UVa Finishes Third In Directors' Cup Rankings

UVa Athletics Media Relations Official Release

Virginia finished third in the final 2009-10 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup competition for Division I schools. The final results were announced Thursday by the National Association of Directors of Athletics (NACDA). The finish is the best for the Cavaliers in the 17-year history of the Directors' Cup program. Virginia's previous best finish was eighth in both 1999 and 2009.

It marks the 17th consecutive year, since the program's inception, the Cavaliers have recorded a top-30 finish. UVa is one of 15 schools to rank in the top 30 of the final Directors' Cup standings in each year of the program's existence.

"Congratulations to our student-athletes, coaches and department staff for their hard work in helping our program achieve a ranking of third in the Directors' Cup standings," UVa Athletics Director Craig Littlepage said. "I also appreciate the continued support and dedication of our alumni, friends, faculty and University staff, and donors. Among our goals are to win conference and national championships and our standing in this year's Directors' Cup is a direct reflection of our ongoing effort to reach our 10-year goals for the department."

Teams or individuals in 21 of Virginia's 25 intercollegiate athletics programs advanced to postseason competition in 2009-10. UVa won three team national championships and three individual national titles. Virginia won NCAA titles in women's rowing and men's soccer along with a third consecutive ITA National Team Indoor Championship in men's tennis.

UVa's men's tennis doubles team of Drew Courtney and Michael Shabaz won the NCAA title in that event as did Robby Andrews in the 800 meters at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships and the women's rowing team's Varsity Four crew (coxswain Sarah Pichardo, Ruth Retzinger, Hunter Terry, Chelsea Simpson and Inge Janssen).

The Cavaliers also won a school-record seven Atlantic Coast Conference championships in 2009-10, the most of any league member. UVa won ACC titles in men's lacrosse, women's rowing, men's soccer, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's tennis and wrestling. Virginia has won 42 ACC championships in the last eight years, the most of any school in the conference during that period. The women's rowing title was UVa's 100th ACC championship.

Five different Virginia teams (baseball, men's lacrosse, women's rowing, men's soccer and men's tennis) were ranked No. 1 during the 2009-10 athletics year.

Editor's Note: The Sabre will be taking a closer look at Virginia's athletic teams over the course of the summer with a series of "State of the Program" articles.

This Week In Recruiting
By Chris Horne

Three more commitments and the Virginia football program is now up to 19 for the 2011 class. UVa stayed in the state for its latest three - Stone Bridge (Ashburn, VA) DE Rob Burns, L.C Bird (Chesterfield, VA) ATH Anthony Harris and St. Stephen's and St. Agnes (Alexandria, VA) LB/S Darius Lee.

EDGE subscribers can read much more on Burns and Harris and we'll have more on Lee this week. The latter, a 6-1, 205-pound rising senior, transferred to St. Stephen's and St. Agnes after attending Friendly High School in Fort Washington, Maryland, the previous year. A speedy prospect, Lee reportedly can run the 40 in between 4.5 and 4.6 seconds. At outside linebacker, he tallied more than 70 tackles including 15 tackles for loss in 2009.

Surely, with 19 commitments in the fold, there aren't a lot of spots remaining in this class. Later this week, we'll break down the class and take an overall look at what needs have been filled and where the staff may go with its few remaining scholarships. We'll also break down how many more spots may be available.

We'll also have more on 6-8, 260-pound offensive tackle Sam Marshall, a standout rising senior out of Chancellor (Fredericksburg, VA). Virginia scored running back Dominique Wallace in the 2009 class, so the program has had success recruiting this school. Marshall, who seemed open in an interview last week, is considering offers from Duke, Louisville, Marshall, N.C. State and Virginia. He visited UVa twice in the month of June and was scheduled to visit Duke and N.C. State this past weekend.

It wouldn't be a surprise to see Marshall commit somewhere soon this summer. Another prospect to watch out for is Cave Spring (Roanoke, VA) linebacker Michael Cole. The 6-2, 200-pound linebacker/safety likely will commit somewhere this month. Penn State and Virginia Tech are tough competition here, but at last check Virginia remained in the running. If anything happens, we'll be sure to let you know.

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 with Anthony Harris
L.C. Bird (Chesterfield, VA) athlete Anthony Harris committed to UVa on Friday while making an unofficial visit. The 6-3, 195-pound rising senior, one of 19 rising high school seniors to commit to the Cavaliers, took some time to discuss his decision and more in a "Q&A."

Hanson Seals Deal With Burns
Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Penn State, Rutgers, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia and Wake Forest offered Stone Bridge (Ashburn, VA) rising senior Rob Burns, but in the end the decision came down to ACC rivals BC and UVa. A phone conversation between Cavaliers defensive line coach Jeff Hanson and the 6-7, 230-pound Bulldogs defensive end sealed the deal for Virginia.

NBAPA Top 100 Player Capsules 2010
The NBAPA Top 100 Camp rolled through Charlottesville again this June and once again I had the opportunity to get an up-close look at some of the nation's elite high school basketball players. As always, I took down a ton of notes on players from point guard to center in an effort to familiarize myself and Sabre EDGE subscribers with some of the players that Virginia may be eyeing on the recruiting trail.

More recent recruiting updates on The Sabre ...

• Harris, Lee On Board With The Cavs
• Burns Is Commitment #17
• Manchester Star Updates Recruiting
• Malleck Getting Closer To Decision
• Terrell Focused On Senior Season
• The Latest With Eric and Blake Frohnapfel
• Cole Earns New Offer, Decision Coming Soon
• Brown Goes With Childhood Favorite

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Blog Banter: Reason No. 429 That London Gets It

I received word Tuesday that Virginia's annual "Meet The Team Day" and "Media Day" will no longer be rolled together in the frustrating way of the past. For those that don't recall, the combo-pack afternoon typically featured fans waiting in line to meet players at Scott Stadium while the media pulled several team members away for interviews. Considering the narrow time window for the player portion of the event, it was a frustrating way to conduct business for the fans and for the reporters.

Chalk this up as reason No. 429 that Mike London gets "it" where "it" means the relationship between the fans and college football and where "it" means the relationship between the players and the community that surrounds them. London said when he accepted the job that he expected his players to conduct themselves not just as premier Division I athletes, but as dedicated students and active community members.

The move is, of course, fan friendly as well. From the introductory press conference when he said he couldn't rebuild Virginia alone to one of the earliest marketing commercials for the program and ticket sales where fans were involved in the shoot, London consistently has tried to reach out to the fans. The scrimmage at ODU (a recruiting move as well), the VAF circuit, the Ladies Night Football 101 Women's Clinic, a Father's Day father-son camp, and so on have all been fan-friendly events. That doesn't even include general interactions with fans (check out this story posted by WESTENDH00 - note that this message board link will eventually expire).

The untangling of "Meet The Team Day" and "Media Day" is just another small step to re-enforce London's ideals for the program.

Blog Banter: UVa Releasing Fall Schedules

The schedules for Virginia's fall teams have been rolling out the last several days. The links to the news releases are below; make sure to check back to this post for the schedules as they come out.

• Cross Country
• Field Hockey
• Football
• Men's Soccer
• Volleyball
• Women's Soccer

Read more Hoo news on The Good Ol Blog.

UVa Football TV Series Continues

The "Virginia Football: The Building of a Program" television show's next episode airs tonight at 9 p.m. on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. It also will be posted online at VirginiaSportsTV.com and VirginiaFootball2010.com. The show airs each Monday on Comcast Sportsnet at 9 p.m. and is available online at VirginiaSportsTV.com on Tuesdays at 8 a.m. For more information, click here.

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Around the World of Wahoo Sports ...

• Virginia and UTSA Agree to Football Series: The Virginia football team will play a two-game, home-and-home series with the University of Texas at San Antonio starting in 2013. The Cavaliers and Roadrunners will meet Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013 in Charlottesville and UTSA will host Virginia at the Alamodome on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014.
• Virginia Wins Third Consecutive VaSID All-Sports Championship: The University of Virginia won 69.3 percent of its intercollegiate athletics contests in 2009-10 to win the 32nd annual Virginia Sports Information Directors' Association Division I All-Sports Championship. It is the 12th overall title for the Cavaliers, their third consecutive championship and their fifth in the last seven years.
• Five Cavaliers Named to All-ACC Academic Men's Track and Field Team: Five Cavaliers have been named to the 2010 All-Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Men's Outdoor Track & Field Team. Sophomore Kevin Anding, senior Alex Bowman, graduate student Steve Delice, junior Sean Keveren and senior Trey Miller have all been honored and are each making their first appearance on the conference's all-academic outdoor team.
• Agnello, Greenlief and Neuhauser Named to ACC All-Academic Golf Team: Virginia women's golfers Nicole Agnello, Lauren Greenlief and Whitney Neuhauser have been named to the 2010 All-Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Team as announced by the ACC.
• Will Collins Named to ACC All-Academic Golf Team: Virginia men's golfer Will Collins has been named to the 2010 All-Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Team.
• Quartet of Cavaliers Named to All-ACC Academic Baseball Team: Four members of the Virginia baseball team have earned spots on the 2010 All-ACC Academic Baseball Team. Neal Davis, Danny Hultzen, Branden Kline and Robert Morey each were named to the squad; Davis, Hultzen and Morey all are repeat honorees.
• Six Cavaliers Claim VaSID All-State Baseball Honors: Virginia was represented by six student-athletes on the 2010 University Division All-State Baseball team, as announced Tuesday by the Virginia College Sports Information Directors (VaSID). Danny Hultzen highlighted the state-high six UVa honorees by notching Pitcher of the Year honors for the second-consecutive season. Hultzen and outfielders Phil Gosselin and Jarrett Parker all were named to the first team for the second straight year. Pitcher Kevin Arico also was named to the first team. Keith Werman and Tyler Cannon were named to the second team at second base and shortstop, respectively.

For more Hoo news or to read full releases, check out Virginiasports.com.

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Issue No. 319 - Nov. 26, 2007

Virginia Honors Barber, Long by Retiring Jerseys

Official Release
UVa Athletic Media Relations

Chris Long and his family during his jersey retirement ceremony.

During separate ceremonies at Saturday's home football game against Virginia Tech, the Virginia athletics department retired the jerseys of former standout tailback Tiki Barber and senior defensive end Chris Long. Both players' jerseys will be displayed in the future at Scott Stadium along with the numbers that have previously been retired by six former players.

Barber completed his career in 1996 as UVa's all-time leading rusher with 3,389 yards. He was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year and the ACC Offensive Player of the Year in 1996 after leading the conference in rushing, all-purpose yards and punt returns.

Long has been a mainstay of the Cavaliers' defensive line throughout his career. One of the most dominant defensive ends in school history, he is fifth in the country in sacks this season and third among defensive linemen in tackling. A two-time team captain, he ranks eighth in school history in sacks.

Jersey retirement is a new level of recognition at Virginia to honor players who have significantly impacted the program and Long and Barber are the first football players to be honored in this way. Individuals recognized in this way will have their jerseys retired, but their number will remain active. Last November the UVa athletics department retired the jersey of basketball player Curtis Staples during the halftime ceremonies of the opening of John Paul Jones Arena.

Six Virginia players have had their uniform numbers retired and those numbers will not be worn again. Those numbers honor the most decorated players in the program's history, including Jim Dombrowski (73), Bill Dudley (35), Gene Edmonds (97), Shawn Moore (12), Joe Palumbo (48) and Frank Quayle (24).

Check Out SabreMail #319.

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:

• A Look Back At 2009-2010: The Sabre plans to take a look back at a historic sports year for the Hoos, who locked up a record third place finish in the Director's Cup.
• JHoo's Summer Reading: JHoo is taking a position by position look at the Virginia football team and the sixth article is due out this week!

In Case You Missed It ...

Sabre articles since the last SabreMail

JHoo's Summer Reading 2010: Offensive Line
We are halfway through the Summer Reading series and as a poster correctly pointed out last week, just about every one of the Summer Reading analyses could have begun with, "Subject to what the offensive line will do in 2010, here is an analysis of __________." Which now brings us to the offensive line analysis, for which the theme will be something along the lines of, "With regard to the offensive line, I haven't the foggiest."

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