It happened during "Remember the Titans." It happened during the "Friday Night Lights" pilot. And now, it's happening to NFL teams across the country. Back-up quarterbacks, and back-up back-up quarterbacks, are shedding the headphones and clipboards and actually getting some use out of their helmets.
The University of Richmond men's soccer team lost its home opener at First Market Stadium to rival Virginia Commonwealth University 1-0 Wednesday night in front of more than 500 people. The loss dropped the Spiders to 1-5 this season, while the Rams evened their record to 3-3. VCU freshman defender Michael Denkewitz scored the lone goal of the game in the 34th minute by redirecting a free kick off his head from senior Gerson Dos Santos. An aggressive VCU squad dominated the first half.
The first half lone goal gave the University of Richmond women's soccer team all it needed to defeat the American University Eagles 1-0 Tuesday night at First Market Stadium. In the 12th minute, senior halfback Sarah Hilt crossed the ball in front of the goal, and it deflected off an Eagles defender into the goal. "We put their defense under pressure," Richmond coach Peter Albright said.
University of Richmond junior Matt Llano placed first out of 117 runners during the Navy Salty Dog Invitational Saturday in Annapolis, Md., beating his closest competitor by almost 13 seconds. Llano finished the 8-kilometer race in 24 minutes, 38.30 seconds.
Last year, quarterback Sean Schaefer threw the game-winning touchdown after a 67-yard, four-play drive, taking just 22 seconds to help Towson University beat Richmond for the second straight year. This year, it was the Richmond defense's turn to score fourth-quarter touchdowns.
After a disappointing loss at the University of Virginia last Saturday, the football team is excited to start its conference play at home against Towson, the only CAA team that beat the Spiders last year. "If the spider has eight legs, I think we shot ourselves all eight times," coach Mike London said at a press conference after the Virginia game.
The men and women's cross country teams will head to Annapolis, Md. this weekend to compete in the Navy Salty Dog Invitational on Saturday. The Spiders have competed in this meet the past two years, and go into the event after having won the seventh Spider Alumni Open Aug.
The men's varsity tennis team and new head coach Billy Boykin will start the fall season Friday with the Navy Invite Tournament at the U.S.
In recent years, mixed martial arts and ultimate fighting have gained popularity across the country. Television shows including "The Ultimate Fighter" and films such as "Kill Bill" have brought attention to martial arts. There is a martial arts club on campus, but it's nothing like the cage fighting seen on TV. In MMA ? rapidly growing nationwide ? fighters are separated into weight classes, as boxers or wrestlers would be.
During the past month, attendance at University of Virginia home games has come with an increasing set of restrictions. First came the e-mail that fans would no longer be allowed to bring signs to games.
The University of Richmond men's soccer team has entered its season with a revamped lineup after preseason injuries forced the team to start a freshman goalkeeper and replace its defensive line. Grant Schonberg started during the season opener against Lehigh University after the original starting goalie, Brock Tomlinson, a transfer from Southern Methodist University, suffered a head injury, assistant coach Matt O'Toole said. The line-up changes meant players were in unfamiliar roles, and a lack of communication among them contributed to a 6-1 loss against Leigh, O'Toole said. "We're definitely a quiet team," Schonberg said.
One of the assistant basketball coaches who resigned after revelations about NCAA recruiting violations is working as an assistant coach at a Division I basketball program in Georgia. Dave Waples, the athletics director at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga., confirmed to The Collegian Wednesday night that Chris Carroll, who worked as an assistant coach with the Richmond women's team, admitted to text-messaging two recruits while at Richmond, a major violation of NCAA rules. The University of Richmond announced Monday on its athletics Web site that a school investigation had found that two former assistant coaches had knowingly sent recruits hundreds of text messages and had made more than the allowable number of phone calls to recruits.
The University of Richmond and the NCAA have concluded separate investigations into hundreds of text messages that basketball coaches knowingly sent while recruiting prospective student-athletes, a violation of NCAA rules. The announcement from athletics director Jim Miller -- posted Monday on the Spiders' Web site -- included information about the university's investigation and its sanctions against coaches and the programs, as well as a timeline of the violations. "The coaches were aware of the rule," Miller said.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.
Win or lose, the Richmond field hockey team has been able to count on one thing this season: Katelin Peterson will score a goal. Peterson, a freshman forward from Escondido, Calif., has scored one goal in each of the Spiders' four games this season.
Sure, our red zone offense came up short. OK, the fourth quarter was ugly. But I don't think I'm the only one who was proud of the Spiders Saturday afternoon in Charlottesville. The Spiders played a Cavaliers team that was expected to walk all over them.
Junior Andrew Benford broke the Spider Alumni Meet record with a time of 15:03.2 in his Aug.
The women's field hockey team is now 1-1 after starting its season in Oxford, Ohio last weekend. The team started the weekend with an 8-3 victory Saturday in its first-ever game against Ball State University.
The University of Richmond women's golf program has never made the NCAA tournament, but this year that could change. This team is the most experienced coach Leighann Albaugh has had in her three years with the Spiders. That experience should translate into a more competitive team.
The NFL's opening weekend is just around the corner and two former Richmond Spiders have every reason to be excited.
