammates now at the highest level of their sport. UVa women's soccer coach Steve Swanson beams when talking about Lori Lindsey and Becky Sauerbrunn.

"They're both ambassadors of the school," Swanson said.

Lindsey, a midfielder, and Sauerbrunn, a defender, are members of the United States team at the Women's World Cup in Germany. Lindsey's final season at UVa was 2001; Sauerbrunn's, 2007.

"As talented as they are as players, they're both such giving people," Swanson said. "They're both extremely appreciative of what Virginia has offered them in terms of the education, the degree and the program. I think they feel very strongly about the University of Virginia, both of them. They're the kind of people that would always come back and support the University in so many different ways.

"They get back down here all the time ... I stay in very good contact with them, and they've obviously been very supportive of the program.

The U.S. opened World Cup play Tuesday with a 2-0 win over North Korea. Neither Lindsey nor Sauerbrunn played in the opener, but Lindsey has been mentioned as a potential starter for the United States' next Group C match, against Colombia in Sinsheim. (ESPN will broadcast the game, which starts Saturday at noon Eastern.)

Lindsey, 31, is the fourth-oldest player on the U.S. team. She's made 19 appearances for the U.S. national team, but this is her first World Cup.

"The interesting thing about Lori is, I think there would have been many a player that would have opted out and quit," Swanson said. "I think it's a tribute to Lori's perseverance, certainly her talent, but it's also a tribute to how conscientious she is about her fitness. She's an older player on that team, but I think she's physically as fit as any player on that team. She's always worked hard at it. It's nice to see someone who's put in all the time that she has, and has all the experience that she has, finally make her first team. It's exciting for all of us."

Swanson, whose first season at UVa was 2000, said he has always believed Lindsey "was talented enough to be on the team. I think soccer is one of those things where you have to be patient, your opportunity has to come, and then when the opportunity comes, you really have to take advantage of it. And it's a slippery slope, you know. If the opportunity comes and you're injured or you're not ready, it might not come back for a little while.

"Lori has kept growing as a player, and that's a tribute to how hard she's worked. But when her opportunity came, just before the Olympics, I think, in 2008, Lori really started to establish herself with the team.

"She didn't make that 2008 Olympic team, but she was in the mix and got into subsequent camps from that."

Lindsey, who has a sociology degree from UVa, plays in Women's Professional Soccer for the Philadelphia Independence. Sauerbrunn, an English major at UVa, plays for another WPS team, magicJack. She's made eight appearances for the U.S., but this is her first World Cup, too.

"I owe the WPS so much," Sauerbrunn, 26, said in a video interview posted at the ussoccer.com. "The only reason I feel that I made it here was just because I had that platform to play and to learn and to grow, and having the national coaching staff being able to come to games and see me week in and week out."

To have two former Cavaliers on the World Cup team, Swanson said, is "a big deal. There's obviously not a lot that make that roster every four years, so the fact that there's two from Virginia, I think, is nice."

The U.S. coach is Pia Sundhage. Sauerbrunn, in her interview with ussoccer.com, said, "I had been in with Pia in 2008, and she had let me go. I went back down with the 23s, and I hadn't had any communication with her for 2½ years, really. I just really thought this World Cup wasn't in the cards for me."

But when an injury sidelined a U.S. defender before a qualifying tournament in Mexico, Sauerbrunn recalled, Sundhage "called me in at the last second."

"An opportunity presented itself," Swanson said. And so began Sauerbrunn's journey to Germany.

"That first initial camp I had absolutely to nothing to lose, and when you have nothing to lose, it's a sense of freedom when you're playing," Sauerbrunn told usssoccer.com.

"After that, after I made that first roster, that kind of changes, and all of the sudden you do have something you can lose. You can lose your spot.

"It's really one training session at a time, one camp at a time, just showing well, doing what you can, showing you're a good teammate on and off the field."

Swanson and his assistants, Ron Raab and Kerry Dziczkaniec, traveled to Cary, N.C., in May to see the U.S. national team beat Japan 2-0 in a friendly.

Another former UVa great, Sinead Farrelly, was with the U.S. team then. Farrelly, an All-American for the Wahoos as a senior in 2010, wasn't selected for this World Cup, but Swanson says her time is coming.

"I think Sinead could be a focal point of that team in the future," Swanson said. "I do. I think she's special."

Q&A: UVa hoops coach Tony Bennett talks about the offseason, schedules and more
By WHITELAW REID
Published: July 02, 2011

Whitelaw Reid, the Virginia men’s basketball beat writer for The Daily Progress, had a chance to sit down with UVa coach Tony Bennett for a wide-ranging interview earlier this week.

Question: Since the season ended, who’s made the biggest strides for you guys behind closed doors?

Answer: There are two noticeable changes that I’ve seen from a physical standpoint. Mike Scott has trimmed down even more. He looks really good. And KT Harrell. Both have trimmed down and lost some weight and say they feel good. They’re moving better. From that standpoint, it’s good.

Q: Have any of your players grown?

A: Akil [Mitchell] looks taller. We all said that when he came back [for summer school]...maybe a half an inch, an inch. He’s maybe a legit 6-8 now, maybe 6-9.

Q: Can James Johnson step in and be a part of the rotation right away or will that year of not playing games hurt?

A: I think that [redshirt] year off helped him get stronger and more prepared. James has a very nice future in front of him. With Mike Scott coming back and Assane [Sene] emerging and Akil getting better all the time and Will Regan left — there are very good opportunities for James. When I talk to James, I say, “Let’s look at this in two-year increments.” This year, I think he’s certainly going to get valuable experience and I imagine that he can be part of the rotation, without a doubt. And then when Assane and Mike leave, I think that’s the year where Akil and James and Darion [Atkins] — the guys that will have experience — have to really be ready. That’s what you want — to be able to get into that rotation as a freshman and then hopefully take over [in ensuing seasons]. But there’s going to be healthy competition.

Q: With Mike [Scott] back in the lineup, do you think that will help Assane? He came on so strong last season. Do you think Mike’s presence will allow him to do even more things since maybe more of the attention will be on Mike?

A: Yup. I think having a presence like Mike will benefit some of the perimeter guys [too] — even a guy like Jontel [Evans], KT, Joe [Harris], Sammy [Zeglinski]. But specifically Assane because Mike will draw some attention, whether it’s through getting more offensive rebounds. They go at him and Assane can go over the glass, or just being aware of Mike — if he can stretch it a little with his shot — and Assane on the other side. I think there will be benefits. I think any time you can play with good players — whether it’s a scoring presence or some kind of presence — that’s going to draw attention. I think that will help. Assane, if he continues to pick up where he left off and improve, that will bode well.

Q: It’s no secret that you’ve been trying to land a point guard in the next one or two recruiting classes, maybe more than one. When it comes to recruiting point guards, you’ve been characterized by some people that I’ve talked to on the recruiting trail as “picky” about your point guards. What is it that you look for specifically in a point guard?

A: I think I’m probably picky with all my players. I just want someone who fits. That’s certainly a very important piece and I think now we’re at that stage where we’re going to bring in a point guard for sure. Whether it’s a combo and a point or a couple points, that will be important. Your point guard has to be someone who can really sense the situation. He brings something to the table tangibly. When I look at our surrounding players, that point guard I think has to have an ability to make his teammates better. That can be through [a number of ways]. When he needs to score, he can score. But when he needs to create and distribute, he’ll do that. He can almost be a chameleon. I like complete point guards. You’ve got to be able to guard point guards...he just needs to have a command of what needs to be done. We’re looking at a number of different point guards who have all kinds of strengths and versatility in that position.

Q: So this offseason, you guys have been getting some love from the likes of ESPN’s Andy Katz and other national media outlets. There’s a prevailing thought that you guys will be predicted to be an upper-echelon ACC team this season. How does that feel?

A: The preseason and predictions don’t mean a lot, but we’re improving and that’s what I care about — are we taking steps every year to better our program? With the return of Mike Scott, there’s a little more maturity. There’s more experience. And then we have some young guys who got good experience last year because of the way the season played out. Akil, KT and Joe — those three received just invaluable experience. I think we feel like with the maturity, experience, the addition of some of the new guys that we should take a step and improve. How that plays out in wins and losses and where that puts you, time will tell. But we expect to be a better team going into our third year. Hopefully we can make some noise.

Q: How have your incoming freshmen [Malcolm Brogdon, Paul Jesperson and Darion Atkins] acclimated so far? Do they seem like they’re into the flow of things?

A: I think so. They come in the office and visit. They say, “These are long days.” It’s an adjustment with the workouts with our strength and conditioning coach Mike Curtis and the class load. It can be fairly intense during the summer period. But they’re all very glad to be here and I know they’re all getting along very well with each other and the other players. But it’s always an adjustment period. Talking to the second-years, they kind of smile. I say, “How do you feel one year removed?” They say it’s completely different having a year under their belt.

Q: When Sammy got healthy last year, it seemed like your best lineup was with Jontel coming off the bench as an energy, change-of-pace guy. Do you foresee that continuing into this season?

A: Every one of our guys wants to desperately play and help our team win. There’s healthy competition for playing time. There’s a handful of guys for three perimeter spots. Jontel has really gone to work on his game. He’s been trying to take another step forward and become more consistent with his pull-up jumpshot, finishing, playing under control. In a way, you can look at that point-guard position as a two or three-headed monster. With all the interchangeable parts in our system, it can come down to who can handle guarding the [opposing] point guard?

Q: Will Regan was the first guy you signed in your tenure. Was his decision to leave the program upsetting? Did he have ACC talent?

A: I always thought of Will as a guy that...could have matured and evolved into a nice player for us. He could have been a system guy who helps out. Will would have never wowed you with his athleticism, but he did know how to play and was a terrific teammate. You always wish the young men that you bring in will be with you, but the reality is — and I’ve been a head coach and assistant coach — I don’t think there’s ever been a year where there hasn’t been one or two transfers. It comes down to a number of reasons why guys leave.

Q: Klay Thompson, a guy you recruited when you were at Washington State, was an NBA first-round pick last week. Do you see any similarities between him and any of your current players?

A: Klay was unique. That was really special to see Klay [get drafted]. You know, when you recruit guys, almost everybody has the dream of playing in the NBA. Klay was a little unique in the fact that his father, Mychal Thompson, was the No. 1 pick — over Larry Bird, actually. I can remember Klay voicing that dream of his to me to someday play in the NBA. To see that dream become a reality, that was special. I think he has a chance to have a really good career. On our team, somebody who could compare to him? He’s long and athletic and can fly off screens and shoot it. The closest guy whose game is kind of similar is maybe Joe Harris.

Q: Along those lines, seven ACC players were taken in last week’s NBA Draft — Kyrie Irving, Iman Shumpert, Chris Singleton, Nolan Smith, Reggie Jackson, Kyle Singler and Jordan Williams. Which ones out of that group do you think will make the best pros and are there any sleepers in there?

A: Well, certainly Kyrie Irving. We didn’t get to see him a ton, but he has a chance to be special. I think Singleton is pretty good. You think of those Bruce Bowen types — those guys who carve out a niche as a stopper. He’s a phenomenal defender, who has a little more offensive ability than meets the eye. He has that. He’s sneaky good.

Q: I get a lot of e-mails from fans who are wondering about [walk-on] Thomas Rogers. Coming out of Fork Union, we heard that he was a great shooter. Do you think there’s a chance he can earn minutes by the end of his career, possibly be a rotation guy?

A: He was a great addition to our team in terms of being a great practice player and how hard he’s worked. He’s one of those guys who has deep range. You leave him alone and he’ll make you look bad. He’s caused many a chew-outs for the other guys in practice because they haven’t been able to get to him. He had an ankle injury that kept him out for quite a while — a high-ankle sprain that slowed his development. But I think Thomas has a chance to help the team. With someone who’s a walk-on, I take it a year at a time with them. It’s always a longer shot to get into the rotation and play, but it’s happened before. But the odds are [tough]. You have a lot of good players in front of you. But you never know.

Q: What do you think about the strength of your non-conference schedule this season? You have the road games at Oregon, Seattle and LSU and the home ones with George Mason, Michigan and Winthrop.

A: Last year, we really tried to upgrade it and have continued to try and do that. We’ll have to go on the road and play some games in some tough settings. It seems really solid. I think having a team like Michigan for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge will be really exciting for the fans. There’s some good teams [on the schedule]. We’ll have to be ready to play. Last year, we went out to Stanford and Maui early on. You kind of find out where you’re at. And [this year] we’re going to be playing in another tournament [The Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands] that will test us with some good competition.

Q: What’s the coolest non-basketball related thing you’ve done so far this summer?

A: I went to the opening round of the U.S. Open and followed Steve Stricker around. It was pretty special to watch. He had come to our Virginia Tech game two years ago. My wife and his wife are best friends. For three years, we were next-door neighbors and we got to know him. So that was fun to watch him. And the group behind him was [Phil] Mickelson, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson. To see those guys, that was amazing.”

Former Hampton QB David Watford is getting used to the grind at U.Va.
Norm Wood nwood@dailypress.com | 247-4642
8:25 p.m. EDT, July 2, 2011

If David Watford needed a reality check, he got it from a seemingly innocent History of Jazz course he took in his first semester at the University of Virginia.

Watford is in the midst of his first summer in Charlottesville. His life consists of workouts, running (endless running, that is) and summer classes – all with the goal of trying to earn some time on the field this fall at quarterback.

It's a continuation of what he started during the winter at U.Va., where he in enrolled in January, thus cutting his senior year short at Hampton High. He's getting used to the routine, but it was anything but normal when he first stepped on campus.

"It was nothing like I expected it to be," Watford said. "It was a big wake-up, for real. It's a big jump from high school to college. It's a big step in your life, and I really had to buckle down and get on it to be successful."

In his first semester, he took a course load that included Biology, Eastern Religion Perspectives, a required freshman transition course…and History of Jazz.

Now, the History of Jazz class was supposed to be a breeze. Of course, Watford didn't know he was going to be taught by a professor who had a particularly passionate interest in the subject, which made sense considering Watford's professor wrote the course textbook

"I'd study, and I'd think to myself, 'Oh, I'm good. I'm ready'" Watford said. "Then, I'd sit down and take the test, and I'd struggle. It was hard, man."

Before he knew it, he had absolutely bombed a few tests in the class – a foreign feeling for a kid that left Hampton with a grade point average near 3.5. He earned a C in History of Jazz.

He experienced a similar trying evolution on the practice field in the spring. Competing with three quarterbacks – sophomores Michael Rocco and Ross Metheny and redshirt freshman Michael Strauss – that had all been on campus for at least a year, everything came faster than Watford expected.

"Before I even left Hampton, (U.Va. offensive coordinator and quarterbacks) coach (Bill) Lazor and coach (Mike) London were asking me, 'Can you handle it?'" Watford said. "I was like, 'Yeah.' Coach Lazor and coach London both said they were going to try to help me out as best they can, and if it got to be too much to let them know."

Inconsistency and trouble with little things like handling the snap marked Watford's play. He emerged from spring practice listed as a co-No. 2 quarterback along with Strauss, behind co-No. 1's Rocco and Metheny.

Summer hasn't brought any reprieve for Watford in terms of workload. He's taking a class on the history of the circus in America, and will begin a high-level Spanish course in the second summer session.

He's working with teammates four days-a-week, plus coming over to the McCue Center in Charlottesville one extra day every week for individual work. Watford said it's "twice as hard" as the spring.

Watford's summer schedule also includes regular phone calls or texts with U.Va. graduate assistant coach Marques Hagans. He's a former 1998 state championship-winning Hampton High quarterback who went on to start for two seasons at U.Va. before spending parts of five seasons on National Football League practice squads as a wide receiver and emergency quarterback.

"Sometimes when I'm just out of it, and my head is going in circles, I'll just text him or call him," Watford said. "We'd just talk and he'd give me advice for days. I'd just try to soak it all in. He knows what he's talking about."

Hagans, who was hired in the spring at U.Va, is working with the offensive coaches. He'll be able to keep a close watch on Watford's progress.

"I think the thing with David is he can't focus on learning everything at one time," said Hagans during U.Va.'s spring practices. "If he continues to take bits and pieces each day, correct things here and there and make strides each day, he'll be fine. I just try to remind him Rome wasn't built in a day."

Near the end of April, Watford sat down and talked with Lazor about what would be expected in the fall. Is immediate playing time in Watford's future? Or is he destined to take a redshirt year – something that wouldn't be too much of a surprise at this point?

"He wants me to come in and compete for the starting job," Watford said. "If they need me to play, they'll play me. If they don't, he said they're not just going to waste a year and they'll probably redshirt me. I'm fine with that. I just want to compete."

U.Va. gets commitment from Hermitage lineman Miles-Redmond
By MICHAEL PHILLIPS
Published: July 01, 2011

The summer football recruiting season stayed hot Thursday, as Mike London scored a big get in his former stomping grounds.

Virginia's coach accepted a commitment for 2012 from Hermitage senior offensive lineman Andre Miles-Redmond, who becomes the third player from the Richmond area to commit to the Cavaliers in June.

He's also the second offensive lineman in the past week. The Wahoos locked up Sean Karl of upstate New York on Tuesday.

This one doubled as a rivalry victory for the U.Va. coaching staff, as Miles-Redmond was offered a scholarship from Virginia Tech and N.C. State. Entering the summer, Miles-Redmond was No. 1 on every recruiting service's list of the state's top offensive line prospects.

At 6-foot-3, 260 pounds, he was a key starter for the Panthers, who advanced to last year's state title game.

"He's an extremely athletic young man," Hermitage coach Patrick Kane said. "Our offensive linemen last year were some of the best athletes on our team, and he was one of the leaders of that group. And he's going to be phenomenal this year."

Miles-Redmond said that the coaching staff at U.Va. hasn't projected him to the offensive or defensive side yet, but that he would be happy either way. He cited the coaches as a big reason for his commitment.

"Coach London is a great guy, and they have a great staff — a lot of guys who have a lot of experience both in the pros and in college," he said.

He becomes the 13th player to commit to Virginia in a recruiting class where the Cavaliers are not expected to hit the max of 25 players, something they did last year.

Joining Miles-Redmond in Charlottesville will be a pair of Varina athletes — Tyrell Chavis and Maurice Canady — who committed earlier in the month.

They'll be competitors this year. Miles-Redmond was in the weight room when reached Thursday.

"It starts right now," he said of Hermitage's season. "We're just trying to get everybody to push as hard as they can, and be as prepared as we can be."

ACC athletes challenge themselves, serve others in Vietnam
David Teel - dailypress.com
7:23 p.m. EDT, July 2, 2011

Colleen Thom and Chelsea Shine have been through the wringer. Three weeks of abject poverty, withering heat and tasteless food. Three weeks of lurking lizards, scary spiders and swarming mosquitoes.

They couldn't be more grateful.

Grateful for the opportunity to challenge themselves, serve others and broaden their horizons in ways they could not have imagined.

Never was that more evident than as these two ACC athletes said farewell last month to the Vietnamese children they taught, embraced and captivated.

"I didn't realize how much impact we'd had on the kids until the last day," said Shine, a University of Virginia basketball player. "A lot of them were crying, a lot of (us) were crying."

Thom, a Virginia Tech cross country runner from Yorktown, started "bawling my eyes out" when an interpreter translated a hand-written letter from a 9th-grade student named Hien.

"I hope I will see you again," she wrote. "I hope fate brings us together again."

Shine and Thom are among 62 ACC athletes participating this summer in Coach for College, a global initiative to promote higher education founded by former Duke tennis player Parker Goyer.

The Americans, 18 from Virginia and Virginia Tech, team with Vietnamese coaches to teach children basketball, soccer, volleyball and tennis. More important, the curriculum also includes health, physics, morality and English.

"We were using sports to connect with the kids and teach them the value of higher education," Shine said.

Vietnam has progressed markedly since the 1975 fall of Saigon, but still only about two percent of adults attend college. Goyer chose the country on the advice of a Duke professor and started the program in 2008.

A Rhodes Scholar studying at the University of Oxford's Said Business School, she coordinates Coach for College with Duke's Center for Civic Engagement. Virginia, Virginia Tech, Duke, North Carolina, Miami and Florida State contributed $2,500 for each participant from their school, while the ACC funded those from elsewhere in the conference, Goyer said via email.

Goyer hopes to expand Coach for College into an international version of Teach for America, the program that places teachers in rural and urban schools throughout the United States.

"It will require a lot of work and luck!" Goyer said.

Thom and Shine would be first in line to help Goyer recruit.

"It sounded perfect to me," said Thom, who learned of Goyer's project via an email. "I really love coaching, and I really wanted to go to a (developing) country to see what I could do to help. I called my parents right away, and I applied that night."

A 2010 Peninsula Catholic graduate, Thom has tutored American children and worked with them at basketball camps. But nothing rates with her Vietnam experience, an emergency trip to the hospital notwithstanding.

"By far the best part was getting close to the kids," Thom said. "They were probably the happiest and most well-behaved kids I've ever taught. They're outstanding students and people."

A self-described worrier, planner and creature of habit, Shine quickly discovered that she needed to become more patient, spontaneous and relaxed.

"I feel like I grew up a lot in my ability to relate to people and communicate with them in different ways," she said. "It was real humbling experience, to say the least, to see people living off of basically nothing and still being happy."

Shine, Thom and their ACC colleagues for this session met several times via Skype to prepare for their journey, which ran from May 26 to June 20. They flew into Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, crashed for a night in a back-alley hostel and then bussed several hours to the southern portion of the country.

Thom's base was a "two-star hostel" in Thuan Hung, Shine's at Can Tho University near Hoa An. Each site included eight ACC athletes.

"You get to know people very quickly," Shine said of her companions. "You share all the new stuff, all the culture shock."

Shock such as village huts walled not by brick or wood, but tarps and blankets. Shock such as cars being nearly as scarce as horse-drawn carriages in Charlottesville and Blacksburg. Shock such as the toilet-side faucets that passed for showers.

"That," Shine said of the restrooms, "was a little different."

As were the language barrier, pervasive pests and mystery meat.

"Our motto was, 'Eat first, ask questions later,'" Shine said. "I didn't mind the food at all, but the portions were pretty small. We had white rice with every meal, and they called me Miss Soy Sauce because I doused everything … to give it some flavor."

Thom said her quarters were nicer, but late in her stay she was rushed to a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City with an undiagnosed intestinal ailment that still lingers.

"It was really scary," she said. "Fortunately, my doctor spoke English, and she was able to talk to my dad, who's a doctor."

As indelible as those impressions are, the people, "extremely welcoming" in Shine's words, trump all. No matter the language hurdle and cultural differences.

Just gaze at the faces in the accompanying photos. Look at the child cradled in Shine's left arm, the unbridled joy of Thom and Hien.

Yes, Internet connections were unreliable, limiting communication with family back home. Yes, hot soup was not Shine's idea of a hearty breakfast and led to her dropping seven pounds. And yes, Shine and Thom are behind on their summer conditioning.

Mere inconveniences all.

"It was so rewarding," Thom said. "The translators were really great, and I still stay in touch with them on email and Facebook."

"It was an exhausting three weeks," Shine said. "But it was so rewarding and so worth it."

http://bio.tribune.com/davidteel can be reached at 247-4636 or by e-mail at dteel@dailypress.com. For more from Teel, read his blog at dailypress.com/sports/teeltime and follow him at twitter.com/DavidTeelatDP

Coach for College participants

VIRGINIA

Claire Crippen, swimming

Elizabeth Nilan, rowing

Chelsea Shine, basketball

Paige Terry, rowing

Hadley Bell, field hockey

Casey Ridge, swimming

Eric Bolden, football

VIRGINIA TECH

Kimberly Patten, lacrosse

Julie Wolfinger, lacrosse

Ryan Rotanz, lacrosse

Jessica Trapeni, cross country

Drew Dillon, cross country

Colleen Thom, cross country

Aunye' Boone, track

Devin Cornwall, track

Keith Ricks, track

Morgan Allen, swimming

Kaleigh Gomes, swimming

Virginia's Ferguson at front of the line
BY CAULTON TUDOR - STAFF WRITER

The Bostic boys - Joe and Jeff - build apartment complexes these days.

Jeff, the younger of the brothers by 17 months, picked out the name for their McLeansville-based construction company.

"He came up with DIR," Joe said. "When I asked what that meant, he said 'Do It Right'."

Those words also perfectly sum up the way the Greensboro Smith High products played football, first at Clemson and then in the NFL in the late 1970s and throughout the '80s.

Combined, they became the first family of ACC offensive linemen, ranking Nos. 4 (Jeff, the center) and 10 (Joe, primarily a guard) on my list of the 25 best offensive line in ACC history.

No. 1 on the list is former Virginia tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson, who at age 27 and a fixture in the New York Jets offense, has a chance to reach the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Ferguson is followed by Jim Ritcher, the Outland Trophy winner for N.C. State in 1979 and two-time Pro Bowl pick at center for the Buffalo Bills.

Along with the Bostic brothers, Ritcher, Duke center Bill Bryan (No. 15 on the list) and their Clemson teammate Steve Kenney (No. 13), the late '70s was a high-water mark for ACC blockers.

"It really was a strong run of offensive linemen in the league during those years," Joe Bostic said. "There were five or six teams in the ACC who could block any defense in the country."

The most unlikely star in the cluster was probably Jeff Bostic, a 185-pound lineman/wrestler at Smith who might have slipped through the nets had it not been for then Clemson assistant coach Ed Emory, whose primary recruiting area was central, eastern and southwestern North Carolina.

"Ed never got the credit he deserved for helping turn Clemson into the program that won a national title (1981) and won so many games," Joe Bostic said.

Emory, who played and later became head coach at ECU, made Jeff Bostic the last recruit in the 1976 Clemson class.

"Jeff didn't get any offers, so he was going to Fork Union [Va.] Military to play for one season and try to impress some scouts," Joe said.

"Then, about a week into preseason practice my sophomore season, a lot of guys quit. One day Coach Emory came over to me and wanted to know if Jeff might be interested in signing a scholarship and getting down there the next day. I said, 'Oh yeah, oh yeah.'"

By the time Jeff graduated in 1980, he'd done enough to get a tryout with the Washington Redskins and soon became one of the original lovable "Hogs" - a group of burly Redskin blockers that included Russ Grimm, Mark May and Joe Jacoby. They won three Super Bowls.

Next in the ACC-25 series: wide receivers.
 

OFFENSIVE LINE
PLAYER (School, last season)

1. D'Brickashaw Ferguson (Virginia '05)

2. Jim Ritcher (NCSU '79)

3. Harris Barton (UNC '86)

4. Jeff Bostic (Clemson '79)

5. Tra Thomas (FSU '97)

6. John Davis (Georgia Tech '86)

7. Ed Newman (Duke '72)

8. Jeff Saturday (UNC '98)

9. Jim Dombroski (Virginia '85)

10. Joe Bostic (Clemson '78)

11. Jim Clack (Wake'70)

12. Bob Pellegrini (Maryland '55)

13. Steve Kenney (Clemson '80)

14. Mike Sandusky (Maryland '56)

15. Bill Bryan (Duke '76)

16. Brian Blados (UNC '83)

17. Bill Yoest (NCSU '73)

18. Ben Coleman (Wake'92)

19. Alex Barron (FSU '04)

20. Ken Huff (UNC '74)

21. Stan Jones (Maryland '53)

22. Lou Cordilene (Clemson '59)

23. Mike McGee (Duke '59)

24. Ron Wooten (UNC '80)

25. Clay Shiver (FSU '95)

FIVE TIGHT ENDS

1. Bennie Cunningham (Clemson '75)

2. Gary Collins (Maryland '61)

3. Heath Miller (Virginia '04)

4. Alge Crumpler (UNC '00)

5. Desmond Clark (WF '98)

 

Altomare Falls in Quarterfinals at Pub Links
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 07/01/2011

Bandon, OR - Virginia junior golfer Brittany Altomare (Shrewsbury, Mass.) lost to UCLA's Tiffany Lua 7 & 6 in Friday's quarterfinals of the 2011 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship. This year's tournament is being held at the Bandon Trails course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.

Altomare advanced to match play after finishing tied for fifth following 36 holes of stroke play. She finished at 6-over 148. She defeated Briana Mao 3 & 2 in the round of 64 and dispatched Ellen Mueller 1-up in the round of 32. She made it through to the quarterfinals with a 2-up victory over Kelsey Vines during the round of 16.

This year's event marks the fourth consecutive year Altomare has competed at the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championships.

The U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links is one of 13 championships conducted annually by the United States Golf Association, 10 of which are strictly for amateurs.