Athletes -- above the law?
By Will Searcy | September 9, 2005Virginia's offense has just taken the field. The stadium is saturated with excitement as quarterback Marques Hagans barks his pre-snap routine.
Virginia's offense has just taken the field. The stadium is saturated with excitement as quarterback Marques Hagans barks his pre-snap routine.
When leaving the G. Rollie White Coliseum in College Station, Texas last weekend, the Virginia volleyball team had little to regret about its matches in the Texas A&M Tournament. Although the 1-2 record they brought back to Charlottesville with them says otherwise, the Cavaliers and coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton were satisfied with the team's overall performance.
With over 24 hours left in his online auction, you would have to think this eBay user was pretty happy about the way things were going. Selling two student guest tickets to the Cavaliers' final regular season home game, prized tickets against hated rival Virginia Tech that have a face value of $50 apiece, this Virginia student had received 13 different bids for the passes to the sold-out game, the highest standing at $275.
The Wing Chun club team at the University practices a unique form of Chinese martial arts distinctive from the type commonly seen on TV or in the latest Jackie Chan movie. "Wing Chun emphasizes ideas and not techniques, the main ideas [being] simplicity, efficiency and effectiveness," instructor John Chang said. Chang, who lives in Richmond, drives to Charlottesville once a week to teach the 20-person group.
The Virginia men's tennis team looks to have a very promising season after dominating the Intercollegiate Tennis Association preseason rankings.
See that smile on Ottowa Anderson's face? That football-sized grin stretching from ear-to-ear? Don't look for it to disappear anytime soon -
Replacing influential players after a successful season can be a difficult trick to pull off. Just ask Al Groh and his new linebacking corps. The Virginia men's soccer team, like its gridiron counterparts, also has had to deal with the loss of key players on defense.
If there is any question about which conference is the best in college field hockey, look no further than the Junior World Cup roster for the answer. Of the 18 players selected to represent the United States, 13 hail from the ACC. Two of these girls are Virginia's own: junior Mia Link and senior Katherine Blair. The Junior World Cup is a 16-team international tournament which pits the best players 21 years old and under against each other. The tournament is set to run from Sept.
For a kid who's just a hair over 5-feet-9-inches tall and was once described by a basketball coach as looking like "a stiff wind could knock him over," I woke up this morning decidedly fat and happy. This is the point in the column when, if I were Conan O'Brien, I would make a joke comparing myself to Star Jones or Rueben Studdard.
Entering the 2005 season, the Virginia football team wondered how it would respond without Heath Miller.
Friday night, the University of Virginia men's soccer team began its season with a 2-0 victory over UC-Riverside in the first game of the UCSB Adidas Classic at Hardner Stadium in Santa Barbara, Calif. No.6 Virginia had multiple chances to score, yet was shut out until the 55th minute, when junior Adam Cristman headed home a cross by sophomore Jeremy Barlow to score the first Cavalier goal.
If one of your buddies got called up to the majors four months after finishing his third year at the University, you would figure this column should be devoted to his story.
Even to diehard Virginia fans, the Cavalier linebacking corps may have been hard to recognize Saturday against Western Michigan. Three of the four Cavalier linebackers started their first games over the weekend.
When she was nine, Shannon Foley's family moved to California. There, Foley began playing soccer, a game she would play through many schools, club teams and national team pools (U-16 and U-19). "It's actually a really funny story," Foley said.
For all the parents who tell their children that they can't go anywhere in life without a college degree, I present to you Ryan Zimmerman.
Normally when a team completes a tournament with a 1-2 record, it's members might feel disappointed.
The Virginia volleyball team placed third yesterday in its season-opening tournament, the Texas A&M/McDonald's Invitational.
Even though he left college one year shy of graduating, The Education of Ryan Zimmerman is only beginning. The first chapter was written last Thursday in Atlanta when the former Virginia baseball star went down looking in his first Major League game. But when Zimmerman suited up for his first home game in Washington Friday night, he banged out the first hit of his Major League career in a 7-1 loss to Wild Card-leading Philadelphia. Replacing starting third baseman Vinny Castilla in top of the 4th inning, Zimmerman jogged onto the field amidst a chorus of cheers from the 28,939-person crowd.
Like most freshmen athletes, cross country runners' first year at the University requires effort in all areas of life, from school to schedules to athletics.
While I'm waiting for this eBay auction to close, I've got some thoughts on Saturday's 31-19 win over Western Michigan.