Baseball
Sean Casey retires from MLB
By Jill Cavaliere | February 12, 2009Sean Casey, a University of Richmond graduate who played major league baseball for 12 years, announced his retirement on Jan.
Sean Casey, a University of Richmond graduate who played major league baseball for 12 years, announced his retirement on Jan.
The University of Richmond's swimming and diving team and women's basketball team don't usually share many similarities, but this year they share something rare. After welcoming their freshmen last fall, both teams have become more like family with a pair of sisters on each of their rosters.
The renovation of the Roger Millhiser Memorial Gymnasium will continue to wait until enough money is raised to complete its construction. "It is not accurate to say that the [Millhiser Gym] restoration is on hold," said Jim Miller, director of athletics.
The Richmond Spiders baseball team is going into its season with quiet confidence after a disappointing 20-31-2 season in 2008, coach Mark McQueen said at Virginia Commonwealth University's Siegel Center on Wednesday. VCU hosted a college baseball forum for local college baseball players and coaches to answer questions from the media. "We didn't do so well last year, in terms of wins and losses," McQueen said.
The national champion Richmond Spiders football team will take to the field next season with five alumni coaches following the recent appointments of Vic Shealy as defensive coordinator and Stacy Tutt as assistant coach. Shealy, a 1984 graduate, and Tutt, a 2006 graduate, join head coach Mike London, assistant head coach Jeff Hanson and assistant coach Scott Burton as former Spiders on the staff.
It was a game the University of Richmond men's basketball team would have normally lost. But the Spiders were able to overcome a large first-half deficit and pull out a close game, 71-67. The Spiders were down by eight points just two minutes into the game and trailing 12-0 before they even scored.
In a back-and-forth game, Saint Louis University was able to outlast the University of Richmond men's basketball team 85-72 in triple-overtime Saturday afternoon at the Robins Center. With the Spiders up by three near the end of the second overtime, the Billikens had the ball.
University of Richmond freshman Katie Spratford has taken down most of the junior cross country runners in the United States, and now she may be able to put her athletic prowess to the test against the rest of the world. Spratford finished 14th in the 6-kilometer race in 22 minutes, 13 seconds at the U.S.
The return of sophomore Brittani Shells was not enough to lead the University of Richmond women's basketball team to a victory over No.
Video of the on-campus celebration for the Football team in the Dining Hall on Jan. 17. Contact reporter Jordan Trippeer at jordan.trippeer@richmond.edu
On any given night, the Robins Center appears to be only half-full, a fact not lost to the visiting coaches. "I would suggest to the people and the students here that they back this team," Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said after his team beat the University of Richmond Spiders men's basketball team last Wednesday night.
Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Paul Woody offered a familiar criticism last Thursday: Not enough people care about the University of Richmond's sports teams. Woody's column included comments from Saint Joseph's University coach Phil Martelli about the low attendance at last Wednesday's men's basketball game.
Richmond students don't care about Richmond sports. It's a statement I hear at least weekly, if not more frequently, and I'm sick of it.
On Monday Feb. 2, Clint Peay, a former Olympian, Major League Soccer standout and four-time national champion, became the sixth University of Richmond men's soccer coach.
University of Richmond women's track and field coach Lori Taylor described junior Megan Ney as the "epitome of what Division I athletics is all about." The potential to get stronger and to mature mentally and physically is something that coaches look for in athletes, Taylor said, and Ney has that. "Megan is someone who has committed herself to do whatever it takes," she said.
The women's lacrosse team is the preseason pick for the 2009 Atlantic 10 Lacrosse Championship. The squad will open its season with a home scrimmage against the English National Team at 3 p.m.
The University of Richmond's football coaching staff has added two new members to its ranks. Stacy Tutt, a former Spiders quarterback who spent two years in the NFL as a fullback for the New York Jets, will join the staff as an assistant coach, and Chris Stewart, who has worked at the University of Tennessee for the past 11 years, will serve as director of strength and conditioning, according to an athletics department statement released Tuesday. Tutt, who garnered 3,047 yards of total offense during his senior season in 2005, joins three other Richmond alumni on the football coaching staff -- head coach Mike London, class of 1983; assistant head coach Jeff Hanson, class of 1972; and assistant coach Scott Burton, class of 1995. London said Tutt's playing experience and close ties to Richmond would be vital to the program, especially because Tutt played with some of the team's current members. "He's talking about it from experience as opposed to somebody talking about it when they learned it from somebody else," London said, "but it's also the off-the-field contributions he'll be able to make.
The Richmond swimming and diving team trumped James Madison University 167-127 Saturday in front of a raucous crowd at the Robins Center Natatorium, led by three seniors competing in their final home meet, and several freshmen swimming in their first. The Spiders, who hope to capture their eighth consecutive Atlantic 10 Conference Championship Feb.
Most storylines have been exhausted by this point in the two-week buildup to the Super Bowl, but on this campus, there's one that never gets old: Tim Hightower. Last year, he was the star player on the University of Richmond football team that made it to the semifinals of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
The unranked University of Richmond men's tennis team will play Princeton University at the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond at 5 p.m.