Lane League players bow their heads in prayer during last Saturday’s opening day ceremonies.
PHOTO BY JEREMY VESTAL

It was a beautiful day for the Lane Babe Ruth League’s 52nd opening ceremony on Saturday, April 3. Dozens of 13-15-year old boys lined up in the infield in their crisp white pants and colorful shirts, the Boy Scouts raised the American flag, and two Albemarle High School girls sang the National Anthem. But an otherwise perfect day for baseball was marred this year by the County’s budget woes.

“There’s a storm cloud gathering over the county office building,” League president Shannon Wilder told the crowd, turning a typically brief opening statement into a plea for help, “but we’re not going to let it rain on the Lane League.”

Just two weeks ago, Wilder said, the County informed the league that it would no longer be paying the electricity bill for the field lights as of July 1, an expense the County has been covering since the lights (more)

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Legendary point guard Jerry West

Local writer Jonathan Coleman, the best selling author of At Mother’s Request, Exit the Rainmaker, and Long Way to Go: Black and White in America, will be reading from a work-in-progress, a collaboration with NBA great Jerry West to pen the legendary Los Angeles Laker’s autobiography, at Random Row Books on West Main street on Tuesday, March 9 at 8pm.

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The rink was officially opened on May 1, 1996.
FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Lee Danielson was right— an ice rink in Charlottesville is a money-loser. And now the latest owners of the Charlottesville Ice Park, admitting that they’ve seen losses that “mounted more quickly than we anticipated,” reveal they will shut down the Charlottesville Ice Park later this year.

“The reality is that the Central Virginia area, while being enthusiastic about the rink to a degree, does not have enough people interested in skating often enough to support the operation,” co-owner Bruce Williamson writes in a remarkably candid open letter to staff, avid skaters, and parents of young skaters.

Williamson, a lawyer, helped purchase the facility in 2003 after Danielson and co-developer Colin Rolph feuded over its viability.  Despite carving off the upstairs party room as retail space (now housing the Eloise boutique), the new owners— now consisting of (more)

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Former collegiate gymnast Gretchen Kettleberger will compete in this weekend’s Superfit Games.
PHOTO COURTESY CROSSFIT CHARLOTTESVILLE

The Olympics may be two weeks away, but anyone interested in watching high intensity athletic competition can get a fix this weekend at Charlottesville’s first-ever Superfit Games, taking place Saturday, January 30.

There won’t be slalom or bobsledding in these games. Instead, the 100 participants from around the country– all of them adherents to Crossfit, a method of training that involves short, varied, extremely high-intensity workouts– will leap, lift, sprint and flex as they vie for the title “Fittest person in Charlottesville.”

“This is a chance to see A-list Crossfitters,” says organizer Kyle Redinger, who opened the Crossfit Charlottesville gym six months ago, but notes that Crossfit– the subject of a Hook cover story– can be adapted for all fitness levels.

“I’m sure there’ll be butterflies, never having done any type of competition like this,” says Todd Edmunds, who’s traveling in from Pennsylvania for the Games. “I’m looking to see how I can compete, compare with people outside my area.”

For contestant Gretchen Kittelberger, the Superfit Games will be her first Crossfit event but she’s no stranger to high level athletic competition. A gymnast at University of Maryland until her 2008 graduation, Kittelberger is now a law student and Crossfit trainer.

“In gymnastics, competing is down to a science– the way you warm up, the person you talk to beforehand to get you psyched up,” she says. “Crossfit is not like that, so I’m interested to see how I react in that situation.”

The competition takes place Saturday, January 30 from 7am to 7pm at the old National Linen Building at the corner of Market Street and Meade Avenue. Observers are asked to make a donation of $5 or $10; all proceeds will benefit the Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad and Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit benefiting veterans.

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UVA athletic director Craig Littlepage, left, introduces UVA’s new head football coach Mike London.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

UVA athletic director Craig Littlepage announced that University of Richmond head football coach Mike London will replace recently fired UVA head football coach Al Groh. London comes to UVA after only two seasons as head coach for the Spiders, but Littlepage expressed no reservations about his decision.

“We need a coach that can win,” Littlepage told the crowd of spectators and media that had gathered in the dining hall at John Paul Jones Arena. “Mike stood out on the strength of his character, as a coach, teacher, and leader. He will give UVA football an exciting jump start.”

London racked up a 24-5 record at Richmond and won the 2008 Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-AA) title.

London becomes the third African-American head coach in (more)

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Tiger Woods meets with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office back in April.
PHOTO BY PETE SOUZA

While the world appears shocked by Tiger Wood’s recent car accident, the result of an apparent argument with his wife, Elin, over admitted infidelities, which may, appropriately enough, have involved his wife brandishing of a golf club, Golf Digest writer Tom Callahan, a former Barboursville resident who wrote a 2004 biography of Woods called Searching for Tiger, wonders what all the fuss is about.

“He’s a famous billionaire, and he’s been with other women,”  says Callahan, who now lives in Florida and says has no idea what really happened at Tiger’s house that night. “Gee, stop the presses. It’s just not that startling to me.”

Callahan says he’s not particularly close to Woods, despite tracking down his subject’s namesake for the book, and he won’t speculate on what happened the night of the accident.

“I haven’t seen him since the Players, but I’ve been in his house, talked to him,” says Callahan. “He associates me with his father, because I went to Vietnam.” (more)

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Bart Isley and Ryan Yemen tap into the interest in high school sports.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

As the economy has tanked, traditional print media is gasping for air. So why not start a new niche magazine? That was the thinking of two former Daily Progress sports writers. On Thursday, August 27, the high school sports-centric Scrimmage Play hits the stands.

Bart Isley and Ryan Yemen, both 25, know all too well the dire predictions for print publications.

“Print is failing because news can be covered so easily on CNN,” says Yemen.

“Our theory,” says Isley, “is print media can still work if it’s of high quality and focuses on certain things. Our coverage is local and very specific.”

With the help of stringers, Isley and Yemen plan (more)

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Mac McDonald starts broadcasting August 31 and takes his former UVA play-by-play colleague Adam Gottschalk’s afternoon slot on WKAV while Gottschalk moves his sports talk to the morning.
MCDONALD PUBLICITY PHOTO, GOTTSCHALK  BY JAY KUHLMANN

More than a year ago, Mac McDonald abruptly left his job doing sports radio play-by-play on WINA radio. Almost as unexpectedly, he’s back on the air starting Monday, August 31, not for UVA nor his old pals at WINA, but with his own drive-time syndicated show airing on the competition AM station, WKAV Sports Radio 1400.

McDonald says he was about to move to Orlando after working on a book for the past year. “I had people pushing me to get back on radio and do (more)

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McIntire Little League’s 11-12-year old All-Stars battle for the State Championship tomorrow.
PHOTO COURTESY MCINTIRE LITTLE LEAGUE

After winning the District 14 Little League Championship in dominating fashion, scoring 109 runs and only giving up 10— led by slugger Stevie Mangrum’s amazing 13 home runs in just 5 games— the McIntire Little League 11-12-year old All-Star team is poised to make history.

For only the second time, McIntire has made it to the finals of the Virginia State Little League Championship, with the title to be decided Wenesday, July 29 at 6pm in Fairfax, Virginia (depending on the weather). Not since a former McIntire Little League player named Chris Long was an All-Star has the team played in the Championship game, and no team from McIntire or District 14 has ever won the Virginia State Championship.

“I think what makes this team (more)

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