Rockbridge Report: Sports Edition

NO CHEAP SHOTS

By TYLER PALICIA

The hidden costs of D-III sports

TORN DREAMS

By LINDSAY WHITE

ACL injuries in women’s soccer

rockbridge report SPORTS EDITION PAVING THE

Christine Clancy’s Impact

By EMMA SMITH

WAY

Editor’s Note

The Rockbridge Report Sports Edition magazine represents the work of students who enrolled in two courses that I taught in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Washington and Lee University during winter term 2022.

Students in Sports Reporting, Journalism 210, developed and executed the ideas for the stories that appear in this issue. They interviewed athletes and coaches, shot photos, and wrote the stories that appear in the magazine.

The students in Editing for Print and Online Media, Journalism 351, immersed themselves in the creative process of developing a print magazine. They engaged in what we affectionately described as “font-free-for-alls” as they debated the efficacy of various fonts and color schemes. They worked together to fine-tune the cover design. They chose photos and created graphics, and they envisioned and executed the layouts for each story. The product in your hands illustrates the magic that occurs when students in two classes join forces to produce a high-caliber magazine that captures the hopes and dreams of young athletes who compete in local high school and college sports.

At their core, the stories in this issue highlight the lifealtering experiences of student-athletes at W&L, the Virginia Military Institute, and the local high school as they compete on fields of play. The magazine’s most dominant theme centers on the issues of race, gender and socio-economic diversity, and their impact on student-athletes and their coaches.

One story provides insight into W&L’s historic run at a men’s soccer national championship last fall by focusing on the experience of a player from Zambia. Another piece describes how student-athletes juggle the demands of attending a highly ranked liberal arts university. Yet another story examines the agony of ACL tears, an injury that afflicts women soccer players with alarming frequency and haunts them as they rehab their way back to competition.

My fervent wish is that you, the reader, are as proud of the students as I am. It is often said that playing sports teaches kids about the ups and downs of life. The same can be said about reporting, writing, and editing sports.

Toni Locy Professor of Journalism April 8, 2022

Stef Chiguluri, a goalie on the Washington and Lee University women’s lacrosse team, practiced for two weeks before her coaches noticed the bruises on her shins. She had played without the protective gear because she couldn’t afford shin guards. She hadn’t said anything to anyone, even though she knew she was taking a chance on getting hurt.

“I really just needed [shin guards] because I kept getting hit in the same spot and my bruises were pretty severe,” Chiguluri said. “It got so bad that my coaches had to come to me and say, ‘We’re buying you shin guards.’”

Chiguluri said it’s hard for coaches to identify athletes who need financial help. “There is this whole iceberg analogy,” she said. “There’s the stuff you can see and then there’s the stuff hidden beneath the surface. You can see people’s skin tone and sometimes people’s gender identity—and sometimes not even that. But socio-economic diversity is often something that isn’t so visible.”

Washington and Lee is an elite,

NO CHEAP

SHOTS

W&Lstudent-athletesstaysilentinsteadofaskingfor financialhelpbecauseofsocio-economicstigma

Story and photos by Tyler Palicia

private university located in rural Lexington, Virginia. Once an all-male school, it only began admitting undergraduate women in 1985. According to a 2017 study by Opportunity Insights, a Harvard-based research institution, W&L ranks No. 14 among elite, private and public schools with students whose families earn incomes in the top 1% in the nation.

The study of 65 other universities found that 19% of W&L’s students were in the top 1% income bracket. The study also found that 55% of W&L’s students were from families who earned incomes in the top 5% in the nation.

“When you’re at a school where that big of a percentage of the student body exists within that small of a percentage of income, it’s not something you really want to talk about if you’re below that,” Chiguluri said.

Clare Suter, a pre-doctoral fellow at Opportunity Insights, said schools like W&L bear responsibility for students with fewer financial resources. “Elite schools like Washington and Lee end up being a pipeline to disproportionately influential positions in our society,” she said. “So, it’s important that W&L makes sure that its student body is economically diverse and that those students can succeed.”

Since 2017, W&L has doubled its Pell Grant recipients to 12% of the student body. Pell Grants are awarded to students who display exceptional financial need and have

“You can see people’s skin tone and sometimes people’s gender identity, and sometimes not even that. But socio-economic diversity is often something that isn’t so visible”

Stef Chiguluri

Design by Bri Hatch and Jin Ni

not earned a bachelor’s, graduate, or professional degree, according to the Federal Student Aid office.

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for Athletics was formed in the spring of 2021 to promote inclusion in W&L sports. Chiguluri heard about the committee through her coaches. She applied in fall 2021 and has been a member ever since.

Bethany Dannelly, associate director of athletics, said the DEI committee is focused on trying to develop ways for coaches to assess the financial needs of studentathletes.

“We need to look into how they are currently handling things if someone can’t afford to buy something,” she said. “We need to

figure out what sort of messaging needs to go along with that.”

that being said, we don’t know for sure. There may be something we don’t know about. That’s why we are looking into it.”

Jimmie Mack Johnson III, an assistant football coach at W&L and member of the DEI committee, said he believes that everyone at the school should be able to participate in sports regardless of socioeconomic status.

Clare Suter

She said she thinks coaches are identifying student-athletes with financial needs. “In general, I think coaches are doing a good job in supplying students with what they need to compete,” she said. “With

“We want to see if there is anything we can do or tweak to make sure that we are meeting the needs of our student-athletes, especially as we continue to diversify from a socio-economic standpoint,” he said. “That way we can make sure everyone can play their sport to their fullest potential.”

Johnson, who graduated from

“Elite schools like Washington and Lee end up being a pipeline to disproportionately influential positions in our society”

Sources: Data about 2013 income percentile and average income cutoffs came from the Economic Policy Institute’s 2016 report, “Income inequality in the U.S. by state metropolitan area, and county.” Data about the socio-economic composition of W&L, broken down by income percentiles, is from Opportunity Insights’s “College Mobility Report Card.”

W&L in 2020, played football and ran track. “I had everything that I needed to play my sport,” he said. “For football, the only thing that we did have to buy were cleats. Our coaches made it very clear that if cleats were an issue, then we could come to them. They just wanted to let us know that they could alleviate that if it was an issue.”

Jack Bosco, a sophomore on the wrestling team, said he doesn’t believe his sport has a financial barrier.

“All you need is shoes to wrestle. The shoes can get pretty expensive, but if you want to buy cheap ones, then you can probably just find some for $60. It’s not that bad.”

Bosco said alumni also have made donations to help students in need.

“They want us to succeed,” he said.

“When you start up, you get backpacks, shirts, pants, and socks—all for free.”

on his equipment, trying to make sure he has the best clubs he can.

“I have about 14 clubs in my bag. Each club is about $200. Some are $300. I have gloves, tees, golf balls,” he said. “It’s hard to give you a price on that, but it’s just a very expensive game in general.”

Choe said the cost of equipment doesn’t present a barrier for him. But he said W&L could do more to relieve financial pressure for some of its student-athletes. “In terms of the school funding, there isn’t much. I mean, we get a nice discount for our golf shoes. We get about $120 for those shoes. We get a lot of gear—shorts, pants, rain jacket—for free,” he said.

It’s different for baseball players, sophomore Zach Senders said.

“We aren’t provided gloves. Those are usually around $250 to $370, around there,” he said. “You have to pay for your own cleats, those are usually around $100. We don’t get turf shoes. Those are around the same as cleats. All your underclothing you have to pay for. We don’t play in Florida, so you have to play in long sleeves sometimes. That can run you $30 a shirt. I won’t say it’s cheap.”

their own riding boots, which can cost $200 to $1,000 a pair.

She also said athletes need to purchase their own breeches, which cost roughly $100.

“The equipment can be expensive, even though our coaches and the school do help us a lot. So, I think it’s a good thing that DEI is looking into it,” she said.

But some sports cost more than others. Junior golfer Caleb Choe said he has spent thousands of dollars out of his own pocket

Rebecca Hagigh, a junior on the equestrian team, said student-athletes must buy

Stef Chiguluri

Gordon Reistrup, the head coach of the equestrian team, said the university has purchased 10 of his team’s horses and pays for their care. He said the W&L riding team is unique in its affordability. “Unlike most of, if not all of our competitors in our region, we do not charge a fee for our students to participate in equestrian,” he said.

Emily Guyer, assistant coach of the riding team, said student-athletes who ask for help can borrow gear from either her or Reistrup. “We can make sure everyone is provided for. No one goes without,” she said.

For Chiguluri, the key to addressing financial insecurity among studentathletes is to convince them to talk about it with their coaches. “It feels like we are at a school that has the ability to provide the resources if they are communicated,” she said.

But she said it’s not easy. “It’s often something that people don’t talk about here.

“It feels like we are at a school that has the ability to provide the resources if they are communicated”

Goalie Stefanie Chiguluri

TORN DREAMS

ACL Injuries in Women’s Soccer Cuts Careers Short

By Lindsay White

Whitney McCormick paced back and forth on the sideline, waiting to enter a game with her travel soccer team. It was early March 2021, and she was looking forward to finishing on a high note before heading to Washington and Lee University in the fall after a year wrecked by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the whistle blew and the game started, she fell into a rhythm and made plays up and down the field. Injury was the last thing on her mind. Then, McCormick stepped in a divot and heard a pop in her knee.

It’s a pop that no one, especially an athlete, wants to hear, because it usually means a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

“Tearing your ACL is one of those things that happens to everyone else, and you never imagine is going to happen to you,” McCormick said. “It’s definitely something that

blindsides you and hits you out of nowhere. And that’s definitely what happened to me.”

Starting at age 16, female soccer players face a 5% chance of tearing their ACLs each year they participate in the sport, said Dr. Mark Cullen, an orthopedic surgeon who practices in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Cullen said as many as 80,000 high school girls in the United States suffer ACL injuries, mostly while playing soccer and basketball.

Dr. Steven Martin, an orthopedic surgeon who treats athletes at Clemson University, said there are a combination of factors that make soccer players more prone to ACL injuries. Soccer is a “high intensity endurance sport where fatigue plays a role,” he said, and players engage in “fast speed running with cutting and pivoting.” Dribbling the ball while fending off defenders also can lead to a sudden “change of direction with off-center balance.”

All of those movements increase the danger of the “buckling” of the knee.

Cullen said women soccer players are four to six times more likely to tear their ACLs than men.

Mairin Wood, an athletic trainer at W&L, said the reason is physiological: Women have a wider pelvic structure than men, and that puts more stress on soft tissues that support women’s joints. As a result, they land differently on their feet than men.

Rehabilitation methods have gotten better, but less than half of female soccer players who tear their ACLs will ever return to their pre-injury skill level, experts say. The women who do manage to come back and play like they used to still face higher risk of re-injury. Martin said there’s a 10% chance that a previously injured athlete will retear the ACL in her knee that was injured, and there’s a 20% chance that she could tear the ACL in her

Whitney McCormick performs a kneeling shoulder press to increase core strength.

Photos by Lindsay White

Design by Ana Dorta and Adam Lamberti

other knee. Rehab strengthens the muscles around the injured knee like never before. But the other knee doesn’t get such a benefit, and it is more susceptible to injury.

“Before I tore my knee, I was on track to have a great season,” McCormick said.

“So, when my injury happened it was a major setback, physically and mentally.”

Athletes with torn ACLs feel the sting of the long recovery from surgery before they can get back on the field. It generally takes eight to 10 months to recover from surgery alone. And it can take more than a year for some people.

How an ACL Tears

To avoid retears in the knee, Martin focuses on graft selection, choosing the strongest tendons to repair the ACL. He also said he’s now adding an internal brace to the new ACL graft during surgery to act “almost like a seat belt” to provide the graft with additional protection.

Diligent, intense rehab is the best way to avoid another ACL injury, said physical therapist Amanda Somers, owner of SSI Physical Therapy in Greer, South Carolina. Rehab requires athletes to engage in repeated strength and agility exercises after the initial healing process to prepare the knee and muscles around it for vigorous physical activity.

Somers tailors her rehab methods to each patient’s sport. “When I work with a soccer patient, I have worked with them on a ball, worked on their jumping, put them in different soccer situations,” she said. “So, they’re not going back on the field without the confidence in

their knee that they need.”

Somers said she works with dozens of athletes with torn ACLs every year, many of whom play women’s soccer. She said her strategy is getting them to buy into the process.

“It all starts in the beginning. You have to have the athlete’s trust,” she said. When athletes get closer to playing, she guides them into more advanced exercises. “They trust that I wouldn’t have them do that if they weren’t ready. That helps me push them physically while also keeping them mentally confident.”

The rehab process also helps with the mental preparation of returning

“Tearing your ACL is one of those things that happens to everyone else, and you never imagine is going to happen to you”

Whitney McCormick

to the field. Former professional soccer player Blakely Mattern said athletes simply need to go for it at some point after rehab.

McCormick, who is a first-year midfielder on W&L’s team, is in the middle of rehab, spending her time in the training room and building her strength and confidence in her knee.

She has days where she doubts her progress. But she credits Wood, the athletic trainer, for pushing her out of her comfort zone in workouts.

McCormick has begun practicing with limited contact, but she is looking forward to being fully cleared by the time the team returns to school in August for preseason camp.

“Just personally, I know it’s going to be a long road,” she said. “So, I’m not there right now. But I know when I step back on the field in the fall, I’ll definitely get myself there.”

“I remember wearing a brace when I was getting back to playing games,” said Mattern, who played center-back for FC Twente in the Netherlands in the 2011-2012 season. “I was getting ready to go out on the field and had my brace in my hand, ready to put it on. And I remember thinking to myself, I have to take a leap of faith at some point and trust all of the training I had done. So, I turned around and threw my brace off the field and played without it. I never looked back.”

Mattern runs a girls-only soccer training facility in Greenville, South Carolina. She coaches players, helps them with college searches, and also talks to girls who have suffered ACL injuries. She said she reminds them that if they prepare their bodies physically through the tough rehab process, they can be the same player they once were. But she said female players struggle with the mental aspect of recovery more than the physical side when they return to the field.

“I think a lot of time with ACLs, you get to that point where you’re trying to get comfortable with the thought that you’re healthy again,” she said. “It’s like, you actually have a brand new knee, but mentally, it is hard to think about that after you’ve been through what you’ve been through.”

“She has definitely given me so much confidence during rehab,” McCormick said. “Each step of the process is difficult, but the high I felt after reaching all of these milestones was super awesome and motivating.”

Wood said athletes need constant encouragement from trainers to keep morale high throughout recovery.

“I think setting short-term goals is really important, and rewarding those goals, and celebrating those goals is especially important when you have such a long rehab,” she said.

Like many female soccer players, McCormick knows she is at high risk for another ACL injury. But she’s not giving up.

“I feel like I have a lot of unfinished business,” she said. “Watching from the sidelines during recovery gave me perspective on my true passion for the game. I owe my recovery to the twelve-year-old girl who dreamed of a college career to try my very hardest. I want to make her proud.”

“So, I turned around and threw my brace off the field and played without it. I never looked back”

Blakely Mattern

GREAT. “ “ BE

DIVERSIFYING THE SIDELINES: W&L tries to change the game by hiring more coaches of color

Story and photos by Stef Chiguluri | Design by Catherine Xia

It’s six a.m. and Jimmie Mack Johnson III is up and energized. A ball of motivation, the Washington and Lee University assistant football coach bounds across the gym, fist-bumps every player and smiles ear to ear. “Be great,” he said. It’s Johnson’s mantra. He pushes everyone around him, and himself. “Be great. Just be great.”

Johnson said he understands that he is making a difference as a young black man in an athletic leadership role at a predominantly white school. “I’m just trying to change the world, whether that’s in my bubble or in the broadest sense, because I feel like I have a responsibility to do that,” he said.

Johnson attended W&L from 2016 to 2020. He was a member of both the football and track and field teams. He was searching for internships in sports after graduating, when a coaching spot opened up on W&L’s football team.

Assistant Coach Bobby Jones said the football department had to fill three of six slots. Jones said it was especially important to hire diverse staff after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020.

“We knew that staff representation was something that was crucially important,” Jones said. “There were a lot of experiences that a lot of our players were going to go through, or going to have, that we just couldn’t relate to, given our privilege as white men.”

In a matter of a couple months, W&L’s football program became the most diverse coaching staff at the university. It has three men of color: Johnson and two other new assistant coaches, Bryce PerryMartin and Vaughn Johnson. Jimmie Johnson and Vaughn Johnson, who are not related, are the only two black coaches out of 61 for all sports at W&L.

For decades, W&L has struggled to improve the diversity of its student body, faculty and staff. The university’s admissions office has scored some gains in recruiting. But the school also is focusing on keeping students of color after they’ve been admitted. Athletics is a big part of the effort.

In the 2020-2021 school year, Tamara Futrell, dean of diversity, inclusion and student engagement, created the Office of Inclusion and Engagement Steering Committee. Each area of campus life was represented on the steering committee. Athletics then formed a subcommittee to assess the state of DEI in sports.

Jimmie Johnson encourages players in drills.

2 BLACK COACHES 61 OUT OF

11 BLACK FOOTBALL PLAYERS OUT

OF 92

The athletics subcommittee came up with action items that included creation of a full-fledged DEI committee for athletics. Johnson is one of the football team’s assistant coach representatives.

He also serves as faculty adviser for the Perry Minority Athlete Coalition, a group created in November 2020 by studentathletes of color who wanted to create a space to support one another. And he’s the co-founder of the Black Male Initiative, a community organization focused on leadership development and community engagement with black male undergraduate and law students.

Athletics Director Jan Hathorn is emphasizing such efforts. “I’d like to see more black men and women in leadership roles and coaching roles on our campus and in this department. And that will be a focus,” she said.

Professional football is dominated by black athletes: 57.5% of National Football League players are black, compared to 24.9% who are white, according to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport’s 2021 racial and gender report card.

At W&L, there are 11 black football players on a 92-person roster. Johnson was the only black player on the team during his first year of college in 2016.

“The school is changing in a positive way and I’m liking that, and I’m glad to be part of that change as well,” said first-year linebacker Uno Christopher.

Football Head Coach Garrett LeRose said there is value in a diverse coaching staff. “When you are able to have more diversity in your coaching staff, it gives students the ability to have more candid spaces,” he said.

going to go through here, whether it be good, bad, or indifferent. And at the end of the day, we’re going to be there for them. I think this is incredibly huge.”

First-year running back and punt returner Jacob Romero said families need to be part of the equation. “It’s really important that not just our relationship is perfect,” he said. “Because you want your parents and coaches to have the same relationship you have with the coaches.”

Eleni Filley, a senior track player who was also a former teammate of Johnson’s, said W&L needed to hire Johnson to stay after he graduated.

First-year linebacker Jalen Todd said his high school coaches were all white. “Even if they said I could really come talk to them, it never really was like I could truly open up to them and just have a true conversation with them,” Todd said.

Johnson has become a source of comfort for young black men on the football team and their families.

“You know, we’re recruiting a young black man, and to be able to talk with his parents and be like, hey, we’re going to take care of them,” Johnson said. “I know what they’re

“How explicit am I going to be? I mean our school’s name is Washington and Lee,” she said. “I think for very obvious reasons having another person of color in administration and in athletics is huge.”

The seemingly smallest things matter to make people feel welcome. The Black Male Initiative brings a barber to campus every month for “Cuts on Campus.” Lexington doesn’t have barbers for black men, and Johnson said the event brings the young men together.

Johnson and Jones—both members on the Athletics DEI committee— want to begin an official partnership between the football team and BMI next year.

“When you’re in a space where people may not look like you, you know, it may be intimidating. It may make you shy, may make you feel like you’re not supposed to be in that space. And that’s not true at all,” Johnson said. “It’s reminding people that they are in that space for a reason.”

“I’m just trying to change the world, whether that’s in my bubble or in the broadest sense”

Johnson (left) demonstrates an exercise for football players.

Jimmie Johnson

Paving the Way

By Emma Smith

Former Washington and Lee University women’s basketball guard Erin Hughes doubts she’d be a coach, or that she would’ve realized it was even possible, if Christine Clancy hadn’t been her head coach.

“You cannot be what you cannot see,” said Hughes, who became an assistant coach for the W&L women’s team in fall 2021. “For me, seeing Clancy as a strong woman who loved her career as a basketball coach showed me that it is acceptable for women to work in athletics.”

It’s also true for Clancy, who was coached by a woman, Carol Simon, at Brandeis University. “When you see someone in that role that looks like you, you believe that you could

do that, too,” Clancy said. “Just the, ‘if you see it, you can be it,’ kind of mindset is completely why I ended up in coaching. I think if I had a male coach, it wouldn’t have necessarily clicked that it was a real option for me.”

fell in love with the school and the people and the place. So, I applied to be the head coach.”

In her first year as assistant coach, the team went 14-13. This year, the team had a record-breaking season with a 20-7 record, setting a program high for single-season win percentage. The team landed the No. 1 seed in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament— and an at-large invitation to the NCAA Division III tournament.

Clancy became assistant coach of the W&L women’s basketball team in 2011 after coaching at Colby College and Smith College. She only expected to stay a few years, but she became the head coach in 2012. “I really just came here because there was an opening,” she said. “I

Clancy also earned the ODAC Coach of the Year award. When she became head coach, Clancy focused on improving the team’s standing in the ODAC and making it to the NCAA tournament. “I cared about our culture and our program and the students, but I was definitely

“You cannot be what you cannot see”

Erin Hughes

Coaches and players cheer on the team from the sideline. Photos by Emma Smith

Design

much more focused on just the X’s and O’s of basketball,” she said.

The team lost in the ODAC semifinals to Shenandoah University. The players were disappointed, but junior guard Tahri Phillips said Clancy told the women that she didn’t believe it was their last game. She believed they had a chance at receiving a bid to the NCAA tournament—and they did. The team lost to New York University in the first round of the NCAA tournament on March 4.

“Just on paper, it’s hard to say that we had anything but a great season,” Clancy said. “But what I was really proud of was how the team approached it, just trying to learn from each day and get better.”

The head coach said she doesn’t believe that a team’s success is limited to what players do on the court. “It’s more important to me that we grow as a program, that we become more diverse and more inclusive, and that we do things beyond the basketball court,” she said.

Clancy credits former assistant coach Sarah Assante with pushing for a more inclusive team environment. The team took advantage of a limited schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic to focus on improving beyond the court.

“We had what I call an ‘illusion of inclusion’ going on where people thought that our culture was really good and inclusive and welcoming to everyone,” Clancy said. “But, we found out that wasn’t really true. We broke down that illusion and had real conversations about what was happening in our locker room.”

The team established three subcommittees: mental health and wellness; community engagement; and what they call “culture keepers.” Culture keepers are

players who work to keep the team’s culture in check through discussions on race and sexuality.

The community engagement committee members work with groups across campus. They coordinated with the Student Association for Black Unity and the Queer Liberation Alliance to host games in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and W&L’s Pride week. “I just want our program to be at the forefront of diversity and inclusion on this campus,” Clancy said.

Clancy wants her players to participate in conversations about diversity and inclusion, and to serve as leaders in those discussions. “It’s really important that we value this moving forward and keep pushing the boundaries, not just to make our program better, but to make ourselves better,” she said.

Phillips, a junior guard, said Clancy

focuses on the women as people, not just players. “In the past year and a half, she’s dedicated a lot more focus to our development outside of basketball,” Phillips said. “We’ve had a lot of conversations as a team about our team culture and what we do and who we are as a program, beyond what we do on the court.”

For Hughes, the player-turnedassistant coach, Clancy’s guidance made all the difference.

“Beyond seeing it was a possibility, Clancy has always been someone who encourages me to do whatever I am passionate about,” Hughes said. “And at the end of my senior year when I realized coaching is what I’m passionate about, and I couldn’t step away from basketball, Clancy did whatever she could to allow me to enter this profession, including taking a chance on me and offering me the job.”

Players huddle during a timeout.

The women on the team appreciate seeing females in coaching roles. “It’s been very cool to be around such strong and powerful women. It has inspired me and my other teammates to just do whatever you want because we have made our own space within us. Just being women,” senior guard Erin Addison said. “We can have very open conversations about whatever and how we receive criticism … And I just think it’s helped me become a better person seeing women in positions I might want to be in and knowing that there’s a way to get there.”

“Clancy very much tells you how it is,” Hughes said. “She isn’t trying to sell you an exaggerated version of the truth. She recruits the entire person and wants to make sure you are someone who can improve and challenge W&L and our program.”

The head coach said her players are her strongest selling point in recruiting.

“We’ve been really fortunate in

not just having talented basketball players, but committed basketball players, and just really, really good people,” Clancy said. “The people is what draws more people in.”

Addison said players appreciate Clancy’s individualized approach to coaching. “Her relationship with each player is so different and dependent on what that individual needs,” Addison said. “That is a superpower as a coach.”

Players also value that Clancy keeps her cool on the court during a game. “She’s very driven and motivated, but she is always calm and evenkeeled, even [in] our most stressful games,” Phillips said.

Clancy said she wants her players to know they can do anything. “I want them to understand that their voice matters,” she said. “They’ve had the experience of leading, and they can do it really well, wherever they go and that they should aspire to be a leader in that situation.”

When she talks to recruits, Clancy is candid about W&L’s program.

Christine Clancy and Erin Hughes applaud players.

“I just want our program to be at the forefront of diversity and inclusion on this campus”

Christine Clancy

Many high school kids grow up dreaming of playing football, lacrosse, wrestling, or track in college. Only a lucky few will play one of the sports, if they’re an exceptional athlete. Robert Hull was one of them. He competed in all four sports at Washington and Lee University in the mid-1990s.

With his 6-foot-3-inch and 220-pound frame, Hull was a highly touted defensive lineman after winning MVP at the East/West Virginia high school football game his senior year at Lexington High School in 1991. He drew attention from Power 5 schools, including top-tier Division I’s University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. He also got noticed by smaller schools such as the University of Richmond, Brown, and William and Mary. But Hull cared more about academics than anything else. A Lexington native, he never thought he would attend W&L, one of two universities located in his small hometown. He wanted to get out of

Robert Hull The Rockbridge Renaissance Man

By Matt Gallagher

Rockbridge County and go to what he thought were bigger and better places.

But he fell in love with W&L when he visited campus as a football and lacrosse recruit. The top-notch education, small class sizes, and opportunity to play sports provided the perfect combination for him.

“The Division I schools that were interested in me coming out of high school wanted to add 50 pounds to my frame,” Hull said. “Once you are on scholarship at those big schools, you pretty much work for them. You are just a slab of meat.”

At W&L, he played football all four years, from 1992 to 1996, earning All-American honors three times as a defensive tackle and being awarded National Defensive Player of the year as a senior. And he played lacrosse during his first two years, wrestled his junior year, and competed in track his senior year.

Hull excelled in the classroom, too. After he graduated, he headed north to attend Case Western

Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, to go to dental school, following in the footsteps of his father who worked as a dentist in Lexington.

He spent four years in Cleveland in dental school. But he realized he didn’t want to live and work in a city. He moved back to Lexington

Hull played for W&L. Photo courtesy of Robert Hull

Robert Hull coaches lacrosse at Rockbridge County High School.

Photos by Matt Gallagher | Design by Ian Dardani

and opened a dental practice. Hull has practiced dentistry for over 20 years, and he loves utilizing the latest technological instruments and techniques.

“I don’t know how he juggles so many tasks, but he does a great job doing it,” said Dina Farris, Hull’s office manager, who has worked for him for nearly 10 years. “He is the backbone of this office, and he solves every problem that comes up … His positivity and drive make this office prosper. We are always packed with patients, and he fits them into his busy schedule.”

Four years ago, Hull decided to return to one of his first loves— lacrosse. He became the head coach of the local high school boys’ team because he saw a void in the quality of coaching in the sport locally. He inherited a program that had had little success and drew little interest from students.

“COVID has really put a damper in the growth of our program,” Hull said. “Last spring, I had to force kids to come to practice after they already graduated high school. It has been a real challenge maintaining numbers and talent.”

This year, Hull is working with a roster of younger, inexperienced players. He’s emphasizing the basics with them: catching and throwing,

picking up ground balls, running simple offensive sets, and working on team chemistry.

“This is a learning process,” he said. “This season will have its growing pains, but as these guys continue to improve individually on their skill sets, this program will only continue to improve.”

The varsity and JV team are small; the 36-man team has only two seniors and three juniors. Hull blames the pandemic for the team’s inability to attract older boys. As frustrating as it can be to rebuild a program, he preaches positivity.

we are both deeply passionate about.”

Senior midfielder Smith Hall said his coach has helped players like him grow up. “He has helped turn me into a man and really made this team special to me,” Hall said.

Most area high school sports receive funding from the school districts or city government. Lynchburg’s lacrosse powerhouse E.C. Glass gets about $20,000 a year from the city, plus donations from alums and parents.

Rockbridge County High School receives no funding, Hull said. But he was undeterred and raised about $30,000 last year for the program.

“When I took over, the team had outdated helmets and old pads,” he said. “The school giving us zero financial support puts a real burden on the team. I have to go out every year and find donors ... that is just another difficulty we face.”

Hull coached his oldest son, Pierson, who graduated last year. His younger son, River, is a junior midfielder on the team.

“My dad has done a great job building this program back,” River Hull said. “He treats me like any other player on the field but treats me like his son off the field. I really enjoy bonding with him over a sport

A big part of lacrosse is building chemistry and keeping field balance so players can run certain sets without becoming too clustered.

As in basketball, players need to spread out to make it harder for opponents to defend against scoring attempts.

Spacing is also a key to offensive

“I don’t know how he juggles so many tasks, but he does a great job doing it”

Dina Farris

success. “We are trying to teach the basics,” Hull said. “We run a simple two-three on offense and have a mixture of man-to-man on defense with some iterations of a threethree zone.”

A two-three offense starts with a dodge to the goal from a midfielder at around the 30-yard line on a football field, which is about 20 to 25 yards from the cage, or the goal.

it’s theoretically easier for them to deter dodges. Players in a zone defense guard specific areas on the field rather than individual players.

Hull’s team may be young and inexperienced. But they make up for it with confidence. “Coach Hull speaks a lot towards how team chemistry builds success,” Hall said.

“Being a senior on the team has made me more of a vocal leader,” he said. “Many of the young guys are new to the program, so leading by example and being loud has helped this team mesh in the preseason so far.”

“The way to build a consistent winner,” he said, “is by having kids who are fully bought in and who want it as bad as you do as a coach.”

The midfielder can either shoot, pass to a teammate positioned in the area behind the net. Or, the midfielder can throw back to another teammate, who is positioned about 15 yards in front of the net.

It’s a simple offensive play that requires ball movement and chemistry among all six offensive players.

Most teams play man-to-man defense, and when a player gets beat, another defender slides over to help.

When players are in a zone defense,

Lacrosse is a game of momentum, and it can be tough to withstand opponents’ runs, especially for a young team.

Hull challenges his players to be leaders: Who on the team is going to step up and make a big play, or speak up when things are not going well?

“These kids have been playing lacrosse for me since they were around nine years old,” he said. “They have been around me, and I hope I have instilled good leadership into them and made them better men.”

Hull wants to turn the high school team into contenders at the regional and state levels.

“He has helped turn me into a man and really made this team special”

Smith Hall

Sound the Horn:

By Jack Douglass

For senior point guard Megan Horn, the turning point for the Washington and Lee University women’s basketball team occurred in the sixth game of the 2022 season. The team had a 3-2 record entering the contest against the University of Mary Washington. Horn led the team with 17 points in a 73-68 win that set off a chain reaction of wins in 11 of their next 12 games.

On the season, Horn averaged 13.8 points per game and tallied 100 total assists, a star performance that earned her the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Player of the Year award. She is the first W&L women’s basketball player to be named the ODAC Player of the Year since the 2001-2002 season. Jessica Mentz won it that year. Horn also was named to the All-America Honorable Mention list, making her only the fourth female player in program history to earn such an honor.

“I was surprised and excited,” she said.

The 5-foot-11 guard from Basking Ridge, New Jersey, joined the team in the fall of 2018, and has served as team captain for the past two years. Under her leadership, the Generals advanced to the NCAA tournament this year for the first time since 2010.

“When we recruited her, we were like this could be a ‘Player of the Year’ type player because of her size and her versatility … She can do a little bit of everything,” Head Coach Christine Clancy said. “Even just watching Megan play when she was in high school … I just saw so much potential in her game.”

The team entered this season ranked third in the ODAC. The Generals posted an overall record of 20-6 in the regular season, earning the top seed in the conference tournament. They lost in the conference semi-finals to Shenandoah University but still

earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

Horn made it her mission to improve the team every season. “Each year, the expectation of we want to be better and better rose,” she said. “We want to be good enough to be able to make the NCAA tournament.”

Clancy describes Horn as a team builder. The coach said Horn would often pull teammate Kathryn Vandiver into individual sessions to practice ways Horn could create more opportunities for Vandiver to score.

Vandiver said Horn’s leadership also extended off the court. “She’s such a good leader. She really pulls everyone in,” Vandiver said. “The amount of times we would go practice together, shoot together, even just go grab a meal together— she’s really good at making those connections. You can just tell how much fun she has with the sport.”

Teammate Erin Addison said Horn is selfless. “Meg is always going to be the one putting other people first,” Addison said. “She’s one of the best passers I’ve ever played with.”

Chemistry among players often determines whether they win or lose, in any sport. The W&L women are no different. Their motto this past season was “Strive Together,”

Horn, No. 11, dribbles the ball during a game.

Photos by Emma Smith

“She can do a little bit of everything”

Christine Clancy

Player of the Year

from a book, “What Drives Winning,” by Brett

Ledbetter.

The players became closer when they traveled to Florida for a holiday tournament before the break between semesters.

“We were on the bus for fourteen hours and we never got bored. We listened to music the whole time, played ‘Mafia,’ and asked each other hot seat questions,” Addison said, referring to the social deduction game that pits two groups against each other. “That trip set the precedent for the rest of the season.”

The women’s team only played eight games in the 2020-2021 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and all players had to wear masks on the court. The NCAA women’s basketball national tournament was also cancelled.

Generals matched up with New York University in the first round.

In that game, Horn led the Generals in scoring yet again with 14 points. Vandiver had a doubledouble in the game with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

The Generals began the game down 9-0 but came back and went into halftime down by only one point. But the NYU women out-ran and outscored W&L, winning 71-61.

“Making it to March and playing in the NCAA Championship is a goal every college basketball player has,” said Erin Hughes, a former W&L women’s basketball captain and now an assistant coach. “Being in the small percentage of teams that made it means everything.”

22 game against the Bridgewater Eagles. She scored 23 points, collected eight rebounds, blocked two shots, and snagged one steal.

“The past three years I’ve been more of a three-point shooter or a driver, and I think it was easier to shut me down because they were able to deny me or pack in the paint,” Horn said. “But, because I was able to work on those pull ups, I was able to work on those drives.”

On the defensive end of the court, Horn had a breakout performance in the team’s regular season game against Lynchburg, posting four steals.

“Defense is always a focus for me,” she said.

“Clancy likes to match me up against one of their best players since I can guard a post or a guard because I’m taller.”

This past season, there was a return to normalcy—and the team took off. They won 16 of their 18 conference games, largely because of their offensive production. They shot 40% from the field, 32% from threepoint range, and made 70% of their free throws.

The team received an at-large bid to the NCAA D-III Women’s Basketball tournament in Brooklyn. The

The loss was bittersweet because Horn won several accolades for her performance during the season. “I think what made Meg so much more effective as an individual player this year was that she had a scorer’s mentality,” Clancy said. “She’s always been a pass-first type player which is great. But she became so much more dynamic when she tapped into her scoring ability.”

Horn hit a career high at a Jan.

After graduation in May, Horn will intern at Ernst & Young in Washington. She then plans to pursue a master’s degree in accounting at the University of Virginia.

Vandiver said Horn’s teammates will miss her. “I’ve never really known basketball without her.”

“She’s one of the best passers I’ve ever played with”

Erin Addison

Design by Riley Parker and Megan Murchie-Beyma

FROM LUSAKA TO LEXINGTON:

The Life of an International Student-Athlete at W&L

Washington and Lee University and Connecticut College had battled nearly the entire match, with no goals scored by either team, when W&L midfielder Victor Ndhlovu brought down a high pass with his foot. Two opponents converged, forcing him to fight his way through to make space to pass the ball to an open teammate. The move began a sequence that involved two other players and led to the Generals’ only goal of the men’s NCAA Division III soccer Final Four in December 2021.

“He had to fight off half of Conn College. He pushed through a tough window and made a really great pass,” said midfielder Grant McCarty, who received the ball and got it to forward Adrian Zimmerman to score the goal. “It was probably his best play of the season. It came when the team needed it.”

The momentum shift didn’t last, and W&L lost the match, ending an historic season. The team was

ranked No. 1 nationally throughout the season and was undefeated going into the second round of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament. But the Generals lost in an upset to Randolph College. The team then received a No. 1 seed at-large invitation to the NCAA tournament.

Ndhlovu’s journey to Lexington, Virginia, began in his hometown of Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. By the time he was 7, Ndhlovu was playing soccer with his friends, dreaming about joining the Zambian Men’s National Football Team.

But in high school, he realized he wasn’t going to play professional soccer. That’s when he turned his sights to college—in the United States.

“The older you get, the more you start to come to terms with the truth, I guess,” Ndhlovu said. “But at least I’m here.”

In his sophomore year of high

school, he accepted that he probably wouldn’t play pro soccer at home, and reached out to the Zambian Institute for Sustainable Development, a nonprofit group in Zambia. The organization encourages young people like him to pursue educations in other countries and return to help develop solutions to Zambia’s social, economic and technological problems.

The organization then sent videos of him playing soccer to recruiters who act as go-betweens for athletes and colleges.

“I told them I either wanted to play soccer or track. I gave them my times, showed them some video,” he said.

His recruitment to W&L is typical of how international athletes wind up playing collegiate sports, like soccer and track.

Ndhlovu said he noticed first that soccer in the U.S. is more physical

Story and photos by Seamus Watters | Design by Simona Radeva

W&L’s Victor Ndhlovu practices on the field.

than in Zambia. International players like Ndhlovu take a more creative, but tactical approach to the game, McCarty said.

In Zambia, Ndhlovu said, many kids see soccer as a way out of poverty. “It’s very competitive, especially in the rural areas, because there are a lot of kids that come in from crime towns and troubled homes,” he said. “So, soccer is all they have to do

and how better to manage my time.”

He also had to adjust to the style of soccer played in the U.S.—and at a Division III school. “It’s a very physical long ball, very little actual soccer,” Ndhlovu said.

George Biddle, a senior midfielder, said international players like Ndhlovu come to play. “They’re great, and they came in ready to work hard,” he said.

Ndhlovu said Coach Michael Singleton made him feel welcome. “You can tell, he’s really

game ... It helps to fire me up.”

Ndhlovu said he remembers his key moment late in the Final Four match with Connecticut College.

“As the ball came towards me, I tried to flick it between two players but didn’t quite get the touch I wanted,” he said. “A defender stepped in front of me. It had been a physical game, and I wasn’t about to give up on the play. So, I shielded off two players to regain the ball.”

At that moment, Ndhlovu said, he saw McCarty open on the wing. “He played a square ball to Adrian [Zimmerman], who in the form he was in, was never going to miss,”

when the sun’s out. So yeah, you kind of get good at it if you play it every day.”

He’d never been to W&L’s campus until he arrived in August 2019, three days before the soccer team began preparing for the preseason.

Ndhlovu said he experienced culture shock, struggling with the meaning of American slang, comprehending a new academic grading system, and being asked to repeat himself because his teammates and classmates had trouble understanding his accent.

“Coming in as a freshman [it] feels like it’s just you on your own versus the world,” Ndhlovu said. “But now I know where to find the resources,

understanding, and he cares, and he’s very cultured,” Ndhlovu said.

Ndhlovu started some games during the season, but he usually came in off the bench. In soccer, there’s a lot of strategic substituting of players because of the fast-paced nature of the sport.

McCarty said Ndhlovu’s contributions were important to the team’s success.

“I guess he has a more serious leadby-example attitude than a lot of the team,” McCarty said. “You can feel a lot of his energy during the

Ndhlovu said. “I started celebrating before he even shot it.”

Nine minutes and 17 seconds later, Connecticut scored their first goal and went on to win the game, 2-1.

Ndhlovu said he has high hopes for next season. “We do better and yeah, we win the ODAC and the Natty [national championship].”

The Four Horsemen

By Ryan Raicht

Junior outfielder Mason Satterfield stood on second base at a key moment for the Washington and Lee University baseball team a month into its season. Down by a run in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Generals needed the booming double that he’d just hit off the leftcenter field wall. His teammate, Luke Erdmann, came up to bat and dropped a bloop single into right field. Satterfield kicked it into high gear. After rounding third base, he barreled toward home plate.

The catcher for Shenandoah University blocked the lane, leaving Satterfield no choice but to lower his shoulder and plow into the Hornets catcher. The ball squirted away in the collision.

His nose bloodied, Satterfield popped up to his feet and grabbed his helmet off the ground before heading to the dugout.

Satterfield stayed in the game, which W&L came from behind to win, 6-5.

“To me, Mason showed that night that he can be the face of Washington and Lee baseball,” said W&L Head Coach Ted White.

Satterfield is one of four dynamic athletes on the team who graduated from James Madison High School in Vienna, Virginia. The other three are infielder Erdmann, outfielder Zach Perkins, and first-year pitcher

White said the four players know each other so well that they feed off each other’s energy.

“You can see it in adverse times,” he said. “It’s easy to grab a teammate that is a friend, like leaning on a brother.”

Blair said he thinks of his Madison teammates like they are his big brothers. “I look up to all three of them in different ways and I feel as though I can go to them for anything,” he said. “Knowing that they each have my back gives me the confidence to go out onto the field every day and compete to the best of my ability.”

The James Madison baseball team usually dominates their conference, and many of players wind up playing in college, or getting drafted by major league teams.

In 2020, the Warhawks ranked 18th in the country in a preseason poll by the National High School Baseball Coaches Association. James Madison’s James Triantos was the 56th overall pick by the Chicago Cubs in the 2021 draft.

In three seasons with W&L, Perkins, a junior, has .343 batting average, a .426 on-base percentage and a .552 slugging percentage. “Zach is a guy who puts his head down and comes to work every day with a positive attitude,” White said.

As a General, Erdmann has a .344 batting average, a .394 on-base percentage and a .405 slugging percentage.

“It’s easy to grab a teammate that is a friend, like leaning on a brother”

Head Coach Ted White

of W&L Baseball

He slid over to third base before the 2021 season after entering the program as an outfielder. He has earned W&L Scholar-Athlete honors each season, and was named to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference All-Academic team in 2021.

“Luke is an offensivefirst type of player that has finally found his defensive home at third base,” White said. “He brings a much-needed intensity to the program.”

Satterfield has played in nearly every game since he joined the team. His specialty is defense. He has committed only one error so far in his first two seasons, which translates into a .989 fielding percentage.

“It’s all in preparation,” he said. “Being coached with a bunch of highly experienced individuals in high school prepared me well to

play at the next level.”

Design by Vivek Kumar

As a reliever, Blair started his season strong with a 2.93 ERA in his first nine appearances. W&L has no seniors on its pitching staff, and Blair has stepped in to provide energy out of the bullpen. “Evan pitches with his emotions on his sleeve,” White said. “I know that every time he takes the mound he is going to compete to the best of his ability.”

In the game against 18thranked Shenandoah on March 8, Blair earned the first win of his collegiate career by racking up seven strikeouts while only giving up four hits and one run.

Erdmann said he feels fortunate to be playing with his childhood friends.

“It means everything to me,” he said. “I grew up with these guys and I was lucky enough to form great friendships with them even before coming here and have been fortunate to strengthen those

connections as well as make new ones with the guys here.”

He said his high school experience prepared him to play in college. “Going into my freshman year here at W&L I knew what kind of intensity and work ethic I needed to bring to the field because of the program at Madison,” Erdmann said.

When recruiting, White pays close to attention to maintaining his team’s chemistry, not only a player’s skill set.

“Coming from a successful program means something, but you’re looking at the individual,” he said. “If they don’t have the dynamic qualities you are looking for, then they are not a fit for the program. These four boys checked all of the boxes.”

Evan Blair throws a pitch during practice.

Photos by Ryan Raicht

Luke Erdmann Zach Perkins

Jonathan Molner is a Man of Many Talents

By Andrew Arnold

The Washington and Lee Men’s Tennis Team has had only 10 walk-ons in David Detwiler’s 22 years as head coach. It wasn’t surprising that Jonathan Molner was turned away when he asked an assistant coach about trying out for the team shortly after he was accepted to W&L. But after a few more emails and a lot of lobbying by Molner’s high school coaches, Detwiler and his staff told the team captains to practice with him. They would decide whether Molner had what it took to make the team.

To get ready, Molner practiced every day over the summer with a Division-I tennis player. The captains decided in early fall that Molner played well enough to get his shot. But he joined the team in the last spot on the roster. The other players didn’t want to practice with him because he was the lowest-ranked member of the team. He’d practice by himself hitting balls shot out of a machine. Or he’d

work with coaches, who wanted to change his swing. Molner lacked power on his shots, and he needed to reconstruct his forehand. He kept losing to other players in practice because it took time for him to change the way he played.

“Starting out tennis his freshman year, he wasn’t hitting the ball too well,” said Evan Brady, a junior starter. “Coach didn’t really expect too much of him.”

Molner kept working and wondering if he was ever going to master the new swing. In January 2021, he got his answer. He finally put it all together and beat a former high school teammate, Danny Nelson, who plays on the tennis team at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. Molner and Nelson often played each other, but Nelson usually won. This time, Molner crushed Nelson with the improvements in his forehand that he’d been working on for months. He won the match that day, two sets to zero, each set 6-2.

Jonathan Molner worked his way on to the W&L tennis team.

Photo by Andrew Arnold

Molner is a tenor in University Singers.

Photo by Jackson Sharman

Design by Jackson Sharman

“To put that in football terms, it’s a 17-point win against a good team,” Molner said.

Molner entered the preseason that spring with a new set of skills, and it paid off. He defeated teammates who were ranked above him in the line-up. By the time the season started, he’d moved up to seventh on the roster, which meant that he often got to start. “He probably puts in more practice time than anyone else on the team,” Detwiler said.

In collegiate tennis, the top six ranked players on a team compete in singles matches to accumulate points for the squad. The remaining nine compete in exhibition games or play doubles. As the seventh man, Molner often got to start because of injuries and COVID-related absences of the players ranked above him.

By the end of spring 2021, he had been named to the All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference first team.

“It was really unexpected, especially the way the year started,” he said. “But it was nice to get the confirmation that the hard work had paid off.”

Molner’s quest for perfection doesn’t stop with tennis. He brings the same intensity to his role as a tenor in the University Singers, the premier singing group on W&L’s campus. It’s not easy to be selected. At times, there are seven or eight people trying out per spot. And singing tenor isn’t easy either because it has one of the largest ranges in choir, which means mistakes happen. Josh Lewis, another tenor in Molner’s section, noticed that

Molner often held back the first time he sang a piece. Lewis said he thinks that’s because Molner didn’t want anyone to hear him mess up.

“He is one of the people in our section who gets his part memorized first,” Lewis said.

them,” he said.

His mother attended the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and his father attended Yale, where he played football. His dad, Phillip Molner, graduated summa cum laude with a double major in economics and mathematics before earning a J.D. in law from Yale. He is a managing partner for PRIMUS, a national private equity firm.

An economics major and minor in entrepreneurship, Molner also is a member of the Williams Investment Society, a student-run organization within W&L’s Williams School of Commerce, Economics and Politics. The WIS manages a multimilliondollar stock portfolio. More than 100 students apply every year for about 20 spots.

Molner knows he has taken on a lot of responsibility as a college student. But he also knows why. “I’m just trying to compete against my parents to see if I can be as successful or more successful than

The younger Molner’s competitive nature kept him in the mix when the tennis team began making cuts in fall 2021. He had to play matches against his teammates that would determine who would stay on the team and who would not. It was even tougher for Molner because tennis practices conflicted with choir rehearsals.

His first match was against one of the highest recruited players in his class. “I was very nervous coming into that match,” he said. “The

“It’s a natural habit for me. I want to do better than other people”

Molner became the seventh man on the team.

Photo by Andrew Arnold

Jonathan Molner

stakes were high.”

After winning the first two games, Molner said the match got “easier.” But he still wasn’t happy. He thought he should’ve put his opponent away sooner. The other player was cut from the team.

Players are largely responsible for the quality of their individual efforts on the court, even though tennis is scored as a team sport. That can take a toll on players. “It’s been a huge focus for a while, trying to do better than other people, which has driven me a little crazy,” Molner said.

He won three of his four matches in the fall to solidify his spot on the team. He was succeeding on the court, but he said his coaches noticed that he was stressed out. Molner said they recommended that he talk to a university counselor. He said he knew that he was “spreading himself too thin,” and met with a counselor.

“I try now to focus more on doing better than myself in the next match or the next test,” Molner said. He also said he tries to avoid worrying

about what someone else is doing.

“It’s a natural habit for me. I want to do better than other people,” Molner said. “I’m going to compare myself to my parents still. Maybe just not do it as much.”

To ensure that he balances his commitments, Molner often sits down with his tennis coach and choir director. Most of all, he wants to make sure he will have enough time to excel at both.

“When you have a student who is doing it like that, I’ll bend over backwards to help them,” said Shane Lynch, director of choral activities.

Even with advanced planning, Molner can’t do everything. “It’s a struggle right now,” he said. “It’s hard to keep 100 percent in both areas when I’m not there, 100 percent of the time.”

Lynch said he wants Molner to find a way to do both. “At a small liberal arts school, we sell the fact that you can come here and play tennis and still be in University Singers,” Lynch said.

“That means we have to actually make that a reality once people get here.”

Diya Shreenath, Molner’s girlfriend, said Molner finds a way to meet his obligations. “He’s got a lot of different things to juggle and balance, but he does a good job allocating his time,” said Shreenath, who is majoring in accounting. “He’s very caring about all the people around him.”

The tennis team has had a rough start to the 2022 season. They play one of the toughest schedules in the country, including matches against two Division I programs and six nationally ranked Division III teams. They started the season 0-7, and they didn’t win until March 8 against Shenandoah University.

Molner won, two sets to zero. His opponent won only one game. Molner’s response: “Room for improvement.”

Molner often logs extra practice to stay competitive with his teammates.

Photo by Andrew Arnold

A Star Fights Way Back to Play

By Ian Dardani

Katherine Faria stared with a dejected look on her face from the sidelines as her team fell short to Gettysburg, 13-12, during the fourth game of the season. A week before, she was on the field, jockeying for a groundball against two Salisbury defenders. Faria, one of the most prolific scorers in the Washington and Lee University women’s lacrosse team’s history, scooped up the groundball and made a hard cut, looking to split the defense. But her left foot landed in an awkward position, and she dropped to the ground. Faria instantly knew something was wrong and limped to the sideline.

A few days after the Salisbury game, Faria learned that she had a severely sprained foot with ligament and tendon damage. For most athletes, the injury requires surgery.

Given the recovery time, surgery for Faria, the senior team captain, would mean her lacrosse career was over, a crushing blow to her dream of winning a national championship in her final season.

But a doctor told her she could forgo surgery and commit to extensive daily physical therapy. Even if rehab went well, she was told she’d have to play through a lot of pain. Faria decided to try.

“It won’t be easy or feel great, but I plan on making a return as soon as I can,” she said. “Our end goal has always been to win a national championship. And something important we’ve spoken about this year is having no regrets. We want to be happy with our season no matter where it ends without any what ifs. I didn’t want to get surgery and look back on this year wishing

I hadn’t. So, when I was given the option to try to play through, it was an easy choice for me.”

Since her first year in college, Faria has helped lead W&L to two Old Dominion Athletic Conference championships. In 2019, she set the W&L rookie records for goals and points in a single season while receiving first-team All-ODAC honors and winning ODAC Rookie of the Year.

Faria is a versatile player who uses a combination of speed, power and smarts to attack defenses.

“Katherine is a skilled, strong offensive player with a high lacrosse IQ,” said Tracy Tucker, a volunteer assistant coach. “She reads defenses quickly and works hard to

involve her teammates in scoring plays.”

Sophomore attacker Hanna Bishop formed a quick bond with Faria because their playing styles are similar. Their chemistry created a lethal one-two punch on offense for the Generals.

Bishop and Faria were the team’s first and second leading scorers, respectively. Both players finished with 53 total points each on the season.

“It all starts with chemistry off the field,” Faria said. “Hanna is one of my really good friends and that transitions really well to our play on the field and allows us to work cohesively on attack. We know the spots where we both want to get on

Katherine Faria practices on the lacrosse field.

Photos by Ian Dardani

the field and know where the other one is going to be. But really, this trust is created off the field.”

After Faria got hurt, the team struggled, losing games by one goal to topranked Salisbury and second-ranked Gettysburg. Her absence was felt because Faria has a knack for playing her best against the best competition. In 2019, Faria notched four goals against Salisbury that included the gamewinner in overtime. She also scored four goals against Gettysburg in 2020, leading the Generals to a 12-9 win.

Her past performance against Gettysburg in particular made standing on the sidelines during the game even worse.

Faria trains at the gym as part of her physical therapy regimen. impress her as much, if not more than her physical talent. “Katherine is a natural leader,” Tucker said. “She is respected by teammates and coaches not only for her lacrosse skills but for her commitment to her teammates and confidence and composure under pressure. She is competitive and has a true love for and knowledge of the game.”

Tucker said Faria has embraced her role as a vocal leader from the sidelines.

it—in spite of the fact that most of her sophomore year was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Year in and year out, the women’s team has enjoyed success during Faria’s time at W&L but fallen short in the NCAA playoffs.

It took Faria only three weeks after her injury to get back on the practice field to participate in noncontact drills.

“It’s always tough to see your team lose, especially when the score is that close, but I think it feels equally as frustrating being on or off the field,” Faria said. “I know that I still have a big impact on the team. My role has just changed for right now, and that’s okay. I just need to stay positive and help in whatever way I can until I’m back out there.”

Tucker said Faria’s intangible assets

“She has redirected her energy to encouraging her teammates and working on rehab to hopefully get back on the field as soon as she can,” Tucker said. “Her presence as a leader is equally valued both on and off the playing field.”

In her junior year, Faria eclipsed 100 goals, a feat not usually accomplished until a senior season by most players. But she did

“As a senior, injuries are much more upsetting,” she said. “I’ve been working with the athletic trainers every day to slowly increase the amount I can do. I’m just trying to stay optimistic and focus on what I can control to make my recovery as quick as possible.”

“Katherine is a skilled, strong offensive player with a high lacrosse IQ”

Tracy Tucker

Design by Dennis Hull

Beyond the Arc VMI relies on sharpshooters

By Jack Hunter

No NCAA Division I basketball team wanted Jake Stephens four years ago. He didn’t have the strength or stamina he’d need to play center. At 6-foot-8, he wasn’t quite tall enough to compensate for his weaknesses. But Virginia Military Institute Head Coach Dan Earl saw something nobody else did.

“He talked to me about being able to see the floor,” Stephens said. “I’m thankful he saw that in me.”

Most college basketball coaches didn’t think Kamdyn Curfman showed enough promise in high school to play Division I basketball. He’d planned to attend a preparatory school after he graduated from high school to give D-I coaches another chance to see him play. But in late spring of 2019, Earl gave Curfman his first and only Division I offer.

In seven years as head coach, Earl turned his team’s offense into one of the most explosive in the nation. Now, he’s headed to Chattanooga,

where he’ll serve as head coach of a team that won the Southern Conference regular season and conference titles and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016.

“[Earl] meant a lot to me being my first college coach,” said sophomore guard Tanner Mans. “But at the end of the day he leveled up and it is a business.”

This past season, VMI was the 8th shortest D-I team, according to kenpom.com, the leading college basketball analytics website. Earl said he and his staff may not have been able to recruit the tallest, fastest and strongest players, but they managed to find players who could shoot, pass and play smart.

“We don’t always win certainly, and we have some holes, and we’re trying to get better at certain things defensively, rebounding, toughness—things like that,” Earl said in an interview in March, before he was hired at Chattanooga

“But we have an identity. We know

what we’re doing, and I think the guys are bought into it.”

VMI is a small, state military institute in rural Lexington, Virginia, and that makes it hard to compete on the recruiting trail with other Division I teams. Earl and his staff became masters at finding the hidden talents and value in players that are missed by more than 350 Division I basketball programs.

“[Coach] knows I’m slow and not the greatest athlete,” said Mans, who had planned to play for a Division II team in Kansas before receiving an offer from VMI at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Coach said one of the biggest parts of my game is that I’m cerebral and know what plays to make out there.”

Design by Tyler Palicia

Earl’s approach to recruiting paid off. The Keydets finished the 202122 season with a 16-16 record, marking the first time VMI had consecutive seasons with .500 or better records in a decade. VMI

Kamdyn Curfman takes a shot during practice. Photos by Jack Hunter

also won nine Southern Conference games—the most since the 1998-99 season—and beat every team in the conference once this past season.

VMI earned the No. 5 seed in the 2022 SoCon tournament after finishing the conference schedule at 9-9. Four of VMI’s conference losses were by four points or less. The team also lost its last two regular season games, in which Stephens couldn’t play. He had suffered an ankle injury that had sidelined him for two weeks.

Even so, Earl’s players scored another first for VMI by earning an invitation to the College Basketball Invitational after they lost to Wofford College by two points in the SoCon tournament quarterfinals.

The program hadn’t been invited to and played in a postseason tournament since 2014. The eighth seed out of 16 teams, VMI lost in the first round to the team that would win the CBI, the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

In the 2021-2022 season, Stephens, VMI’s star center, ranked second in points and rebounds per game in the conference. He was first in field goal percentage and three-point field goal percentage in the SoCon. Stephens ranked third in the country in three-point percentage, according kenpom.com. He also won two SoCon Player of the Month awards and was named first-team All-SoCon.

Curfman led the conference in made three-point field goals and was named second-team AllSoCon.

and we have a lot of people that can shoot.”

The emphasis on the three-pointer paid off. VMI led the Southern Conference in points per game this season.

The VMI coaching staff has relied on analytics over the past few seasons to increase efficiency on offense and defense. Assistant Coach Logan Dahms, VMI’s analytics specialist, said analytics have shown how valuable skills like passing and shooting are when compared to raw athleticism and size.

“We’ve found that skill is even more of an equalizer,” Dahms said. “There’s a path to success with a roster that’s more physically limited than your opponent if you can compensate for that skill.”

VMI relies on three-pointers more than any other team in the country. Almost 47% of the team’s points are scored from behind the three-point arc, and almost 55% of the team’s

The Keydets ranked 26th out of 358 Division I teams in points per game and 17th in effective field goal percentage, according to teamrankings.com. Effective field goal percentage adjusts for the added value of a three-point jump shot versus a two-point jump shot. “We probably have as much highutility internal data as any team in the country, except for maybe 10 or 20 teams,” Dahms said. “That allows us to have a really accurate picture of our roster and the strengths and weaknesses of our team.”

He and the rest of the staff prioritize basic efficiency metrics, like how many points they score and allow per possession. They also emphasize the four components of any offensive or defensive possession: free-throw rate, offensive rebounding rate, turnover rate, and effective field goal percentage.

Dahms said the team has turned its focus on shot volume, which looks at how many shots the team takes in comparison to their opponents.

“We’re a pretty good shooting team, so we’re usually going to shoot a good effective field goal percentage compared to our opponent,” he said. “But we’ve struggled the past couple years turning teams over. So that turnover rate

“We’ve found that skill is even more of an equalizer”

Logan Dahms

and rebounding rate combination causes us to oftentimes get fewer shot attempts.”

VMI forced its opponents to commit turnovers in only 14% of their possessions, which ranked in the bottom 15 of all Division I teams, according to teamrankings.com. The Keydets ranked 280th in the

country in total rebounding rate.

The team’s failure to force mistakes and grab rebounds gave opponents over five extra scoring chances per game. Extra scoring chances per game is a metric that compares how effectively each team collects offensive rebounds and forces turnovers compared to their

opponents. The team tied for 349th in the country in effective scoring chances per game, according to teamrankings.com.

The Keydets also tied for last in the country on teamrankings. com in what’s known as opponent effective possession ratio. The metric looks solely at how a team’s opponent creates scoring opportunities through grabbing offensive rebounds and avoiding turnovers. VMI tied for last in the category because of an inability to turn opposing teams over and keep them from collecting offensive rebounds.

The metric shows that VMI was one of three teams in the country that allowed a higher number of offensive rebounds than the number of turnovers they generated.

Earl credited the team’s offensive success to players’ abilities to pass the ball. The team was 42nd nationally in assists per possession and 44th in assist-to-turnover ratio,

according to teamrankings.com.

But the former head coach said not all teams prioritize passing when recruiting. “I give credit to [Earl] a lot because that’s a hard thing to see when you’re recruiting somebody,” Stephens said.

Earl said he’s “old school” in how he evaluates recruits because he still values the so-called eye test. That’s when coaches form opinions about recruits from watching them play instead of obsessing about their stats and measurables, like their height, wingspan and vertical leap.

But Earl said figuring out what motivates recruits is as important, if not more than the physical skills.

“We spend a lot of time on that,” he said. “If you have a certain level of basketball ability and you couple it with the right thing that makes those kids tick, that’s the kind of kids we want to coach.”

Stephens wasn’t a star coming out of Musselman High School in Inwood, West Virginia. If he had been, VMI wouldn’t have had a shot at him.

He was three inches shorter back then, at 6-foot-8. His brother, who played point guard, set him up for easy baskets.

Stephens said he’d run out of steam quickly, get tangled in his feet, and didn’t shoot nearly as many threepointers as he did this past season.

Stephens said he doesn’t blame the D-I schools that passed on him.

“I’m just thankful that I had a program take a chance on me,” he said. “It obviously worked out for both of us.”

VMI doesn’t have the gravitas of West Point, the Naval Academy or the Air Force Academy. That’s a big part of why Earl had to take chances on players like Stephens coming out

of high school.

“It’s not that everybody goes here, you hand them a gun, and then they go fight in a war,” said Earl, who was an assistant coach at the U.S. Naval Academy before becoming VMI’s head coach.

Dahms said it’s important to make sure that recruits understand that there’s more to VMI than wearing a uniform, going to class every day, and complying with strict rules that cadets must follow.

“I feel good when we can really introduce people to what VMI is in the big picture, the lifelong picture, the 40-year picture,” he said. “Just getting people to that point, where they get to know us as a staff, they get to know our players, they see more of what the alumni network is like and what the VMI family is like. I think when people see that, they see how much value is here.”

Attending a military school didn’t bother Curfman and Mans.

“I got a little bit of an explanation [about VMI],” Curfman said. “But I feel like if I got the whole explanation or not, I would’ve been here anyway because [playing Division I] was my dream.”

Mans couldn’t visit VMI before committing in spring 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, he watched a five-minute video that the coaches put together for him.

“It’s just a good opportunity that I couldn’t pass up, coming from Kansas,” he said.

Associate Head Coach Ander Galfsky will serve as interim head coach while VMI searches for Earl’s replacement.

“Regardless of who our new coach

is next year,” Mans said, “we as a unit will continue to get better and work extremely hard to continue the program’s momentum.”

Logan Dahms