It's been a few months since I've written a column for this newspaper. But during its last week of publication for my last semester of college, I couldn't pass up an offer to have my ugly mug appear on these pages once more.
So what do I do with my last column in this paper? A sentimental approach would be to thank everyone who has been involved with my time at The Cavalier Daily, go on about my favorite moments as a student reporter and tearfully share my thoughts about what The Cavalier Daily means to me.
I'm not sentimental.
Instead, I'd like to share some extra tidbits - some scattered opinions and thoughts about the state of Virginia athletics.
Why? Because I've seen columnists do it before and thought it was cool. And I consider myself to be very cool.
So here goes:
This past weekend was a great weekend for Virginia athletics - three ACC championships, giving the Cavaliers a school-record seven on the year, and a historic relay race victory at the Penn Relays. But let's not take it for more than it is.
The women's rowing team and men's tennis team wins are great accomplishments but expected. It would have been much more newsworthy if these teams didn't win.
The ACC title in men's lacrosse is the biggest win of the three, both in terms of the sport and the difficulty. The team won its first conference championship since 2006 - when Duke didn't even participate - and snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Blue Devils in the process.
On the other hand, there are four teams in ACC men's lacrosse, meaning it takes two victories to win the championship. When every team gets an automatic bid to the semifinals, winning the "whole thing" just doesn't seem quite as "whole."
The Penn relay is probably the coolest achievement: the 4-by-800-meter team took a win for the first time since 1943.
But for all the achievements this weekend, and for the four No. 1 teams that the Cavaliers have boasted this spring, if Virginia doesn't get a national championship out of it, the spring season will have been a disappointment.
Plus, every time a spring sport does well, the contrast of those sports to the revenue sports' struggles always springs to mind. It's not fair to the hard-working spring athletes, but it's just the way it is.
After four years, I am beginning to understand what Athletic Director Craig Littlepage means when he talks about a coach being a good "fit" for U.Va.
Mike London, Tony Bennett, Brian Boland, Brian O'Connor, Steve Garland, Michele Madison, Eileen Schmidt, Jason Vigilante, Lee Maes, Bowen Sargent and Kim Lewellen are all Littlepage hires.
I haven't met Maes, Sargent or Lewellen, but the rest bear striking similarities. They are all energetic, passionately competitive coaches, yet down-to-earth, easygoing, and media-friendly types outside of competition.
The only counterexample that comes to mind for Littlepage hires is Dave Leitao, who is currently out of a job.
Hmmmm.
The day after Al Groh was fired, he sent an e-mail to the media in which he said there was a problem with collaboration during his time as the head football coach. He told me the same thing later in a phone interview. Although he didn't explicitly elaborate, it seemed clear that he was referring to the collaboration of the administration with Groh's vision of how a program should be run.
Would anybody else like to know just what in the heck that means? The only instances I can point to where Groh and the athletic department differed were: when Peter Lalich was kicked off the team the week after Groh had started him; and when nearly all of Groh's assistant coaches were fired after the 2008 season. But each of these examples came when the football program was already headed for disaster.
I would love to separately sit down Groh and Littlepage and hear exactly what their differences are in terms of how to run an elite college football program. Of course, that won't happen. Just wishful thinking.
One year ago, I wrote a column comparing Virginia to Virginia Tech, and in the end - considering the performance, personnel, and atmosphere surrounding the athletics programs only - I wrote that I would rather be a Hokie. In particular, I stuck a knife into Wahoos when I lamented that, at a football game, "all it takes to distract your average Wahoo is a girl in a sundress."
Never have I received more feedback about a column - both positive and negative - than after that one.
Do I retract what I said back then? Nope.
But I think I might revise it in time. Although I believe it's safe to say that next year won't be a whole lot better than this one for Virginia fans in football and men's basketball, I do believe that Bennett and London have the revenue sports moving in the right direction. And Virginia reaching new heights in non-revenue sports doesn't entirely make up for the money-makers, but it helps cushion the blow.
What is most encouraging, though, I think, is the improvement in the fan base, and the 'Hoo Crew in particular.
Students behind the basket are distracting opponent free throws with spinning wheels and other gadgets. Hype sheets are simpler and contain actually useful information - there was a time when the Hoo Crew listed Sean Singletary's nickname as "Triple-Double Singletary," when a triple-double is one of the few statistical landmarks that Singletary actually never reached.
Never have I been more impressed with the 'Hoo Crew, though, than when students trudged through feet of snow to cheer on the men's basketball team against Wake Forest Feb. 6. The student section was packed, and even with sparse attendance in general seating, the arena was as loud as it was all season.
I still say Tech fans have the edge in terms of their diehard nature. But then again, a winning team produces those kinds of fans - I'll be interested to make a renewed fan comparison if the Hoos' revenue sports teams reach Tech's level for a couple years in a row.
That's a big if.
In closing, I hope you've gotten something out of my columns and stories over the years, even if it was just a convenient area of scratch paper to brainstorm for the crossword puzzle.
Thanks for reading. It's been fun.
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