Road trip pays off for young Cavalier
Canadian Austin Pasztor made the most of a visit to the U.S., which eventually led to a UVa scholarship.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Canadian-bred offensive lineman Austin Pasztor would have liked nothing better than to have pursued the ice-hockey career that is the dream of many of his countrymen, including his older brother.

John Pasztor, 19, left the family's Langton, Ontario, home to play in the Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League.

Austin had to travel a little further, but his future isn't looking any less bright. At 17, he is on full scholarship at Virginia and starting as a true freshman in Division I-A football.

"I played hockey for a long time," said Pasztor, who is listed at 6 feet 6 and 310 pounds. "When I started, I was about 5 or 6. I played goalie all my life. I played until the ninth grade and then I gave hockey up.

"Tell you the truth, really what happened was I would have had to get custom-made pads. My parents didn't really want to shell out that kind of money. You're talking in the thousands [of dollars] between skates and gloves and pads."

Pasztor thought he might be able to play college football in Canada until he was asked in the summer of 2007 to join a "federation" team that was coming south for a series of scrimmages that would serve to showcase the players.

Fork Union coach John Shuman remembers agreeing to the scrimmage and writing down a date, "but I'd pretty much forgotten about it till they showed up," he said.

The Canadians had travelled south via bus and stopped several times on their way home for some more scrimmages.

"We liked two guys and one of them happened to be Austin," Shuman said. "When they got back and we finally got in touch with the coach, he said, '[No.] 74 really wants to come.' We looked at the roster and said, 'Hey, that's the guy we like.' "

Within two weeks, Pasztor was back at Fork Union to stay.

"We got him on a Wednesday and by Saturday he was starting against Valley Forge Junior College," Shuman said.

Pasztor had returned in the company of his parents, who had never seen Fork Union till the day they dropped him off.

"I don't think my mom was ready for me to leave," Pasztor said.

"I was only 16 at the time and my brother was just leaving home for hockey at the same time. It was a weird conversation, actually. But, I think she knew it would be better for me in the long run."

Pasztor joined the Fork Union postgraduate team coached by Shuman and nothing was said for a month.

Fork Union also has an undergraduate or "prep" team coached by Mickey Sullivan but there is no wheeling or dealing between the teams.

"Mickey Sullivan came running up one day and said, 'Hey, this guy's a senior [in high school], did you know he was a senior?' " Shuman said.

"I said, 'He doesn't look like a senior.' "

Pasztor said he was vaguely aware of the distinction, "but coach Shuman found me," he said, "so, I guess it's finders, keepers."

By the end of the fall term, Pasztor had picked up Division I-A offers from Temple and Buffalo. He took a visit to Virginia in early December and the Cavaliers offered him on the spot.

Pasztor was hard to miss at UVa spring practices in his Fork Union military garb, and UVa coach Al Groh still can't get over how big he is. How big and how mature.

Pasztor played on special teams in the Cavaliers' opener and was listed as the No. 2 left offensive guard until senior Zak Stair injured a knee Sept. 27 at Duke. Pasztor played most of that game and made his first start Saturday against Maryland.

Pasztor doesn't run as well as former UVa offensive guards Elton Brown and Branden Albert, the latter a first-round NFL Draft pick, but Shuman has predicted he will be an All-American in two years.

"If you had a race today, he's [Pasztor] not the guy you would buy a ticket on," Groh said. "The most impressive thing about him [Saturday] was, he had no mental errors. He had the right guys targeted all the time, in run and pass protection; he gave up no sacks and no pressures.

"It wasn't always pretty, but if there's one position that doesn't quite look like ballet, it's in there. It's just about getting the job done. D'Brickashaw Ferguson not only got them blocked, he was stylish. Elton Brown was stylish. Austin's not going to be that way, but he's going to be a tough, hard-working grinder.

"He's a brawler."

And it all started when Pasztor boarded a bus in Ontario, not because he had been invited but because another player had told him about it.

"I didn't even know I was going to Fork Union," he said.

Virginia is happy he found it.
 

Canada gives U.Va. big hope
Dave Fairbank
October 9, 2008

What would have amounted to a couple thousand dollars worth of custom ice hockey equipment landed the University of Virginia an offensive lineman.

That's sort of the A and the Z of Austin Pasztor's unusual journey from the college football hotbed of Ontario, Canada, to Charlottesville, with plenty of the alphabet in between.

The previous 15 months for Pasztor included a spot on a Canadian all-star team, a year at Fork Union Military Academy, a college scholarship, and most recently, a battlefield promotion that placed the 17-year-old freshman in the starting lineup for the Cavaliers' 31-0 rout against Maryland.

"I can remember when playing D-I football was only a dream," Pasztor said. "Thinking, just being able to play on the team would be nice. All of a sudden, you find out you're not going to get redshirted this year, and then you find out, well, you're going to start this game.

"It just keeps on progressing. It's never what you would expect before all this."

Pasztor figures to get his second consecutive start Saturday when the Cavaliers host East Carolina, courtesy of a knee injury that sidelined senior left guard Zak Stair.

Cavs CEO Al Groh said that Pasztor performed "nicely, not fantastically" against Maryland — a game in which Virginia rushed for 201 yards, had a 10-minute advantage in time of possession and surrendered only one sack.

"The most impressive thing about him," Groh added, "is that he had no mental errors."

The most impressive thing about Pasztor, to the average person, are his dimensions. He is every bit of 6-foot-7 and 310 pounds, and he doesn't turn 18 until next month.

Pasztor provides an interesting contrast to running mate Eugene Monroe — the apprentice freshman guard alongside the All-America left tackle and projected top-10 NFL draft choice.

"What I do know," Cavs quarterback Marc Verica remarked, "is they're both ridiculously large human beings. I've never seen anybody that big at that age."

Verica continued: "There's tremendous potential there. Working next to Gene will only help him. I couldn't be happier working with a left side like that."

Pasztor grew up on a tobacco farm in Langton, Ontario, a town on Lake Erie roughly two hours equidistant from Detroit and Buffalo.

Like nearly all Canadian kids, he began playing hockey just about the time he started school. He gave up the game in the ninth grade, when he decided that becoming the world's biggest goalie probably wasn't the wisest athletic path.

Well on his way to 6-7 and 300 pounds, his folks would have had to shell out, he figured, at least a couple grand for oversized, custom-made skates, goalie pads and assorted hockey paraphernalia.

Pasztor began to concentrate on football, a distant second to hockey in the Canadian sports pecking order, and he switched to hoops in the winter.

"Obviously, hockey is the most popular sport," said Pasztor, whose older brother Matt plays Junior A league hockey. "The hockey players get all the girls, and the football players are kind of left in the dust."

College football in Canada is a step or two above club level. No scholarships, small stadia, limited interest, comparatively shallow talent pool.

Through talent and connections, Pasztor landed a spot on a Canadian prep all-star team that traveled to Fork Union in 2007 for a few days of clinics and scrimmages. He made an immediate impression on longtime FUMA coach John Shuman, who was in the market for linemen.

Pasztor left home at 16, hoping to get noticed by U.S. college coaches.

"Fork Union's a tough place to go," he said. "Obviously, it's not the most fun, but I think overall it was a good experience for me. It got me to focus on football and school."

Shuman got a diligent, conscientious, if somewhat raw, talent.

"You've really got to appreciate guys who come in behind and work their tails off to catch up," Shuman said, "and that's what we really appreciate about him. He had no attitude, no ego. He's just a big ol' young kid who worked hard. He's smart. He was able to take our coaching and transition it to what we wanted to do."

Pasztor accepted Virginia's scholarship offer just a few days after a December visit and rejected overtures from Miami, Michigan State and Connecticut.

Ten months later, he's playing U.S. major-college football — delivering blows, rather than having hockey pucks bounce off of him.

Better to give than receive.

 

Contrasting exits
Ike Whitaker and Peter Lalich have much in common.

Each earned national notice as a high school quarterback and signed to play collegiately in Virginia. Each lost that privilege, in large measure, because of alcohol abuse.

But their departures from their respective programs could not have been more different.

Whitaker exited Virginia Tech football this week bitter and delusional, blaming everyone except the man in the mirror. You worry for the young man's future.

Conversely, Lalich departed Virginia quietly, acknowledging his missteps and appreciative of the opportunity. His future, cast at Oregon State, appears brighter.

To outsiders, Whitaker's case is more troubling. He's admitted to alcohol dependency -- he spent nearly a month in rehab after the 2006 regular season -- and last week was charged with public intoxication in Blacksburg, his second such arrest since enrolling at Virginia Tech.

When Whitaker checked himself into a clinic near campus in 2006, Hokies coach Frank Beamer excused him from the Chick-fil-A Bowl and voiced public support. Coaches called Whitaker from the Atlanta bowl site to assure him he remained part of the team.

Yet since Beamer suspended him indefinitely last week for violating team rules, Whitaker has done nothing but lash out in interviews with various media. Please.

Beamer tolerates more, occasionally too much more, than most college head coaches. Second chances are routine, third and fourth not unusual.

Whitaker told the Washington Post that his latest suspension was for missing a team meeting and that other players miss meetings all the time. He called his punishment "unfair."

Yesterday Whitaker told the Daily Press' Norm Wood that Tech coaches lied to him about playing time.

“They’d tell me I was going to play, and then I wouldn’t play a snap,” Whitaker said. “I don’t think they care how you feel. They just want to tell you whatever it is they tell you to make you happy at that time; then, when it really goes down, they’re going to hope you don’t come in the office complaining about it. Honestly, I think that’s what they’re about.”

Here’s what I think Tech coaches are about: deploying the players they believe give the Hokies the best chance to win.

Whitaker wasn’t one of those players. He was never stable enough to be a starting quarterback, and after coaches moved him to wide receiver, he never separated himself from others vying for time.

It’s sad. The very day that Beamer suspended him, Whitaker turned to booze rather than family or friends. Police witnessed him starting a fight outside a Blacksburg bar and arrested him.

Whitaker, a junior from Germantown, Md., has since said that he wants to graduate from Tech — good for him! — before transferring for a final season of college football. Let’s hope he finds sage counsel, too.

Meanwhile, Lalich, a sophomore from Northern Virginia, has settled at Oregon State after less than two years at U.Va. His social habits, arrest for underage drinking, violation of probation and fibbing to university officials derailed his Cavalier career.

Lalich was disappointed in Virginia’s decision to banish him from the program. But he’s resisted the temptation to lash back.

Perhaps it’s real maturity. Or maybe it’s calculated prudence.

Regardless, it’s a wiser route than Whitaker’s.

But the wisest, and in these times perhaps the most difficult, route is the one Tyrod Taylor is traveling.

He, too, was an acclaimed high school (Hampton) quarterback. And since enrolling at Virginia Tech last year, he’s been an indispensable yet humble player and, from all accounts, model citizen.

With the Hokies idle Saturday, Taylor is headed home to the Peninsula for a spell. Friday he’ll read to students at Armstrong Elementary School.

No pressure, Tyrod. But please keep it up — as athlete and ambassador.

Posted by David Teel
 

ECU wants 'A' grade against UVa
Holtz takes stock of his team's 3-2 season as Pirates prepare for Virginia
A.J. Carr, Staff Writer
Comment on this story

Considering the early-season schedule, East Carolina's 3-2 record has matched many fans' preseason expectations.
But after the auspicious start highlighted by wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia, plus a No. 15 national ranking, ECU isn't satisfied with 3-2.

While applauding his team's beginning, coach Skip Holtz was more like a tough professor when handing out a midseason grade this week. Sure, the Pirates made A's on some tests, but overall he gave his squad a "C" for their five-game results.

That letter grade dropped after a 41-24 loss to Houston, but could rise quickly if ECU beats Virgina Saturday in Charlottesville and improves to 3-1 against BCS-Conference opponents.

Here's a category breakdown, with Holtz's grades.

Offense, Grade: C

In the 3-0 start, the Pirates' attack produced several scintillating moments.

But it sputtered in consecutive losses to N.C. State and Houston. Improving the third-down conversion rate (35.9 percent) is a priority now, plus finding consistent, big playmakers.

In the 12-member Conference USA, ECU ranks seventh in scoring (25.4) and ninth in total offense (345.8).

Those numbers pale in comparison with the productivity of No. 1 Tulsa, which is scoring almost a point-a-minute in averaging 56.4 per game. The Hurricanes also lead in overall yardage (596.0). No. 2 Houston (545.2 ypg) can devour real estate as well, which the Pirates found out firsthand.

Individually, quarterback Patrick Pinkney is second in completion percentage (68.1) and receiver Dwayne Harris is tied for fifth in receptions-per-game (6.6).

Brilliantly efficient in early games, Pinkney slipped backward against Houston with reads and finding some open receivers.

Defense, Grade: C

While saying the "D" unit has "done some really good things," Holtz wants more consistency.

A big problem area is in pass defense, where the Pirates have allowed 298 yards per game in the past three outings.

Although giving up ground, ECU ranks first in C-USA in points allowed (24.0), second in total defense (362.2 ypg), third against the rush (141.6 ypg), and fourth vs. the pass (220.6 ypg).

Defensive end C.J. Wilson leads the league in tackles-for-loss with eight while safety Van Eskridge is fifth in stops (41). Linebackers Pierre Bell (8th in tackles) and Nick Johnson are two other stalwarts who have achieved winning individual grades.

The Pirates need to get tougher on first down -- hold teams under 4 yards -- and eliminate big strikes. Opponents have connected on 21 plays of 20 yards or more, scoring touchdowns on five of them. Fans might see more nickel looks and blitzes at UVa.

Defensive coordinator Greg Hudson, when asked what grade he'd give his unit, calculated the average as a "B-minus."

Punts, punt returns and place-kicks Grade: A

Holtz couldn't ask much more from punter Matt Dodge, place-kicker Ben Hartman, and the punt-return team.

Dodge's 45.5 average is second best in C-USA and the 39 net yardage is tops. The Pirates also are second in punt return average (14.0 ypg).

And Hartman has been perfect, going 8-for-8 with two field goals and six extra points.

"Matt is coming of age [and] having Hartman back is a big plus," Holtz said. "Both have been real solid."

Kickoffs and returns Grade: D

Darting Dwayne Harris has a 21.4 kickoff return average, seventh highest in the league. But the Pirates are 11th in team run backs with an 18.6-yard average.

Central Florida leads at 26.0, a yard ahead of explosive Tulsa.

"The kickoff and kick return have to improve,'' Holtz said. "We've been trying to protect the kickoff team with squibs and pooches, so as not to give up big returns."

But after two losses in a row, Holtz mostly wants his Pirates to kick Virginia into submission -- and kick that grade back up.

 

A performance to build on
By Jay Jenkins
Published: October 8, 2008

Virginia coach Al Groh is not ready to thrust Marc Verica’s name into the race for the Heisman Trophy.

Good or bad, one game is just that.

Verica, a redshirt sophomore, lifted his team and a struggling offense to a 31-0 win over Maryland on Saturday as he threw for 226 yards and had just nine incomplete passes.

He also avoided a turnover, something he was unable to do his first two starts against Connecticut and Duke.

“The way that I would think of it is that he’s had a third game that is significantly different from the first two,” Groh said. “Now whether that means that strides have been made or he just had a better third game, we’ll find out more as a result of games four, five, six and seven.”

In its next four contests, Virginia (2-3, 1-1 ACC) will play better defenses, at least statistically, than the Terps. East Carolina (No. 64 in total defense), North Carolina (No. 57), Georgia Tech (No. 15) and Miami (No. 34) rank substantially ahead of Maryland (No. 90) to date.

“If [Verica’s performances] continue in that direction then it will be clear that we can go back to game three and say, ‘Yep, that was the game in which a lot of strides were made,’” Groh pointed out. “If those strides don’t continue or if there is a slip back, then we will say, ‘Yep, all that is was a one-week deal.’

“Obviously it would be much to our advantage, to all of us, if it does become confirmed that [it was against Maryland] in which he really started to break through.”

Verica agreed that the performance, which snapped a two-game losing streak and almost doubled Virginia’s scoring output this season, was just something for an offense that was in a “drought” to use as a starting point.

“I guess you could call it a monsoon or whatever,” Verica said. “It was fun. For everything to click the way that it kind of did, there was a collective sigh of relief on our part. It’s something to build on.

“In our preparation for ECU, we will keep in mind that we can make big plays, we can get first downs, we can put up points and it takes a tremendous amount of pressure off the defense. We are going to try to build off that.”

Definitely deep

Without debate, wide receiver is one of Virginia’s strengths this season.

To date, five wideouts have caught at least five passes.

Better proof is served in the inability of Dontrelle Inman and Staton Jobe to break into the rotation consistently. Last year, the duo combined for 34 catches. Thus far, Inman has a pair of catches and Jobe, who is healthy, has just one.

“Well, we certainly do have more candidates for playing time than we had at any point last year,” Groh said. “It started out thin and there was a point for three or four games where Maurice Covington was unavailable. It got thinner at that point.

“Some weeks there was talk about putting a guy in there for one week to give us some aid at those positions, talk about playing a couple of freshman if we had to do that. We were able to bypass that situation.”

Two redshirt freshmen — Jared Green and Kris Burd — have collected five receptions apiece this season. They rank seventh and eighth, respectively, on the team in catches.

“This year we certainly have a lot more guys competing for playing time,” Groh added, “so it does give us that competition there.”

ECU suspends Bryant

East Carolina (3-2) will travel to Virginia this weekend without one of its starting wideouts.

Pirates coach Skip Holtz announced that wide receiver Jamar Bryant was suspended indefinitely for an undisclosed violation of team policy.

“There is an expectation of conduct associated with being a member of the Pirate football program,” Holtz said in a released statement.

Bryant, a junior, had started 18 straight games and ranked second on the team with 19 catches for 216 yards and three touchdowns.

ECU is currently a six-point favorite.

 

A wild Series start for UVa
By Jay Jenkins
Published: October 8, 2008

Brian O’Connor released Virginia’s 56-game baseball schedule on Wednesday.

The excitement that surrounds a slate that includes 39 home games and 14 opponents that won at least 30 games was not the buzz around the program.

Events that occurred at Davenport Field late Tuesday night in the opening contest of the Orange & Blue World Series secured that designation.

In the ninth inning, Virginia junior Tyler Cannon, who was playing for the Orange team, lifted a fly ball to the warning track that appeared to be caught by right fielder David Coleman.

The ball, however, bounced out of Coleman’s glove before it nestled back into position. Coleman turned to show the baseball to the first-base umpire, who quickly signaled an out was made on the play.

Cannon, having seen the bobble by the wall, continued to run the bases, crossing the plate with ease.

Former Virginia first baseman Jeremy Farrell, who is serving as the Orange team’s coach, argued that the ball bounced off the wall, making it a live ball.

After the crew of umpires met, the call was changed. Cannon was credited with an inside-the-park home run, giving the Orange team a 5-4 lead.

Eddie Smith, an assistant coach on the staff and the skipper for the Blue team in the program’s World Series, argued vehemently about the odd change of events. He was told that it was strictly a judgment call and that signifying an out did not end the particular play.

“It was a very, very odd play,” O’Connor said with a smile. “You may not see that ever again. That is part of the game and as players you have to deal with it.”

Jarrett Parker erased the anomaly with a two-out triple in the bottom on the ninth to plate Corey Hunt, but had a close look at the bizarre play from his spot in center.

“I am still kind of confused on it,” Parker admitted. “Coleman caught it, it hit the wall and he caught it again. They said the ball hit the wall, so it wasn’t a catch.

“Even before that I thought he had control before it hit the wall. That is debatable.”

Making matters stranger, Coleman is not allowed to throw the ball back to the infield in games as he nurses an arm injury. He is not alone this fall and plays are simulated based on O’Connor’s opinions of how the plays would have unfolded.

“If he could throw that is still not an inside-the-park homer,” Parker said.

After Parker’s game-saving hit, rookie catcher John Hicks gave the Blue team a 6-5 victory with an RBI double on an 0-2 pitch from Orange reliever Kevin Arico in the 10th inning.

“The team came back with Parker’s hit and the emotions were running high,” said Hicks, who hit a solo homer in the fourth off Orange starter Danny Hueltzen. “Everybody was on the edge of the dugout cheering, Arico made a couple of good pitches on me and he kind of hung a slider a little bit.

“I turned on it pretty good and he left it over the plate and I just pulled it.”

Hicks, as was the case for a host of freshman on the team, spurned an offer to sign with a professional team after this summer’s MLB Draft.

“This is a lot of fun. This beats anything in minor league ball,” Hicks said. “You are not going to have fun like this.

“This team is amazing. We are together and the guys on this team get behind you and don’t care what year you are. It really encourages you to give your best.”

Virginia will play the second game in the Orange & Blue World Series on Sunday at 1 p.m.

“I am excited to see how the players respond in another game setting,” O’Connor said. “The intensity was amazing in the opener and I expect that to continue. It should be very exciting.”

 

Hokies test Cavs’ undefeated ACC mark
Attack looks to build off 7-1 win at Clemson Sunday in contest with Virginia Tech
Jack Bird, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
Published: Thursday, October 9 2008

Freshman forward Molly McKeon has just two shots on goal this season but buried one in a 5-0 win at Liberty. Virginia has scored 13 goals in its last two games. “It’s our biggest game of the season. I think it’s a tremendous rivalry.”
When Virginia coach Steve Swanson speaks of a “tremendous rivalry,” one school unequivocally stands out from the rest: Virginia Tech.
The No. 8 Virginia women’s soccer team (10-1-1, 4-0 ACC) will continue this in-state rivalry when it plays the Hokies (6-4-2, 1-1-2 ACC) in Blacksburg tonight. The Cavaliers hope to remain undefeated in conference play in their fifth ACC matchup of the season.
“When we play Virginia Tech it’s always a big game,” Swanson said. “The fact that it’s down there will be even more of a challenge for us.”
Thus far, the Cavaliers have out-scored their ACC opponents 16-1 in just four games, three of which have been away from their home turf. Their 4-0 in-conference start ties Virginia’s 2005 squad for the best ACC start in school history. It seems no opponent has exposed any major weakness in the orange and blue. Being on such a roll has put team focus at the forefront of Swanson’s approach to the next game.
“We always say that each game is our biggest game of the season because it’s the next game,” senior goalie Celeste Miles said. “We’re sure that we’ll get their best shot, not just because of the Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry, but because it’s an ACC game.”
Against Clemson Sunday, the Cavaliers managed their best scoring output of the season in the 7-1 blowout. They overcame what has been a challenge all season: shot conversion. In every game before the Clemson matchup, Virginia struggled to turn its overwhelming number of shots into goals. Even in the 6-0 rout of N.C. State, it took 26 shots to find the net six times. In their most recent game against Clemson, however, Virginia tallied seven goals on just 13 shots.
The Virginia defense, meanwhile, has been strong throughout the conference schedule. Posting three shutouts in its last four games, Virginia’s only goal allowed in conference play came from a score in the 89th minute by an already ravaged Clemson team.
On the offensive side of the pitch, forwards Lauren Alwine and Meghan Lenczyk have provided the spark. Alwine, a freshman, leads the ACC in assists, while Lencyzk, a sophomore, is tied for second in the ACC in goals, having scored at least one goal in each of the Cavaliers’ four ACC games.
To continue the team’s recent dominance, Swanson said he believes team leadership will be necessary to stay on track.
“I’ve been very happy with our leaders — our seniors on the team — that have really helped us get pointed in the right direction and helped keep our minds focused on the right game, the current game,” Swanson said.
One such senior leader is Miles, who had a constructive outlook after Sunday’s 7-1 dismissal of Clemson.
“If anything positive comes out of it, we’re definitely happy to win by that margin,” Miles said. “But [the one goal] leaves a bitter taste in our mouth that will help motivate us through practice next week. I think that could be a good thing to help us not get big heads because we know that we still have things to work on.”
The four ACC teams Virginia Tech has played thus far are the same four teams Virginia has played. Given their lone ACC win against N.C. State, the Hokies have performed less successfully than Virginia in conference. Notable to compare is Virginia Tech’s 2-2 tie against Clemson versus the Cavaliers 7-1 destruction of the Tigers. Come Thursday, however, these comparisons will become irrelevant.
“It’s very early in the ACC season as far as I’m concerned,” Swanson said, emphasizing that a team “is only as good as its last game.”
Right now Virginia is at peak form after a strong performance against Clemson, but all that could change if the Cavaliers do not come out ready to play Thursday. The athletes and coaches plan to prepare for the here and now.
“Steve [Swanson] told us that right now we have a one-game season,” Miles said. “That game is Virginia Tech.”