We are so lucky in the Near West End — the University of Richmond constantly bring fabulous performances here that would othewise skip Richmond. Arlo Guthrie, Ira Glass, from NPR’s This American Life, Bobby McFerrin and D.J. Spooky are all coming this spring to the Modlin Center.
Look here for upcoming reviews of these performances. In the meantime, check out the Modlin Center’s calendar. They are constantly adding additional show times as ticket sell out.
These are the kind of performances that you can pretty much pick any one, maybe even someone you’ve never heard of and go and as your are leaving them say, “that was amazing! How did I not know about that performer?”
One such performer is D.J. Spooky and his Rebirth of a Nation. [via]

“Where other DJs remix songs, adding beats and blending melodies, Miller remixes culture in his style—blending music and as a writer, producer, critic, philosopher and multimedia artist.” —Philadelphia Daily News

After a two-year world tour, conceptual artist, writer and musician DJ Spooky will bring his acclaimed multimedia performance piece Rebirth of a Nation to the Modlin Center. An audio and visual re-imagining of D.W. Griffith’s groundbreaking and polarizing 1915 classic, The Birth of a Nation, the work combines DJ Spooky’s celebrated skills as a club DJ, multimedia storyteller and social critic to transform the silent era epic into a mesmerizing commentary on political corruption and racism. Rebirth of a Nation has drawn acclaim around the world, from the Herod Atticus Theater at the base of the Acropolis in Greece to the London IMAX, Europe’s largest movie screen.

Plus, the Modlin Center has its own blog! How cool is that? Complete with a link to audience reviews and comments.

I remember way back in the early 90’s when I worked for Style Weekly, my editor, Sue Robinson-Sain, asked me to cover a short story on how UR’s Modlin Center had just hired Kathy Panoff as its new director. I covered it but never really understood what a boon to UR and Richmond it would be until now. She has really done so much to improve the quality of performances here in Richmond.

The University of Richmond announced today the hiring of UR graduate and former UR coach Mike London as their new football coach.

London, 47, has spent six of the past seven seasons molding one of the nation’s top defenses at the University of Virginia. He returned to Charlottesville in 2006 after spending the previous season as the defensive line coach with the NFL’s Houston Texans. London was a member of Al Groh’s original staff at UVa from 2001-04, coaching the defensive line. He was also the program’s recruiting coordinator from 2002-04.
We are thrilled to have Mike lead our football program,” said Miller. “He has proven himself as a talented football coach and great recruiter, while experiencing football at its highest level. Having played, graduated and coached at Richmond, we are confident that Mike is a perfect fit for the University and will continue to attract student-athletes that reflect his same qualities.”

From UR press release.

The University of Richmond will announce its new head football coach today at 2 p.m. during an afternoon press conference at the Jepson Alumni Center.
The public is invited to attend.

Last week we reported Coach Dave Clawson will be heading to the University of Tennessee.

Univesity of Richmond swimmer, Nicole LePere, was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the week after a stellar performance on Saturday.

Freshman swimmer Nicole LePere was tabbed the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week after her performance in Richmond’s dual meet versus Maryland Saturday. The freshman captured her first collegiate gold medal with a win in the 200 back.

LePere paced the field in the event, winning in a lifetime best time of 2:05.66. The freshman continues the Spiders’ Atlantic 10 dominance in the 200 back. Currently Richmond owns the top four times, with LePere’s time ranking fourth.

A native of Yorba Linda, Calif., LePere also swam the fly on the Spiders’ third-place 200 medley relay (1:49.68), took fourth in the 200 fly (2:08.79) and fourth in the 100 fly (59.34). Richmond lost to Maryland, 150-121 in the meet.

The A-10 honor for LePere is the first of her career.

Richmond returns to action Sunday, January 27 versus William & Mary for the team’s only home event. The Senior Day meet begins at 1 p.m. at the Robins Center Natatorium.

[via]

In addition to University of RIchmond football coach Dave Clawson leaving UR to head for Tennessee,, Richmond wide receivers coach Latrell Scott head to UT as well, as a wide receivers coach.

Scott, 31, interviewed with Fulmer on Friday, the same day Tennessee officially announced it had hired Richmond coach Dave Clawson as its offensive coordinator.

On Saturday, Scott joined his former head coach at a press conference in the Neyland-Thompson Sports Center to announce their arrival.

[via]

It’s official. According to Go Vols Xtra, University of Richmond football coach Dave Clawson will head to University of Tennessee to become UT’s offensive coordinator.
Now, the next question: who will Richmond hire?

Clawson, 40, met with Richmond athletic director Jim Miller on Thursday night, and the Spiders moved up a previously scheduled team meeting to 3 p.m. today.

On Thursday night, Richmond sports information director Mike DeGeorge confirmed an Associated Press report that said Clawson had been offered the job. DeGeorge could not confirm whether Clawson had accepted the job.

Tennessee is expected to announce its new offensive coordinator sometime this weekend.

Spiders wide receivers coach Latrell Scott also is expected to join Tennessee’s staff as an assistant coach, the source said.

Word on the street is that University of Richmond head coach, Dave Clawson, may be leaving UR to be the offensive coordinator for the Tenessee Vols.
While no official announcement has been made, there is plenty of chatter about his impending departure.
CSTV reports the announcement could be made today.

GO Vols Xtra had these details:

University of Richmond head football coach Dave Clawson is the latest candidate to interview for Tennessee’s vacant offensive coordinator position, sources told the News Sentinel.

Clawson spent Monday in Knoxville interviewing with UT coach Phillip Fulmer, the third known candidate to interview for the job since David Cutcliffe left Dec. 15 to become Duke’s head coach.

Other possible candidates, according to sources, are former Michigan assistants Mike DeBord, and Scott Loeffler. Loeffler interviewed with Fulmer before the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla.

Clemson offensive coordinator Rob Spence and San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti also interviewed for the job.

Spence told reporters he’d remain at Clemson shortly before the Chick-fil-A Bowl and reaffirmed that Sunday in the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier. Also Sunday, Cal named Cignetti its offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

UT also spoke with former assistant Kippy Brown, who has since been promoted from wide receivers coach to passing game coordinator by the Detroit Lions.

Clawson, 40, has been with the Spiders since 2004.

A phone call to Clawson’s office went unanswered Monday evening.

Prior to joining Richmond, Clawson was the head coach for five seasons at Fordham and offensive coordinator at Villanova for three seasons. While at Villanova, he coached Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook.

In the last two seasons at Richmond, the Spiders’ offense has set a school record with 8,817 total yards.

This season, Richmond finished 11-3, losing to eventual national champion Appalachian State 55-35 in the playoffs

Considering that UR’s swim coach, Matt Kredich, also left UR to coach the Lady Vols swim team (back in 2004), I wouldn’t doubt that UT was happy with their first recruitment and decided to go for a second Spider coach.

The University of Richmond just got a whole lot closer to getting the football stadium it wants — $5 million closer, plus an additional $3 million for construction of the Westhampton Center project for its female students.
It’s hard for me to imagine how they will transform the current on-campus stadium into one large enough for football games, but apparently that is the plan. It will be a nice addition to the neighborhood — save the traffic havoc it creates.

The University of Richmond’s plans for an expanded on-campus football stadium and a new student center have received a major boost with grants from the Robins Foundation totaling $8 million.

UR officials announced today that a $5 million grant from the foundation will be used to complete fundraising to expand the existing on-campus stadium to hold football games — in addition to lacrosse, soccer and track competition that use the stadium now.

A $3 million grant will help construct a new building adjacent to the existing Westhampton College Deanery that will serve as the foundation for the Westhampton Center project.

The expanded stadium will hold a maximum of 9,000 spectators. According to a UR statement, the university is working to secure a special-use permit from the city of Richmond in order to proceed with construction.

School officials expect the stadium project to be completed in time for the football team’s 2010 home opener. The Robins grant brings the stadium project’s fundraising total to more than $25 million.

[via]

I came across an article about a former University of Richmond swimmer and about how the U or R swim program wasn’t a great fit for her, but despite that she was able to come back to win a national title.
I wasn’t sure If I wanted to post the article, because it is not very flattering of former University of Richmond swim coach, Matt Kredich, who is also my former swim coach, and a friend. But, for the sake of telling two sides of the story, I am posting it.

Michelle Coombs, the swimmer, featured in the story, obviously has bad memories of her time swimming for U of R. She even recalled her coach as Mark Kredich, instead of Matt Kredich (or perhaps the reporter made this error). Coombs, was burned out, and needed a break from swimming. It was obvious she was unhappy in the swim program at U of R.

“I was just miserable overall and it really did show,” she said. “It was not much in my swimming but I would come to practice miserable and not happy. One day, coach pulled me into the office and said I was being a cancer to the team. It was hard to hear. I could see it, but I wasn’t enjoying swimming at that point.”

Coombs said she withdrew into herself and started to feel isolated from the rest of the team. “I didn’t feel a lot of support from my teammates,” she said.

I’d like to say that while I’ve never been a collegiate swimmer under Matt Kredich, I did train under him and found him to be an amazingly inspirational coach. In fact, I can easily state his is the best and most patient swim coach I’ve ever had.

Having trained for a Half Ironman 70.3 last year (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) and as I am currently training for the 4.4 mile Great Chesapeake Bay Swim – both events that require many workouts longer than 4 hours and often training 12-14 hours a week. I can say that unless you are taking care of your body, sleeping right, eating right and coming to practice in the right frame of mind, there is no way you can make your body perform, even if you are not fighting an illness. I have no doubt that it was a tough situation for both parties involved, but If Matt called her a cancer to the team, her heart wasn’t in it and didn’t feel like she was part of the team, it was likely true.

I love comeback storeis, and I’m happy that Coombs was able to find a coaching program that worked for her and helped her to a national title, but I wish she hadn’t tarnished the name of such a great coach in the process of telling her story.

For Christmas, a heartwarming story of love and sacrifice from a University of Richmond basketball player. It is definitely worth the read.

Moments that find this little family sharing the same space — moments such as today, Christmas, the last day of the Spiders’ six-day holiday break — are fulfilling beyond description. Goring, the younger sister of Washington Mystics post player Gillian Goring, was asked to describe the emotions that accompany a reunion with her son following a lengthy separation.

“I can’t,” she said. “I’m not sure words can explain something like that. I don’t know — maybe some people can put it into words. But I know I can’t.”

But soon thereafter, she did. Goring’s eyes and face seemed illuminated by a glow from within as she recalled a recent visit from Jabari.

“I picked him up and held him and I couldn’t stop smiling,” she said. “I held him for a long time . . . a long time. I didn’t want to let go. Finally my mother said, ‘You know, it’s OK if you want to put him down. He’s probably ready to play.’ And I said, ‘Not a chance. I’m going to hold him as long as he’ll let me.’”

Roanoke.com just announced The Edge’s first ever college awards. University of Richmond wins for most expensive college in the state at $37,610 a year. Amazing! Plenty of folks have never even earned that much in one year.

University of Richmond has a great women’s swimming program. I know firsthand. From 2002-2004, I swim for their head coach, Matt Kredich, as part of the Triathlonmoms team his wife ran. Since then, the pool has been revamped and the coaches have changed, but the heart of the program is the same.
The Bridgeton (N.J.) News reports this week that they’ve gained another great swimmer, Jill Smaniotto.

“They have a girl that going in as freshman swam 57 (seconds) in the 100 fly and now as a junior she is doing 53 (seconds),” she said. “In a year and a half she dropped four seconds. Their style of training is just phenomenal.”

That style features a more personal approach that focuses on what each swimmer’s heart rate should be at different intervals. It is a new, more scientific, approach that Smaniotto said is starting to get notice from other schools.

Can we get an “oops” on the behalf of a group of University of Richmond students that were in court, according to an article from the Times-Dispatch.

Must have been one shindig of a party with over 35 arrests and dozens more people involved. Sure, we all need to blow off a little steam but, wow, did they really think they wouldn’t get caught with that many people involved? Like I said: “oops.”

Love the quote the judge said. My sentiments exactly.

General District Judge Archer L. Yeatts III, whose father was state Alcoholic Beverage Control commissioner, told more than a dozen students appearing before him Monday that “You all aren’t as smart as I thought you were.”

And throwing the party a month after two fraternity officers were charged with helping an underage student get alcohol defies logic, the judge said.

According to an article from the Times-Dispatch, the University of Richmond has gained Harry Lee Daniel, a Highland Springs senior, via a verbal commitment.

Daniel was a key offensive element for the Springers, who were 10-0 in the regular season. Highland Springs was No. 1 in The Times-Dispatch Poll and was ranked No. 5 in the final Associated Press poll before being eliminated by Hermitage 21-20 in the Central Region playoffs.

Here’s the latest University of Richmond Spiders Sports update from Bob Black:

Gonzalvez Shoots Spiders Past Tribe
On the strength of a career-high seven three-pointers, sophomore David Gonzalvez poured in 21 points to lead Richmond’s 58-55 comeback win over William & Mary Wednesday night at the Robins Center. The Spiders posted their first home win, have won two of their last three and are back to .500 on the season.

Spider Football: Playoff Game, Ticket & TV Information
Tickets for Saturday’s football playoff game at Wofford (7 p.m. ET) are $20 for adults, $10 for youths (12 and under) and $10 for University of Richmond students with valid I.D. Tickets can be purchased at the Robins Center Ticket Office or by calling 1-877-SPIDER-1. Orders must be placed by Thursday at 5 p.m. ET. Tickets may also be purchased through the Wofford ticket office as available until game time. No online orders will be accepted. The telecast will be available in the Richmond area on WUPV-TV Channel 65 (Channel 13 on Comcast Cable). It is available for out-of-marketing viewing as part of the pay-per-view subscription ESPN Gameplan package. FOOTBALL TICKETS | ESPN GAMEPLAN INFO

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