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Thomas Sheffer, a Mount Sidney resident and graduate student at Virginia Tech, will run in the National Marathon in Washington, D.C., March 20, to raise money for the nonprofit organization Active Minds Inc.

His run will be made in honor of his brother, Daniel, who passed away in December 2008. Daniel Sheffer was a freshman at Bridgewater College at the time of his death.

Active Minds is the nation’s only grassroots mental-health awareness, education and advocacy organization on college campuses, dedicated to engaging young adults in the fight against stigma and suicide.

The group’s mission is to use peer outreach to increase college students’ awareness of mental-health issues, provide information about available resources, encourage students to seek help as soon as it is needed, and serve as liaison between students and the mental health community.

By planning campus-wide events that promote awareness and education, Active Minds aims to remove the stigma that surrounds mental illness and create an open environment for discussion of mental-health issues.

“With chapters at almost 250 colleges and universities across the U.S., Active Minds is truly a source of inspiration in their efforts to break down stigmas associated with mental health issues and suicide,” Sheffer said.

Sheffer has a training blog for the event at: http://runningfordan.wordpress.com.

To make a donation or for further informaton, contact Sheffer at 540.487.0345.

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- Former CIA offical to speak at Waynesboro dinner
- Survey of Virginia trout streams planned for April
- Bridgewater College to honor two at Founders Day
 

Former CIA official to speak at Friends dinner The annual dinner meeting of the Friends of the Waynesboro Public Library will be held Tuesday April 20, at the Waynesboro Country Club, at 6 p.m., with a keynote speech from Frederick P. Hitz, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Center for National Security Law.

Since 1998 Hitz has been lecturing at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University and at the University of Virginia School of Law and Department of Politics. He has served extensively in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, including in the CIA’s clandestine service, as legislative counsel to the director of Central Intelligence, and as deputy director for Europe in the Directorate of Operations.

Hitz was appointed the first statutory inspector general of the CIA by President George H.W. Bush. He served in that capacity from 1990-1998 when he retired. He was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal by the director of Central Intelligence in 1998 and received a Resolution of Commendation from the U.S. Senate upon the fifth anniversary of his tenure as CIA inspector general in 1995. Among the many investigations he led was the Aldrich Ames betrayal.

He has written extensively about espionage and intelligence issues, including in 2004 a book entitled The Great Game: the Myth and Reality of Espionage, published by Knopf. In April, 2008, a second book entitled Why Spy? Espionage in an Era of Uncertainty by Mr. Hitz was published by St. Martin’s Press.

Reservations and checks for the dinner should be received by April 12. Please make checks payable to Friends of the Waynesboro Library. Mail checks to: Ann Ekman, 910 Fairway Drive, Waynesboro, VA 22980

Survey of Virginia trout streams planned for April The Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Survey is designed to track the effects of acidic deposition and other factors that determine water quality and related ecological conditions in Virginia’s native trout streams.

The VTSSS 2010 survey will be the third regional survey conducted with the assistance of Trout Unlimited and other volunteer organizations. Previous surveys were conducted in 1987 and 2000. About 458 stream sites will be sampled in 34 counties, representing most of the mountain headwater streams in Virginia that support reproducing brook trout.

Over the years since program inception, VTSSS data and findings have proven important to both local resource management and to the development, evaluation, and implementation of national air pollution control policies.

The 2010 survey will be conducted during the last seven days of April 2010.

Volunteer sample collectors are needed. See the VTSSS 2010 website for information.

The VTSSS 2010 website is http://swas.evsc.virginia.edu/VTSSS-2010/Survey.html.

Bridgewater College to honor two at Founders Day Bridgewater College will celebrate 130 years of its founding on Tuesday, April 6, presenting two awards during the 11 a.m. convocation in the Carter Center for Worship and Music.

President Phillip C. Stone will recognize two faculty members for excellence in teaching. Melanie K. Laliker will receive the Ben and Janice Wade Outstanding Teaching Award, and Mary Frances Heishman, professor of health and exercise science, will be presented the Martha B. Thornton Faculty Recognition Award.

The Founder’s Day observance at Bridgewater commemorates the April 3, 1854, birth of Flory, who at age 26 began a new school at Spring Creek in Rockingham County. The school, first known as Spring Creek Normal School, moved to Bridgewater two years later, in 1882, and changed its name to Bridgewater College on July 12, 1889.

About the honorees:

Melanie K. Laliker: When she was a junior in college at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Melanie K. Laliker did what a lot of students do. She “floundered” about what to major in and what to do with her life.

“I took a communication class and got hooked,” said Laliker, an associate professor of communication studies who has been at Bridgewater since 2000. “I took four more classes with the same professor during my undergraduate program. Even though he was a professor at a large university, he taught and interacted with his students like he was at a small college.”

“He helped me,” she continued, “to realize my own potential and pushed me harder than I’d ever been pushed academically.”

The push worked. Laliker went on to earn her master’s degree in interpersonal communications at UCF and her doctorate in the same discipline from the University of Georgia in Athens. Today, she teaches a host of communications courses that includes interpersonal communication, communication theory, oral communication and communicating sex and gender.

Like that professor at UCF, Laliker seeks not only to impart knowledge, but to inspire, to challenge and to serve as a role model both for students who know what they want to do in life, and those who don’t.

Laliker, who is chair of the communication studies department, has also served on numerous committees and councils dealing with nearly every aspect of student and faculty life at Bridgewater College. A presenter and participant at national and international conferences, she additionally has written scholarly articles for Communication Monographs, Communication Education and Communication Studies. This semester she is on sabbatical, working on a research project investigating communication between romantic partners on Facebook.

Laliker, a native of Melbourne, Fla., is also a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society.

Bridgewater alumni Ben and Janice Wade established the award in 1998 to recognize excellence in classroom teaching. Dr. Ben Wade taught religion and served as executive assistant to the president and provost at Bridgewater from 1979-85.

Mary Frances Heishman: Some years ago, a Bridgewater College volleyball player had t-shirts made of “The Three Faces of Coach Heishman.” The three faces were sad, happy and mad. All three showed the same picture – of a smiling Mary Frances Heishman. That optimism and confidence, both on and off the court, is part of her 40-year legacy at Bridgewater.

Heishman, class of 1966, didn’t have aspirations to be a volleyball coach. She hadn’t played the sport and knew only its basics, which she taught in her physical-education classes. But when some BC students asked the school to form a volleyball team in 1975, the role of coach fell to Heishman – at the students’ request.

During her coaching tenure at Bridgewater, Heishman compiled 653 victories, which ended in 2008 when she stepped down as head volleyball coach to focus on full-time teaching in the Health and Physical Education Department. And while she said she misses having contact with the players in a sports setting, she said she draws pleasure and professional sustenance from teaching them, and other students, in the classroom.

“My teaching philosophy is to help each of my students develop to their fullest potential mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually,” Heishman said. “I want to help my students develop self-esteem, self-understanding and personal responsibility, so they will become intrinsically motivated individuals and achieve their highest potential.”

A native of Montezuma, Va., Heishman played three sports while a physical education major at Bridgewater – hockey, basketball and tennis. After Bridgewater, she earned her master’s degree at James Madison University and her doctorate from the University of Virginia. She returned to BC in 1970 as head lacrosse and assistant basketball coach. After establishing the volleyball program, Heishman saw it become an official varsity sport for the College in 1976.

Between 1975 and 2008, Heishman earned seven Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Coach of the Year honors, coached seven ODAC Players of the Year and 37 All-ODAC first-team honorees.

Today, Heishman has teaching responsibilities in Health Education and Adapted Physical Education and Recreation.

“I try to create a climate of success by having a positive attitude and seeing the best in each of my students,” said Heishman. “I want them to know I care about them as individuals while they are here, as well as later in their lives. We are preparing students for a full, productive life, and I take great pride and satisfaction in their accomplishments when I observe them being so successful in their careers.”

In addition to teaching, Heishman has also conducted original research – including an independent study, “Provisions and Services for the Handicapped in the United Kingdom,” that required travel to England – and written for publications such as The Sport Psychologist and Coaching Volleyball. She has served as president of the Virginia Women’s Lacrosse Association and been involved in many other professional organizations. On campus, she has been intensely active on committees focused on such concerns as faculty and student life, education, curriculum development and convocations.

The Martha B. Thornton Faculty Recognition Award, established in 1990, honors faculty who “provide caring concern for students well beyond the role as teacher.” Thornton, professor of religion emerita, modeled that style of teaching.

Bridgewater College, a private, four-year liberal arts college, enrolls more than 1,500 students. Founded in 1880 and located in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, it was the state’s first private, coeducational senior college.

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Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, fresh off the controversy that he generated with his letter to Virginia public colleges and universities earlier this month advising them against going too far in policies protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination on campus, is back in the hot seat again, this time over comments from late last year questioning President Obama’s citizenship.

The comments came to light in a posting on the left-wing political blog Not Larry Sabato on Monday that included audio from an interview conducted by an unnamed man of Cuccinelli in the post-election transition period.

In the interview, the man asks Cuccinelli what can be done “about Obama and the birth-certificate thing.” Cuccinelli responds that he thinks the question of Obama’s citizenship that has been a cause celebre for the far, far right dating back to the 2008 presidential election “will get tested, in my view, when someone – when he signs a law, and someone is convicted of violating it, and one of their defenses will be, ‘It’s not a law because someone qualified to be president didn’t sign it.’”

The interviewer then interjects that the issue would be that “we are talking about the possibility that he was not born in America,” referring to Obama. “Right,” answers Cuccinelli. “But at the same time under Rule 11, Federal Rule 11, we gotta have proof of it.”

Later in the exchange, Cuccinelli says it is not “beyond the realm of possibility” that Obama was born in Kenya, as has been suggested consistently by far-right partisans.

Cuccinelli told the Washingfton Post in a statement on the matter released on Monday that he “absolutely believe(s)” that Obama was born in America.

“I don’t buy into the claims that he wasn’t,” Cuccinelli said.

Democratic Party of Virginia executive director David Mills used the new controversy involving Cuccinelli to blast the attorney general and the Republican Party.

“Attorney General Cuccinelli owes Virginians an explanation for his out-of-whack priorities. While our Commonwealth struggles with a $4.2 billion dollar deficit, the Attorney General has shown that he’s willing to use the resources of his taxpayer-funded office to push his own radical agenda. Virginians shouldn’t be asked to foot the bill for Ken Cuccinelli’s irresponsible behavior and missplaced priorities,” Mills said. “The Attorney General should pledge today not to spend a dime of our tax dollars pursuing ridiculous conspiracy theories about President Obama. We hope Governor McDonnell is making plans to rein in his 2009 ticketmate and protect Virginians’ money from being spent on Ken Cuccinelli’s extreme political agenda.”

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AFPBusiness.com

AFP Publishing News: AFP completes redesign of YMCA website Augusta Free Press Publishing has completed the redesign of the website of the Waynesboro Family YMCA. The new website went live in January. The site features up-to-date information on program offerings in adult and senior fitness, youth sports and childcare. Story link.
  

AFP Publishing News: New history book has AFP touch A new book published by the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society, Death Notices in Extant Issues of the Rockingham Register by Dr. Dorothy Boyd-Bragg, has an Augusta Free Press Publishing touch. Work on the layout and cover design for the book was done by AFP Publishing. Story link.
 

AFP Publishing News: AFP releases book on Valley League Safe at Home: A Season in the Valley, a chronicle of the 2009 season of the New Market Rebels Valley League baseball team written by author Austin Gisriel, has been released by Augusta Free Press Publishing. Story link.

Edited by Chris Graham

A Virginia State Police canine team discovered the body of a woman off Howardsville Turnpike in Augusta County on Sunday.

The woman’s name has not been released to the public. Based on information gathered during the course of the investigation, State Police have made preliminary notification to a local family of the woman’s death. The family had reported missing a female fitting the woman’s description and the recovered vehicle is registered to a family member. The last contact anyone had with the woman was Wednesday, March 10, 2010.

An autopsy performed by the Office of the Medical Examiner in Roanoke has determined there were no signs of foul play. The Medical Examiner is still in the process of positively identifying the woman.

The body was found about 100 yards down a mountainside off Howardsville Turnpike, according to the State Police.

Virginia State Police have also recovered the woman’s abandoned vehicle, which was found nearby. The vehicle was found on Route 610 approximately 3.8 miles southwest of Route 250.

Column by Jim Gordon
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I don’t know who will be named CAA Coach of the Year for the 2009-2010 season, but our vote goes to Waynesboro’s own Kenny Brooks, who guided his JMU Dukes to their first conference tournament championship Sunday by thrashing perennial power Old Dominion by 15 points in the championship game Sunday afternoon.

Yes, we know the Lady Dukes were playing in their own Convocation Center, but remember that the students were still on Spring Break and the Lady Monarchs had beaten the Dukes on the JMU court during the regular-season. But the JMU Band, which is equal in energy and quality to the Virginia Pep Band, provided an emotional edge for the Lady Dukes who were able to sleep in their own beds during the stretch of three straight games.

Most area basketball fans remember Kenny who was a member of the Waynesboro High School varsity basketball team from 1985 to 87, was named to the All-Valley District team and was also named to the Little Giant Hall of Fame several years ago after being named All-State Honorable Mention in his junior and senior seasons and played in the Virginia High All-Star Game down in Lynchburg after his senior year.

He then played college ball at JMU for four years (1987 to 91) and became a regular in his sophomore season when he started in 20 games and averaged 11.5 points and had 112 assists to lead the team in that statistic. Brooks averaged only eight minutes per contest as a junior in Lefty Driesell’s first year at JMU, but then played an average of 20 minutes a game in his senior season when he averaged 6.8 points a game. He played in two NIT tourneys under Lefty and was an assistant coach for the men’s team in ‘93 and ‘94 when the Dukes won the CAA Tournament title and got an NCAA Tourney bid.

Kenny became a full-time assistant at VMI in 1996, then became a full-time men’s assistant back at JMU under Sherman Dillard in 2002 before being named head coach in 2003. He was CAA Women’s Coach of Year in 2007 and Virginia Coach of the Year that same season.

Coach Brooks has an overall record of 172-78 as head coach of the women’s team. He is the second winningest coach in JMU women’s basketball history behind the legendary Shelia Moorman and the Lady Dukes have made the CAA finals in four of the last five years. The Dukes got an at-large bid to the NCAA Tourney in 2007.

His mom, Darlene Brooks goes to every home game and still lives in Waynesboro where she works for Ntelos. Kenny and wife Chrissy have three daughters ages 4-to-11.

We talked by phone to Kenny Monday morning during a day off from practice and asked him what are the aspects of the game which the team has improved on the most over the course of the past season? Said Brooks, “We have improved on every aspect of the game and our chemistry has also improved a lot.”

What will Brooks stress in practice this week? “We are playing well right now so it is just a matter of fine-tuning and staying sharp,” said the JMU Coach. “Since we won’t know until tonight who we are going to play yet in the tourney, we are giving the girls a day of rest after three straight games to get their physical strength back so they have fresh legs by Thursday or Friday.”

Asked if he thought the zone or the man-to-man was the Dukes’ most effective in the CAA tourney, Brooks replied, “The zone was best in the first two games to keep us out of foul trouble. But the man-to-man was better in the finals because we played man most of the season. We have a full-court press, but didn’t use it this past weekend because of the fact we were playing three straight games in the tourney so we needed to conserve our energy and keep from running out of gas.”

Some coaches shorten practices in the post-season. Does Brooks believe in that strategy? “Absolutely,” said the Dukes’ top dog. “We only go an hour and a half at most now, partly to prevent injuries.

“Winning the CAA Tourney title for the first time since 1989 was one of our goals at the begining of the season. Our next goal on the list to challenge this team is that we want to tie or pass the single-season 28-win record for girls at JMU.”

The Dukes will now be playing against even stronger competition in the NCAA tourney and they will be playing in a venue which the girls may not be familiar with. Will this be a problem, or were the games at big arenas like the ones at UVa., Duke and ODU enough to give them the confidence they need to compete against quality teams on the road, especially since JMU won two of those three games?

Replied Brooks, “Our girls are very confident and believe if they do things well, they can win the game.”

Which was the toughest place JMU had to play at this past season? Said Brooks, “ODU, W&M and UNC-Wilmington were tough this year while Duke was the toughest team we played. The sweetest win was Sunday against ODU,” partly because it clinched a berth in the NCAA Tourney.

The Kansas men’s hoops coach said Sunday during an interview on ESPN that there were several things that every coaching staff should do to prepare to play a team they have not played against recently. One was to get as much tape or film of that team’s games as you could and another was to call coaches of teams they had played to get their insight or to find out what they thought their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses were. The other aspect was to try to continue to improve on your own weaknesses? Did Brooks try to do the same things in women’s basketball? “We get DVDs on other team’s games and we may call a coach or two if we know them,” said the JMU mentor.

Does Brooks feel he has enough depth on the bench if any of his starters get in foul trouble or go down with an injury?

“I believe our bench is one of our strong points, said Brooks. “We only have 10 players on our team now so all but one of them are playing 10 or more minutes a game. We actually practice against an all-male squad which makes us play hard in our scrimmages.”

The thing you notice during a JMU game is that Coach Brooks does a lot of teaching on the sideline during time-outs and right before another player is lining up to shoot free throws, which the Dukes are very proficient at. During the CAA tourney, there were very few times when he was upset and expressed his anger over an aspect of the game the girls were not playing as well as he knew they could.

We don’t know how long Kenny Brooks will stay at JMU, but we will not be surprised if he gets an offer to move up to a bigger program in the near future.

Column by Bob Goodlatte

It is no secret that the American people are facing a very tough economic climate. Families and small businesses are cutting back on expenses. As economic uncertainty continues, many across our nation are looking to the government for leadership during this difficult time.

In these challenging economic times it is even more important for government to control spending. The federal government must work to both eliminate every cent of waste and squeeze every cent of value out of each dollar our citizens entrust to it. When you are preparing a budget for your family, you know that you can’t spend more than you take in. It’s a simple concept but one that Congress has failed to adhere to for far too long. We must balance the budget and reduce the deficit and the debt – not by raising taxes, but by being good stewards of t axpayer money.

Because it has become clear that neither party can exercise the self control necessary to rein in excessive spending, I have introduced a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, H.J. Res 1, to force Congress to do so. My legislation, which has the support of 175 bipartisan Members of the House, ensures that the federal government is held accountable and that the money our citizens work so hard to earn is not squandered on wasteful spending and programs.

My balanced budget amendment, which is identical to the legislation that passed the House in 1995 by a vote of 300-132 and fell just two votes short of passage in the Senate, forces Congress to enact fiscally responsible spending measures and reduce the deficit by requiring that total spending for any fiscal year not exceed total receipts. The legislation also includes a specific exception to the balanced budget provisions in times of war or other national emergencies.

This week I was pleased to join with Congressmen Mike Coffman, a Republican from Colorado and Jim Marshall, a Democrat from Georgia, in launching a new Congressional caucus aimed at adding support for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. The bipartisan caucus will be dedicated to achieving passage of H.J. Res. 1, and to educating Members of Congress on the necessity and importance of the proposed amendment to the Constitution.

As our nation faces many difficult decisions, Congress will face great pressure to spend beyond its means rather than making difficult decisions about spending priorities. My balanced budget amendment ensures that Congress and the President are held accountable to the American taxpayers. Unless Congress is forced to make the decisions necessary to create a balanced budget, it will always have the all-too-tempting option of shirking this responsibility. Americans are desperate for fiscal reform and the Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment is a common sense approach to ensure that Congress is bound by the same fiscal principles that America’s families face each day.

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- JMU women headed to NCAAs
- #1 UVa. drops series finale at FSU
- VMI completes weekend sweep
- Bridgewater romps over Va. Wesleyan
 

JMU women headed to NCAAs Conference champion and NCAA-bound. Those are the coveted titles the James Madison women’s basketball team is wearing after winning the Virginia 529 College Savings Plan 2010 Colonial Athletic Association Women’s Basketball Championship Sunday. The Dukes earned their latest distinctions by building an early lead and going on to defeat Old Dominion 67-53 at the JMU Convocation Center.

JMU, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, gave up a three-point field goal during the game’s opening possession but scored the contest’s next 14 points and led the rest of the way. The Dukes were up 43-29 at halftime, raised their margin to 51-32 with just less than 12 minutes to play and survived a rally that got Old Dominion to within five points with 7:24 left in the game.

JMU with the victory raised its season record to 26-6 and earned the CAA’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which begins next weekend. Pairings for postseason play will be announced Monday (March 15) evening.

Old Dominion, the tournament’s top seed, fell to 18-13 with the loss.

Tournament most outstanding player Dawn Evans (Clarksville, Tenn./Northeast), JMU’s junior guard, led the Dukes with a game-high 25 points and seven assists in 37 minutes. Junior center Lauren Jimenez (North Bergen, N.J./North Bergen), who joined Evans on the all-tournament team, and freshman guard Tarik Hislop (Silver Spring, Md./Paint Branch) also reached double figures in scoring for the Dukes with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

JMU sealed the championship by outscoring the Monarchs 13-4 during the game’s final 7:08 and allowing only two field goals over the final eight minutes. After Old Dominion got to within 54-49 on two free throws by sophomore center/forward Tia Lewis (Poulan, Ga./Worth County) with 7:24 left, Jimenez hit on a layup off a pass from freshman forward Nikki Newman (Harrisonburg, Va./Turner Ashby) and on two free throws, and Evans scored on a fast-break layup at 5:58 for a 60-49 JMU lead.

Junior guard Jasmine Parker’s (Norfolk, Va./Maury) 15-footer pulled Old Dominion to within 60-51 with 5:06 left, but the Monarchs didn’t score again for nearly three minutes and JMU hit on seven of 10 free throws during the final 3:41.

After Parker’s three-pointer 27 seconds into the game gave Old Dominion a quick lead, JMU got points from four players while taking a 14-3 advantage by the opening half’s 12:47 mark. Evans capped the run with the first of her four three-point field goals, and she hit for three-pointers on consecutive JMU possessions to give the Dukes a 22-11 lead with 8:52 left in the first half.

Old Dominion got to within 27-21 on a three-pointer by freshman guard Jackie Cook (Hinckley, Ohio/Regina) with 5:10 left in the half, but JMU junior guard Courtney Hamner (Manassas, Va./Osbourn Park) answered with a three-pointer on JMU’s next possession to ignite a 16-8 JMU burst over the final 4:52 of the half. Evans had a three-pointer and two free throws during the run and passed to Jimenez for layups twice during the half’s final 44 seconds.

Hislop and Evans each had a pair of field goals as JMU’s raised its 14-point halftime margin to 51-32 with 12:56 to play before Old Dominion used a 17-3 run to get to within 54-49. Lewis had seven points and Parker six, including a three-pointer, during the Monarch run. The Monarchs had rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit to beat Delaware during Saturday’s semifinals.

JMU shot 38.7 percent (24-62) overall to Old Dominion’s 33.9 percent (20-59) and had a 49-34 rebounding margin. Three Dukes finished with eight rebounds, including Jimenez, Newman and redshirt senior guard Sarah Williams (Wilmington, Del./Ursuline Academy), and junior center Jalissa Taylor (Chesterfield, Va./L.C. Bird) had seven.

Parker had 15 points and Lewis 11 to lead Old Dominion.

#1 UVa. drops series finale at FSU The Virginia baseball team dropped its series finale with Florida State, 9-8, Sunday afternoon at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee, Fla. Tyler Holt’s two-run home run in the eighth inning pushed FSU ahead for good in the back-and-forth battle and helped the Seminoles avoid the series sweep. Despite the loss, Virginia still scored its first-ever series win against Florida State, capturing the series two games to one.

Both teams are ranked nationally among the top five. Virginia (12-3, 2-1 ACC) is ranked as high as No. 1 in the Baseball America and Rivals.com polls, while Florida State (13-2, 1-2) stands as high as No. 2 nationally in the Collegiate Baseball, NCBWA and USA Today/ESPN Coaches polls.

Holt hit his two-run blast with one out in the eighth off Virginia relief pitcher Tyler Wilson (Jr., Midlothian, Va.), who was credited with the loss and fell to 2-1 this season. Mike McGee (2-0) pitched the final 1.2 innings for the Seminoles to earn the win. He also went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBI at the plate.

Virginia starting pitcher Cody Winiarski (Jr., Franksville, Wis.) worked 3.2 innings and gave up four earned runs, seven hits and a walk while striking out three. Florida State starter Geoff Parker tossed 5.2 innings, allowing five earned runs, seven hits and three walks while striking out six.

Dan Grovatt (Jr., Tabernacle, N.J.) finished off a big weekend for UVa with a 3-for-5 day and his third home run of the series. He went 8-for-14 with four runs scored and five RBI in the series. Steven Proscia (So., Suffern, N.Y.) added a pair of hits and two RBI, while Phil Gosselin (Jr., West Chester, Pa.) hit a solo home run.

Both teams held leads on two separate occasions Sunday, and the game was tied three different times.

Grovatt got the Cavaliers’ offense going with a two-out solo home run to right-center in the first inning. UVa tacked on a run in the second when Franco Valdes (Sr., Miami, Fla.) grounded into a double play with the bases loaded. Jarrett Parker (Jr., Stafford, Va.), who led off the inning with an infield single, scored on the play.

Florida State quickly tied the game in the bottom of the second when McGee and Stuart Tapley hit back-to-back home runs to start the inning.

The Cavaliers immediately countered when Gosselin homered to left-center on the first pitch of the third inning for his third long ball of the season. With two out, Proscia singled to right, advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on a wild pitch as Parker struck out. Parker and Proscia then combined on a double steal, with Parker swiping second and Proscia stealing home with a nifty slide to evade catcher Parker Brunelle.

FSU tied the game against Winiarski in the fourth inning while doing all of its damage with two out. Jayce Boyd started the rally with a single to right. Winiarski then walked Brunelle, and Holt followed with a double down the left-field line to plate Boyd and knot the score at four. Neal Davis (Sr., Baltimore, Md.) came on in relief and got a weak grounder back to the mound from Ramsey on his first pitch to strand runners at second and third.

Virginia used a two-out comeback of its own to re-take the lead in the fifth. Grovatt singled to center and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Proscia then pulled a double down the left-field line to score the run.

The Seminoles again came back in their half of the fifth, scoring three times to take their first lead. With one out, McGee singled up the middle and then scored on a double to right-center by Tapley. FSU forged ahead on the next pitch on a bloop single to center by Justin Gonzalez. Boyd followed with a triple off the fence in right-center to push the Seminoles’ lead to 7-5.

UVa slashed the Seminoles’ lead in half in the sixth on a Stephen Bruno (Fr., Audubon, N.J.) two-out pinch-hit single, scoring Reed Gragnani (Fr., Richmond, Va.). The Cavaliers then tied the game in the seventh despite not recording a hit. With one out and runners at first and second, John Hicks (So., Sandy Hook, Va.) hit into a fielder’s choice, but the relay throw to first sailed high for an error, allowing Parker to score from third with the tying run.

Virginia took the lead back in the eighth inning. Gragnani led off with an opposite-field double to left against FSU’s Daniel Bennett. One out later, pinch hitter Chris Taylor (Fr., Virginia Beach, Va.) drew a walk against the new pitcher, Corben Madden. Grovatt then singled sharply to right to load the bases. McGee moved from left field to the mound and got ahead in the count at 0-2 before Proscia lifted a fly ball to shallow center. Shortstop Calvin Cardullo made the catch as he collided with left fielder Sean Gilmartin, and Gragnani scored easily to give UVa the 8-7 lead.

Florida State took the lead for good in its half of the eighth, as Brunelle drew a one-out walk and Holt followed with a home run just over the left-center field wall to push the Seminoles back in front, 9-8.

Virginia returns home at 5 p.m. Tuesday for a rematch with William and Mary, whom the Cavaliers topped 12-6 in an exciting game in Williamsburg last Wednesday. UVa then travels to James Madison for a 6 p.m. contest Wednesday.

VMI completes weekend sweep Sam Roberts allowed just three hits in seven shutout innings as VMI claimed its fourth weekend sweep of the season with an 11-1 victory over La Salle in non-conference baseball action Sunday at Gray-Minor Stadium. The win continues the best start in program history for VMI at 14-1, while the Explorers fall to 1-11 with the loss.

Roberts (Prince George, Va./Prince George) allowed a leadoff single in the first inning, then didn’t surrender another hit until an infield chopper with one out in the sixth. The junior had two separate strings of retiring seven consecutive batters, as he has now allowed just four hits and one earned run in his last two starts, consisting of 14 innings.

“Sammy did a great job for us on the mound today,” said VMI head coach Marlin Ikenberry. “He did exactly what we wanted him to do, and that’s to throw strikes, pitch to contact and get ground balls. I was really pleased with the way we played defense, being able to turn a couple of double plays. Graham Sullivan set the tone in the first inning with a big home run, and we expanded our lead throughout the game. I was really proud of the way our guys competed today, playing hard for the fourth day in a row.”

While Roberts was blanking the Explorers on the mound, senior Jordan Ballard set the pace offensively. His 3 for 4 outing included a double, four RBIs and his 31st career home run, moving him into a tie for fourth place in VMI history. In the four-game series against La Salle, Ballard hit .583 with five home runs, seven runs scored and 13 RBIs, slugging 1.917.

VMI’s 18-hit performance also saw Rob Dickinson go 3 for 3 with a double and an RBI. Cory Spangenberg, Tanner Biagini and Graham Sullivan each went 2 for 5 in the contest, with Spangenberg stealing two bases, Biagini posting two RBIs and Sullivan hitting his second home run of the season.

Tony Negrin led off the game with a single back up the middle, but Roberts retired the next seven batters in order. The Keydets, meanwhile, went up 2-0 on Sullivan’s left-field home run in the first inning, then tacked on another on Ballard’s third inning solo shot to right field.

VMI then posted back-to-back three-run rallies in the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, Biagini started the scoring with an RBI single, while Ballard plated another with a sacrifice fly. Dickinson then brought home Biagini with his double down the right-field line, making the score 6-0. In the sixth, another Biagini RBI single and Ballard’s two-run double accounted for the scoring, pushing the margin to 9-0.

Roberts, meanwhile, put a pair of runners on base in both the sixth and seventh innings, but was able to get ground ball double plays in both innings to escape harm. Roberts gave way to reliever Andrew Deal in the eighth, who walked back-to-back batters, then saw Negrin score on a groundout when Alan Watts came on to record the final five outs in order.

The Keydets concluded their scoring in the seventh, when Roberts singled home Justin Topping after a leadoff double, while Spangenberg plated Jacob Morley by beating out a possible double play ball.

The Keydets take to the road over the next week-and-a-half, opening up at The Citadel on Tuesday evening. First pitch is set for 6 p.m., and fans can listen to the game on the VMI Sports Network (www.VMIKeydets.com or Lexington’s WREL 1450 AM) or watch the contest on the Bulldog Insider (www.CitadelSports.com.)

Bridgewater romps over Va. Wesleyan Bridgewater College hammered the Virginia Wesleyan pitching staff for 21 hits, including five homers, in Sunday’s 23-11 ODAC victory over the visiting Marlins.

The teams waited out some persistent rain showers and were able to get one game of the scheduled doubleheader finished. The second game will be played Friday, Mar. 19, beginning at 3:00 p.m. at the Bridgewater baseball field.

The Eagles got off to a quick start in the bottom of the first. Kevin Kirk and Mitchell Edwards singled and Andy Chrismer followed with a long homer to left, his third of the season, giving BC a 3-0 lead.

After the Marlins got on the board with a run in the second, the Eagles padded their lead in the bottom of the third when Brett Howell launched a two-run homer to right for a 5-1 lead.

The Marlins cut the deficit to one, 5-4, in the top of the fourth on an RBI-single by Gage Collins and a two-run double by Ryan Estrella.

The Eagles then broke the game open with eight runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 13-4 lead. Blake Stokely and Jonathan Mason led off with singles and Devon Snow was hit by a pitch to load the sacks with no outs. Drew Easter then lined a double to the gap in leftcenter to clear the bases and give the Eagles an 8-4 lead.

Chrismer drove Easter home with sacrifice fly to make it 9-4 and a single by Howell plated another run for a 10-4 lead. Howell scored on a double by Andrew Hacker and Stokely chased Hacker home with a single to make the score 12-4. Jonathan Mason then tripled off the fence in center to score Stokely to put the Eagles on top 13-4.

The Marlins tried to fight back and scored four runs in the fifth, one on a solo homer by Mike Marion to cut the margin to 13-8.

The Eagles answered with two in the bottom of the fifth and then added four in the seventh to take a 19-8 lead. Stokely provided the firepower in the seventh with a grand slam homer.

Marion belted his second homer of the game, a three-run shot, in the eighth to make the score 19-11 before the Eagles scored their final four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Snow led off the eighth with a single and Easter followed with a homer to left making the score 21-11. Kirk made it back-to-back jacks with a long homer to right for a 22-11 BC lead. The Eagles finial run scored on a Marlins’ throwing error.

Stokely led the Eagles offense with a 4-for-6 day and five RBIs. Easter was 2-for-6 with five RBIs and Kirk was 4-for-5 with five runs scored. Chrismer finished 3-for-5 with four runs batted in and Howell drove in three runs during a 2-for-4 day.

Marion led the Marlins attack with his two homers and four RBIs in five plate appearances.

Drew Elkins pitched five innings to pick up the victory on the mound for BC. Elkins allowed eight runs, four of them earned, on eight base hits. He struck out seven and walked just one to improve to 3-1 on the season.

The Eagles will be back in action Wednesday afternoon when they travel to Eastern Mennonite for an ODAC contest.

Column by David Reynolds
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Does anyone out there in paradise care about anybody besides themselves? If not, then we have lost a community. We have lost paradise.

Over 700 area residents attended the SRO public hearing held last week at the Rockbridge County High School to hear comments on the inevitable cuts the School Board and the Board of Supervisors must make for 2,600 students in their 2010-2011 budgets.

Little was said that helped either board. Speaker after self-serving speaker stood up for themselves. There was not a kid in the crowd. Please explain how cutting back to a four-day school week serves anyone? Yet that was one suggestion.

Here I thought that public education was an equal opportunity employer. Yes for those who are tall. But what about short people? Are we doing everything we can to bend over and help them?

That dark night we buried any pretext of equality. Why not? I got mine. You get yours. Let’s all fight for the old status quo of unequal resources, unequal facilities and unequal class sizes.

Maybe it is too much to ask for good students and good jobs to be part of paradise. Maybe we were wrong last week when we said that we are different, that we don’t always take stands based on where we sit.

The caravans rolled up Tornhill Road in order to tell others why the $10,454 expense per Effinger Elementary School child should continue. Forget about the kids at Central Elementary who receive $3,808 less. Naturally those numbers were not spoken. But that is what was said.

Am I missing something? Or is it all Richmond’s fault? Just give us someone else’s money so that we – not they – can spend it. In South Carolina or Arkansas they attempted to take care of their schools a little differently. South Carolina almost said no to federal stimulus money. The governor tried. He knew it was only a one year fix. But not Virginia. Richmond took the bribe and passed on $773,573 to Rockbridge County. Now this year we have a pothole to fill. With our money.

The governor of Arkansas (who later moved to DC) did it his way. He pushed through a 1% tax dedicated for public schools. The Richmond ostriches don’t understand why this works, that if a tax is solely for a popular program the people will vote it in.

And what do we vote in? “Keep Out” signs. We keep voting to keep the county’s tax base so small that we can continue to blame others for not supporting our local schools. We do this by having the perception of being antibusiness. Or when that doesn’t work we do the real thing. Telling the Boys Scouts that we don’t want their magnet for growth goes a long way toward telling our kids that we don’t care if they grow or not. And if you think we have learned anything from flunking our scouting merit badge, think again. Just follow our latest sign war to see if a Ford can surpass a Chevy. Woody Chevrolet, presumably the nation’s only auto dealership without a sign, will soon be history. That was not by choice. But then again, are we giving our children any choice but to leave the area to find good jobs?

Whatever happened to “change?” It is not only for electing presidents, it is for improving ourselves. As every educator knows, there is a link between a child’s performance in school and support at home. Three school systems are ready to prepare our children for the 21st century. But are the rest of us? A third of the county’s adult population do not have a high school diploma. Only another third have gone on to some form of higher education. Does that provide an adequate skill base to attack and keep business, or should we start listing plant closings on the obituary page?

Another point about the link between school and home. Without discipline there is no learning. Teachers can not do what is not done at home. However, our good teachers can do something else. They can and have left the profession. Do we have the discipline, drive and desire to retain our best teachers? It’s takes more than money.

We keep hearing that if you cut school funds you cut quality education. Yet there is no proof for this conventional wisdom. By combining Effinger and Central elementary schools and Rockbridge and Maury River middle schools, an estimated $1,476,997 can be saved annually – while maintaining average class size (between 17 and 20) and all specialized instruction, plus providing access to Math, Latin and Speech classes for incoming students! If you wish to get inside the numbers please contact a school board member or a school official. When discussing savings with them, keep in mind their charge: To do what is collectively best with available resources.

Sorry if I may have entered your comfort zone. However, I believe our kids are worth the intrusion. Kids are the key to growth and strong communities. We can’t accomplish either goal when we focus on ourselves. And not the kids.

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Column by Carl Larsen
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Nothing gets my dander up quicker than a healthy dose of good old American Righteous Indignation. And believe me, Matt Damon is so full of it in “Green Zone,” currently playing at the Regal Staunton Mall Cinema, that this erstwhile star of “The Bourne Identity,” “The Bourne Supremacy,” and “The Bourne Ultimatum” could easily be known as The Bourne Again Christian.

You can tell right away this tale, set in the chaotic early days of the Baghdad invasion (when Weapons of Mass Destruction were more real than Bush’s fantasy) is chock-a-block with Righteous Indignation. All the characters – government guys, CIA peeps, only-following-orders soldiers, reporters and noble savages all speak in deadly serious clichés.

Holy cow, it’s more deadly serious than all the Lord of the Rings movies put together. And just as corny. It feels somehow old-hat, like we’ve all been duped before on this one, why beat a dead horse?

Plus, it releases at a horrible time, just after “The Hurt Locker” won a caboodle of Oscars. If any movie ever sent another one down the toilet through comparison, Kathryn Bigelow’s chilling take on the Iran conflict did it up good to “Green Zone.”

Damon plays a group leader constantly being sent out with his buds on the orders provided by what turns out to be covert and faulty intelligence (or “intel” as they constantly and annoyingly refer to it) and foolishly risking the lives of his soldiers makes our hero’s blood boil.

While our hero tries to figure out who’s been dumping overalls in the chowder, Brendan Gleason plays a cliché-ridden CIA big shot, Greg Kinnear plays a cliché-riddled Pentagon stooge, Amy Ryan (who was charmingly Holly on “The Office”) plays a cliché-addled reporter, and Kahlid Abdalla (from “The Kite Runner”) plays a cliche-driven Iraqi with a heart of gold.

The brave soldiers are forced to run around and shoot at things as the dust and the plot thickens, and while I get nauseous. No, it’s not the bloodshed, it’s just director Paul Greengrass and his patented hand-held camera, as shaky as a drunk at early Mass. The squad races around, the camera shakes, everyone stops to mumble “something’s not right” at each other, then they start over.

I’m not giving away any secrets by revealing there’s a huge fire-fight at the climax. It’s so dark, so unsteady, and so long that, after about 15 minutes of it I fell asleep. Sometime later I awoke, and sure enough, it was still going on. Hours passed with no relief before I realized I was trapped in the crappiest video game ever invented.

Greengrass used the same gimmick in the last two Bourne movies, also starring Matt Damon, but in this stepped up the action in an attempt to spare his star just a bit of the (you guessed it) righteously indignant look perpetually plastered on his doomsday-grim face.

There was so much shaky bang-bang shooting going on that, alas, there was no time for character development for any of the stereotypes. They were so thinly drawn that if anyone had turned sideways on screen they would have disappeared.

I like Matt Damon, and some of the work he’s done since he hit it big with Ben Affleck “Good Will Hunting” in 1997. But he was so superhuman in the Bourne Trilogy and so focused in this latest disaster that there was just no possibility that anything bad could possibly happen to our hero. And that, my friend, defines a boring movie.

It’s enough to me all worked up. Indignant, even.

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