What A Wahoo Weekend

Wow! What a weekend!

When it comes to being a Virginia fan, few weekends line up like April 23-25, 2010 did for the Hoos. UVa won three ACC Championships, swept baseball and softball series on the road, reeled in a football commitment in recruiting, and saw a former football player join the pro ranks as a high NFL Draft choice. That's an impressive list of accomplishments no matter how you slice it.

The ACC Championships have drawn most of the attention on The Sabre's message boards. And why not? The title runs by the men's lacrosse, men's tennis, and women's rowing teams pushed the year's total to seven for Virginia! That's a post-expansion record for the conference. Tennis coach Brian Boland's thoughts on his team's title reflects what winning the league means to teams.

"This is always a great accomplishment," Boland said. "We always have great respect for the ACC and all the programs across the league. The depth of the conference now is stronger than ever, so to win this title is just as meaningful as the first one we won back in 2004. I am proud of the guys and how hard they have worked all year. We have had goals for this team, and this was one of them, and we are now looking forward to the NCAA Tournament."

The rowing team's title marked an interesting milestone for Virginia athletics as well - by winning the ACC Championship on Saturday, the rowers gave UVa its 100th ACC title.

"Our focus was to get the ACC Championship back and the kids did a great job with that," Virginia coach Kevin Sauer said. "For us to win our 10th title and the 100th in school history, that is very cool to be part of that. To see kids work so hard for something of substance and then have success is very gratifying as a coach. Hopefully this is a stepping stone as the season continues."

The athletes winning conference titles this weekend was only part of the excitment for the Hoos, though. The track and field team added to the historic weekend with a 4x800-meter relay win at the 116th Penn Relays. Robby Andrews, Alex Bowman, Lance Roller and Steve Finley ran to Virginia's first relay title since the Cavaliers won the 4x120 yard shuttle hurdle relay in 1943.

"To say I'm proud is an understatement," coach Jason Vigilante said. "The amount of commitment and patience these guys put into this race is just phenomenal and I know this is a moment that each of them will remember for the rest of their lives. To me, there is no more special track and field meet than the Penn Relays. I'm grateful to be here with such an outstanding bunch of young men."

Another person that will remember the weekend as a special one is football player Chris Cook, who was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft as the 34th overall selection. That made him the highest drafted defensive back in Virginia history (Lester Lyles, second round, 40th overall pick, 1985, New York Jets). Cook's selection came on Friday.

"It was one of the teams I figured had their radar on me, and I was hoping I was going to go [there]," Cook said. "When I saw they traded out of the first round, I wasn't really sure what pick they had in the second round. When I saw they had the second pick in the second round, I thought, 'Ok, yeah, hopefully my phone rings, and it has that Minnesota area code.' I was just excited. I've been nervous all day and excited at the same time, a lot of mixed feelings going on."

Fans also received a bonus moment of football excitement Sunday night when UVa picked up its seventh commitment on the recruiting trail. DeMatha's Jordan Lomax joined the Cavaliers list of commitments.

Like I said, wow what a weekend!

Kris Wright
Editor, TheSabre.com

This Week In Recruiting
By Chris Horne

Virginia picked up two more 2011 class football commitments last week. The first commitment came from Hermitage (Richmond, VA) defensive end Diamonte Bailey, a 6'3.5", 220-pound prospect that amassed more than 50 tackles including nine sacks last season as a junior. Bailey committed to the Cavaliers on the same day he was offered, choosing UVa over an offer from Marshall and other interest from ACC schools.

In a story that broke on TheSabre.com on Sunday night, DeMatha Catholic (Hyattsville, MD) cornerback Jordan Lomax also committed to head coach Mike London and company. Lomax, a 5'11", 185-pound junior, started at cornerback for head coach Bill McGregor last season. In addition to Virginia, Lomax had earned offers from Illinois, Louisville, Maryland and New Mexico, but McGregor believes his standout would've drawn interest somewhere in the 10 to 15 range had he not committed early.

Lomax has excellent speed and is being recruited as a versatile defensive back that could play corner or safety.

Virginia now has seven high school junior commitments, including one running back (soft commit Clifton Richardson), one wide receiver (Adrian Gamble), one offensive lineman (Ross Burbank), one defensive end (Bailey), one defensive tackle (David Dean), one cornerback (Lomax) and one safety/linebacker (Matthew Bailey). Of the commits, four are from the state of Virginia, one is from Maryland, one is from North Carolina and one is from Louisiana.

Bailey and Gamble committed prior to London's arrival and have stuck with their commitments. London's new additions come from areas the staff is emphasizing, including the state of Virginia and the Maryland/D.C. area.

We'll continue to hit the 2011 recruiting trail this week. Stay tuned for updates on Ashbrook (Gastonia, N.C.) linebacker Zeek Bigger and Butler (Matthews, N.C.) linebacker Kris Frost. Both players claim offers from Virginia. Frost, an athletic and versatile prospect, plays for one of the Tar Heel state's top high school football programs in Butler.

A standout defensive lineman at Holy Cross (Flushing, N.Y.), Chris Brathwaite is not sure which position he may end up playing in his freshman season at the University of Virginia. Brathwaite, who now stands at 6-1 and weighs 270 pounds, attended Virginia's Spring Football Festival and discussed potential positions with the Cavalier coaches.

"I'm hearing anything from defensive end to defensive tackle to middle linebacker," Brathwaite said. "I've played on the defensive line, so if I move to middle linebacker I'd have to learn the position. It would be work, but I'll do what's best for the team. They want to put me where I could get on the field the fastest."

Brathwaite enjoyed a taste of what his life will be like in just a few months. He expects to arrive in Charlottesville on July 7 for summer school and a month later will begin preseason practice with the team. For more from Brathwaite, check out The Sabre EDGE this week.

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 ...

UVa Scores Commitment #7
Virginia football may have a new head coach, but the success continues at nationally regarded DeMatha Catholic (Hyattsville, MD). This evening, the Cavaliers landed another recruit from Bill McGregor's highly regarded program.

Bailey, Burbank Discuss Commitments
UVa's football program has picked up two solid commitment in the past two weeks, from offensive lineman Ross Burbank and defensive end Diamonte Bailey. The state of Virginia duo took some time to discuss their decisions.

Diamonte Bailey Accepts Virginia Offer
Hermitage (Richmond, VA) junior defensive end Diamonte Bailey scored an official scholarship offer from the University of Virginia earlier today and it didn't take long for him to accept. This evening, the 6-3, 220-pound prospect became the sixth high school junior to commit to Virginia's 2011 class.

More recent recruiting updates on The Sabre ...

• Funderburk Updates Recruiting
• The Latest With Top LB Travis Hughes
• Dinwiddie's Marshall Discusses Favorites
• UVa Still Leads For Independence RB

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Blog Banter: Shamel Bratton Finds Shooting Touch

The Good Ol Blog featured a Shamel Bratton post this week. Check it out ...

After the Duke and Virginia swapped unanswered scoring runs throughout the first half Saturday night, the dust settled with UVa leading 6-5 at intermission. Shamel Bratton led the first-half scoring with 2 goals. For Bratton, finding the cage twice in the first half helped snap a low-scoring stretch in ACC play. He had just one goal against Maryland and did not score against UNC (1 assist). It didn't take long at all to find the netting against the Blue Devils; Bratton scored at 13:57 in the first quarter on the first shot of the game.

"Coming off a game like that where I felt like it wasn't my best to say the least, just getting out here and getting my confidence early, that kind of played into the rest of the game," Bratton said. "I don't think I shot the ball as much as I could've, but usually you watch the film and see where you can get some back."

Indeed, Bratton took just 3 total shots in the game and he scored on both of the ones that were on-goal. Of course, it's hard to take shots if the offense doesn't have the ball. The Blue Devils dominated the face-offs and groundballs in the second half, leaving Virginia scrambling on defense and in hurry-up mode on offense. UVa took just 11 shots after intermission, less than half the 23 attempts it created before halftime. The result, as anyone that follows the Hoos knows was another loss to Duke, this time by a 13-9 score.

"It's really difficult when they're winning groundballs and keeping such long possessions," Bratton said. "Especially as an offensive player, you want to get out there and you're down and you want to get back in it. But at the same time, you have to get a possession where you can give your defense a little rest. They did a good job possessing the ball and getting long possession and capitalizing - that was the biggest thing, they were getting long possessions and scoring goals at the end of them."

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Issue No. 386 - March 23, 2009

Ambrose Gives Up Football

Virginia's Mark Ambrose, who redshirted in 2007 and then moved moved over from tight end to linebacker in 2008, has ended his career at Virginia due to recurring shoulder problems. Ambrose played multiple positions at Mount Carmel Area High School and earned a 3-star rating from Rivals.

Ambrose remains enrolled at UVa.

"The continuing issues with both of his shoulders have caused him to have to give up football," Cavalier coach Al Groh said. "It's unfortunate. He was making nice progress and had a great attitude and really practiced well on occasion last year. ... The doctors felt that even with more surgery, there was no guarantee that it would fix the situation and would perhaps put his long-term function of his shoulders in jeopardy. It was an unfortunate decision that collectively we made, but it was the obvious decision to make."

Check Out SabreMail #386.

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 soon:

• Baseball/Lacrosse/Tennis: The Sabre covers some of the Hoos' most successful teams as well as anyone. Stay tuned to the site!
• Softball: The Sabre takes a look at the softball team as it tries to grab the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament bid.

In Case You Missed It ...

Sabre articles since the last SabreMail

Rowing Eyes Postseason Success
The window of opportunity for the Virginia women's rowing team to win the National Championship likely will not close anytime soon. The Wahoos have finished in the top four at the NCAA Championships eight times in the last 13 years, and have won nine ACC Championships in the last 10 years. On the other hand, the team knows that the proverbial window is not often quite as open as it is this year.

Hagans Gets Another NFL Shot
"That dadgum number 18," as former Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden once so artfully put it, is getting another shot with the Washington Redskins. Marques Hagans, a 2006 Virginia graduate who played quarterback and receiver for the Cavaliers, signed with the Redskins on Monday for the second time in 14 months. With the NFL Draft beginning Thursday, TheSabre.com caught up with Hagans for an exclusive interview as he continues to seek his chance in the pros.

A Closer's Life: Bouncing Back Required
Kickers and closers are a lot alike. Two teams battle for two or three hours. It's now the kicker or closer's job to come out and decide the outcome. What happened in those previous three hours, in some ways, is irrelevant. The fans will talk, the radio talking heads will squawk and the writers will write about what you do in these brief moments. "Blown saves are definitely a tough thing because you know your team is counting on you to get the job done and you let everybody down," says former Cavalier and the ACC record holder for career saves Casey Lambert. "But I think that's what separates closers from other pitchers because typically a closer is someone that's going to be able to bounce back and not harp on something for too long."

On Target: Carroll's Shot Helps Propel Hoos
Brian Carroll's shot is a lot like a cannon blast. Load, crank it back, crow-hop, and let it fly. On second thought, however, a cannon ball is an imperfect description. Carroll's shot is far too accurate for that. Like former Cavalier Matt Poskay, in fact, it's darn near automatic for the UVa men's lacrosse team.

10 Things I Learned ... Spring Practice 2010
If there is one thing I have learned over the years, it is that you only learn so much from spring practices. But what can emerge from spring practices are some general principles of how things will be done and how the staff and players might go about doing them. Themes, if you will. And this spring, like others, there certainly were several themes that emerged over the course of time. Here are 10 of them.

Duff, Kalkstein Lead Hoos 'Home'
If the players from the Virginia women's lacrosse team could pick any league venue to play this week's ACC Tournament other than Klockner Stadium, a safe bet would be on Maryland's Ludwig Field winning the vote. That's because all five fourth-year seniors, including Tewaaraton Award candidates Kaitlin Duff and Brittany Kalkstein, are from Maryland. In fact, 12 players on the Cavaliers' roster are from Maryland, the most of any state on the team. So really, at least half of the Hoos are headed home for what they hope is a long weekend of ACC Tournament success.

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