At a work session last Thursday, Charlottesville City Council members discussed strategies for improving the situation of Charlottesville citizens living in poverty.

“We have more trouble than a lot of other communities,” Council member David Brown said, noting, though, that because Charlottesville is home to the University , the poverty rate is inflated because it includes University students who earn under $15,000 a year.

Council member Holly Edwards pointed to the number of free and reduced lunch recipients as a more accurate measurement of poverty in the city. In August 2008, there was a total of 5,193 recipients — 2,745 adults and 2,448 children. Slightly more than 40 percent of students at Charlottesville High School receive free and reduced lunches, as do 55.9 percent of students at Buford Middle School and more than 80 percent of students at Clark and Johnson elementary schools, she said.

The work session gave Council members an opportunity to explore the issue of poverty in the local community and to consider remedies that could be possible under a “tight budget.” Council members examined ways to partner with the private sector and nonprofit organizations in addition to looking at what other communities are doing, Brown said.

“We’re doing a lot of things that a lot of other communities do,” he said, “but I think we came up with some areas to emphasize in our upcoming budget year.”

Council discussed issues such as job skills training and the possibility of partnering with the Thomas Jefferson Partnership for Economic Development to help expand access to vocational training, Brown said.

“It’s a real challenge for families in poverty who are working to find the time, the energy, the money, the childcare to be able to upgrade their skills,” he said. “It’s not an easy road.”

At the work session, Brown suggested reducing bus fees or limiting them for people at a certain income threshold.

“Thirty … or 40 dollars a month may not seem like a lot to a lot of people, but to people living on the edge, it’s a lot,” he said. His idea would “do a little bit to help” people get where they need to go, he said.

Council members also talked about ways to increase access to banking for people living in poverty. University students receive free checking with “no fee, no minimum balance required,” Brown explained, “but families who live in poverty don’t get that.” Council members are looking for a way to get people “engaged into the banking system” so they do not have to spend money while cashing their paychecks, Brown said.

Edwards suggested a series of town hall-style meetings, “where we could get people from all sides of the issue … and really get a further discussion on what would be some things we could do easily,” Brown said.

Edwards said the idea came from an analogy someone shared with her.

“We need to make sure that we’re not making the shoe fit the foot,” she said, but that “we’re actually going into the community to find out what the actual needs are.”

Edwards hopes to develop a grassroots-style effort that would revolve around “meeting people where they are and just sitting around and chatting.” The meetings would lead to an understanding of the challenges and the barriers the city faces and what opportunities the city can offer to citizens who are struggling.

With state budget cuts, the declining economy and lower tax revenues, Brown explained that creativity is key when working to address these issues.

“We really are fortunate to have so many [programs and agencies already in place],” Edwards said, “but clearly this is an opportunity to see where the overlaps are, to see where the connections need to be and to see how our resources can be better coordinated so that they really are effective.”

Though Council still has much to consider regarding the poverty problem in Charlottesville, Thursday’s work session was “a very good beginning,” Edwards said, describing it as “an opportunity to find out what the numbers are, what’s available and then to ask the question of what comes next.”

From Brown College to the language houses, the University features a number of housing options geared toward specific student interests. Of the students who voted on last week’s referendum, a majority would like to see a “green” option added to the University’s offerings.

Of the 1,697 students who voted, 1,570 approved the initiative to support the creation of  a sustainability house, and 127 voted against it, according to University Board of Elections Chair Alisa Abbott.

According to the referendum, “This house would provide university housing to 10-20 upperclassmen students with programming focused on sustainable living, including reduced energy and water use, a garden, composting, and other projects to try to make living in Charlottesville ‘green.’”

Rather than constructing a new building, a current house in Charlottesville would be retrofitted to “provide a model for sustainable living in pre-existing buildings and a space for educational and research opportunities in an interdisciplinary community atmosphere.”
Abbott said she was pleased with the voter turnout for the referendum.

“UBE did as much as it could to advertise and publicise via flyering [and] e-mails,” Abbott said. “We tried to do as much environmentally-kind advertising as we could, considering the nature of the referendum, so there probably wasn’t as much flyering as usual.”

Though few people voted against the referendum, Abbott said she could see both sides of the issue.

“People might think it could end up being really expensive,” Abbott said. “I’m not really surprised [by the results] but I do understand why both sides would want to vote a certain way.”

Regardless of the differing opinions, Mark Williams, a member of the Student Council Environmental Sustainability Committee and task force leader of this particular project, said he thought the voter turnout was “really tremendous.”

About six percent of the student body voted, Williams said, which he noted is unusual, especially for a fall referendum.

“This being the only referendum on the ballot really could have decreased our turnout,” he said. “The results show strong evidence that U.Va. students are totally in support of sustainability.”

Now that the idea has received support through this referendum, Williams said his committee will continue to work in cooperation with the Office of the Architect to develop a complete proposal for the house.

“Ultimately it boils down to finding money for the project, through the administration or through private donors,” he explained.

Though at this point the plans are only conceptual, the committee has worked out a proposal for how students would be chosen to live in the house.

“It would be much like Brown College,” he said, adding that students who are “actively living” in the house would choose the next group of students to enter the house. Williams stressed, however, that at this point “nothing is confirmed.”

As far as a timeline for the project, Williams said his committee is currently playing it by ear.

“Of course we would like to have it by next fall but it really just depends on the administration and how fast they work with this,” he said. “It hasn’t been approved by any means yet … but the students [involved] are pushing as fast as they can.”

Student Council President Matt Schrimper said the University has been very receptive to working on this project with the committee.

“I think this [referendum] will be very important as we try to work with the University to make this a reality,” he said. “I believe this was the single largest turnout for any fall referendum, and I think it’s a testament to the work that the environmental sustainability committee has done getting people excited about sustainability at the University.”

On Election Day last week, 58 percent of voters in Nebraska supported a measure to end the practice of affirmative action in public employment, public education and public contracting.

Colorado voters faced a similar choice on their ballot this year, and although votes are still being counted, the votes to keep the practice currently outweigh the alternative, 51 to 49 percent.

Bill Harvey, University vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity, noted that he was pleased that voters in Colorado looked at the proposition on their ballot carefully enough to understand that “there is a need and opportunity for us to provide a chance for people who are historically not represented to get a chance to be involved in higher education and employment.”

Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity based in Falls Church, Va., which supports banning some kinds of affirmative action, however, holds a different perspective. He noted that his organization recently conducted and released a study showing the “heavy weight” the University of Nebraska College of Law gives to race in its admissions policies.

“African-Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latinos were admitted with much lower qualifications than whites and Asian-Americans,” Clegg said. “We think that’s unfair and divisive and really serves no one’s interests, so we oppose that.”

Clegg noted, however, that the term “affirmative action” means different things to different groups of people, and his organization does not oppose all forms of affirmative action. He cited President John F. Kennedy’s reference to the term affirmative action in a 1961 executive order in which he urged employers to take “affirmative action” to avoid engaging in prejudicial policies as an example of a type of affirmative action that his organization approves.

On the other hand, he said, “we think that actually taking race or ethnicity into account in deciding who gets admitted into a school or who gets hired or who is awarded a government contract is discrimination, and it’s wrong no matter what racial or ethnic group is being discriminated against,” Clegg said. “In 2008, it is untenable to have a legal regime where people are sorted according to skin color and some people are treated better and others worse on that basis.”

In contrast with Clegg, Shirley J. Wilcher, executive director of the American Association for Affirmative Action, said affirmative action is still necessary.

“Until we have no evidence of discrimination, affirmative action will continue to be necessary,” she said. “Diversity is still a compelling interest with demographics indicating that by 2042, a majority of Americans will be minorities. It is important to ensure colleges and universities have qualified students of all backgrounds.”

Wilcher also said people supporting the bans on affirmative action have been engaging in “deceptive practices” in order to convince other people to also support the bans.

“People thought they were signing an initiative that was pro-civil rights,” she said, when they were actually signing a petition to ban affirmative action.

Wilcher said the future of the United States depends on qualified people of all races being able to graduate from college and to ascend to positions of leadership.

“Even Obama talked about being a beneficiary of affirmative action,” she said.

Harvey said the University follows the affirmative action statutes outlined by the commonwealth; the race of a student can be one of a number of factors that are considered by admissions officers.

Like Wilcher, Harvey also said those who seek to ban affirmative action are not being completely honest when portraying what the practice really is.

“The initiatives are distorted attempts by opponents of affirmative action to misrepresent what it stands for,” Harvey said. “In many instances they are not providing an accurate representation of what affirmative action is or what it attempts to accomplish.”

For the time being, the University will continue to follow the laws of the commonwealth of Virginia, Harvey said, and unless Virginia voters chose to change the laws, there would be no reason or rationale for the University to change its policies.

“The circumstances of this week have caused quite a lot of us to think about where we are and where we’re going as a country,” he said. “It’s probably because of the use of affirmative action [that] we have our first African-American president, and rather than curtail, I think we should expand [affirmative action].”

Nebraska is the fourth state to pass a ban on affirmative action, preceded by California, Washington and Michigan.

Last week University Police Chief Michael Gibson was named Police Chief of the Year by the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ Crisis Intervention Team. Gibson was recognized for his work training University Police officers through the Crisis Intervention Team program and was nominated by his colleague Thomas von Hemert, Thomas Jefferson Area Crisis Intervention Team Program coordinator.

“I was pretty surprised,” Gibson said, regarding his award, which he received while attending the NAMI conference held last week in Atlanta.

The award is given to a police chief with a CIT program, nominated by anyone in his or her department or “anyone who knows them,” explained Sgt. Robert Northcutt of the College Park Georgia Police Department.

Gibson’s accomplishments were apparent through his use of grant money to increase the number of officers in his department who had received CIT training, Northcutt said. CIT training is a “win-win for everyone,” he added.

The CIT program itself is based on national guidelines issued through the “Memphis model” for training, which focuses on training police officers to know how to respond to crisis situations, von Hemert said.

“The CIT program is a collaboration of the criminal justice and mental health systems working together as a front-end system to keep people in crisis with mental illness out of the justice system,” he explained.

CIT training is especially useful for police forces based near college campuses, Gibson noted.

“With the Medical Center and the number of people that come in and out of that facility, and most all of them are in a trying situation … the possibility of our folks running into [a crisis] environment where we need to use those skills is pretty high,” he said.

Locally, the police forces have a long record of working with departments across jurisdictions, Gibson said, and receiving grant money to focus on CIT training was “an opportunity for us as a group to bring some training to the police officers that would reduce the risk of them having to deal with someone in a crisis episode.”

A large majority of University police officers have received CIT training, Gibson said.

“In our police department, the interest in CIT has been phenomenal,” he said, noting this is primarily because officers “recognize the value of it.”

Part of the CIT training focuses on teaching officers how to recognize symptoms of various mental health disorders as well as how to deal with people in situations of high stress or crisis, Northcutt said. “It gives people a totally different perspective and the tools that they need to deal with them.”

Having officers who are CIT trained is important in many types of situations, Gibson pointed out.

“Some of the skills that an officer learns in this training [apply] to everybody that you come in contact with,” he said. “There’s an immediate value to this training.”

The ideal implementation of the CIT program, von Hemert explained, involves not only training officers but also collaborating with the mental health and criminal justice systems to determine how they can work together. Creating better policies provides safety for everybody, von Hemert said.

Training officers through the CIT program is also highly beneficial for the community, Gibson noted.

“It helps us use our local resources for the right reasons – jail versus medical resources,” he said.

Gibson has been working for the University Police since 1982 and has been chief for the past 3 years, he said, and has been supporting CIT since the early stages of his career.

The shorter day length and colder weather that comes with the onset of fall can make many people yearn for the sunny days of summer. But for a small percentage of the U.S. population, fall can bring about a deep depression that continues all the way through the winter season. Known as seasonal affective disorder, this condition is not very well understood in the science world. A recent study, however, suggests sufferers of SAD may have a genetic mutation in their retinas that could be a partial cause of their depression.

“Seasonal affective disorder is commonly known as winter depression, but it should be distinguished from feeling blue in the winter,” said Assoc. Biology Prof, Ignacio Provencio, lead researcher of the study. “It is a real form of major depression, affecting between three and eight percent of the population.”

A common treatment for SAD, he said, is light therapy, through which the patient sits in front of a bank of bright lights for a few minutes to a few hours.

“Because of this we thought that people who suffer from SAD perhaps have some kind of light sensitivity issues,” Provencio said. Specifically, he and his colleagues thought SAD sufferers might be less sensitive to light.

Provencio and his colleagues studied a gene known as melanopsin — which is present in a light-sensitive protein — to look for a possible mutation in the gene in SAD cases.

Asst. Psychology Prof. Kathryn Roecklein at the University of Pittsburgh, lead author of the study, said cells containing melanopsin perform non-visual functions that still require light to work, citing pupil reflex as an example of a non-visual function that requires light.
In the study, “we used individuals who were among the first to be studied at NIH with SAD and sequenced their DNA to see if they had any differences in the gene from people who didn’t have SAD,” Roecklein said.

Provencio said the researchers studied about 220 individuals, 130 sufferers of SAD and 90 controls.

“We found seven individuals that carried two mutated copies of this gene.” Provencio said. “All seven of the individuals fell into the SAD group.”

Roecklein said the results show that five percent of the SAD sufferers had two mutated copies of the gene.

“On the one hand, that’s a huge difference because no one who did have two copies didn’t have SAD, but on the other hand, only 5 percent with SAD had two copies, so it doesn’t explain SAD in 95 percent of our sample,” Roecklein said, noting, however, “most of these disorders, like depression, are known as complex disorders which means they are caused by many genes.” Melanopsin may just be one of many genes affecting SAD sufferers, Roecklein said.

The findings of the study could turn out to be a useful diagnostic tool, Provencio said.

“If you carry two mutated copies of this gene, you may indeed be more susceptible to SAD,” he explained.

In the future, Roecklein said another benefit of the study may be an ability to tell which treatment for SAD would work best for each sufferer.

“There are multiple treatments [for SAD] … and knowing which is most likely to work for a person would help them get better faster.” She stressed, however, that “we’re really not there yet.”

Roecklein said as a next step, she plans to try to replicate the study, as studies like this can occasionally produce false positives.
“It could be that we found this difference but if we repeated with hundreds more people we wouldn’t find it again,” she said. “It’s really not until it’s replicated that we can be more confident that this is a true finding.”

Remember how in the movie “Men in Black” Tommy Lee Jones used a little machine to erase people’s memories of certain events? Well it is almost as if he decided to wipe the entire month of October off Virginia football players’ minds Saturday, because they decided to play the same inexcusable and pathetic brand of football that they played throughout the month of September.

Don’t be fooled by the 28-17 final score, because if you, like a number of other people on Grounds, weren’t able to watch a Virginia game for the sixth time this year because it was on ESPNU, you missed one the most atrocious first halves of football Virginia has ever played.
“We created a script for ourselves here tonight that, as it played out, was going to make it very difficult for us to win the game,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “Between the penalties and the turnovers, we fed the supply line of Wake Forest points.”

Boy did Virginia ever do so in the first half. After Virginia’s first drive — which naturally resulted in a three and out for the Cavaliers — Virginia running back Keith Payne committed a personal foul on the Wake Forest punt return that set the Demon Deacons up right near midfield. On the ensuing third-and-8, however, Kevin Crawford was called for offsides, which gave Wake Forest an easier opportunity convert the third down, which they did. Wake Forest junior quarterback Riley Skinner hooked up with junior tight end Ben Wooster on a 2-yard pass on third-and-goal that not only put Virginia in a 7-0 hole but also marked the fifth straight game that the opponent scored on its first offensive drive.

The next two Virginia drives perfectly illustrated the penalties and turnovers Groh mentioned. On the first drive, not only did Virginia offensive lineman Eugene Monroe commit a false start, the once dependable senior running back Cedric Peerman coughed the ball up and Wake Forest recovered the fumble. In the subsequent Virginia drive, Monroe — you guessed it — committed another false start penalty. Additionally, even though the Cavaliers received an early Christmas present when the punt bounced off of Wake Forest’s Kevin Harris and Virginia’s Chase Minnifield, Marc Verica proceeded to throw an interception when he was hit by Wake Forest senior linebacker Aaron Curry right as he was about to throw it, and junior defensive tackle Boo Robinson came down with it.

“Mentally, we were a little off,” junior offensive lineman Will Barker said. “Especially in the beginning [of the game].”

The supply line of points continued as Skinner on a third-and-15 threw a 58-yard touchdown pass to Devon Brown. What made the play even more frustrating was that Virginia safety Byron Glaspy completely misjudged the pass and fell down, a play that symbolized the efforts of the Cavaliers.

“It seems like the ball just carried further than I anticipated,” Glaspy said about the play.

The second quarter saw much of the same from the Cavaliers. Even though Robert Randolph hit a field goal to make the score 14-3, Wake Forest proceeded on a 15-play, 71-yard touchdown drive aided by ­— and this is a recurring theme — a pass interference penalty by safety Corey Mosley on a third-and-goal. On Virginia’s next offensive drive, adding to the supply line of Wake Forest points, Verica threw a pass on third down that went off the hands of Kevin Ogletree and into Demon Deacon cornerback Kevin Patterson’s, who returned it 53 yards for a touchdown to put Wake Forest up 28-3.

“Clearly, what has to stop is the interceptions,” Groh said. “We’ve come down to North Carolina twice and probably turned the ball over 10 times in two games. That’s why we’re going home unhappy.”

Of course, to top it off, in the third quarter when Virginia had a first-and-goal at the Wake Forest 1, the following sequence happens: Peerman is stuffed for a loss of 1 yard, Peerman is stuffed for no gain, Verica fakes handoff runs to the right for a loss of 4 yards and then, instead of throwing the ball in the end zone on fourth down, Verica throws left to Peerman at least 5 yards outside the end zone and loses 3 yards. I’m sorry, but that sequence was absolutely pathetic to watch. If you can’t punch the ball in from a first-and-goal at the 1, you don’t deserve to play big boy football. Virginia did score two touchdowns late, but all I needed to see of the Cavaliers occurred in the first three quarters. I wish I had done like one of the other journalists at the game and fallen asleep midway through the second quarter in the pressbox, because it was that bad.

Now Virginia is back to square one. The Cavaliers have two games left. They could win both — yes, I believe they can beat Virginia Tech in Blacksburg — but they could easily lose both — and lose them badly. Virginia needs to decide which team to show up as. If the Cavaliers decide to show up like the team from October, they will run around on defense, make clutch plays on offense and find a way to steal these two games. If they decide to play like the team from October, however, not only will they embarrassingly find themselves out of a bowl game, but the question has to be raised: Does Al Groh deserve to remain as Virginia’s coach? We’ll see.

For the fifth straight game, the Virginia football team gave up a score on its opponent’s opening drive.

In every one of these games before their contest at Wake Forest Saturday, the Cavaliers managed to recover to take a win or send the contest to overtime. Against the Demon Deacons (6-3, 4-2 ACC), however, Virginia (5-5, 3-3 ACC) started flat and stayed that way for the entire first half, only emerging from its stupor in the second half to close a 25-point halftime margin to a 28-17 final score.

“This case was a game where we came out flat, and it was flat for quite some time,” senior linebacker Clint Sintim said. “We just can’t keep giving teams the opportunity to get up on us so early in the game and then try to fight back in it.”

Virginia’s early 28-3 deficit was facilitated by three first-half turnovers — including a 53-yard interception return for a touchdown after junior wide receiver Kevin Ogletree could not hang on to a pass over the middle — and seven first-half penalties for 43 yards.

The most costly mistake, however, occurred in the second quarter. With Wake facing a 3rd-and-15 from its own 42 yard-line, junior quarterback Riley Skinner let loose a long bomb in the direction of freshman wide receiver Devon Brown. Senior safety Byron Glaspy appeared to be in good position to make a play by the ball but he got turned around and fell as the ball sailed over his head, hitting Brown in stride for a 58-yard touchdown.

“I don’t know if it was the wind or I just misjudged it, but it seemed like the ball just carried further than I anticipated,” Glaspy said. “It just seemed like it was being pushed more than I thought.”

This is the second straight week that Glaspy has fallen on a deep touchdown pass; the safety fell against Miami last week on the 26-yard touchdown pass that ultimately sent the game to overtime.

Despite the devastating first half, the Virginia defense shut down Wake Forest in the second half and the offense appeared to wake up, as well; sophomore quarterback Marc Verica led back-to-back touchdown drives to start the fourth quarter and cut the lead to 11.

When the Cavaliers got the ball back with 6:36 remaining and the score still 28-17, there appeared to be hope. Virginia, however, was forced to punt after Verica was sacked for a 12-yard loss in its own territory.

The Cavaliers had one last gasp as they looked to make it a one-score game with 2:40 remaining, but Verica threw his third interception of the game to Wake Forest senior linebacker Stanley Arnoux to end Virginia’s chances of completing a comeback as compelling as the one it made the last time the team was in Winston-Salem, N.C. in 2002, when it rallied from 17 points down to take a 38-34 victory.
Verica ended with 279 yards passing compared to Skinner’s 130, but it was Skinner’s lack of turnovers compared to Verica’s three picks that told the more accurate story.

“If we don’t fall down on a long play and we don’t turn the ball over, who knows where it goes,” Virginia coach Al Groh said.

The Cavaliers blew another chance to put the ball in the end zone early in the second half. After Verica hit Ogletree beyond the secondary for a 43-yard completion 1 yard short of the end zone, Virginia faced a seemingly automatic touchdown with 1st-and-goal at the 1-yard line. After senior running back Cedric Peerman was stuffed on the first and second downs, however, Verica faked the handoff to Peerman and kept it himself for a 4-yard loss on third down. Groh said Verica had the option to hand to Peerman, which, Groh noted, was the option he should have taken.

“That’s easy to say from the sideline,” Groh added. “I didn’t have to be out there making the decision under pressure.”

Then, on 4th-and-6, Virginia elected to try for the end zone. Verica, however, only managed a completion to Peerman, who was tackled immediately following the catch for a 3-yard loss and a turnover on downs.

“You’re down 25 points — so now you’re down 28-6 [if you kick a field goal],” Groh said. “Maybe it looks a little better in the newspaper, but that’s not what we’re playing for.”

Adding to the turnover total for the second straight week was Peerman, whose fumble in the first quarter was his second in two weeks; before last week’s game against Miami he had not surrendered a fumble to the opposing team in his entire career.

Peerman “hasn’t carried it differently for three years,” Groh said. “Until I see other evidence, I’m going to assume that he was headed the right way.”

With the turnovers, the defensive mishaps and the final outcome, Groh commented on the comparison between Saturday’s contest and the only other game his team played in North Carolina this year, a 3-31 loss to Duke Sept. 27.

“We’ve come down to North Carolina twice and turned the ball over 10 times in two games,” Groh said. “That’s why we’re going home unhappy.”

A favorite method of all sportswriters for hooking the reader into an article is to capture a particular moment or sequence of a game that is defining or epitomizes the game’s theme in some way. Said writer then finds a clever method of connecting this moment to the entire game, flowing like a brook into the mouth of a gentle river.

In Virginia’s 28-17 loss to Wake Forest — which began with a 28-3 implosion in the first half — there were many such instances to choose from. As a fan of Virginia football, I was incensed with the team’s play; as a journalist, I was in heaven.

So rather than paint a picture of just one example of Virginia’s mediocrity Saturday that leads into an entire column, I can’t resist trying them all. Instead of one long editorial, I will choose to write the beginning of three — just a few graphs apiece, as we say in the biz — and the end. Let your imagination run wild to fill in the gaps.

(Disclaimer: I’m an amateur writer and make no claim that I have any idea what on earth I am doing.)

Article 1: The fall from glory.

With under two minutes in the first quarter, Wake Forest had the ball on the 42-yard line and it was 3rd down and about an acre. Junior quarterback Riley Skinner dropped to pass and saw freshman wide receiver Devon Brown streaking down the sideline. Senior safety Byron Glaspy was positioned perfectly; the receiver and the ball were in his sights. Worst scenario, I think to myself, it’s batted down. Best case, it’s an interception. (Sound familiar?)

But as the ball moved further along its trajectory, Glaspy began to appear as if he was trying to chase a butterfly. He started facing one way, misjudged the ball, turned the other direction, slipped and ultimately fell down as Brown made the catch in stride for a 42-yard touchdown.

Talk about déjà vu. The only play more devastating this season than Glaspy’s error Saturday was when he fell down against Miami last week, resulting in the game-tying touchdown that sent the game to overtime.

And as Glaspy fell helplessly to the ground again Saturday, so fell Virginia off its high horse of potentially achieving first place in the Coastal Division with its 28-17 loss to Wake Forest.

Article Two: The Longest Yard.

Put your arm at your side. Now pick it up, and reach forward three feet.

On 1st-and-goal at the 1-yard line, that’s about all you have to do. So when sophomore quarterback Marc Verica lined up under center following a 43-yard pass to junior wide receiver Kevin Ogletree to the 1-yard line, I marked it down: touchdown, senior running back Cedric Peerman. Midway through the third quarter, even down 28-3, there was still hope; 25 points is a blowout, but 18 is manageable.

But on first down, Peerman was stuffed for a 1-yard loss. Second down: Peerman to the left, no gain. Third down: Verica is given the option of handing off to Peerman or faking the handoff and taking it himself, coach Al Groh said. Verica chooses to keep the ball himself and loses 4 yards.

“It looked like we probably had a score there if the ball was handed off,” Virginia coach Al Groh said.

On 4th-and-goal from the 6-yard line, the Cavaliers go for it, and who can blame them, being down 25 points. Verica, with another man open in the end zone, makes the intriguing decision of hitting a well-covered Peerman at the 9-yard line, and he gets taken down immediately. Demon Deacon football.

As one reporter in the press box put it, if Virginia ran a QB sneak four times, it gets in. Or at least it doesn’t move back 8 yards.

But there was no sneak in Al Groh’s mind on that series, and there was nothing sneaky about Wake Forest’s 28-17 win either, as the Demon Deacons opened up a 25-point halftime lead on Virginia, the largest deficit the Cavaliers faced since the 3-31 loss to Duke Sept. 27.

Article 3: Peering ahead.

Cedric Peerman doesn’t fumble.

Or so we thought. After fumbling the ball to the opposition for the first time in his career on the play that spelled defeat last week against Miami, Peerman fumbled yet again Saturday to give the ball back to Wake Forest.

There was indeed a lot of fumbling Saturday; up in the press box, I nervously fumbled with my soft drink, and on the field, Virginia fumbled away any chance it may still have had to win the Coastal Division, as the 28-17 loss to the Demon Deacons now puts the Cavaliers in the position that is familiar from a month ago: wondering if they will even make a bowl game.

(Skip to the end)

…The common sports cliché for up-and-down seasons is they are like a roller coaster ride; there are ups and downs, twists and turns, quick accelerations and sudden screeches to a halt.

And sometimes, you think you’re going to be sick.

As expected, Virginia dominated Shepherd in yesterday’s exhibition game 87-52. What Virginia head coach Dave Leitao was looking for, though, was how his team performed throughout the game, and he seemed satisfied with his team’s efforts.

“We’ve got a long way to go and we’ve got to figure some things out with some people and lineups,” Leitao said. “But we’ll take today as a step forward and learn and grow and try to get better.”

Some fans might expect offensive production to be the Cavaliers’ focal point, considering scoring machine Sean Singletary is now playing for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. Leitao, however, noted that defense could be the key to the season and he was pleased with his team’s efforts yesterday holding Shepherd to 27.4 percent shooting from the field as well as forcing 17 turnovers.

“My mindset has been coming into the season that we have to do a better job defensively at every stage all season long, beginning with today,” Leitao said. “I thought pretty much that we did that.”

It might have surprised some Cavalier fans that sophomore guard Mustapha Farrakhan started this game over fellow sophomore guard Jeff Jones. Farrakhan had a solid showing, though, putting up 9 points and three rebounds while dishing out five assists in 18 minutes of play yesterday.

“He’s played well — give or take a day or two — but he’s been very consistent, not just making shots or plays but his effort and attentiveness especially on the defensive end,” Leitao said. “He’s done a real good job of bringing some energy, some know-how. We’re getting to see that he’s got a pretty good basketball IQ and he’s earned a spot in the rotation.”

Farrakhan has focused on being a good defender, and this may help him earn more playing time in this coming season than last year.
“In practice I’ve been really focusing in on the defensive end, trying to be a good defender,” Farrakhan said. “I’ve just been trying to do the right things and it’s working out for me.”

Though freshman guard Sylven Landesberg did not start the game, his appearance drew loud cheers from the fans, and for good reason. Landesberg is the first McDonald’s All-American to play for Virginia since Majestic Mapp joined the team in 1999. He had a good showing yesterday with 13 points and five rebounds and an impressive 10 attempts at the free-throw line, of which he made seven.
“I like to attack the rim, so getting to line is big part of my game.” Landesberg said.

Another aspect of the team to look for yesterday was the play of the big men, and while some struggled at times — like senior center Tunji Soroye who only played five minutes of the game in large part because of foul trouble — others looked good, such as Mike Scott who had 10 points, but more impressively 14 rebounds.

“If we can get that kind of rebounding from [Scott] every day, then that’s a pretty good role for him,” Leitao said.

Obviously Singletary’s absence at the point guard position will be something Cavalier fans will notice throughout the season. In his place, junior guard Calvin Baker did not play his best game yesterday, scoring 4 points along with contributing two assists, but Leitao believes practice might have had something to do with that.

“The times that he’s been able to practice, three or four days at a time or what have you, he’s been, probably on the perimeter, anyway, our best and safest player,” Leitao said. “He struggled a little bit this week in practice just because of the choppiness of his practices.”
Baker’s backup, redshirt freshman Sammy Zeglinski, also had ups and downs during his time on the court.

“I thought he did a good job.” Leitao said of Zeglinski’s play. “He tried to make a couple of plays that weren’t here and as a result turned the ball over, and I would have liked to see him be a little bit more aggressive for his own offense because I think that sets up his passes, but he’s been up and down a little bit. About a week and a half ago we had a conversation about how he needs to approach everything, and from that point I think he’s been a little bit better.”

Virginia’s regular season starts Sunday at home when the Cavaliers faces VMI at 4 p.m. The team is ready for the season to start.

“A lot of people are saying that we are going to finish at the bottom of the [ACC],” sophomore forward Mike Scott said. “That’s basically all of the motivation we need.”

Senior night is supposed to be a proper send-off for graduating athletes. but Friday night, it didn’t quite work out that way for the Virginia men’s soccer team. Virginia fell 2-0 to No. 1 Wake Forest Friday at Klöckner Stadium in its final regular-season game and perhaps final home game of the season.

Virginia (9-7-1, 4-4 ACC) has lost its last two games and now heads into the ultra-competitive ACC Tournament as the fourth seed.
The Cavaliers fell into an early 2-0 hole and were never able to claw their way out.

Virginia came out of the gates ready to play. The Klöckner faithful, led by the energetic student section, opened the game with boisterous cheers in support of the home squad. Even former Virginia coaching legend Bruce Arena — also the former coach of Team USA — was on hand for the big game. Wake Forest, however, wasted no time getting on the scoreboard. The Demon Deacons struck in the sixth minute and took a 1-0 lead on a beautiful centering pass and header shot from the combo of junior forward Cody Arnoux and midfielder Sam Cronin. Arnoux — Wake Forest’s leading scorer — added his 14th goal of the season on his no doubt header and put Virginia at an early disadvantage. The Cavaliers found a bit of offensive momentum just a few minutes later when they earned two consecutive corner kicks. Virginia, however, failed to turn its corner kicks into real scoring chances as the Wake Forest defense denied the Cavalier attack.

Virginia came up with an exciting scoring opportunity in the 15th minute when junior midfielder Jonathan Villanueva broke free for an open shot on goal. In a recurring problem, however, Villanueva pushed the shot wide left and missed the goal.

Seconds after Villanueva’s miss, Wake Forest made Virginia pay with its second goal of the night. Cronin buried a shot from 18 yards out and put Virginia down 2-0 only 16 minutes into the game.

“The first 20 minutes I felt like they put a lot of pressure on us,” coach George Gelnovatch said. “When we had the ball in our half, one two and three guys would collapse on us. We weren’t used to that kind of pressure.”

Wake Forest, in all measures, was the better team in the opening half. Its passes were crisper, its play was sharper and its defense was suffocating. It controlled the pace of play for the vast majority of the half and never took its foot off the gas pedal. Virginia, on the other hand, was simply overmatched and — with the exception of a few shots — could not produce offensively. The first half concluded with Wake Forest holding onto its 2-0 lead.

Virginia started the second half with two of its best scoring chances of the night. Junior midfielder Ross LaBauex entertained the crowd with two deep runs but was called offsides on one play and stripped by a Wake Forest defender on the other. LaBauex seemed to be Virginia’s only offensive threat, as the Demon Deacons continued to deny the Cavaliers any offensive consistency. Virginia even came up with a golden opportunity in the 55th minute when junior midfielder Jordan Evans sent a centering pass to a wide-open LaBauex in front of the goal. LaBauex struck the ball up in the air and popped it up and over the net.

Wake Forest, on the other hand, never let up on the intensity it played with in the first half. The Demon Deacons controlled the ball for most of the second half and relegated Virginia to only Hail Mary offensive attempts.

“It’s tough,” LaBauex noted. “We always want to come out here and come up with victories and play well. But, you know, we just need to keep our heads up.”