Author: Amelia Delphos

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Hoops springs eternal

Head Coach Tony Bennett enters his 13th year with the men’s basketball program. Since 2013, his teams have won five ACC regular season titles, two ACC tournament titles, and a national championship. Photo: Matt Riley / UVA Athletics

Buddy Boeheim goes to the line. Virginia leads Syracuse by two, 29 seconds on the clock. Boeheim makes the first free throw. He makes the second. 69-69. A few seconds later, down at the other end of the court, UVA’s trusted floor marshal Kihei Clark pokes his way into the paint, and whips a pass out to freshman Reece Beekman. Beekman hasn’t made a shot all day. He’s zero for five. But now, with time running out, he’s only got one option: He drains the three as the buzzer sounds. 

Beekman sprints down the court, his teammates chasing him and jumping for joy. The UVA men are headed to the quarterfinals of the 2021 ACC men’s basketball tournament.

Or so they thought. As soon as the celebration ended, news broke that someone on UVA’s team tested positive for COVID. The Cavaliers were disqualified from the conference tournament and, a week before the NCAA tournament, were sent back to Charlottesville, where they weren’t allowed to leave their apartments or dorms, and were unable to practice. 

The disruption doubtless contributed to the upset that followed: The Hoos secured a 4 seed in the tournament, but fell 62-58 to 13-seed Ohio in the first round. It was an unceremonious end to the Cavaliers’ impressive season, going 18-7 overall and 13-4 in the ACC, winning another ACC regular season championship. 

In the offseason, the bad news piled up. The program lost three players to the transfer portal, freshman Jabri Abdur-Rahim and sophomores Casey Morsell and Justin McKoy. Trey Murphy III, Sam Hauser, and Jay Huff headed to the NBA, leaving Tony Bennett with a bare roster.

But, not for long. In addition to four-star recruit Taine Murray of New Zealand, the Hoos landed two big transfers: Jayden Gardner and Armaan Franklin. 

Gardner, the 6-foot-6, 246-pound senior forward from East Carolina University, averaged 18.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 35.2 minutes per game in 2020-2021. He also shot 47.9 percent from the field, 50 percent from beyond the arc, and 73.7 percent from the line. He was named to the American Athletic Conference first team and the National Association of Basketball Coaches District 24 first team. On a team that doesn’t return a single double-digit scorer from last year, Gardner will be expected to carry a lot of the offensive load.

Franklin, the 6-foot-4, 204-pound junior guard from Indiana University, averaged 11.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game in the 2020-2021 season. Further, he shot 42.9 percent from the field, 42.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 74.1 percent from the line. If Franklin doesn’t start to begin the season, expect him to come off the bench pretty quickly.

The team still has three veterans from the 2018-2019 championship team, all returning for their fourth year and likely to make an impact. The diminutive Kihei Clark is the team’s elder statesman, entering his senior year as a regular starter. Last year Clark averaged 9.5 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game. He made the All-ACC third team in 2019 and was an honorable mention in 2020.

The team’s other veterans haven’t played as much thus far in their careers. Kody Stattmann, the 6-foot-8, 200-pound guard started 10 out of 24 games his sophomore season but only played four games in the 2020-2021 season due to a non-COVID-19 related cardiac issue. In those four games, Stattmann shot 58.3 percent from the field and averaged 3.5 points and 1.8 rebounds per game. 

Francisco Caffaro, the 7-foot-1, 242- pound redshirt junior (and an Olympian with Argentina this summer) is ready to take the reins at center. He’ll have big shoes to fill—literally—with the departure of Huff. Caffaro played less than seven minutes per game across just 17 appearances last year.  

Another notable returning player is Kadin Shedrick. Shedrick didn’t see much of the floor in 2020, but the 6-foot-11, 231-pound forward had an impressive showing in the Pepsi Blue-White Scrimmage in October. He also scored a career-high 12 points and pulled down a career-best eight rebounds versus St. Francis last December. Expect Shedrick to start.

UVA’s disqualification from the ACC tournament and disappointing finish in the NCAA tournament left a bad taste in the mouths of Wahoo faithful, but this year, the Cavaliers are ready to compete and win. They open the season ranked 25th in the AP poll. We all know what happens when UVA plays with something to prove.

A UVA women’s basketball team full of fresh faces will look to veterans like graduate student guard Amandine Toi for leadership. Photo: Matt Riley / UVA Athletics

The 2020-21 season didn’t go great for the UVA women’s basketball team. In fact, it barely went at all. The team was hit hard by injuries and COVID complications. After just a few games, Head Coach Tina Thompson was down to six eligible players, and the program decided to call off the season entirely after an 0-5 start. Heading in to 2021, there’s nowhere to go but up. 

Thompson, a WNBA hall of famer from her playing days, enters her fourth year in charge of the Cavaliers, without a winning season under her belt, and she’ll have a roster full of fresh faces to work with. Virginia landed five transfers this offseason: Eleah Parker, McKenna Dale, Camryn Taylor, Taylor Valladay, and London Clarkson. 

Parker is a graduate transfer from the University of Pennsylvania and two-time Ivy League defensive player of the year. The 6-foot-4 forward averaged a .485 field goal percentage, 8.4 rebounds per game, and had a total of 233 blocks over three seasons at Penn. 

Dale is another graduate transfer from the Ivy League. In her 2019-2020 season at Brown (the Ivy League conference opted out of competing during 2020-2021 due to COVID), the 6-foot guard ranked third in conference for points per game (17.0), second in three-point percentage (.385), and first in free throw percentage (.851).

UVA also added two transfers from Marquette, a team that went 19-7 last year before losing to No. 1-ranked UConn in the Big East tournament final. Taylor, a 6-foot-2 junior forward, averaged 12 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game during her 2020-2021 season at Marquette. She was named to the 2019-2020 Big East all-freshman team and was a 2020-2021 All-Big East honorable mention. Valladay is a junior guard who averaged 5.2 points and 1.8 assists per game for the Golden Eagles last year.

Virginia’s last transfer is Clarkson, a 6-foot-2 junior forward from Florida State. During her 2019-2020 season at FSU, Clarkson averaged 1.2 points and 1.4 rebounds, and shot 43.8 percent from the floor in an average of 7.5 minutes per game. Clarkson transferred to UVA last winter and received eligibility waivers from the ACC and NCAA, but the season was canceled before she had a chance to play. 

Key returning players include Amandine Toi, a graduate guard who played in all 30 games of the 2019-2020 season. She shot 32.1 percent from beyond the arc that year, and averaged 4.3 points and 1 rebound per game. And she started hot in the abandoned 2020 season, hitting five threes in a career-best 23-point performance against Clemson. She toppled previous personal records in the five games of the 2020-2021 season, setting a career record of 23 points against Clemson, including five three-pointers. 

“We have a full roster, so that is like ‘woo-hoo!’” Thompson said in a press conference at the ACC media day earlier this month. “That’s a blessing in itself.” Thompson said she’s looking forward to this season’s depth and versatility, something she says is a luxury she hasn’t experienced at UVA yet.

Thompson’s offseason recruiting didn’t end with the transfer portal. She also recruited two-time NBA champion and former NBA assistant coach James Posey to her staff. 

“Coach Posey is what we call a purist,” Thompson said in a press release. “He loves all aspects of the game and has played it at the highest level. He brings a championship mentality, a wealth of knowledge, and a teaching spirit, with development being his specialty and passion.”

Posey worked as an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2014-2019 and has held various coaching positions around the league since. He won NBA championships with the Miami Heat in 2006 and the Boston Celtics in 2008. 

With a reshaped roster and revamped staff, the Cavaliers are sure to improve on last year’s showing. After all, they really couldn’t be worse. 

First week action

Men

vs. Navy,
Tuesday, November 9, 9pm

vs. Radford,
Friday, November 12, 7pm

Women 

@ James Madison,
Tuesday, November 9, 7pm

vs. USC,
Sunday, November 14, 1pm 

Faces in the crowd

After playing last season in front of a tightly monitored friends-and-family-only crowd, this year’s UVA teams will have the support of a full John Paul Jones Arena behind them. All fans must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to enter the building, and masks are required. 

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Hoos ready

Coach Bronco Mendenhall has high hopes for this year’s UVA football team. Photo: Matt Riley/UVA Athletics.

This Saturday, the Virginia Cavaliers will return to a full-capacity Scott Stadium for the first time in almost two years. The team will face considerable opposition if it wants to repeat its ACC Coastal Division-winning 2019 performance: Most preseason polls have UVA finishing fifth of eight teams in the Coastal, trailing UNC, Miami, Pitt, and Virginia Tech. UNC and Miami in particular boast strong, star-packed rosters.

But for the Wahoo faithful, there’s plenty of reason to believe. The Cavs handled the tumult of the pandemic remarkably well in 2020, winning four of their last five games to finish the season at 5-5. And heading into 2021, the roster has quite a few players who were a part of the memorable 2019 season, which saw Bryce Perkins lead the Cavaliers to their first ACC Championship appearance in program history. 

On offense

UVA will shine on offense this season. The 2020 unit averaged 30.7 points per game, the first time UVA has averaged more than 30 points per game in the ACC. Quarterback Brennan Armstrong, the 6’2″, 215-pound redshirt junior from Shelby, Ohio, will lead the charge. Armstrong threw for 2,117 yards and 18 touchdowns, and was the Cavaliers’ leading rusher with 552 yards in 2020. He also threw 11 interceptions, more than competitors like UNC’s Sam Howell (seven) and Miami’s D’Eriq King (five). 

Armstrong is one of seven returning quarterbacks in the country with a ProFootballFocus rating over 90. With spring and summer training curtailed by COVID in 2020, he struggled to find rapport with his offense, especially in the early part of the season. After a full season as the starter and a full offseason of work, Armstrong should be better than ever come fall. 

The secret to UVA’s success this year will be keeping the team’s signal caller healthy and out of harm’s way—which is where the Cavaliers’ offensive line comes in. The OL has six key linemen returning: Olusegun Oluwatimi, Ryan Nelson, Chris Glaser, Ryan Swoboda, Bobby Haskins, and Joe Bissinger. Although the starting five have yet to be announced, it’s safe to say that Armstrong has experienced men protecting him.

A good quarterback is nothing without quality receivers and running backs, and luckily Armstrong has plenty. Senior Keytaon Thompson, who serves as a back-up quarterback and wide receiver, returns for the Hoos after rushing 39 times for 234 yards and three touchdowns, and catching seven passes for 98 yards and three TDs. Senior wide receiver Billy Kemp IV is a solid option for Armstrong as well, after rushing 644 yards and securing one touchdown in 2020. Kemp will also be the team’s starting punt returner. Big man Lavel Davis, Jr. made waves last season with 20 receptions for 515 yards and five touchdowns before tearing his ACL. Davis was originally slated to return in November, but in a recent press conference Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall teased a potential earlier return. Dontayvion Wicks, who was out last season due to injury, and Ra’Shaun Henry, who racked up 206 yards and four touchdowns in 2020, are valuable options for Armstrong as well. 

The Cavaliers have three play-making running backs available to start: senior Wayne Taulapapa, sophomore Mike Hollins, and senior Ronnie Walker, Jr. Taulapapa returns for the Hoos after rushing for 395 yards in 2020. He’ll look to add to his 17 career touchdowns. Hollins opted out of the 2020 season but secured three touchdowns in 2019. Walker ran for 66 yards in four games after transferring from Indiana halfway through last year. 

At tight end, Armstrong has an exciting new target to aim for: Jelani Woods, a 6’7″, 275 lb transfer from Oklahoma State. When he arrived at UVA, Woods selected the number 0 for his jersey, because, Woods says, 0 is the number of people who can stop him. Now that’s the right attitude. 

On defense

The secondary will make or break the season for UVA. In 2020, the defense struggled, in part due to injury, giving up an average of 442.9 yards per game (10th in the ACC), 6.4 yards per play (14th in the ACC), and 29.6 points per game (ninth in ACC). The defensive backfield allowed 304 passing yards per game, which ranked last in the ACC and 123rd out of 127 FBS teams. 

On the bright side, last season’s Hoos finished fourth in the ACC in rushing yards allowed per game, sixth in sacks with 32, and sixth in interceptions with 11. These aren’t extraordinary numbers, but at least the team has a foundation to build on entering the season. 

Nick Jackson is the linebacker to watch. As an inside linebacker, he earned a spot on the all-ACC Third Team in 2020 after leading the Hoos with 105 tackles on the inside (ranked sixth nationally) and averaged 10.5 tackles per game (second in the ACC). Jackson was named to the preseason watchlist for the Butkus Award, which goes to the best linebacker in the country.

Senior safeties Joey Blount and De’Vante Cross are ready to rectify the mistakes of last season. Blount, an all-ACC performer in 2019, missed time in 2020 due to an injury but still managed one interception, one forced fumble, and a sack. Cross started all 10 games in 2020 and finished the season with 29 tackles, two interceptions, one sack, and six passes defended. 

Joey Blount, who was injured for half of last season, is making up for lost time as a “super senior,” one of eight UVA players who is taking advantage of an extra year of eligibility. Photo: Matt Riley/UVA Athletics.

Senior cornerback Nick Grant is aided by the addition of grad transfer Anthony Johnson. Grant had 31 total tackles (25 solo), one forced fumble, and two interceptions in 2020. In 2019, Johnson had 27 total tackles, six points defended, three forced fumbles, and one interception at Louisville. 

The defensive line is filled with experienced returning starters: Mandy Alonso, Adeeb Atariwa, Aaron Faumui, and Jahmeer Carter, plus freshman Bryce Carter, UVA’s highest-ranked recruit for 2021.

De’Vante Cross, another super senior, started all 10 games for the Cavs in 2020, and finished the season with 29 tackles, two interceptions, one sack, and six passes defended. Photo: Matt Riley/UVA Athletics.

ON the competition

The Cav’s opening game against William & Mary should get the team off the mark with a win. After that, things quickly get more difficult: UVA has September road games against the season’s two highest-ranked ACC opponents, UNC and Miami. Both programs boast star quarterbacks: UNC starting passer Sam Howell is on the watchlist for the Heisman, and dynamite Miami quarterback D’Eriq King returns for the Hurricanes after tearing his meniscus and ACL. 

The Hoos have a dismal record on the road in recent years. They went 2-3 on the road in 2019 and 0-4 in 2020. Even so, UVA has beaten UNC for the past four years, including last season with Howell under center. 

Miami, however, is a different story. UVA has lost to Miami on the road three times in the past four years. The Cavs beat Miami in 2018, when the Hoos and Hurricanes met at Scott Stadium, where UVA was able to pull off a three-point victory. Despite a stacked offensive roster, the Cavaliers may need a miracle to win at Miami on September 30.

Later in the season, UVA can look forward to a tough home game against highly ranked Notre Dame, and a tricky matchup against Pitt in Pittsburgh on November 20. Then on November 27, Virginia Tech comes to town, and UVA will attempt to win the Commonwealth Cup for just the second time in the last 18 seasons. 

It’s the million dollar question, isn’t it: Will UVA beat Tech? The Hokies shouldn’t be any great shakes this season, coming off a three-year run where the team accumulated a 19-18 record. Quarterback Braxton Burmeister had an injury-riddled, inconsistent season last year before leading Tech to victory over UVA in the annual November matchup. The Hokies lost their best offensive lineman and running back to the NFL, but added a transfer from Clemson along the defensive line. 

With any luck, a jam-packed Scott Stadium crowd will cheer the Hoos as they topple their arch rivals in November. We can dream, can’t we?

Home sweet home

The Cavaliers are 16-2 at home over the last three seasons. They’re 6-13 when playing away from Charlottesville during the same stretch. That home-field advantage should continue this season, as Scott Stadium will be open to its full 61,500-seat capacity to start the season.

Old friends

UVA Class of 2019 star quarterback Bryce Perkins has impressed in this year’s NFL preseason—Perkins threw for more than 450 yards and three touchdowns over the course of the Los Angeles Rams’ three preseason games. The Arizona native went undrafted in 2019 and spent 2020 on the Rams’ practice squad, but now looks set to enter the season as L.A.’s third-string passer.

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They’re back

The graph above shows that UVA cases among students, staff, faculty, and contract workers spiked at the beginning of each semester in the 2020-21 school year. Photo: UVA.

This week, more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students descended on Charlottesville in preparation for the first week of UVA’s fall semester. The two largest spikes in COVID cases in the city occurred during the first two weeks of the fall semester in 2020 and the first two weeks of the spring semester in 2021.

Despite this, UVA is anticipating a “normal” semester. Students were required to submit proof of vaccination by July 1. Currently, 96.6 percent of UVA students are vaccinated, including 97.1 percent of students living on Grounds. Of those students who are unvaccinated, 335 permanent waivers were granted to those unable to receive a vaccination due to medical or religious reasons, and 184 temporary waivers were granted to students unable to be vaccinated over the summer but who intend to get vaccinated as soon as they return to Grounds.

UVA made headlines this week when it announced that 238 students, less than 1 percent of enrolled students, had been disenrolled for failing to meet the vaccination requirement. Of those 238 students, only 49 were enrolled in classes. According to UVA spokesman Brian Coy, the university reached out to these students multiple times before they were disenrolled.

If the students want to return to Grounds, they have until August 25 to comply and re-enroll for fall semester. Students may also choose to return in the spring, but only if they complete the vaccination requirement.

Students were not the only members of the UVA community required to be vaccinated this fall. All faculty and staff were expected to be vaccinated by the start of the fall semester. Currently, 92 percent of UVA’s academic division is fully vaccinated, including 96 percent of teaching and research faculty. 

However, it is unknown how many contract workers, such as those in food service, on the custodial staff, and in child care centers have been vaccinated. Because the workers are contracted through third-party companies, the university cannot require vaccinations for these workers. On September 1, an executive directive from Governor Ralph Northam will go into effect, requiring contractors to disclose their vaccination status to their employers.

Everyone entering a UVA property is required to wear a mask indoors unless actively eating or drinking or when alone in an enclosed space like an office until September 6. Masks are not required in common spaces in residence halls, but they are required on buses. Unvaccinated students, faculty, and staff are required to take a weekly COVID test and wear a mask when indoors, outdoors, and in common spaces.

“The entire community—faculty, staff, and students—is responsible for enforcing the masking requirement,” says UVA spokesman Wes Hester. “It is a shared responsibility. If necessary, disciplinary action would be contemplated for repeat offenders or anyone who refuses to comply.”

Some students have petitioned for the school to continue the regular prevalence testing that it conducted last year, especially after a raft of false positives among Rice University students sent a wave of panic through the higher education world. 

“In the event of new cases and clusters, we plan to implement targeted prevalence testing to mitigate further spread,” Hester says. “Unvaccinated people who are on Grounds will be subject to at least weekly prevalence testing.”

Employees, faculty, staff, and students who work in or enter UVA Health properties, the medical school, nursing school, or Health Sciences Library are required to log their symptoms in UVA’s Hoos Health Check app every morning.

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You’ll never walk alone

UVA’s new app, Rave Guardian, is designed as a one-stop safety resource for students. Supplied photo.

This fall, UVA will debut a new app, Rave Guardian, designed to help keep students safe on Grounds.    

The app is a one-stop shop that allows users to read safety alerts, locate phone numbers for SafeRide, Dean on Call, and CAPS on Call, submit tips to the school’s Just Report It tip line, anonymously text the university police department, and call 911. The app also has a virtual escort feature, where users can invite trusted people to virtually walk with them when they’re walking alone. 

The Rave Guardian app was developed by a third party and sold to organizations that want to provide safety resources for their people. (Other customers include Cornell and the University of South Carolina.) The app came with an upgrade to UVA’s emergency alert software and costs the school’s emergency management office around $7,800 annually. Downloading the app is not required for students, but it is encouraged. Users will need a virginia.edu email address to log in. 

According to Sergeant Ben Rexrode of UPD, the app is anonymous. UPD does not know who is using the app unless the user allows, such as identifying themselves when reporting a tip. Rexrode did clarify that in an emergency situation, the police are able to ping users’ locations, just like when someone calls 911. 

“We’re not able to gather data off of it, or anything for our personal use or gain,” Rexrode says. “We’re really just trying to offer it to the community for larger community safety.”

Student safety is a concern among students, parents, faculty, and staff alike. On June 29, a woman was sexually assaulted after falling off a scooter near the UVA medical center. On July 3, a woman was raped in the area of 14th Street NW and Grady Avenue, a popular residential area for students. 

Abby Palko, director of the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center at UVA, says the app looks promising. “I think safety tools that empower students, particularly women, and empower them to feel confident moving across Grounds are important,” she says.

“At the Women’s Center, we are huge fans of having multiple options for students,” Palko continues. “The issues that we work on and engage with students on are really big, complex issues, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to them.” 

Palko points out that due to the pandemic, 75 percent of undergraduates this fall will have never completed a full year on Grounds. Many students, women especially, share their locations with others while walking at night, but new underclassmen may not have people  they trust enough to track them in Apple’s Find My Friends app or Snapchat Map. The new app’s virtual walk feature could help in those situations. 

“Something we try to discourage is traveling alone, especially at night,” says Rexrode. “As a student, you’re sometimes just going to be by yourself at night. It’s not realistic to say never walk by yourself.”

When asked whether there’s more the Office of Emergency Management and/or UPD could be doing to increase student safety, Palko says that safety is a community issue. She encourages people to think about how they move through the university and city, and how they might contribute to community safety. “It sounds corny but it really is on all of us,” she says.

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Accountability approaches

Susan Bro, photographed during a 2018 memorial for her daughter, Heather Heyer, who was killed on August 12, says she supports the lawsuit to hold Unite the Right organizers accountable. Photo: Eze Amos.

Last Tuesday, Integrity First for America hosted a program to remember August 11 and 12. IFA is a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that represents the plaintiffs in the upcoming Sines v. Kessler federal lawsuit, where August 11 and 12 victims are suing the organizers and participants of Unite the Right. The trial will take place in October and run for multiple weeks.

“A Call to Justice: Four Years After the Charlottesville Attack’’ was a virtual panel to update members of the public about the upcoming lawsuit and pay respect to victims and their families. The program featured community leaders, experts, and other partners involved in the lawsuit.

“This was the loss of my baby girl,” said Susan Bro, mother of Heather Heyer, the activist who was killed in the terrorist attack that day. “Those who were injured besides Heather need compensation for ongoing surgeries, ongoing trauma, ongoing difficulties caused by this.”

Although Bro is not a plaintiff in Sines v. Kessler, she said she supports the effort to ensure the organizers of Unite the Right are held accountable. She said Unite the Right was a “wake up call” to white America to realize the dangers of white supremacy. “We have much systemic change to make but this trial is definitely a step in the right direction.”

“Those memories will undeniably haunt me for the rest of my life,” said Elizabeth Sines, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Sines, a counterprotester, was in her second year of law school at UVA during the August 11 and 12 attacks. “I will never forget watching them [Nazis] attack my fellow students, or the feeling of running for my life through the streets I had walked with friends and family countless times before.”

Sines said she often gets asked why she showed up to counterprotest and why she decided to join the lawsuit. She said the answer to the two questions is the same: “I believe that the organizers of the Unite the Right Rally must be held accountable for the harm they’ve inflicted,” she said. “We’ve seen time and time again that without accountability, the cycle of violence, hatred, and misinformation continues and grows.”

Roberta Kaplan, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, talked about the importance of the lawsuit. Kaplan believes the court appearances will allow the American public to learn, for the first time, what really happened leading up to and during Unite the Right: what the groups were planning to do, how they went about it, and how they celebrated after the fact. 

“I believe it is so important for the American people to actually hear it and see it…with their own eyes, what really happened,” Kaplan said. 

Amy Spitalnick, executive director of Integrity First for America, spoke to the consequences the organizers have already faced before the trial. According to Spitalnick, Richard Spencer has called the lawsuit “financially crippling,” and other defendants have faced large financial penalties, jail time, and evidentiary sanctions. Some defendants have even talked about how this lawsuit has deterred them from participating in additional violent acts.

“When we go to trial this fall, we put these extremists on trial before a jury of Virginia residents who will finally hold them accountable,” Spitalnick said. 

The plaintiffs first filed the lawsuit in October of 2017, shortly after the attacks. The next year, the defendants moved to dismiss the lawsuit, but their motion was denied. “The Court holds the Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged the Defendants formed a conspiracy to commit the racial violence that led to the Plaintiffs’ varied injuries,” wrote Judge Norman K. Moon in an opinion at the time. 

Most recently, in June of this year, a federal court wrote that Unite the Right organizers had disobeyed a court order to provide evidence. The defendants “chose to withhold such documents because [they were] aware that such documents contained evidence that [they] conspired to plan racially-motivated violence at Unite the Right,” the court found.

A theme of the IFA panel was precedence: this trial will set a precedent to deter future individuals and groups from organizing something of this magnitude again. “We will follow you wherever you go,” Kaplan said. “We will bring lawsuits against you and we will make sure that you will never want to do anything like this again, because there will be consequences to it.”

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Mask on

A rise in coronavirus cases across the United States prompted UVA to reinstate its mask mandate last week. The university says it will re-evaluate the decision in September. Photo: Karen Blaha.

On Friday, UVA announced that all students, faculty, staff, and contract workers, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, will be required to wear a mask when on UVA property. The policy took effect at the beginning of this week, and the school says it’ll re-evaluate in September. The university made this announcement as cases of the delta variant surge across the country.

“This policy will allow us to start the year at full capacity and reduce the likelihood of a spike in cases driven by the delta variant and a coming together of students from many places,” an email from Executive Vice Presidents Liz Magill and J.J. Davis says. “Over the next few weeks we will be monitoring case counts, hospitalizations, and other conditions, with a goal of modifying or lifting this masking policy for fully vaccinated people by Sept. 6.”

Under the new policy, masks are required at all university-owned or leased public spaces like academic or administrative buildings, libraries, labs, dining halls, intramural/recreation facilities, and UVA Health properties. Students are not required to wear masks in dorms, and the policy does not apply to people alone in a closed space like an office. 

Additionally, all students, faculty, and staff are required to be vaccinated unless they have a medical or religious reason that prevents it. Those who are unable to be vaccinated will be required to undergo weekly testing and wear a mask once the temporary masking rule expires.

“The university has an obligation to protect its students and workers from COVID-19 beyond this temporary mask mandate,” Student Council President Abel Liu says, pointing to hazard pay,
asymptomatic testing, mental health resources, and readily accessible vaccines as other key initiatives for the school. “UVA is one of the wealthiest universities in the country, and these resources should be readily available for its students and workers.”

Other state universities—including Virginia Tech, VCU, and James Madison—have adopted mask mandates for returning students and faculty. The restrictions align with current recommendations from the CDC, which advise everyone to wear a mask indoors in public regardless of vaccination status.

The reaction to the new policy has largely been positive. “The pandemic isn’t over yet,” says Cheyenne Butler, a rising second-year student. “We still have multiple variants going around, and I think the best way to keep us safe—students and faculty and also the greater Charlottesville community—is to still wear masks.”

Liu agrees. He says that although most of the university community is vaccinated, only 61.6 percent of the adult population is vaccinated in Charlottesville. “With students pouring into UVA from all over the world, we must be mindful of the needs of Charlottesville residents. UVA students are guests in their city.”

Of course, the mandate is a reminder that much of the summer’s progress in combating the virus has slipped away. “I remember the first day when we could come into the office without wearing a mask,” says David Kittlesen, an associate professor of biology. “It was just joyful.”

After two and a half semesters and two summer sessions on Zoom, Kittlesen is excited for a return to in-person instruction. Last week he checked out the room where he is slated to teach first-year biology to over 400 students in the fall. “I pictured everybody there, no masks, and me without a mask,” he says. That’s not to be, at least at first. “With freedom comes responsibilities,” the professor says, “and this is a responsibility that we have now that seems reasonable to me.”

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From UVA to NBA

Jay Huff. Photo: Matt Riley/UVA Athletics.

Last Thursday, three UVA men’s basketball alums took the first step in their NBA careers. Trey Murphy III, the 6-foot-9, 206-pound guard, was drafted 17th overall to the New Orleans Pelicans, making him the 11th first-round pick from UVA and the ninth UVA player to be drafted under Tony Bennett. Murphy played at Rice University for two years before transferring to Virginia for the 2020-2021 season, when he averaged 11.3 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. Murphy was also the first NCAA Division I player to earn a spot in the esteemed 50-40-90 club (50 percent from the field, 40 percent from three, and 90 percent from the line) since 2017-18. 

As an undrafted free agent, Marquette transfer Sam Hauser agreed to a two-way contract with the Boston Celtics. The two-way contract means Hauser will likely spend his time playing for the Maine Celtics, Boston’s G-League affiliate, and hope that good performances earn him a spot on Boston’s main roster. 

Jay Huff, who was a part of the 2019 national championship team, also didn’t hear his name called during the draft, so he agreed to an Exhibit 10 contract with the Washington Wizards. The Exhibit 10 deal will give Huff the chance to potentially earn a two-way contract with the Wizards after participating in the team’s training camp.

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Looking good

Men’s basketball player Kihei Clark was among the first UVA athletes to announce a name, image, and likeness sponsor, partnering with apparel company Locker Room Access. In the above Instagram post, Clark takes a bathroom selfie while rocking a Locker Room Access hoodie—and former UVA teammate Trey Murphy comments to express excitement that Clark can “GET PAID.” Photo: Kihei.Clark/Instagram

The summer before her second year, Greer Gill planned to hold a field hockey camp at her former high school. Gill, a UVA field hockey player, teamed up with four of her closest friends—Division I field hockey players at various schools—to make graphics and marketing materials for their camp, all of which included their names and the universities they attended. Within five minutes of posting a flier to Facebook, one of Gill’s teammates texted her.

“Take that down right now,” the text read. “You could be suspended for a year for that.”

Gill didn’t realize that hosting a field hockey camp using her name and image was illegal under NCAA regulations at the time. If her teammate had not seen the flier, it is likely that Gill would have been reported and could have faced up to a year-long suspension.

Gill and her friends were forced to rebrand their field hockey camp as a camp led by five Division I field hockey players. 

“Money-making wise, I think we would have gotten a lot more kids if we could have said who we were,” says Gill.

Prior to July 1, NCAA rules prohibited Division-I student-athletes from profiting off of their names, images, and likenesses (NIL). Athletes were not allowed to so much as sell a T-shirt they had autographed. The stringent rules led to some serious consequences for high-profile athletes. In 2011, all-star Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor sat out his senior season after his decision to sign mini helmets and other memorabilia blossomed into a scandal. And former NFL running back Reggie Bush had his 2005 Heisman Trophy vacated after receiving benefits from a marketing agency.

In June, after a lengthy legal battle, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the NCAA’s policy was unfair, putting the organization in a position to pass an interim policy allowing college athletes to “benefit from name, image and likeness opportunities, no matter where their school is located,” according to an NCAA press release. The temporary policy will stay in place until federal legislation or new NCAA rules are adopted. (Since the change, Bush has publicly petitioned to get his Heisman back, to no avail.)

This doesn’t mean athletes are getting paid to play.  NIL rules allow athletes to work on their own to build their own brands and their own platforms. Sean Conway, a third-year on UVA’s swimming and diving team, says that activities related to the sport, practices, team meetings, and games or meets cannot be tied to endorsements.

“It’s really kind of up to us to be creative and figure out what brand deals work for us, and how we could go about tying that into our daily schedule,” Conway says. 

Conway says the new policy will be a gamechanger for college athletics, and especially for Olympic sports like swimming and diving. “It’s going to present an opportunity for these younger star swimmers to make a name for themselves,” he says. “[They can] provide themselves a nice little platform for when the big stage comes around.”

Olusegun Oluwatimi, a redshirt senior center on the UVA football team, shares a similar sentiment. “I’m just figuring out some ways to get myself out there,” he says. “Build my brand now so hopefully when I’m in the league there’s good opportunities.”

Not many UVA athletes have struck deals yet. Conway, for example, is waiting to figure out exactly how he wants to use NIL to his advantage. “I’m trying to find a niche,” he says. “Once I figure that out I actually might start taking advantage.”

Other athletes are wondering if the whole thing is even worth it. “As much as I would love to partner with someone and make a profit off of it or get free products, at the same time I don’t want to be annoying to a follower,” Gill says. “I’m a decent athlete, but I’m not like a professional athlete being paid for what I do. I do this for fun.”

But there are other ways athletes can use the NIL rule changes, besides promoting streetwear and supplements to their Instagram followers. Prior to the provisional ruling, athletes were not allowed to use their name at all, including outside of their sports—if their names were attached, student-athlete artists could not sell their art, musicians could not stream their songs, and entrepreneurs could not sell their products.

“They all had to give that up for the sake of maintaining compliance for sports,” Conway says. “Now that the opportunity’s there, that’s really exciting.”

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Books are back

Friends of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library is holding a warehouse book sale July 9-11, from 10am-6pm each day. Photo: Rammelkamp Photo.

“We have a book town,” says Peter Manno, manager of the Friends of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library. The group is excited to welcome community members into the former Northside Library building this weekend, for the first book sale Friends of JMRL has held since the onset of the pandemic last year. “The sales are a big part of people’s lives,” Manno says.

Friends of JMRL is a nonprofit organization that helps financially support the library system, and also manages the Books Behind Bars program, which ships requested books to incarcerated individuals throughout the commonwealth. 

Friends supports its mission through giant, biannual book sales that can bring in as much as $120,000. The sales have become a community staple over the years. Manno says he knows one volunteer who went to her first book sale in 1965, when she was in high school, and has been to every sale since.

Like everyone else, Friends of JMRL had to get creative when COVID shut everything down. The lockdown came right before its spring 2020 sale. “We were poised to have a sale,” Manno says. “We were full, we had our books out on the shelves ready to go, and had to close the doors and not have volunteers, not be taking donations.”

They did hold COVID-safe bag sales, where people could drive up and get a bag of five books for $5. They had some success, but the modified events couldn’t match the genuine article. “It was something to do and it was real good for us,” Manno says. “[We] moved some books, saw some folks.” 

Book donations reopened in November, and the organization was inundated right away. The group reached out to the Albemarle Square landlords, who gave them the old Northside Library space for book storage. (In the past, the sales have been held in Gordon Avenue Library basement.) 

This weekend’s warehouse sale, the first of its kind, will take place at 300 Albemarle Square Shopping Center on July 9-11 from 10am-6pm each day. It will be limited to 80 shoppers at a time, and most of the books will range in price from $1-$3. 

For repeat customers of the spring or fall sales, this warehouse sale will be a bit different. There will be no members’ preview night, and rare and specialist books will not be on shelves. “It’s going to be about 20 percent or less the size of our normal spring or fall sale,” Manno says. “It’s really a summer warehouse, general readers sale.”

If this weekend goes well, and COVID continues to fade into the background, the Friends of JMRL hope to have a full fall sale in early October. “We’re really hoping it can be as normal as pre-COVID as possible,” Manno says. 

Book donations have been suspended until July 15 in preparation for the warehouse sale, but beginning July 15, you can drop books off on the lower level of the Gordon Avenue Library. Once the regional library system is completely up and running again, donations will be accepted at any of the libraries. 

“We’re just looking forward to getting back to doing what we do,” says Manno. “See old friends, and some new friends.”

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Dog days

Darron Breeden does his thing. Supplied photo.

Darron Breeden lives a double life. During the week, he teaches business and IT classes to high school students. On the weekend, he stuffs his face. 

Breeden, an Orange, Virginia, native, is the nation’s third-ranked competitive eater, per Major League Eating. On July 4, he’ll be going for gold in the Nathan’s Famous July Fourth July Hot Dog-Eating Contest on Coney Island. When he’s not training and competing, he’s cooking up content for Darron Eats, his YouTube channel where the food challenges attract over 48,000 subscribers. (Recent videos include “40 HOT DOG SPEED RUN” and “PRO EATER VS. WOOD GRILL BUFFET.”)

Some of his students are impressed by his not-so-secret alter ego. Others, not as much. “If it doesn’t have to do with Fortnite, or whatever, it’s irrelevant,” Breeden says. 

Breeden finished second in Nathan’s hot dog competition (the “Super Bowl of competitive eating”) in 2020 and 2019. He’s also a two-time oyster-eating champion, and he holds the record for most cheese curds eaten in six minutes (5 lbs., 2 oz.) and fastest consumption of 48 Oreos and a half gallon of whole milk (two minutes, 28 seconds). 

Breeden became involved with the competitive eating community in 2015 while teaching English in Japan. He participated in a local restaurant’s challenge to eat a large helping of curry rice in 20 minutes. He beat the record—and kept at it, attempting other food challenges until he qualified for the hot dog contest in 2017. 

“I can’t speak for all competitive eaters, but I think competitive eating came to us, rather than us going to competitive eating,” Breeden says. “I used to be a bigger guy and I lost a good bit of weight. Even though I lost the weight, I didn’t lose the appetite.”

Not many kids dream of growing up and becoming competitive eaters. But for Breeden, competitive eating is more than pushing your body to the limit. “I love the competition. I also love the camaraderie. I’ve met a lot of great people through competitive eating,” he says. “And of course the food is great.”

According to his profile on the Major League Eating website, Breeden is “a six-foot-tall, guitar-playing, motorcycle-riding, weight-lifting crusher of food.” He’s 32 and weighs 165 pounds.

Given his stats, it’s hard to believe Breeden’s capable of putting away as much food as he does. “You’d be surprised. There’s a lot of different folks out there competing: bodybuilders, really small girls that are maybe 100 pounds soaking wet, a guy that formerly played basketball,” he says. “As long as you have an appetite, [competitive eating] is for all people, really.”

Like any athlete, training helps Breeden stay in shape. If he has a big  contest on the horizon, he trains specifically for that event, practicing by eating as much of that event’s food as possible within the allotted time. But for general stomach capacity upkeep, he eats large amounts of low-calorie food and tops it off with soda and water. 

“Two hundred calories of cabbage is still a crap-ton of cabbage,” Breeden says with a laugh.

As for his stomach, he claims he mostly feels okay after training or a competition. “I would say usually under 10 pounds [of food], I’m feeling all right. Over 10 pounds is a little rough,” Breeden says. “It’s kind of like that feeling you get after Thanksgiving dinner where you’re like, ‘Ah, I ate too much.’ It’s that times 10.”

Breeden will take the stage on Coney Island at 12:30pm on Sunday. “A bunch of people eating hot dogs on the Fourth of July,” Breeden says. “How much more American can it get?”