The Virginia Cavaliers baseball team, which only returned three seniors, fell short of back-to-back national championships.
Photo: Jeff Lack/ICON SMI BAJ/Jeff Lack/ICON SMI/Newscom
Baseball
The year after their championship-winning season, UVA looked to repeat last year’s success. However, the Cavaliers faced the challenge of a young squad with only three returning seniors going into the 2016 season.
After a rough start against East Carolina, UVA picked up momentum winning eight of 10 games in the first half of March. Then the Cavaliers fell into a slump, losing eight of 11 games between March 26 and April 10, which included a 15-0 defeat against Louisville.
UVA lost to both Clemson and Wake Forest in the ACC tournament and turned their sights to the Charlottesville Regional to qualify for the College World Series. There, UVA defeated William & Mary 17-4, but then fell to East Carolina sending them to a rematch with the Tribe. William & Mary upset the Cavaliers 5-4, ending UVA’s season.
Golf
The UVA men’s golf team began play in September with the DICK’s Sporting Goods Collegiate Challenge Cup. The cup is a challenge between ACC and SEC schools, a competition between the two conferences. UVA led the pack of teams throughout most of the tournament and finished tied for first place with Vanderbilt, helping the ACC take down the SEC for the second time in three years.
In the ACC tournament, UVA finished the first day in third place but then slipped during the final two days of competition. The Cavaliers finished the ACC tournament in eighth place after going six-over-par across the three-day tournament.
Finally, in the NCAA tournament, UVA elevated their play and finished 22nd overall while Derek Bard finished 17th individually.
The women’s golf team dominated the ACC tournament, leading by at least five strokes through all three days. The Cavaliers finished the tournament 11 strokes above Wake Forest, the runner-up.
But the NCAA tournament did not prove to be so easy for UVA. The Cavaliers fell to Washington, the eventual champions, in the NCAA quarterfinals.
Tennis
The men’s tennis squad dominated the 2016 season with a 30-4 record. They finished with an 11-1 record in the ACC although lost 4-3 to Wake Forest in the ACC tournament final.
However, with their eyes pressed on the NCAA tournament, UVA entered the competition as the No. 1 overall seed. The Cavaliers swept opponents Florida and California in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively. UVA faced 11-seed Oklahoma in the final. The Hoos made short work of the Sooners as they cruised to a 4-1 victory and an NCAA title.
The women’s team also had a successful 2016 season with a 19-11 regular season record. UVA fell to top-seeded North Carolina 4-1 in the ACC semifinals.
However, in the third round of the NCAA tournament, UVA and UNC met again. This time the Cavaliers conquered the third-seeded Tar Heels 4-2. In the quarterfinals UVA met Vanderbilt, the tournament’s six seed. The Commodores ended UVA’s season with a 4-2 victory.
Despite the loss in team play, senior Danielle Collins continued into the women’s singles tournament as a two seed. Collins defeated five opponents to reach the championship match against top-seeded Hayley Carter of North Carolina. Despite the underdog title, Collins dominated Carter, winning in just two sets. This championship was Collins’ second NCAA singles title in three years, making her the seventh woman ever to win two NCAA singles titles.
Rowing
The UVA rowing team dominated their season, winning the ACC championships and finishing third in the NCAA tournament.
Lacrosse
The typical dynasty of UVA men’s lacrosse broke this year. The team struggled through the regular season, finishing with a 7-8 record, failing to qualify for post-season play. Although UVA has one of the toughest lacrosse schedules in the country, their 0-4 ACC record was shocking to the program. The Cavaliers’ long-time head coach, Dom Starsia, left the program after the regular season and Lars Tiffany, former player under Starsia’s guidance, will take the reins for the 2017 season.
The women’s team performed slightly better with an even 9-9 record. In the postseason, UVA narrowly lost to Duke 9-8 in the ACC quarterfinals. Then, UVA fell to Johns Hopkins 12-10 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Softball
The UVA softball program suffered a tough 18-33 season as the team failed to produce runs. A low-scoring offense was the cause for the Cavaliers’ difficult season. UVA failed to reach the post season, finishing third to last in the ACC. The Cavaliers named Joanna Hardin as their new head coach for the 2017 season.
Swim and Dive
The men’s swim and dive team finished the ACC tournament in sixth place. However, in the NCAA tournament, the Hoos exceeded expectations and placed 28th overall.
A typical contender, the women’s squad dominated the ACC tournament with 1332.5 points and a first-place finish. In the NCAA championship, UVA finished fifth overall while Georgia took home the title.
Outdoor Track and Field
After a typical regular season, the men’s track and field team finished in third place in the ACC tournament. The Hoos then finishing eighth overall with 20 points in the NCAA championship meet.
As for the women’s team, they started out the ACC tournament in first place but slipped to fourth by the end of the tournament, failing to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
UVA Baseball's Justin Novak brings his A-game to the Charlottesville Tom Sox. Photo: Amy Jackson
Justin Novak’s fingers were bleeding. A Band-Aid flapped uselessly from one of the cuts that had been pummeled for nine innings by balls thrown and hit hard to third base. The white knickerbocker-style pants of his UVA uniform were streaked with dirt. The stadium was almost empty and the lights were shutting off. He walked into the pressroom and sat down. He never mentioned his battered hands.
The Charlottesville Tom Sox are a new baseball team. In only their second year, they are still building a local following and an identity. This year they will start the season with an extra incentive for fans to come out and watch games. The Tom Sox will have Novak, a member of the 2015 College World Series-winning UVA baseball team. Wrapping up his second year at UVA, Novak excels as a hitter and a base-runner, and serves as a utility player who can play almost any position on the field. He was forged as a player in Tokyo, in the world’s most disciplined and challenging system of youth baseball.
“Practices from elementary school were from eight in the morning to six at night every weekend, so you’d have to pack a lunch,” Novak says. “Every weekend and Japanese holiday was filled with practice and repetition in baseball, unless there was a game.”
None of the American players whom Novak faces grew up on 10-hour baseball practices. It has produced a rare focus and discipline.
“My dad’s actually an American,” says Novak, in perfect English. “He’s from a small town in Illinois. But he was in the Air Force. So we were stationed in this place called Yokota Air Base until I was in eighth grade. Then he retired from the Air Force and he got a job with the [U.S.] State Department [in Japan].”
In an April 15 UVA home game against North Carolina, Novak played third base. That position is often called the hot corner, because so many balls from right-handed hitters head in that direction. He grabbed ball after ball from the air or off the ground and made perfect throws to get runners out. Each time, the same thing without hesitation. “Playing baseball in Japan, there’s a lot of emphasis on repetition,” says Novak. “Doing something right until you can’t do it wrong.”
Novak came up to the plate in the bottom of the third inning and swung at the second pitch. A line-drive went out to center field. He ran to first base. As the pitcher faced the next batter, Novak began creeping toward second base, preparing to steal. Four times the pitcher threw the ball to the first baseman, attempting to pick Novak off. Four times Novak dove for the base and beat the tag. He advanced to second base on a single and then ran for home plate on a double, barely beating the tag by the catcher, and scoring a run.
UVA baseball dates back to 1889. Its first game was against Richmond College (UVA won 13-4). Baseball gloves were in their infancy and most players still caught balls bare-handed, resulting in badly battered hands. In those days, there was no rotation of starting pitchers or a staff of relief pitchers to step in when a player was worn out. A team had one pitcher who threw every pitch of every game. Injuries were frequent, and most pitchers had short careers as they burned their arms out.
Justin Novak, a member of UVA’s NCAA Baseball College World Series championship team, will likely rotate between second and third base this season for the Charlottesville Tom Sox. Photo: Jim Daves, UVA Media Relations
Japan’s baseball history goes back almost as far as the United States’. An American ex-pat introduced the game in the 1870s. The rules are the same as American baseball, but the culture is different. American baseball has a reputation for being a somewhat relaxed sport. We call it our national pastime, whereas Japanese baseball is seen as almost a martial art and is connected to the ancient samurai concept of bushido, the way of the warrior.
“Japanese baseball is all built on pride,” says Novak. “It’s all internal. Even if you are a small player, you’ve got to be tough. Know the fundamentals.”
“A player like Justin with a story like his, there’s nobody else like him in the league,” says Mike Paduano, director of operations for the Tom Sox. Players from the Japanese system rarely enter the American college baseball system.
The Koshien high school baseball tournaments in Japan are considered every bit as serious as major league baseball is in the United States. “High school baseball in Japan is really, really popular,” says Novak. “It’s televised, just like March Madness over here. They will have the TV on in the clubhouse and all the professional teams are watching their old high school compete in Koshien.” Novak’s Koshien experience has uniquely prepared him for the pressures of playing for America’s top-ranked college baseball team.
“It’s so serious that the coaches blow out the kids’ arms and stuff like that,” Novak says.
High school players may be asked to throw more than 100 pitches in a single day and then brought back to the field to do it again the next day. The intense demands on players at all levels of Japanese baseball lead to a high rate of injuries and shortened careers. Novak may be fortunate for being skilled at playing every position on the field except for pitcher. He arrived at UVA with two healthy arms.
“That’s what we absolutely love about Justin,” says Paduano. “This year, I’ve seen him play second base, third base, shortstop and catch. He’s a heck of an infielder because of his soft hands and his quick feet. I think he’s got a good range. I think between second base and third base is where we’ll utilize him a lot this year. We love his versatility.”
In the game against North Carolina, Novak came up to bat in the bottom of the eighth inning. The bases were loaded with two outs. The stadium erupted in cheers. The pitcher stared at Novak for a long time before a timeout was called. North Carolina’s players and coach held a meeting at the pitcher’s mound. A relief pitcher was brought in to stop Novak and end the inning. Two strikes and three balls were thrown. Then Novak hit a ball foul to stay alive.
On the next pitch, he slammed a ball by third base and a runner scored.
“I felt calm today,” Novak said after the game. “I was seeing the ball pretty well today, which was pretty awesome. When I get into two strikes I actually tell myself in Japanese, ‘You gotta win it. Katsu-sol, katsu-sol, katsu-sol.’ Which is, katsu means win. …Like, ‘I’m gonna win this, I’m gonna win this pitch, I’m gonna win this pitch.’ Growing up through a Japanese baseball system, I picked up a lot of slang. I think in Japanese a lot of the time.”
Novak struggled as a hitter in 2015 with a .100 batting average but is now batting .297. Anything better than .250 is considered good in the major leagues. (Batting .300 means that a player hits the ball on average three out of every 10 times he comes up to bat.)
“I started on opening day last year and I struggled a lot. I only had like six, seven hits, and I hit below .100,” he says. “Going through that struggle I learned a lot about myself. …It’s just really humbling knowing that sometimes you make mistakes and you just have to learn from it. Things don’t go your way all the time. I’ve definitely gotten mentally tougher.”
“I’ve watched Justin in 40 or 45 games this year and last year,” says Paduano. “And what he does best is just go 100 miles an hour all the time and give 110 percent every single time. He has this intensity. You can’t stop him.”
Novak, a rising third-year at UVA, honed his skills in the rigorous Japanese Little League system. Photo: Jim Daves, UVA Media Relations
The Tom Sox represent the return of summer baseball to Charlottesville after decades without either a minor league or summer college team. Long ago, Charlottesville was a big baseball town at certain times of the year. Before highways and planes made Florida accessible, the Boston Red Sox conducted spring training in Charlottesville, starting in 1901. The predecessors of today’s Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins also used Charlottesville for spring training in the early 20th century. UVA’s Lambeth Field hosted all of them, as well as other major and minor league teams that passed through to play exhibition games.
Novak didn’t think he had much of a chance of getting into UVA through the baseball program. “I visited, and honestly I didn’t think I was going to go here because they were ranked No. 1 at the time,” he says. “Surprisingly, they rolled the dice on me. I’m really thankful for the coaching staff for seeing whatever they saw in me. I’m trying to go out there every day and prove them right and just do whatever I can to help the team.”
UVA’s final exercises were last weekend, and the first Tom Sox game starts at 7pm on June 1. Playing at their home field at Charlottesville High School, the C-VILLE Weekly ballpark, the Tom Sox players will have been together for less than two weeks when they begin competing. But, unlike spring training for major league baseball, all the players will arrive fully tuned-up after months of playing college ball.
Three players from the 2015 Tom Sox team will return. A trio of pitchers, Brian Fortier, Josh Sharik and Zach Cook, was part of the inaugural 2015 team that came within one game of making it to the playoffs. And three Charlottesville residents will be coming home from college to play for their local team: Harvard’s catcher, Jake Allen, pitcher Michael Dailey of VCU and Liberty University outfielder Jack Morris.
Fan turnout for the Tom Sox’s inaugural season was solid. “We had usually at least 400 people at most games and sometimes we had a few thousand,” says Paduano. The bleachers were almost always near-full, and picnickers dotted the outfield. Elementary school-aged Little League players ran in packs with gloves, running to catch foul balls and crowding the exit from the dugout to ask for autographs. To a third-grader, these guys are heroes. Real baseball players whom they might see in major league uniforms before long.
When the Tom Sox take the field on opening day, for most fans it is just a baseball game. But for the players, the stakes are higher. The Tom Sox play in the Valley League, an organization dating back to 1897 that fields college players who are driven to hone and demonstrate their skills during the summer. Top-level college players hope to get drafted by major league teams. Otherwise, their playing careers will typically end after graduation. Major league scouts will likely be attending Tom Sox games incognito and looking for young players to sign.
With a batting average above the norm and a set of skills that can put him anywhere on the field, Novak might have a better chance than most at getting the attention of a major league ball club. But he says he tries not to look in the stands during games—his focus is on the game: Katsu-sol.
“That’s the dream, obviously,” says Novak. “That’s the reason why everyone’s playing right now. But I can’t get caught up in all the scouts and stuff like that. You just gotta try to live in the moment.”
Getting into character
One of the Tom Sox mascot interns dressed as Cosmo the Sheepdog and entertained participants at Relay for Life last Friday at Charlottesville High School. The baseball club’s prairie dog mascot will make its debut at the team’s home opener on Wednesday, June 1. Photo: Ryan Jones
On a recent Thursday evening, Joby Giacalone’s enthusiasm wasn’t dampened by the threat of rain at Charlottesville High School’s baseball field. “This is a very exciting time for us,” he told his summer interns, who were sitting in the bleachers with their parents. “We are on the ground floor of something that hasn’t been done before.”
That something is the creation of a mascot for the Charlottesville Tom Sox, the Valley League baseball team that will kick off its second season on June 1 against the New Market Rebels. With a couple weeks to go before the team’s prairie dog mascot makes its home opener debut, Giacalone has his work cut out for him: He will train two high school students in the art of mascotting—something the 54-year-old knows a thing or two about.
In the early 1990s, Giacalone earned his living as Dinger the Dinosaur, MLB’s Colorado Rockies mascot. He also worked briefly as the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets mascot, and was employed for five years as Homer the Dragon by the AAA Charlotte Knights baseball club. After retiring from professional mascotting in 1995, Giacalone moved to Charlottesville, where, in addition to taking an IT job at the University of Virginia, he served as the Cavman coach for several years. He also created Cosmo the Sheepdog, who appears at a variety of local events every year.
Cosmo performed at eight Tom Sox games last season, but “what we’re doing now is developing a character with the goal to teach,” Giacalone says. “I want to show our organization and the fans what having a true mascot—not one who stands around and shakes hands—can do for an evening of fun.”
After each game, he wants every person in the stands to say, “I can’t wait to come back.” According to Giacalone, the Tom Sox led the Valley League in attendance last season, with an average of 675 fans a night.
In addition to introducing the community to the team’s new mascot, Giacalone intends to “create an internship program that will be here 30 years from now; a place where people will come to learn and hone the craft that is sports mascotting. I hope [some of our interns] really aspire to continue to do this—it is not easy, and it’s not just putting on a costume and acting like an idiot.”
A few weeks earlier, Giacalone had set up a mascot recruiting table at CHS, hoping to interest curious students on their way to lunch.
“It smells like a sweaty sock in here,” said one after pulling on the massive dragon head Giacalone brought along. “Now gimme the paws!”
Giacalone complied, and then helped her attach a large dog tail, explaining that “a tail is fun because you can hit people with it.” Once suited up, the potential intern waded unsteadily into the noontime crowd, joyfully whacking anyone who got close with her newly acquired body parts.
“One of the reasons mascots never stop moving is because they’re like a cartoon,” an amused Giacalone explained.“If a cartoon stopped moving, it would just be a drawing.”
And then he opened his computer and shared an image of the Tom Sox prairie dog costume, which is still being fine-tuned. “This is version three,” Giacalone said. “The first one looked way too much like Yogi Bear. A prairie dog is a very unique character, and I knew going in that it would be a challenge in the looks department.” He said he wanted a character that is cute and “cartoony,” but doesn’t restrict the performer in any way: “A costume you can run around in.”
The prairie dog, who is being named via an online contest, will wear a blue Tom Sox No. 3 jersey (think third U.S. president). Giacalone told a small group of CHS students that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, while on their Thomas Jefferson-commissioned expedition, encountered the creature for the first time in Nebraska, and sent a live one home to the then-president of the United States.
Two of those students are now in the stands at the baseball field, listening as Giacalone explains that they will trade off working the 21 Tom Sox home games this season. The duo, who will remain anonymous until the final game when their identities are revealed, will entertain the crowd pre-game, participate in mascot-fan races around the bases and perform between a couple of innings at every game. When not in costume, they will assist the intern who’s working as the mascot that night, as well as learn about other Tom Sox-related jobs, such as ticketing, music and announcing. The prairie dog will also appear at functions and events throughout the year, to “keep baseball in the community’s mind,” Giacalone says.
“I love baseball,” he adds. “Every boy wants to be a major league player when he grows up. And I did wear a major league uniform during major league baseball games. But mine had a tail.”
Equipment manager Chris Moore says organization is key to keeping track of each piece of equipment players use, as well as managing practice and competition uniforms for the 250 student-athletes he assists. Photo: Amy Jackson
In the world of athletics, it’s often the coaches and players who receive the most recognition. They are, after all, the stars on the court or field or in the pool, the ones who are directing the flow of the competitions, making the winning shots or jumping further than their opponents. But they didn’t reach the top by themselves. Behind them on a daily basis is a strong support staff made up of assistant coaches, academic advisors, doctors, athletic trainers and equipment managers, to name a few. Meet five of these behind-the-scenes team members who are currently assisting the University of Virginia’s coaches and helping its student-athletes excel both on and off the field.
Chris Moore
Equipment manager, men’s baseball, softball, track and field, women’s soccer and volleyball
The black desk phone rings: It’s Rawlings again. UVA Athletics equipment manager Chris Moore already spent an hour on the phone with Rawlings employees earlier in the day, finalizing plans for new gray uniforms for the baseball team. The uniforms will be more traditional as opposed to the throwback style players are wearing now. And in about a month the team will switch to a new cream-colored uniform. Moore generally gets two to three calls a day from Rawlings, which he works with on not only designing new uniforms but in helping the company tweak new equipment for UVA’s baseball players to use.
The company approaches UVA, its No. 1 advisory school, with an idea of what it wants to make, then the student-athletes wear-test the equipment in the fall (the final products are issued in the spring). Student-athletes fill out forms electronically to give feedback about each product they test, and Rawlings follows up with Moore to get his overarching opinion. In the past year Moore flew to Japan twice to work with Rawlings on developing new batting gloves and bats.
“From the handle on the grip of a bat to the leather on the palms of batting gloves, it’s good to get our players’ feedback since we’re one of the top programs in the nation,” Moore says. “That way they have a sense of, ‘I helped create that.’ They can’t say, ‘This bat is bad,’ because they helped create that for two months.”
Another job perk other than flying to new countries is traveling with the teams to road games, meets and matches. Moore was in the dugout last year when the baseball team won its first national championship. He said the experience was unbelievable and that the win is still sinking in in a way—after all, there was plenty of work to do once they returned. During baseball season he estimates he works 60 to 70 hours a week between practices, games and everyday duties.
Reminders of Moore’s contributions to the baseball team’s success line a shelf above his desk: a glove Rawlings gave him after the baseball team won the championship and a jewelry stand hand wearing four rings: the largest being the national championship ring.
But baseball isn’t Moore’s only focus. He oversees the equipment and practice and game uniforms for about 250 student-athletes. He stays organized with multiple spreadsheets that track everything from what bat a baseball player is currently using, shoe sizes, jersey and T-shirt sizes (often different) down to which players prefer elastic waistbands in their pants. Moore also devised a labeling system with adhesive stickers on the back of sneakers. The stickers correspond to an athlete’s locker number, so if shoes are left on the field they can be returned. He estimates the track team goes through 500 to 600 pairs of shoes a season. One distance runner can need up to six pairs alone. In the matter of an hour three students stop by Moore’s office: one needs a new shorts size, another asks about getting a different kind of sock and the third wants the sports bra cut out of her singlet. Oftentimes he answers the student-athletes’ questions before they even ask—he can anticipate their needs.
The best part of Moore’s job are the relationships he develops with the players. He loves seeing them grow from 18-year-olds into strong student-athletes. His role is that of a parent or role model, he says, and he keeps in contact with a lot of them after they graduate.
“My biggest thing is that you treat others with respect and you just show these kids the right way to do things and how enjoyable college life can be as a student and an athlete, because they’re never going to get this time back,” he says. “They have four years to excel in the classroom and on the field and, hopefully, win a national championship. As a staff member it’s so gratifying to see that they’ve reached the top level, and they’ll always have that memory.”
Randy Bird
Director of sports nutrition for all UVA teams
Randy Bird, director of sports nutrition for UVA teams, says athletes need to eat a meal or snack every three to four hours to provide the fuel their bodies need for recovery. Photo: Amy Jackson
How did your position as the team nutritionist begin? How long have you held the position?
I accepted the position of director of sports nutrition at UVA in August of 2010. Prior to UVA, I was the sports dietitian at the University of Kansas.
What are some of the more important habits/knowledge you’ve tried to instill in the players?
Food is their fuel. They need to put the best fuel possible into their body. Athletes need to eat a meal or snack every three to four hours to provide the fuel their muscles need and the building blocks necessary for recovery. Athletes need to eat fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. The more stress athletes are under, the more produce they need. In addition, protein should be spaced out multiple times per day (preferably in four or five doses of protein-rich foods).
What are some common mistakes that you see athletes make in their diets?
Skipping breakfast. Inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables. Inadequate fluid intake. Recovery after training and competition is not taken seriously.
What are some things you look for when conducting an athlete’s nutrition assessment that can make an immediate impact on performance, health or recovery?
The primary factors I evaluate are normal hydration habits and total energy intake. Performance and health can be compromised if the athlete’s activity does not match the primary factors. Hydration affects performance quickly, so that is one of the first things I evaluate. If athletes under fuel during the day, they tend to overeat at night. This leads to decreased muscle recovery and increased fat storage.
Are food sensitivities something you are evaluating more often with athletes?
This is definitely an area that is getting more attention. As athletes are diagnosed with intolerances, we devise a plan to properly fuel the athlete and meet their micronutrient needs while avoiding problem foods.
How would you like things to continue to develop in the future in terms of what players put in their bodies?
I really like how athletes are becoming more food-focused. Athletes shouldn’t worry about what supplement to take until they have built their foundation on the right food and hydration strategies.
How can non-athletes embrace your ideas to live healthier lifestyles?
Realistically, everyone should be eating the same types of foods. The general public just needs less of it. Most are marginally active when compared to our athletes. So, the general public doesn’t need to consume the total number of calories that our athletes consume. However, the general public should focus on the types of food athletes eat and the patterns should be the same.
Blair Moore
Athletic trainer, women’s lacrosse
Blair Moore, with women’s lacrosse, says athletic trainers become moms away from home for the student-athletes. She’s on call 24/7 to help the players. Photo: Amy Jackson
No matter how talented a student-athlete is, injuries at the collegiate level are common. In her 12th year as the athletic trainer for the UVA women’s lacrosse team, Blair Moore most often sees ankle sprains, ACL tears and hamstring and quad strains.
“I’ve always loved sports, however, I’m not very talented,” she says. “So I knew I always wanted to do something that kept me close to athletics.”
Moore is in charge of injury prevention and rehabilitation treatment for the team, taking care of anything from a sore throat to a concussion. Practice days, which eat up a lot of Moore’s time, are when she takes care of details that never cross most fans’ minds.
“Starting at 1, we start getting girls ready for practice,” Moore says. “That means taping ankles, getting girls heat if they need it, stretching with them, getting them warmed up before practice. Then we practice for a few hours and then we’ll come back and it’s ice tubs, more stretching out, dealing with any injuries that came up in practice.”
Moore notes that in addition to these responsibilities, she is on call 24/7 for her student-athletes and accompanies them to the doctor or the emergency room at any hour.
“It is very rare, but probably two months ago I had a girl call me at 10pm with severe abdominal pain and we talked through it, and I asked her what she ate and when the pain started,” Moore says. “I called a general practice doctor and talked it through with him, called her back and talked to her again until the pain started to subside. We’re still the person that they call, whether it’s athletic or not.”
Moore jokes the athletic trainers take the place of “moms away from home,” overseeing every aspect of the athletes’ health.
“I talk to our nutritionist probably every day about food for a student-athlete,” she says. “If a student-athlete gets injured, I’m calling over to the academics office to make sure that they can get in touch with faculty in the classroom. …Even in just the equipment room, we’re talking with them about helmet fit.”
Although injuries are never a desirable outcome for a student-athlete, Moore says that helping a student rehabilitate after an injury is the most satisfying part of her work.
“There’s always some doubt in the students: Will I be able to go back? Will I be as good?” Moore says. “And to see the will in some of these student-athletes to face that adversity and overcome it is really rewarding, and that’s why I continue to do it. Seeing someone get back to play and be sometimes even faster or stronger than before is incredible.”
Adam Brooks
Assistant director of academic affairs, men’s tennis
Adam Brooks, assistant director of academic affairs for men’s tennis, says staff’s first priority is not winning championships but helping develop players for the future and where they want to go in life. Photo: Amy Jackson
In the world of college sports, it’s often easy to forget about the student in student-athlete. With multiple practices and games every week, it can be hard to imagine these young athletes also strive to excel in the classroom. But Adam Brooks, the assistant director of academic affairs for the Virginia men’s tennis team, knows full well how much academics factors into these students’ lives.
Growing up with a father who coached Division III football and baseball at Bluffton University, Brooks knew he wanted to stay involved in the world of college sports. After obtaining a teaching license and completing graduate school at the University of Akron, Brooks started work at the University of Virginia in 2009 with men’s tennis.
“I was kind of thinking of how I could blend these two fields,” Brooks says of the job search. “Education and sports, how can I put those together? And this seemed like a perfect fit.”
Despite the backseat that academics seems to take in college athletics, Brooks says the men’s tennis program at UVA is “all in.” When the team lost its first ACC match in almost 10 years February 15, breaking a 140 consecutive game-winning streak, the entire tennis staff discussed the loss at its regular 6:30am Tuesday meeting.
“I think it makes an academic coordinator feel important to be included in those conversations,” Brooks says. “For me, personally, it helps to hear the trainer talk about how a certain student is doing on the court because if he gets injured then I can know how that’s going to affect him academically. We all really want to know what’s going on with every aspect of a student-athlete’s life.”
Brooks’ main responsibility is to ensure that the men’s tennis players meet the eligibility requirements of the NCAA, such as minimum GPA benchmarks, but he stresses that the department’s goal is much higher than the minimum.
“Our own office goals are much more than graduation and much more than eligibility, and that’s definitely a benefit to working with the men’s tennis program,” Brooks says. “Our first priority is not winning championships, but developing these guys for life. We want to make sure that they know who they want to be and where they want to go in life.”
The NCAA requires an athlete to have a 1.8, 1.9 and 2.0 GPA by the end of their first, second and third years respectively. In addition to these benchmarks, athletes are also required to meet UVA’s graduation requirements, which include completing 120 credits and a major.
Although Brooks meets with many players weekly to make sure they are on track for graduation, he notes that head coach Brian Boland keeps the team highly self-motivated.
“Tennis had the highest men’s team GPA this past year [3.37] when they also won the national championship, and they also had the highest GPA in the athletics department that year,” Brooks says. “These guys are getting it done and that’s Boland—he’s not going to be okay with a guy who’s striving for eligibility requirements, someone who’s barely meeting a 2.0.”
With a high-achieving group, Brooks says he focuses more on getting to know his student-athletes and counseling them on how to approach issues in the classroom. Among other things, Brooks sets up organizational calendars with first-year students, holds mock office hours for students who are not sure how to approach a professor and helps students identify classes that interest them.
“I found a position at one of the best universities and towns in the country and one of the best tennis institutions in the country,” Brooks says. “The culture and the staff…we’re all of one mindset, and it makes it such a great culture to be a part of.”
Henrik Wiersholm
UVA men’s tennis player
An average day for Henrik Wiersholm looks like this: eat, sleep, tennis, repeat. As a second-year on the Virginia men’s tennis team, he has two practices a day and often travels for matches on the weekend.
He is usually out of the house by 8am and doesn’t get back until 12 hours later, when he finally gets started on his homework. If he’s lucky, he might squeeze in some time to hang out with friends.
His days on the road, though, are even longer—he often doesn’t eat dinner until 9:30 or 10pm. You won’t hear Wiersholm complaining about his busy schedule, though.
“I think that there’s a structure to what we do that makes it so that there’s not any time to procrastinate, you know?” Wiersholm says about his allocated homework time. “You have to put in the work. …Other students, when they don’t have that structure that a student-athlete has, they’ve got all sorts of time to do their homework and then it becomes a little bit different.”
Although Wiersholm admits that finding time for homework can be tough, he wouldn’t change anything.
“I love team practice,” Wiersholm says. “We come out, play points, compete against each other and, I mean, I love competing, so that’s the part of tennis that I like the most and the part of my day that I like the most.”
Daily schedule
7am: wake up
8 or 9am: individual practice
10am–3pm: class
3:30-6:30pm: team practice
and workout
7pm: eat dinner
8pm: start homework
11pm: go to sleep
Dr. John MacKnight
Professor of internal medicine and orthopedic surgery, primary care team physician and medical director of UVA sports medicine
Dr. John MacKnight, primary care team physician and medical director of UVA sports medicine, says one way they get injured student-athletes back in competition quickly is by working with them multiple times per day, so players derive the benefits of aggressive injury management and physical therapy from the moment they are hurt. Photo: UVA
How do you keep athletes healthy/get them back playing after an injury?
From a health standpoint, we focus on lots of preventive strategies. Great sleep quality, adequate hydration, well balanced, energy-rich diet. Adequate preparation physically involves consistent, well-devised training routines that ensure adequate strength, flexibility, balance and stamina to accomplish their athletic goals. No question that optimizing those parameters not only helps to prevent injury but speeds return from injury.
Are there any innovations used here?
The realm of strength and conditioning and injury prevention is always evolving and there are myriad theories about how best to accomplish those things. Core stabilization activities and a focus on functional muscle development that is unique for each sport (as opposed to just making everyone big) are really big concepts right now that clearly work for most athletes.
How do you get them back on the field/court so quickly?
We have the ability to see and work with our athletes multiple times per day, so they derive the benefits from aggressive injury management and physical therapy essentially right from the time they are hurt. Although some injuries require a fixed amount of time to resolve, regardless of what we do for them, many lesser injuries can be handled more quickly and can result in a more rapid return to sport without compromising the health and safety of the athlete.
What’s the first thing you do when assessing a player?
The first assessment is always about severity of illness or injury. Does this athlete have any features that make their presentation a true emergency? In the absence of that, which would warrant immediate intervention and transport to the hospital, I take a systematic approach to the history of the injury or illness, perform a focused physical exam of the affected area and decide upon immediate management as well as the athlete’s suitability to continue sport on that day.
You oversee all student-athletes on UVA’s 25 teams. Is there a player’s recovery story that stands out to you?
Two stand out this season. [UVA men’s basketball guard] London Perrantes’ return from appendicitis and [UVA football wide receiver] T.J. Thorpe’s return from a broken clavicle. Both are testaments to great care by my surgical and orthopedic colleagues and to the improvements in surgical techniques, which have allowed for far faster recovery times than in the past.
How many doctors assist a team?
We have an extensive staff of physicians who care for our athletes. It really does take a team of physicians to meet all of the needs of the student-athlete population. At UVA we have three primary care sports medicine physicians, four sports medicine-oriented orthopedic surgeons, subspecialty orthopedic surgeons, a team cardiologist and a host of other specialists who help us meet the varied demands of our athletic population. On game day, there are generally three to five physicians present to provide game management.
What is your area of specialty when you’re not with the teams?
I am a general internist and see primary care internal medicine patients in a separate clinic at the Fontaine Research Park.
Have a look at what's happening around town in this week's Living Picks. Photo: Ryan Jones
Nonprofit
Jimmy Miller Bracket Breakfast
Ralph Sampson, Barry Parkhill, Antonio Rice and Jay James return for the third annual bracket breakfast, which gives you the inside scoop on college basketball and benefits Piedmont CASA.
Monday 2/14.$125, 7am. Omni Hotel Ballroom, 212 Ridge McIntire Rd. bb@pcasa.org.
Health & Wellness
Sugar Hollow Three Bridges 5K and 10K
Sponsored by the White Hall Ruritans, the race starts on Sugar Hollow Road and is followed by a pancake breakfast. Proceeds aid in therestoration of White Hall Community Center in Western Albemarle.
C-VILLE's rendering of a tomcat dressed like Thomas Jefferson, one of the Tom Sox mascot options. Staff illustration
The Charlottesville Tom Sox, a team in the Valley Baseball League, wants fans to cast their vote for the team’s new mascot.
The mascot options, which were also suggested by fans, include the Declaration of Independence, a mockingbird, a prairie dog, a tomcat and a sock monkey.
A Declaration of Independence mascot would be called Indy and would look like the bill from the “Schoolhouse Rock!” cartoon, and the tomcat would be a “cougar-like cat dressed up like Thomas Jefferson in colonial outfits,” according to the team’s website.
Fans can go to the Tom Sox website to cast their vote and view the description of each mascot. The voting ends January 22.
The Tom Sox home field is the C-VILLE Weekly Ballpark at Charlottesville High School.
Dave Morris (who himself holds a 17-1 record, mainly from UFC-sanctioned events) opened the Charlottesville MMA Institute as a training ground for both amateur and pro fighters. A team of 20 in-house and visiting instructors hold black belts and champion wins in a variety of disciplines. Photo: 621 Studios
It’s 5:30pm and the gym of Charlottesville’s MMA Institute is alive with the leathery crackle of boxing gloves and the muffled, scuffle-thud rhythm and squeak of bare feet on padded flooring. There is the litany of sharp nasal inhalations and grunts as well as the barked instructions of a squadron of coaches. Housed in the back half of a warehouse on Greenbrier Drive, the gym consists of one large padded room—maybe half the size of a basketball court—that, but for a back wall equipped with a rubberized chain-link fence and another wall of torso-level mirrors, is reminiscent of a wrestling training facility. The institute features the largest team of both professional and amateur mixed martial arts fighters in the state (mixed martial arts is a full-contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques).
And on this night, despite the fact that these men arrived less than half an hour before, already there is the reek of hard, physical exertion. Sweat.
The fighters—eight amateurs and three professionals—are each paired with a partner of the same weight class (e.g. bantamweights ranging between 125 to 135 pounds), while five coaches watch every move. The men circle one another with focused intensity, only their eyes are devoid of any lust for violence; theirs is the gaze of an artist immersed in the calm seizure of the moment. Rather than angry, these men come off more like collaborators, like muscle-bound tango partners engrossed in a rehearsal for a high-level competition.
“The biggest problem facing the mixed martial arts scene is one of perception,” says 46-year-old Jay Colligan, a longtime gym member and promoter/ringside announcer for Charlottesville’s Main Street Arena Fight Night Challenge events. “People have this notion of MMA events as some kind of seedy, barely legal form of human cockfighting, and it’s just not true.”
Dave Morris, left, watches as Ginseng Dujour uses the flying-knee technique on his opponent, Carlos Martinez. Photo: 621 Studios
For the uninitiated observer, the combative nature of the sport can overshadow the deep mutual respect fighters on this level have for one another.
“Your opponent is like a mirror,” says Dave Morris, 45, owner of the Charlottesville MMA Institute and a former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter. “He reveals the flaws in your form…which should be viewed as a gift.”
In the far corner of the room, Ginseng Dujour, 30, and Carlos Martinez, 21,—two of the gym’s most promising fighters—are sparring. With his grizzled beard, mane of shoulder-length dreadlocks, gleaming skin and chiseled figure, Dujour demands attention. He is the room’s visual anchor. Martinez—a bit taller, baby-faced, padded by the slightest vestige of adolescent pudge—unleashes what is an astonishingly swift flurry of jabs. Ducking behind a shield of forearms, Dujour dances a retreat. Just before the jabs stop coming, as if anticipating the first flagging instant of their climax, Morris barks a command: “Knee!” Dujour plants his feet and with the terrifying agility of a big cat launches himself upward into the air, hurling his right knee toward Martinez’s chin. Although the blow does not land, clearly it catches Martinez off guard. Jolted, he’s forced to make an unexpected defense—a sort of cringing sidestep as fists and forearms seek to ward off the knee.
Clapping and smiling broadly, Morris intercedes, congratulating Dujour on his listening ability and flying-knee technique. He steps between the men and begins instructing Martinez on the flaw in his punch combo that made this potentially devastating counterattack possible. Meanwhile, grappling coach Ray Cadell has left his position leaning cross-armed against the padded wall to instruct Dujour on another potential option—the flying-knee strike was a risky gamble that could have ended disastrously—for deflecting Martinez’s onslaught.
“What you saw happening there was two-fold,” Morris explains later. “On the one hand, you saw a fighter exhibiting the ability to listen. Both of those guys are great developing fighters. But while Carlos is on the verge of being ready to go pro, Ginseng’s already there.”
Listening, Morris says, is a major indicator of a fighter’s readiness to make the leap from the amateur to professional circuit (a jump he compares to playing JV basketball versus playing in the NBA).
“When you’re fighting, you’re totally focused on your opponent,” says Morris. “Your corner can use his experience and visual advantage to exploit weaknesses. When you hear him make a command, you have to react instantly. No hesitation at all. That trust can be the difference between winning and losing a fight.”
The second crucial thing the Martinez and Dujour vignette reveals is the institute’s—and Morris’—philosophy of instruction.
“We have a team of instructors with a range of backgrounds broad enough to cover the spectrum of martial arts useful for this kind of competition,” says Morris. “The idea is, while my training leads me to approach a situation one way, a guy with a different background may come at it quite different.”
Fighters and coaches often cite the chess match metaphor. What makes the game—and this sport—so interesting is there is no fixed, predesignated approach. Participants have the ability to exhibit an astonishing array of styles, with many having little, if anything, in common with one another.
“The thing is, with such a broad range of fighting techniques available,” says Colligan, “while great fighters tend to master one particular form, they then augment that style with others, hoping that, in doing so, they reduce its inherent vulnerabilities, as well as enhance its various strengths.”
With each fighter commanding an incredible repertoire of stylistic fluency, any given situation—in Martinez’s case, a boxer-like attack—becomes the inspiration for an infinite array of possible defenses and counter-offenses. At the MMA Institute, a team of about 20 in-house and visiting instructors hold black belts and/or championship wins in disciplines ranging from judo, American freestyle karate, Brazilian jiu jitsu, sambo, Greco Roman wrestling and muay Thai.
“Rather than one solution to a given problem,” says Morris, “our guys are presented with a variety of options that can open doors to new technical possibilities.”
In the past, each school featured a master trained in one particular discipline, but MMA (and UFC) fighters must draw from multiple styles and schools to be competitive in the cage. How this shift occurred is key to understanding the MMA art form.
Through cultural migration, the advent of television and the Internet, martial arts forms that were once isolated to particular regions and cultures were made available to audiences that otherwise would have had no access. This process was bolstered by the popularization of mixed martial arts combat as embodied by the Ultimate Fighting Championship tournaments in the early ’90s, and had much to do with the efforts and successes of three-time UFC champion and hall of famer Royce Gracie (who helped found UFC). With the fights offered on international pay-per-view and heavily marketed to combat/contact sport audiences and Gracie being both a wildly entertaining fighter and an avid practitioner of Brazilian jiu jitsu, when he won the first, second and fourth UFC competitions, this fueled increased interest in the form. Suddenly, would-be fighters all began studying the technique, and gyms popped up en masse. As new fighters and champions emerged, historically or geographically obscure techniques such as muay Thai (a centuries old, hybrid version of kickboxing from Thailand), capoeira (a dancing, acrobatic technique purportedly developed and practiced on the sly by 16th-century West Africans enslaved in South America) surfaced.
Ginseng Dujour practices a hold technique with a spotting partner at the Charlottesville MMA Institute. Photo: 621 Studios
Mixed martial arts’ popularity increased steadily through the early 2000s, and when Fox Sports Media Group struck a deal to carry UFC and MMA fights in 2011 (on its FX, Fuel TV and Fox Sports Net networks), the sport exploded: In 2015, Fox Sports News reported an average viewership of 964,000 for its UFC preliminary fights, a 22 percent hike from the year before.
This newfound notoriety led to better conditions for up-and-coming amateurs (for instance, the widespread development and syndication of amateur fighting leagues with official rules—hence Charlottesville’s Fight Night Challenge), and better pay for professionals (for whom Morris says regional appearances pay around $500 for showing up plus $500 for a win; whereas, according to ESPN, UFC rates range from $10,000 for a beginning, entry-level fighter, to top-draws such as champion Georges St. Pierre’s $4-5 million per bout).
But, as Morris can testify, getting to this point was a long, hard climb.
“Back in the ’90s, fighting in a regional match meant you didn’t always know what you were getting yourself into,” says Morris. “It was kind of like the Wild West.”
Of the many horror stories, one details the time Morris showed up for a fight that turned out to have no rounds. While nowadays, an MMA main event or championship fight runs for a maximum of five, 5-minute rounds (with non-main events clocking in at three 3-minute rounds), when Morris arrived at one purportedly premium promotion, he discovered the championship bout was slated to run straight through.
“We fought for nearly 19 minutes straight!” he laughs, shaking his head. “It was insane. You talk about exhaustion!”
Elsewhere, similar discrepancies were occurring. This had much to do with the fact that, as the sport was still in its infancy and was just beginning to catch on, there was no officially sanctioned governing body to enforce a collective set of rules. As such, much like the early days of American football, a money-hungry promoter could easily lease a respectable-seeming venue, promise a classy event and put on what amounted to brawls.
“There were a lot of bad promotions,” says Morris. “You had to be careful. A lot of companies would put together good, reputable-looking materials, then round up street-fighters and throw them together in the ring.”
Of course, when matched against a master, these unsophisticated fisticuffers didn’t stand a chance.
“It was really a turn-off to see that kind of thing going on,” says Morris, whose own record was 17–1 while competing mostly in UFC-sanctioned events. “For a long time we did what we could, but it really helped things when the sport became popular, which led to the adoption of rules, an educated viewership and the creation of sanctioning bodies that could vet the fights.”
Still, there remained much room for abuse. After years of seeing phony promoters putting on bogus (not to mention dangerous) events, when Morris was approached in 2010 by Mike Stanley, owner of Louisa’s MMA Institute gym, and offered the opportunity to develop an amateur-just-on-the-cusp-of-going-pro MMA fight series—the Fight Night Challenge—with the new owner of Charlottesville’s Main Street Arena, Mark Brown, Morris leapt at the opportunity.
“What really made me want to do this was, just before Mike got in touch with me, I’d brought three of my amateur fighters to an exhibition up in Staunton,” says Morris, “and it was bad.”
By bad he means the promoter had Morris’ guys matched with barroom brawlers, some of whom showed up reeking of booze. As the whole point of an amateur fight is, for serious practitioners, gaining experience—i.e. getting a feel for being in the cage with a well-trained combatant, honing one’s skills and preferably getting a win yielding video footage marketable to pro venues such as the UFC—Morris was offended. He refused to participate in such a spectacle, packed up his guys and went home.
“With the arena we had the opportunity to build an event series from the ground up,” says Morris. “I’d been fighting and training fighters for going on 20 years,” and running the MMA Institute for eight, “and finally had the opportunity to do things the right way. Like, if you were going to make the most respectable, fighter-friendly environment possible, what would that look like?”
The first thing Morris did was ask Stanley to handle the matchmaking.
“The thing about matching amateurs,” says Cadell, “is you have to be able to put guys together who are [size-wise] pretty equally matched and have complementary or [comparatively] interesting skill sets. That’s what makes a fight entertaining to watch.”
With Stanley’s integration into the state’s fighting community, Morris’ reputation for integrity and their mutual knowledge of MMA, this meant the two could easily convince upper-echelon developing fighters to perform at the new venue.
In the beginning the FNC was to feature solely amateur fights, with plans to expand the event schedule to include professional state championship matches, but Morris wanted to make sure fighters were treated as professionals from the get-go. His reasoning was that, although they were amateurs, the kind of guys he wanted to attract were those who—like Martinez—were on the verge of making the leap to the big leagues. (Here, it’s useful to think of the FNC as roughly the equivalent of an upper collegiate-level venue where athletes hoping to attract a pro contract go to compete, with the major difference being that MMA amateurs can get sponsorships—from, say, a local car dealer, nutrition supply store or sports equipment dealership—and trade teaching classes at gyms for memberships, training sessions and other various perks.)
“Fighters should feel respected,” says Morris. “A venue like ours gives fighters the opportunity to gain experience and practice their craft.”
In effect, the FNC was conceived of as an extension of the smaller gym communities, a place where enthusiasts could tap into the bigger regional and state community while putting their skills to the test and readying themselves to compete in larger, professional venues in Richmond, Northern Virginia and beyond.
“We worked hard to create an atmosphere more akin to an Olympic event than a prizefight,” says Colligan.
Which brings us to the venture’s other integral component: It had to be family-oriented.
“Dave’s wife runs the desk, and sometimes his daughter,” says Colligan. “We have classes for 4-year-olds on up. We have entire families that come in together to train. When he retires, Ginseng”—a first-generation immigrant from Haiti—“wants to return home and found his own gym and create an extension of this community there. Above all, our gym is based upon family values.”
Morris wanted this vibe, this sense of an inclusive group camaraderie to be extended to the Fight Night Challenge, which attracts about 1,000 spectators to each event.
“We made it kid-friendly,” says Morris. “We try our best to book the kind of fighters that, if a kid walks up to them after a fight and expresses interest, they’ll smile at them and let the youngster know what the mixed martial arts are all about.”
–Words by Eric J. Wallace, Photography by Studio 621
In 2012, Kat Ditta was accused of biting an opponent during a highly anticipated soccer match and was, consequently, charged with misdemeanor assault and battery and given a 90-day suspended sentence. Photo by Martyn Kyle
In the summer of 2012, the co-captain of the Fluvanna County High School girls varsitysoccer team was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery and given a 90-day suspended sentence for biting an ex-teammate, who was playing for Western Albemarle High School in a heavily anticipated rivalry match.
Three years later, New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Coleman’s 60-page book, Crossing The Line: How One Incident in a Girls’ Soccer Match Rippled Across Small-Town America, recalls this controversial game by placing it in a larger context of what led up to it and what resulted, and asks readers to consider who, in the story, is the victim and whether there is more than one.
Taking the alleged biter’s side, Coleman focuses on the role of Greg Domecq, the now-retired associate principal of Western Albemarle who doubles as the father of the alleged victim. Though he says he had no biases before he began reporting for the book, Coleman says he learned from many sources that Domecq seemed obsessed with his children’s athletic careers and that winning was potentially more important to him than anything.
“My sense was that something terribly wrong had happened here,” says Coleman, who believes Kat Ditta, the alleged biter, “was the victim of something that had nothing to do with her,” and that she was just a competitive player in the way of the Western Albemarle Warriors winning the match, which they did. Coleman suggests that Ditta never actually bit Christine Domecq.
Ditta’s charges were ultimately nolle prossed (dismissed) at the Domecqs’ request, but she looks back on the negative impacts of her conviction and thanks Coleman for helping her realize that she had nothing to do with her own misfortune.
One of Greg Domecq’s former colleagues at Western, Lisa Marshall, who worked with him for many years, says she believes the book was unfair, and that Domecq has shown her documentation that refutes some of the accusations in Crossing the Line.
But Coleman contends his book couldn’t be more deeply reported, and not one person has come forward to dispute anything.
Repeated calls and e-mails to Greg Domecq were not returned. Marshall says he told her in a text message that he is sick of talking about the book.
Ditta, however, finally feels okay with talking about her experiences that stemmed from the controversial soccer match and costly court case, which included financial trouble and severe depression.
“It was mind-boggling,” she says. “You can keep yourself out of trouble through your entire high school career and end up in trouble anyway.”
At the time of her conviction, Ditta says she attempted to cut herself off from society by hiding in her parents’ basement. When she had to leave the house, she’d take her mom’s car instead of her 1995 bright-red Jeep Wrangler that people around town easily recognized.
To pay court fees, Ditta, family and friends hosted a cookout and also raised enough money on a crowdfunding site to go toward one semester at Virginia Wesleyan College.
“It was certainly detrimental,” Ditta says, “and going into college with a criminal record isn’t great.”
At Virginia Wesleyan, she played soccer until sustaining a sport-related injury sophomore year. Lynchburg College, for which Christine Domecq plays, is in the same conference, and the two teams met when Ditta was a sophomore and Domecq was a freshman. Though Domecq didn’t play in that game, she and her family were present, and Ditta says seeing the Domecqs “affected my game a little bit.”
With the publication of Coleman’s book, Ditta says she and her mother feel like her good name has been restored.
“I’m doing great now,” she says. “I’m a lot more confident than I ever was before. Once you’re put in the spotlight, you come out of your little bubble for sure.”
Updated September 2 — Kat Ditta was charged in June 2012 and her trial was in July. The original version said she was charged in July.
Updated September 4 — Greg Domecq is the now-retired associate principal of Western Albemarle, not the now-retired vice principal.
The SOCA girls, who are all rising high school freshman and sophomores, played teams from Italy, England and Australia. The SOCA U14 Elite boys team also traveled to the Adriatic Coast for the tournament.
Photo: Genger Borton
Five days after the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team won the FIFA World Cup on July 5, a group of young female soccer players from the Charlottesville area had an international victory of their own. The Soccer Organization of Charlottesville-Albemarle Elite U14 Girls won the Italy International Cup, a competition that brings youth players from around the world to compete.
After playing six games over the course of five days, the SOCA team brought home the gold July 10, defeating Italian team ASD Real Meda 1-0 in northern Italian town of Riccione. Team manager and parent Genger Borton, who traveled to Italy with the team, said the girls learned how tough it was to win on foreign soil, but defied the odds with their victory in the finals.
“In the championship game we were playing an Italian team and the girls had birth years in 1998. Our girls were born in 2000-2001, which can play a big size difference,” Borton said.“It was a super physical game but they played the best they had the entire tournament.”—C-VILLE writers
Local Andrea Dvorak will compete in the UCI Road World Championship. Staff photo
Richmond isn’t the only city that’ll be overrun with bicyclists when the Union Cycliste Internationale Road World Championships are held there this fall. Charlottesville will host the USA team camp before the September 19-27 event.
“We are preparing to welcome the world to C’ville,” said Virginia Tourism Corporation’s Joni Johnson at a June 4 press conference. The USA cycling team will arrive in Charlottesville September 9.
At the “camp”—actually Hyatt Place—the athletes will continue to physically and mentally prepare themselves while also meeting locals through hosted events and meet and greets. Bikers will be training on area roads.
About 1,000 athletes are scheduled to compete in the nine-day event in Richmond, joined by a collective support staff of about 600, about 1,000 journalists and other personnel, and 450,000 spectators, according to the competition’s website. The expected economic impact for the state is $158 million and Charlottesville will be getting a piece of that giant pie.
At the conference, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Chair Jane Dittmar said she expects spillover tourists to frequent Charlottesville, giving this part of the commonwealth a chance to shine. Charlottesville’s attractiveness to the team comes from the city’s energetic local bike scene that is supported by local bike shops, she said.
While cyclists will be coming in from all around the world, at least one Charlottesville rider will be competing as well. Crozet resident Andrea Dvorak is a professional cyclist who started a biking program at the Miller School with her husband. She suggests locals download Strava, a running and cycling app, that allows users to track USA cyclists’ riding and statistics as well as record their own.
The UVA baseball team in an early game of the 2014 College World Series. Photo: UVA Athletics/Dennis Hubbard
Exploding fireworks and Vanderbilt players dogpiling each other around the pitcher’s mound were the last images of the 2014 College World Series, and Virginia left TD Ameritrade Park dejected, but not disappointed, as the baseball program’s most successful season in school history came to a close in a 3-2 loss in game three. Vanderbilt’s win gave the Southeastern Conference its fourth baseball championship in six years, while the Atlantic Coast Conference has not shared that glory since 1954.
Despite impressive offensive outings in the first two games of the championship, Virginia only managed two runs and five hits—all singles—against a trio of Vanderbilt pitchers who together struck out 11. The Cavaliers mostly outplayed Vanderbilt in the first two matchups, but the decisive winner-take-all game had a definitive result.
“Unfortunately in sports, somebody’s going to come out on the wrong end, and we came out on the wrong end tonight,” said coach Brian O’Connor in a press conference after the game. “But I can tell you, I’m so proud of every member of this team, of every coach. We had a special season, and it’s unfortunate how it ended, but we played a great ball game and the competition was good. The University of Virginia baseball program will be back here in Omaha at some point, and maybe the next time we can win it all.”
With the game tied 2-2, Vanderbilt center-fielder John Norwood crushed a 97-mph fastball over the left-field fence off Virginia’s star reliever and the 19th overall pick in this year’s MLB draft, Nick Howard. The Norwood home run was the first Howard allowed all season and the only of the series.
Down 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Cavaliers put themselves in striking position with the bases loaded and one out, but they could not capitalize and score a single runner as the inning ended with consecutive groundouts.
Finishing runner-up in the 2014 College World Series will likely be the last college baseball memory for UVA’s seniors as well as the juniors who were recently drafted, and sophomore left-fielder Joe McCarthy expressed how he wished they could have experienced winning it all in their last game. “It’s just a bad feeling, looking around [after the game] and seeing some guys that you may never play with again,” he said in the postgame presser, “when you wish you could have sent them off with a win and a national championship. But it just came down to us not getting those hits tonight.”
As close as the Hoos got to reaching the ultimate college baseball achievement, the team recorded a school-record 53 win season and progressed further in the CWS than any previous UVA team. The Cavaliers opened the season ranked number one and hardly faltered on their way to their first CWS Finals and a second-place finish nationally. They were greeted warmly by roughly 1,000 fans upon returning home to Davenport Field in Charlottesville for an end-of-season ceremony.
While the overwhelming emotion for the Cavaliers was dejection following the loss, McCarthy was able to keep perspective on the team’s historic season. “Even though we came up a little short today, I’m extremely proud of what me and my teammates and coaches have done this year,” he said. “But we’re still motivated to make it back next year.”
