Veteran sportswriter Doug Doughy provides this college sports round-up. Previous coverage:
- Family tree hard to miss in Roanoke College lacrosse.
- German football player at North Cross gets Virginia Tech offer.
- The numbers speak for Clark as he stays at UVa.
* * *
The Roanoke College men’s lacrosse team was awaiting an Old Dominion Athletic Conference playoff game with Shenandoah on Tuesday at 7 p.m. when word circulated that the Shenandoah bus had broken down on Interstate 81 near Harrisonburg.
It would take more than an hour before a new bus arrived from the Manassas area. According to Shenandoah sports information director Scott Musa, team parents, who had travelled on their own, were able to make overnight accommodations in the Roanoke Valley.
“They probably had a traveling party of 40 to 50 kids and coaches that have spent money to get there and they’re ready to play, even though they’re late,” Roanoke athletic director Scott Allison said. “You do everything you can to try to get the game in until it appears you’re in unsafe territory.”
The opening faceoff was moved back to 9 p.m. and the game had been in play for several minutes until lightning flashes could be seen in the distance and players from both sides were directed to leave the field and take cover.
The game subsequently was moved to noon Wednesday and the Maroons, who were leading 4-1 at the time the of the suspension, went on to win 20-8 heading into a date with Lynchburg in a Friday night ODAC semifinal in Lexington.
“We tried to pick a drop-dead time [Tuesday] where we thought we could get back out on the field and still finish the game without playing till 4 o’clock in the morning,” Allison said. We set it at 11:30 and it became clear, with the continuing lightning strikes, that we couldn’t do it.
“Poor kids. Earlier in the year, a [Shenandoah] bus on the way to Lynchburg caught on fire. Your premise is always to get [a game] in but you have to be reasonable. We had turned off all the music at 10 o’clock and if we had played past 11 o’clock, we would have shut off all the announcements.
“In my career, I don’t ever remember playing beyond midnight, but [now] we’ve had teams that had to play after midnight to get games in.”
* * *
New faces in Charlottesville
The transformation of Virginia women’s basketball isn’t limited to new coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, previously of Missouri State.
Augugua-Hamilton, who goes by Coach “Mox,” almost immediately landed 2018 Virginia Player of the Year Samantha Brunelle, who played at nearby William Monroe High School in Greene County.
Brunelle, who, began her college career at Notre Dame, has two years of remaining eligibility.
Augugua-Hamilton subsequently added Cady Pauley, who averaged 33 points and 9.6 assists as a senior at Milan (Mo.) High School, where she finished her career with more than 3,000 points.
Pauley, who previously was committee to Missouri during the Augugua regime, also was the state champion in the girls’ shotput and two-time runner-up in the discus.
The UVa women added a second transfer Tuesday, Alexia Smith from Minnesota, a five-star recruit coming out of high school in Columbus, Ohio, who played in 33 games last year, only one as a starter.
Most of Augugua’s staff was on her staff at Missouri State, including Alysiah Boyd, who was a TV sports anchor during one stretch and worked as an assistant at a variety of schools, including a stint under Tennessee’s celebrated coach, the late Pat Summit.
Another coach Mox assistant, Tori, Jankoska, is the all-time leading scorer at Michigan State.
* * *
Homecoming
Kim Record, a UVa graduate who subsequently spent 11 years as a UVa administrator, has returned to Virginia with a title of deputy director for external operations.
Reacord, who grew up in Fluvanna County, graduated from UVa in 1984 and served under UVa athletic directors Dick Schultz, Jim Copeland and Terry Holland., rising to the position of athletic director for administration.
Record spent 13 years on the staff at Florida State and was the director of athletics at UNC Greensboro, where she had responsibility for 17 programs.
“It’s not often that you have the chance to come full circle professionally,” Record said. “I knew that returning to Charlottesville was an opportunity to give back to the university that gave so much to me.”
* * *
Transfers
Jon Bonham, who started 29 games and averaged 13.6 points for VMI men’s basketball this past season, is transferring to Florida. Bonham had a team-high 115 assists for the Keydets, as well as 38 steals, and he was 100 of 121 at the free-throw line.
After transferring from Marquette, Dawson Garcia is out at North Carolina after playing in 16 games as a sophomore, including 12 starts. He was a McDonald’s All-American coming out of high school.
Justin McKoy, who transferred to North Carolina after one season at UVa, played in 30 games this past season but averaged just under seven minutes and one point per game.