O'Connor, UVa Agree To Extension

Official Release
Virginia Athletics Media Relations

Coach Brian O'Connor

Virginia Athletics Director Craig Littlepage announced on Sunday (June 10) that the University and head baseball coach Brian O'Connor have agreed to a three-year extension of O'Connor's contract. The extension takes the contract through the 2012 season.

"I'm pleased by our baseball program's progress during the past four years," Littlepage said. "Brian O'Connor has done a tremendous job. I believe he's pleased with the program's development and the support he's received as our head baseball coach.

"We've had discussions over the past few weeks and I'm delighted we're in agreement that Brian will be our head coach through the 2012 season. This is great news for Virginia baseball."

O'Connor came to Virginia in July of 2003 after being a member of the Notre Dame baseball coaching staff for nine years. His four UVa teams have compiled an overall record of 177-66 (.728 winning percentage) and the Cavaliers have won at least 41 games each season under O'Connor's direction. Virginia has participated in the NCAA Tournament each of the last four seasons and has hosted an NCAA Regional three of the last four years.

"I'm excited to be the Virginia baseball coach for many years to come," O'Connor said. "The University of Virginia continues to be 100 percent committed to having a national caliber baseball program.

"I'm very proud of the success our baseball program has experienced during the last four years and I'm excited about the 2008 season. We have a talented nucleus of players returning and a group of recruits who will be successful in our program."

The Cavaliers finished the 2007 season with an overall record of 45-16, including a 19-9 record in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Virginia had a school-record five All-ACC selections in 2007, including three players named to the first team, and also had a school-record six players selected in the recent Major League Baseball draft.

O'Connor was the 2004 ACC Baseball Coach of the Year and earned 2006 College Baseball Foundation Coach of the Year honors.

This Week In Recruiting
By Chris Horne

Football recruiting ...

On Monday, Virginia will host 6-4, 220-pound Bergen Catholic (Oradell, N.J.) ATH Bill Schautz on an unofficial visit. Schautz leaves for Charlottesville on Monday with his parents and will stay until Tuesday afternoon. There is a solid chance that Schautz, who is being recruited by UVa as an H-Back/Outside linebacker, could commit to the Hoos.

Last month, Virginia became the first school to extend an official scholarship offer to the talented prospect. Rutgers and Syracuse "want me," Schautz says, but he is eager to end the recruiting process and if he feels UVa is a good fit then he won't hesitate to make a decision. If he decides to continue his recruitment, look for him to make visits to Rutgers and Syracuse this summer.

Schautz visited Virginia earlier this spring for the spring game and had an outstanding experience. Stay tuned, as we will follow up with the Garden state star on Tuesday to find out the latest.

Virginia Tech held its first 2007 senior camp Sunday. How is this significant to Virginia? Well, several UVa targets - targets who could easily end up deciding between the Hoos and the Hokies - made the trip to Blacksburg. Most notably, Smithfield WR/DB Dyrell Roberts and Norview (Norfolk, VA) DL Klinton "Buddy" Ruff attended Virginia Tech's camp.

Roberts and Ruff enjoyed their trips to Virginia Tech, but neither can name a leader between the two schools. Neither will be on hand this coming Saturday for UVa's Elite Junior Day, as Roberts already has a commitment to attend ECU's camp and Ruff has a family obligation to attend to. Both prospects plan to participate in UVa's summer camp later this month, though.

As stated above, Virginia's Elite Junior Day will take place this Saturday. Stay tuned this week for a list of confirmed visitors expected in Charlottesville as well as coverage of those visits over the weekend. One of those visitors may be 6-7, 290-pound East Stroudsburg South (PA) OL Corey Lewis, who visited Charlottesville last Monday.

Lewis is a heavy lean to the Hoos and could commit on a return visit. One of Lewis' best friends is J'Courtney Williams, one of UVa's top 2007 class recruits. Another is Christchurch rising senior WR Deion Walker, who is a top target of the Hoos. The connection is that Lewis played his first two years at Christchurch before transferring to East Stroudsburg South.

Lewis received an official offer from Virginia last week.

Speaking of the 2007 class, all of the incoming freshmen have now attained qualifying standards and are expected to enroll this summer. 6-5, 290-pound Ballou (Washington, D.C.) offensive lineman Lamar Milstead received terrific news recently when he earned a qualifying SAT score.

He will enroll at UVa on July 5.

A few UVa targets committed elsewhere last week. DL Scott Vallone, who chose Rutgers, was a top target out of St. Anthony's High School in Long Island, New York. Brooke Point (Stafford, VA) LB Donovan Miles selected West Virginia.

Basketball recruiting ...

Next week, UVa will host the NBPA Top 100 camp. TheSabre.com will be there for coverage, which begins this week. A number of Virginia targets are expected to be on hand, though UVa's top 2008 class target Ed Davis will not be one of them. Still, it is an important weekend for the program, as rising junior targets are also expected to be on hand for the event.

Chris Horne, our resident recruiting expert, provides updates throughout the week for Edge subscribers about UVa's commitments and recruiting targets in football and men's basketball. To sign up for an Edge subscription, please check out the Sabre Edge Sign Up and Information Page. If you're already on board as an Edge subscriber, click the links below to catch up on recruiting.

Sabre Edge recruiting updates from the past week ...

Q&A: J'Courtney Williams
One of UVa's most highly rated recruits, Christchurch (VA) LB/S J'Courtney Williams was rated a 5-star prospect by Scout.com, a 4-star prospect by The Sabre.com and Rivals.com and the #4 prospect in the state by The Sabre.com. The 6-3, 228-pound prospect verbally committed to the 'Hoos at last year's spring game and he enrolls at UVa on July 5th. J'Courtney Williams is the subject of the latest "Q&A."

Lewis Lands Offer; Commitment Coming Soon?
6-7, 290-pound OL/DL Corey Lewis enjoyed an outstanding experience at the University of Virginia on Monday, coming away impressed once again with what the school and the football program have to offer. Virginia has been a favorite of the talented prospect for quite some time, and now the 'Hoos have jumped in with an official scholarship offer.

Oscar Smith Star Down to 3
Oscar Smith rising senior Kerry Boykins, a VHSCA first-team all-state kick-returner and second-team all-state wide receiver last season as a junior, has trimmed his list of schools to three. Three ACC programs made the final cut and a decision could come in the near future. Did UVa make the list?

More updates since the last SabreMail ...

• Harrelson Lists Five Favorites
• Hollingsworth Considers Next UVa Visit
• Milstead Receives Great News
• Dalton Freeman Starts Visits

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SabreMail Archives

Interested in a past SabreMail issue? Never fear - we keep 'em archived! Check out the SabreMail home on TheSabre.com where you can see the current issue, past issues, and any breaking news releases that we've emailed in the past as well.

Photo Gallery Upgrade

EDGE subscribers,

It's been a long time coming, but Mike Ingalls finally set up the various sports photo galleries into their own specific areas, rather than one big list of links of all sports. There are now separate areas for Football, Basketball and Other Sports. Check it out!

As many of you know, we have several thousand photos in the football and basketball galleries from 2003 to present and only a handful of photos from sports like tennis, baseball and lacrosse from the past two seasons. We plan to offer a bit more from the non-revenue sports in the future, so please be sure to check these areas more often during their seasons. The future goal is to shoot at least two galleries per year for sports that are highly competitive (i.e. soccer, lacrosse, baseball and tennis). Who knows, we might even get out there and shoot some women's crew and volleyball, if there's interest of course ;)

Please provide feedback on this area, the new changes, and what you'd like to see in the future. We think The Sabre is covering good ground with these, but we need to hear from you to make sure you are getting what you like. Also, let us know if you think the photo galleries are important to you. If you didn't know they existed until now, that would be good info as well. Photo galleries are usually posted a few days after each game.

Please provide your honest feedback on this. Photography is fun, but it's also time consuming. The Sabre wants to make this area a plus for all of our subscribers.

You can email your thoughts, suggestions, and feedback [email protected]

Blog Contest Winner - Sean & J.R.

TheSabre.com's Good Ol' Blog decided to host a fun little contest recently. The Chest Bump Clash is trying to determine who used that type of celebratory move the best so far this season in Virginia athletics. The candidates came from football, baseball, men's basketball, and men's tennis.

The winners ...

Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds as captured in the CBS "One Shining Moment" video montage from the NCAA Tournament. Here's a YouTube version. Singletary and Reynolds appear about 1:40 into the clip.

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Around the World of Wahoo Sports ...

• Devvarman Named ITA National Player of the Year: The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced Friday that Virginia junior Somdev Devvarman won the organization's Men's National Player of the Year award. Devvarman becomes the first player from the Atlantic Coast Conference to receive the accolade.
• Foerster, Ayeni Earn All-American Honors: Virginia's Jan Foerster and Yemi Ayeni both earned All-American honors at the NCAA Track and Field Championships, with Foerster smashing the school record in the steeplechase en route to a sixth-place finish and Ayeni using a monster final throw to move up two spots to take seventh in the discus. The two are Virginia's first All-Americans on the men's side since 2002 and it is the first time since 2001 that UVa men have earned All-American honors in the same meet. Foerster's 8:34.78 was a personal-best by exactly seven seconds and it broke the school record by 4.58 seconds, which had been held by All-American Rob Cook, who ran a 8:39.36 in 1994 en route to his All-American honors that season.
• Read Earns All-American Honors; Finishes Tenth at NCAA Championships: Virginia's Katie Read ran a personal best in the 10K at the NCAA Championships to take 10th and earn All-American honors. Her time of 33:54.92 is the fifth-fastest time in school history. She is Virginia's first All-American in the 10K since Aileen O'Connor in 1982.
• Record Six Cavaliers Selected in MLB Draft: Six Virginia baseball players were selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft this weekend. Casey Lambert, Beau Seabury , Mike Mitchell, Pat McAnaney, Sean Doolittle, and Brandon Guyer all were picked. This marks the most draft picks Virginia has had in a single season. It tops the previous high of five from the 1993 draft. .
• Dr. Danny Mistry Selected To Serve As Team Physician At United States Olympic Training Center: Dr. Danny Mistry, co-medical director of Virginia's sports medicine program, has been selected to serve two weeks as a team physician at the United States Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif. As a team physician, Dr. Mistry is responsible for the medical care of all athletes, coaches and guests residing at the Olympic Training Center. He will work with athletes from several sports, including disabled athletes training for the Paralympics.
• Saliba Named Division I Athletic Trainer Of The Year: Ethan Saliba, assistant athletics director for sports medicine/head athletic trainer at Virginia, is the 2007 Division I Athletic Trainer of the Year as selected by the National Athletic Trainers' Association's College/University Athletic Training Committee. The award recognizes outstanding service to the athletic training profession and the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) at the Division I level.
• Haller Named VaSID Softball Rookie of the Year: Virginia first baseman Kelly Haller has been named the 2007 Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) All-State University Division Softball Rookie of the Year. Haller is also one of 11 players named to the VaSID All-State First Team.
• Ginipro Named Head Volleyball Coach at Appalachian State: Virginia associate head volleyball coach Matt Ginipro has been named the head volleyball coach at Appalachian State University as announced today by ASU Athletics Director Charlie Cobb.

To read the full stories or gather more information on Virginia athletics, check out Virginiasports.com.

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Issue No. 96 - July 18, 2003

Virginia Launches Schaub for Heisman Web site

UVa officially launched their Matt Schaub for Heisman campaign by rolling out their Schaub4Heisman.com web site.

The web site is a mix of stats, features, and multimedia. You can check out Schaub's bio, his statistics, photos and videos, and the latest news on Schaub. And don't miss the downloadable wallpapers, available in 800x600 or 1024x768 JPG format.

The web site also has five planned chat sessions for Schaub, from late August through late November, in which he will answer your questions live.

Schaub4Heisman.com is a very well-done web site (and we've got high standards here at TheSabre.com!), so take a look and keep checking throughout the season -- and then come back to the Sabre to talk about what you see there!

For more, see the virginiasports.com press release, and of course, the Schaub4Heisman.com web site.

Coming Soon

The Sabre has you covered when it comes to Hoo news. Here are a few of the articles to expect on the site in the coming days:

• Checking In With Marquis Weeks Former Cav football player Marquis Weeks is preparing for summer camps and offseason training with the Seahawks.
  
• JHoo's Summer Reading JHoo kicked off a little summer reading last week with the quarterbacks, but every position will be covered. Next up: Running backs.
  
• Reunion Reminder Vandy-Hoo discovers at his 10-year reunion that he cares about UVa athletics now more than ever.
  

In Case You Missed It ...

Sabre articles since the last SabreMail

Best Seat in the House: Sean Doolittle
Virginia's Sean Doolittle joined the list of Cavaliers selected in the Major League Baseball Draft on Thursday when the Oakland A's made him the 41st overall pick, which was part of the supplemental first round. Doolittle, a pitcher and first baseman for the Hoos, is Virginia's highest draftee since Ryan Zimmerman was taken in the 2005 first round by the Washington Nationals. Doolittle joined The Best Seat in the House to talk about being drafted and his baseball future.

JHoo's Summer Reading: Quarterbacks
It is that time of year again, when there is no football being played on the field but I have football on the brain. My remedy each year - my annual "outlook" posts breaking down the UVa depth chart as we head into another season. I think it was Virginia 2005 who once referred to those posts as his "summer reading." I think of it as the only way to occupy my mind as we wait for the pads to go on, but we will go with the "summer reading" title. Catchier. You know, for marketing purposes.

Region Relapse: UVa's Been There, Done That
This is not the first time a Virginia baseball club has seen this. In 2004, the Cavaliers watched the Vanderbilt Commodores celebrate a regional victory on the Bermuda turf of Davenport Field. Last year, they watched the South Carolina Gamecocks party their way to the Super Regionals on that same turf. Tuesday, it was Oregon State high-fiving after its ninth consecutive NCAA Tournament elimination game victory.

NCAA Tournament Notes: Disappointing End
After starting 2-0 in the 2007 NCAA Regional, the Virginia baseball team couldn't close the deal as Oregon State won three straight games, including Tuesday's elimination game, to advance. For the Hoos, they conclude their season for the fourth time in the last four years with a regional loss - three times on their home turf. The loss ends the seniors' UVa careers.

Predicting The 2007 Football Race
With football practice waiting just around the corner, fans from across the ACC are gearing up for the 2007 season. Who should be the most excited? What will life be like after Calvin Johnson for the Yellow Jackets? Can the Demon Deacons repeat? What should the Hoos expect? Where will the Hokies finish? Sabre intern Nick Ward takes a crack at predicting the 2007 race in the ACC.

Hoos Squander McAnaney's Solid Start
There was plenty of blame to go around following Virginia's 5-3 collapse Monday night against the Oregon State Beavers. Horrendous defense as Virginia tied its season high with four errors. Timid plate appearances as the Hoos were set down by strikeout 11 times, seven looking. A lack of clutch pitching as relievers Jake Rule and Michael Schwimer allowed four earned runs on six hits and turned a two-run lead into a two-run defeat. But don't blame Pat McAnaney.

NCAA Tournament Notes: Missed Opportunity
The next 15 hours will leave many Virginia baseball fans to wonder at what point did it all go south? Was it Patrick Wingfield's double error in the sixth? When Virginia stranded runners on the corners in the same inning? Some other pivotal moment? Whenever it was, the Hoos let a prime opportunity slip away when they were just six outs from advancing. Now, they have to face Oregon State one last time in a "winner take all" scenario on Tuesday.

JHoo: 2007 Slotting Decisions
If there is one question that I simply am unable to avoid answering on the boards, it is "Where would you slot this guy?" Like a moth to a flame, a sailor to the call of the Sirens, or Mikeysurf to a post about the offensive line, I simply am unable to resist the temptation. So when The Sabre asked if I wanted to put together a quick article on the subject of slotting as it relates to the incoming class, the answer was a foregone conclusion. While the decision on Peter Lalich is obvious, a few positions may surprise you. Let's dive in.

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