‘One of the big men on campus’
Lavel Davis Jr.’s big smile “lights up the room,” UVA Football coach Tony Elliott said.
Tearfully addressing reporters at a press conference on Tuesday, Elliott often referred to Davis, Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry, the three student-athletes from his team who were shot and killed on Sunday night, in the present tense.
He can be forgiven for that.
They should still be here.
Elliott had known Davis since the 6’7” third-year student was a freshman in high school. Elliott was then an assistant coach at Clemson who had Davis, a future star wide receiver who would be named a freshman All-America in 2020, on his recruiting radar.
“Lavel was one of the big men on campus, so to speak, because everybody knew who he was, but he always found a way to keep them entertained,” Elliott said, noting that Davis had a “gentleness” about him, but also could show his passion about what he believed in.
“Everybody knew that they could get Lavel to kind of hunker down just by saying one thing, but the other thing that resonated is just how good of a teammate he was and how much he loved his teammates and would do anything for his teammates,” Elliott said.
And for his university.
ESPN.com reporter Andrea Adelson shared a snippet of an interview that she had done with Davis for a story on the Groundskeepers, a social-justice group founded by UVA Football players and assistant coach Marques Hagans in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.
“When I leave here, I just want to say I was part of a change, and I took a step forward, changing everything in the right direction,” Davis told Adelson. “Whatever I can do, even if it’s a small percentage to bring awareness to all the injustice our school has been through, just to shine a light on it and change it in the right direction, it’s a blessing to be a part of it. Because I know these four years are going to go by quick. I for sure want to say I took a step forward for UVA.”
‘The most interesting man on the team’
D’Sean Perry maybe wasn’t as recognized for his exploits on the field, but he was well-known among his peers on Grounds for his talents off the field.
“D’Sean, I don’t think many people outside of our program understand how special D’Sean was,” Elliott said of Perry, a fourth-year student who was a linebacker.
“Very, very, very artistic. Could draw. Could shape pots with clay. Loved music. Very, very cultured and well-rounded. Just a great teammate. And he had a sense of humor that was one of a kind that only D’Sean could have. You knew immediately when somebody said something, yeah, that was D’Sean,” Elliott said.
Perry was “the quiet guy that everybody wanted to know more about because he was, like I said, a very, very interesting young man in terms of the depth,” Elliott said. “When you look at him, you might not think that he listens to classical music and draws and shapes pots, but his teammates knew that, and they wanted to know more about him.
“So, he was probably the most interesting man on the team, if you had to kind of compare him to somebody,” Elliott said. “I’ve told him that, and I’ve told his teammates, that because I value the skills and talents that he possesses beyond the game.”
“He was an amazing studio artist. He loved anime, he loved to cook and was one of the most loyal people that you’d ever met,” said Zoe Tran, a classmate who told WUSA that she had met Perry during her first year on Grounds.
Tran said she was grateful for her friendship with Perry.
“I wish that more people knew more about him,” Tran said. “He was very reserved, but I think it was because he saved all of his love for those who were close to him.”
‘The life of the party’
Devin Chandler was in his second semester at UVA after transferring earlier this year from Wisconsin.
A third-year student, “Devin, man, Devin, he just, he is what you wanted in a young person that is at this level, but he just was a big kid,” Elliott said.
Chandler was “the life of the party,” Elliott said.
“Smiled all the time. Loved to dance. Loved to sing. Loved to compete, even though the guys revealed that he wasn’t very good at video games, but he thought he was. But he loved to compete,” Elliott said.
“He was the one that was in the weight room when everybody else is. He was serious, but he had his own way of being serious, and he would keep everybody energized. He found a way to make it fun even though sometimes the work that they have to do on a daily basis can be very monotonous in order to improve their skill level. But he brought just a ton of personality,” Elliott said.
“The thing I remember about him is he always brought a smile to my face because he just was happy with where he was, comfortable in his skin, and just had a very bubbly personality,” Elliott said.
Chandler “was an unbelievably nice person, always a huge smile, really gregarious and funny. One of those people who’s just impossible not to like,” said Jack Hamilton, a UVA professor who teaches American studies and media studies, in a post on Twitter.
Alvis Whitted, the wide receivers coach at Wisconsin, told the Washington Post that Chandler was an “exceptional” football player who was also an “all-around good guy who had a smile that would light up any room.”
“He had such great energy. He made people laugh. People wanted to be around him. He had a really good heart,” Whitted said.
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Chris Graham
