The humidity on Sunday was so thick it seemed that the air was almost solid. The temperature was hovering in the upper 80s and maybe even reached the lower 90s. On the field though, the Virginia women’s soccer team continued to run back and forth through the blazing heat, sticking to the ball without slacking.

About halfway through the first half, the ball rolled out of bounds, and Kelly Quinn walked onto the field as a substitute for forward Jen Rostadt. Before the end of the first half, Quinn had been pulled off and replaced by Kara Frederick. In the second half, Quinn subbed in again, this time for Sarah Curtis. A total of four players subbed in — a significantly higher number than last year — when generally one substitution would occur per game.

“We plan to use our players,” coach Steve Swanson said. “I think we’ve got some excellent players right on through our team. Even players that didn’t play tonight, they’re going to be involved.”

This increased subbing can be attributed mostly to the increased depth on the team. Not only are there eight new players but five team members who chose to take last year off to play in the U-19 World Championship in Thailand have returned.

This influx of players gives every position on the team an added pool of back-up players that simply wasn’t there last year. For example, goalie Christina De Vries played all but 19 minutes and 40 seconds of last season, which were played by goalie Erin Lycan. This year however, De Vries will be aided by freshman Celeste Miles and sophomore Laura Comeau, who was one of the five playing in Thailand last year.

“We need that depth,” Swanson said. “I think that showed toward the end of the game. That depth really comes through at the end, especially on a day like [Sunday] where it’s muggy and it’s really hard to get yourself going.”

Sunday’s substitutions may have been a big factor in getting the Cavaliers their second win of the season. Virginia had been on West Virginia’s side, unable to break through, the entire game. The winning goal came with 14 minutes left, perhaps because West Virginia, who had subbed about half as many players as Virginia, was simply too fatigued to repel the Cavaliers’ attacks any longer.

The new depth showed through in Friday’s game against Rhode Island as well, when six different players each scored once to contribute to Virginia’s 6-0 shutout of the Anchorwomen.

The only downside to the Cavaliers’ deep roster is the relative inexperience of the team. Not only are there eight freshmen who are learning to play with a new team, but the players who were playing for the U-19 team last year, though they gained valuable playing experience, were still not playing with the team.

This means that the Cavaliers this year do not have as much experience with communication and playing together as a coordinated unit. However, even that seems to be coming along pretty quickly.

Virginia’s starting defenders, for example, three of whom are new this year, and one who is returning from Thailand, held up fine in Sunday’s game.

“They’re all different players with a completely different style,” Shannon Folley said. “But the four girls back there now are doing amazing. They are so much further ahead than we thought they would be.”

Tonight, the Cavaliers go to JMU for their first regular season road game. There they will test their 2-0 record and the theory that change can sometimes be a very good thing.

It’s early July, and while most University students are busy working for minimum wage, Shannon Davis is in Salt Lake City steamrolling some of the best club volleyball players in the nation.

Davis, a freshman who will compete for the starting middle position over the next few weeks, comes to Virginia with a little more experience than the average recruit. This summer, the Texas native led her club team, Austin Juniors 18 Mizuno, to the gold medal at the USA Junior Olympic Volleyball Championships and picked up the MVP award for her division.

“Nationals are so much fun because it’s the best of the best,” Davis said. “You can watch really good volleyball, play really good volleyball and be a part of it. It’s really exciting to be around that many people that enjoy the sport so much.”

For all the prestige and awards, however, something had to give.

“In June, we practiced five times a week, so I didn’t really have a life then,” Davis said.

After a short month to live the life of a regular high school graduate, it was time to pack for Charlottesville. Davis, whose sister Paige was one of the first Cavaliers to be named an All-American in volleyball, already was familiar with her new home.

“I looked at a bunch of schools in the ACC as well, and my sister had gone here, so I knew about it and had visited it a bunch,” Davis said. “I didn’t want to go here until I visited other places and realized how special Virginia was.”

Luckily for Davis and her fellow newcomers, the team’s upperclassmen stepped up to help with typical first-year problems.

“[The older players] are really nice, offering to give us rides and stuff because we don’t have cars,” Davis said. “They’ve made the transition so easy.”

Another person instrumental in Davis’s transition has been head coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton, who had high praise for the freshman.

“Shannon’s natural quickness and innate desire to win more than make up for her smaller stature in the middle position,” Shelton wrote on the team’s Web site. “She has enough high level experience to compete for playing time right away.”

One of Davis’s first tastes of college volleyball will come close to home. This weekend, the team plays its first tournament in College Station, Texas, a two-and-a-half hour drive from Austin. Compare this to the distance from Texas to Charlottesville, though and the games might as well be in Davis’s backyard.

“I’m so excited,” Davis said. “A lot of my friends are going to come down, so it’s nice to be able to play close to home because I’m really far away [here].”

Thus far, a national tournament, a month of practice and a tour of the country through Texas, Utah and Virginia hasn’t seemed to faze the freshman. To top it all off, Davis will compete for the starting middle spot in front of family and friends during the first week of the season. Without a doubt, Virginia volleyball has a player who can handle the pressure.

At certain positions, Virginia is loaded with experience.

D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Brad Butler, Marques Hagans, Wali Lundy, Ahmad Brooks, Kai Parham, Brennan Schmidt…

The list of familiar faces is easy to draw.

But if you dip your bucket into the well looking for experience from the wide receiver position, you’re going to find yourself with some pretty parched lips.

Ottowa Anderson may have enough tenure to fill up your glass, but he hasn’t played a down of football since the Continental Tire Bowl against Pittsburgh in 2003. Who knows if the water he gives will still be good? After sitting out all of last year due to a suspension by head coach Al Groh, the senior wideout had a long time to sit at home in Norfolk and ponder his future.

“I couldn’t watch every game since I had to work, but I tried to,” Anderson said. “They were having a great year, and I was at home because of negative circumstances. My plan was to come back [in 2005]. Coach Groh and I stayed in contact, and he said if everything went well, I’d be able to get my scholarship back and return by the beginning of summer. That’s what happened.”

With a dreadlocked mane flowing out of his helmet, it would be easy to compare Anderson to another player who abandoned a locker room full of teammates before crawling back a year later.

But this is no Ricky Williams.

“I’ve been waiting for a long time to get back out there,” Anderson said. “I’ll be ecstatic. When you run out onto the field and see the fans screaming — that’s what I love about football. Every game is a new game, a new experience. It never gets old.”

What does get old is a one-dimensional offense, which is what Virginia will bring to the field this year unless someone from the wide receiving corps steps up big. Behind Ferguson and the rest of the Virginia offensive line, Hagans and Lundy will continue to pump out rushing yardage.

It’s the aerial attack that everyone is wondering about.

After Anderson’s 62 career catches, junior Deyon Williams stands next in line. Williams has pulled down 27 balls as a Cavalier, totaling 383 yards. While he caught only one touchdown pass in 2004, Williams averaged 13.7 yards per catch to lead all Virginia wide receivers.

A sleek 6-feet-3-inches tall, Williams also has developed a reputation amongst his teammates as being the top deep-ball threat on the team.

“Right now, Deyon’s been going to get a lot of [deep] balls in practice,” Anderson said. “It seems like he catches a deep ball every day.”

If Williams has been catching a deep ball every day, it’s a good sign for his quarterback. With the loss of Heath Miller to the NFL, Hagans needs new faces to step up. Returning wide out Fontel Mines hopes that he is the one.

Mines had an unfortunate sophomore year, injuring his collarbone in the season opener and missing the next five games. He finished the year with only 70 yards in seven contests –- a reminder to the junior of how fragile a body can be.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Mines said. “I just have to keep working to keep myself in top physical condition to try to prevent these injuries.”

Emerging late last year to crowd the wide receiver slot was a promising freshman named Bud Davis, who waited until the MPC Computers Bowl in Idaho to make his first career start. Davis is back, looking to build upon the promising end to last season. Complete with a new name — Theirrien — expect Davis to be in the mix for significant playing time this fall.

With proven production, Anderson has the best chance to take the reins of leadership amongst the receivers. After going from the bottom of the depth chart in camp to the top of the starting rotation for the opening game against Western Michigan, look for Anderson to develop into the substantial passing threat that Hagans so badly needs.

Maybe it’s my Southern upbringing. Maybe I’m a softie for that first-day-of-classes mentality. Maybe I’m breaking all the rules.

But I cannot start my first column here at Mr. Jefferson’s University without telling you a little bit about myself. That way, when you want to tell me I’m an idiot, you have a wealth of knowledge to use against me.

Now, before you stop reading, I’m not here to tell you that I like sunsets and dolphins or that my 23-year-old brother and I still watch “ThunderCats” whenever possible. These things may or may not be true, but they do not belong on the sports page. They pay me the big bucks — $0 — to wash eloquently about sports and all that entails.

So here it goes: I love sports. Huge fan. Love ‘em. And I want my love of sports to give you a sense of where I am coming from when I write. Whether I am playing, watching or writing about sports, I am always involved and entranced. I will defend sports’ value and worth to those who think they are just a bunch of games — especially when times get tough.

I love sports writing — whether it’s my local Charlotte paper or espn.com. I believe sports writing serves a purpose that has been somewhat lost in today’s oversaturated media market. It is supposed to add to the overall enjoyment of following a team or sport; we are not here to merely report the facts of the local teams and games. On the flip side of that, I do not believe in sports writing as noise, as a forum to antagonize fans and stir up rumors in the name of ratings and attention.

I love watching sports with one eye keenly looking for the comedy of it all. If you take sports too seriously or make a point to hash out all of today’s athletes’ flaws, you are sorely missing out on the bigger picture. Yes, sports can be important, and some subjects are worthy of discussion, but sports are far more valuable if you can step back, laugh and be entertained. Take Rafael Palmeiro and his steroid saga. Instead of getting worked up over the possibility that he lied, it’s a lot more entertaining when you realize we should have never trusted a guy with a porn mustache like that in the first place.

I love good, solid sport names and nicknames –- they put a hop in my step. Marques “Biscuit” Hagans: I’ll follow him. CoCo Crisp: scintillating name for an outfielder. Deuce McAllister: just sounds like 1,400 rushing yards. Roy Hobbs: greatest ball player who ever lived. I mean, I’m seriously pumped up about the UNC-Virginia football game just because the Tar Heels might start a freshman tailback named Cooter Arnold. Imagine the possibilities.

I love sports done right: a Little League game with no screaming parents. A transition bucket in basketball where the ball never touches the ground. A Keith Jackson- called Saturday afternoon college football game. These things give me a sense of peace the way my mom’s spaghetti does. They indicate good quality of life.

But what I love most about sports is the worlds into which it can take you. As a fan, brazen emotions spill forth, and you maintain little control over yourself. As a participant, sports can take you to imaginative places with absolute freedoms. For example, this summer, at the beach, three friends and I made up the most awesome Wiffleball game ever. The four of us are in varying stages of our twenties –- ranging from 20- to 28-years-old –- and we were collectively well past our athletic prime. But using only an Official Wiffle bat and ball, the tides and our imagination, we created a game that provided competition and entertainment for hours. We weren’t merely hitting a feather-weight ball around in the sand. We were taking heroic games into extra innings in front of record crowds. We were in another world.

Hopefully this year, I can help provide insight, spark debate and guide us through what should prove to be a great year in the Virginia sports world and beyond.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to convince my brother to buy the ThunderCats DVD.

Student Council kicked off the new school year last night with what Council President Jequeatta Upton described as “a makeshift substitute retreat” to review Council procedures.

Council representatives, committee chairs and administrative cabinet members convened to discuss and review their respective responsibilities and duties.

Council as a whole will officially discuss the budget next week, Vice President of Administration Okey Udmaga said.

Upton said she is looking forward to working with the new governing body.

“I’m really excited about the upcoming year,” Upton said. “I want this year to be about the students.”

Udmaga said he is optimistic about this year’s Council as well.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone on Council and getting students involved,” Udmaga said. “We’re making Student Council for students again. Student Council stands behind that initiative.”

Vice President of Organizations Rebecca Keyworth said last year’s Council set up many of the items on Council’s agenda to carry out this year.

“There was a lot of reform last year,” Keyworth said. “It’s implementation this year.”

Upton said Council will focus on the appropriations process right away.

“We want to make sure each CIO gets fair treatment in the process,” Upton said. “We want to make sure they can get enough to get things done.”

Upton added that Council also is concerned about other issues as well.

“We are focused on the students,” Upton said. “We are concerned about the recent [racial] incidents, so we’ll be dealing with diversity.”

Upton said she hopes a large portion of the University community will participate in Council.

“We can’t do our job without hearing from students,” Upton said.

Turns out the demand for off-Grounds housing is not a new trend in Charlottesville. In fact, a new exhibit looks at the history of accommodations available to student beyond University Grounds.

An exhibit highlighting the history of off-Grounds student housing is scheduled to open this Friday at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Historical Society located downtown and will run through December.

The exhibit, entitled “Boarding Houses: Living off Jefferson’s Lawn,” is a product of a year-long research project by students in Assoc. Architecture Prof. Daniel Bluestone’s “Community History” seminar class.

Bluestone, whose class researches a different topic of architectural history every year, said the inspiration for the project was a presentation on the architecture of fraternity houses given by students in one of his classes.

“I said half-kidding I thought this would be a great year-long project to look at architecture of student accommodations at the University, and the idea grew on me,” Bluestone said. “And we had a great year-long project of doing just that.”

Bluestone added that while the architectural structure of the University creates a connected and beautiful community, on-Grounds housing simply cannot accommodate all University students — and has not been able to for quite some time. Thus, Bluestone said his class set out to discover how students were accommodated when space on-Grounds was limited.

Marissa Cato, a second-year graduate student in the architectural history department and student of Bluestone’s, said their research revealed the important role that boarding houses played in off-Grounds housing starting as early as the 1830s, with many operating up until the 1950s and 1960s.

Bluestone said the houses operated on a small scale close to Grounds, providing beds and often meals for 20 or 30 students, with the proprietors acting as local parental figures to look after the students. Many modern-day housing situations college students face lack this type of environment that creates a comfortable sense of community, Bluestone added.

Though their popularity began to decline after World War II, Cato said many of the former boarding houses still exist on Madison Lane, Rugby Road, Chancellor and 14th Streets, and several now house University students, fraternities and sororities.

Lydia Brandt, another second-year graduate student in the architectural history department and organizer of the event, said because the Albemarle-Charlottesville Historical Society had many resources and donations that correlated with the vision of the architecture students, it decided to collaborate on the exhibit.

“Hopefully, this will strengthen the partnership between the architectural history department and the historical society,” Brandt said.

The students said they also hope their research can help the University administration make choices regarding the development of new on-Grounds housing.

“We realized there were larger implications to our research,” Brandt said. “Even though some of these modes of housing haven’t been used for years, they did have some aspects that were successful, and they should be considered as we create new modes of housing.”

The Charlottesville Airport is celebrating 50 years of service to the local area. The airport, now half a century old, looks much different today then it did fifty years ago, and more changes are in the works, airport officials said.

“There are many changes in the past 15 years I guess,” said Bill Kehoe, a University Commerce professor and former chair of the Charlottesville Airport Board. “One change is there is a new terminal, and there have been improvements to that terminal.”

In the near future, the airport will undergo further change, according to Bryan Elliott, executive director of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport Authority.

“We are in the process of beginning the expansion of the runway that could start in three years,” Elliot said. “There are also improvements to the airport terminal building which will be completed in about a year. These include refurbishments to building, such as new wallpaper and carpeting, and an expansion that will handle baggage screening.”

Other improvements will be completed in the nearer future, Kehoe said.

“The two significant projects in the works right now are the expansion on the south end of the runway in order to increase the safety area,” he said. “Another ongoing project is the entrance to the airport. The two-lane Airport Road is being made into a four-lane divided road with sidewalks and bicycle paths.”

The safety area, which is the excess runway space at the end of a runway utilized by planes that overshoot their landings, will increase safety at the airport, according to Kehoe.

“In the past 10 years, the FAA has been placing a great deal of emphasis on getting the safety areas in airports up to standard,” Elliott said. “This project has been going on since 1997. When it is completed, we will be in compliance with national standards.”

The further lengthening of the runway is still in the planning stages, but the projected cost is $33 million, Elliott said.

“We have to do an environmental analysis first,” he said. “The runway extension is being primarily driven by the need to accommodate current aircraft. Some of the airlines have to not carry a full load of passengers, or they would have to take bags off the plane. If the runway is longer, they can operate without those restrictions.”

The expansion of the airport will have a positive impact on University students because they often use the airport, Elliott noted.

“Our busiest periods of the year happen to occur when students are in session,” he said. “October is our busiest time. This has a lot to do with Fall Break, a lot of alumni activity and recruiters coming in to do interviews with fourth years.”

Some University students agreed with Elliott’s assessment.

“Yes, I would like to see it expand,” said Meghan Sweeney, a third-year College student from Minnesota. “In the last six months they’ve added Northwest, which is the airline I take home. For me, it’s better to have more options when flying.”

Second-year College student Alex Greilsamer, who travels to Dulles and London from Charlottesville, agreed.

“I would definitely be happy if the airport expands,” Greilsamer said. “It would be easier and cheaper to use the same airline from Charlottesville to D.C. and to Europe. For now I can only do that using USAir, which I’m not too fond of.”

Sweeney said she realizes the Charlottesville Airport will never be huge but is still happy with it nonetheless.

“It’s never going to be Dulles,” she said. “But you show up about one hour before your flight, and it takes only 10 minutes to get through security, which is nice.”

In light of recent racial incidents on and near Grounds directed toward University students, the Black Student Alliance opened its first meeting of the year to University administrators and student leaders in order to discuss the recent events and related issues yesterday.

While the meeting did not outline specific plans of action, it gave community members a chance to voice their concerns and share their experiences.

“We should feel good about what we are doing, not good about what has happened,” said Leonard Sandridge, University executive vice president and chief operating officer.

The meeting highlighted education and awareness within the University concerning hate incidents and crimes.

“I think this year we are really focusing on education,” BSA President Aaron Blake said. “We need to embrace those who set out to harm our community, because really something is wrong with them.”

The University, as an educational institution, offers a highly appropriate environment to combat the ignorance that prompts racial incidents and crimes, African-American Affairs Dean M. Rick Turner said.

“You have to learn how to teach yourself about racial terrorism,” Turner said. “You have to know what hate is.”

Broad-scale outreach was a common course of action proposed as a means of combating hate crimes and incidents at the University.

“We can only control ourselves,” Vice President for Student Affairs Pat Lampkin said. “We cannot control the people who are doing this, but we can shift who feels comfortable here.”

In addition to outreach and education, many addressed the issue of reporting an incident and awareness immediately following an incident or crime motivated by hate at the University.

While the BSA and University administrators continued to encourage students to alert University officials and student groups following a racially-charged incident, Angela Davis, associate dean of students and director of residence life, emphasized that students should first and foremost contact the Charlottesville and University Police.

Davis encouraged students who experience a hate crime or incident to gather as accurate a description as possible of those who commit acts of hate, including license plates and physical description, which could help police identify a pattern or profile.

“We have to stop being passive and just yelling back at cars,” she said.

Many at the meeting noted both progress and the need for improvement within the University community.

“I am so encouraged by the change in the response at the University,” said Catherine Neale, student member of the Board of Visitors. “The problem is that it is a response. We need to change our methods of prevention.”

Despite the University’s shortcomings, some noted the change many in the community have and continue to hope for will not come instantly.

“Institutions take time to change,” Lampkin said. “[The administration] plays the continuity, [the students] play the energy.”

The first 20 minutes of the BSA’s meeting was a routine general body meeting, followed by a town hall style meeting allowing for participation from the community members present.

Portions of the forum were designated as a confidential “safe space” during which attendees shared personal experiences, Blake said.

BSA leaders said they were pleased overall with the meeting’s outcome.

“The representatives from various community groups really pleased me,” BSA President Aaron Blake said.

Despite the presence of University leaders, however, many expressed concern about those who were absent from the meeting.

“I am a little disappointed that it wasn’t packed,” Blake said, though she noted several other community meetings were taking place at the same time.

Architecture firms and notable architects from all over the world are contending to design a new Arts Center for the University. The nearly $98 million center will encompass more than 127,000 square feet and is slated for construction at the end of 2010, University spokesperson Carol Wood said.

“It represents the commitment we have to the arts,” said University Architect David Neuman. “This is a commitment to the community — the University community and the Charlottesville community.”

According to a University press release, among the 57 responses to the University’s international competition came from architecture firms located in Italy, Denmark and the United States, as well as from architects Lord Norman Foster and Thom Mayne, recent recipients of Pritzker Prize, the highest award in the field of architecture.

Neuman attributed the huge response to a current interest in the field of architecture with designing multi-purpose arts buildings.

“These are the cathedrals of the 21st century,” he said.

The University Arts Center will serve as a performance center and an art museum, among other things, and the potential architects are required to have designed both types of buildings and have their designs successfully implemented in the last five to seven years, Neuman said.

The list of applicants will be narrowed to four firms who will be given 10 weeks to develop a design. The designs will be periodically reviewed and critiqued by a University panel before presenting their final design to the University selection committee this November.

The University, which houses Thomas Jefferson’s architecture and is the only American university that is a World Heritage site, is itself a major draw for architects, Neuman said.

“For a lot of architects, working in the shadow of [Thomas] Jefferson is a dream,” he said.

Neuman said the purpose of the competition was to gather a variety of design ideas for the University community to choose from.

“The beauty of the competition is involving the various delegates of the community in making a recommendation,” he said.

The new building is set to be constructed on the corner of Emmet Street and Ivy Road where the Cavalier Inn currently is located and is intended to be a lasting addition to the University, Neuman said.

“We are building a building that should be here as long as the Rotunda is here,” he said.