Message:
Once again, this was posted in 2005. Not much has changed in terms of the players
who make my list.
Selecting all-time midfielders for UVa is not as easy as selecting players for attack.
Although you might think that UVa has had some excellent midfielders, what one
discovers is that they have had many good ones over the years but few of the
quality of Rick Kowalchuk, Del Dressel, and Brendan Schnenck of JHU (forgive my
spelliing), the Gaits of SU, and Frank Urso, Doug Radebaugh and Doug Schrieber of
UM. UVa has had four midfielders who have been named two time first team AA.
Pre-1970
Snowdon Hoff (2x 1st team AA, 1x-HM AA)
Post-1970
Pete Eldridge (2x 1st team AA + POY, 1x-HM AA, NCAA Champion, HOF)
Jay Jalbert (2x 1st team AA + PPOY, NCAA Champion)
Chris Rotelli (2x 1st team AA +POY, 1x-HM AA, Tewaraton, ACC POY, ACC Male
AOY, NCAA Champion)
Other 1x-1st team AA from 1970 are:
Jim Potter (+1x-2nd AA, HOF)
John Driscoll (PPOY, 3x All ACC, HOF)
Rick Giusto (PPOY, +1x-3rd AA, 1x All ACC)
Andy Kraus (+2x-2nd AA, 1x-HM AA, 3x All ACC, ACC POY)
David Curry (+1x-HM AA, All ACC)
Kyle Dixon (PPOY, +1x-2nd team AA, All ACC, NCAA Champion)
Other notable UVa midfielders include:
Steve Kraus (2x-2nd AA, All ACC)
Doug Cooper (2x-2nd AA, 1x-HM AA, NCAA Champion)
Scott Gerham (1x-2nd AA, 2x-3rd AA, 4x All ACC)
Most the midfielders on this list were two way players, at least until the 1990s, and
several of them were excellent face off and ground ball scrappers (not FOGO).
I saw most of these players in person so the separation into teams is not solely
based on statistics and post season honors.
1st Team All UVa Midfield
Pete Eldridge (best all-around middie I ever saw play at UVa, could do it all,
especially defense (5.8 gb/game) and scoring (leading scorer from midfield, yes,
that's right over Jalbert))
Chris Rotelli (a very close second, a terrific all around player)
Jay Jalbert (just a monster player, better than his NCAA accolades would suggest,
remember he played one year at attack)
Andy Kraus (could do it all, but he's here for facing off (career 0.628 pct) and ground
balls (career 6.4 gb/game and still holds the UVa record for gb in a season at 132 or
9.4 gb/game. Where, oh where, did our hardworking midfielders go?))
2nd Team All UVa Midfield
John Driscoll (one of the smoothest midfielders to ever play at UVa, always did what
was asked and just a real great person)
Kyle Dixon (only really came into his own this past year, but was dominant from up
top)
Rick Giusto (was a hell of a shooter and had a fantastic final year at UVa)
Steve Kraus (did the same things that Andy did (career 0.680 pct & 6.2 gb/game
and is in 2nd place for gb in a season at 116 or 9.7 gb/game))
3rd Team All UVa Midfield
Jim Potter (played a lot for UVa, facing off and defense)
David Curry (two years at UVa after playing at Gettysburg)
Doug Cooper (part of the 1972 NCAA championship team, another all around player
(5.5 gb/game))
Scott Gerham (interesting choice, only UVa midfielder to be named All ACC 4 times,
faced off as well (career 0.573 pct))
This is not a 'flashy' group of players. I suppose when you look at the list, the term
'blue collar' jumps to mind with the midfielders at UVa being primarily grinders, ball
hawking defenders who have all around games including winning faceoffs and
digging out ground balls. Some of the players on this list were big time scorers
(Eldridge, Curry and Jalbert come to mind), but mainly UVa has been an attack
oriented team.
There were many other notable midfielders that didn't have the accolades of the
above. One person who I will always remember, more for his post UVa playing days,
is Doug Tarring. He is the face of UVa lacrosse as well as being a pretty good high
school lacrosse coach at STAB. And yes, I remember when he started coaching
there. Really, if you want a good color commentator for the NCAA championships,
give Doug a call.
The 'first team' is about as good as it gets. After that it drops off a little bit. I think
the best midfield line I ever saw was Urso, Radebaugh and Schrieber, but that's
another story best told from someone UMd. I think Hopkins has had the best history
of top flight middies, always seeming to have a great one. If I'm hard on some of
their younger players (Harrison and Rabil for instance) It's because I've seen
Kowalchuk, Kohler, Schneck, DeSimone, Baugher, Dressel, etc. Then, of course,
there are the Gaits. There is no need to say anything about them.
Addendum 2008: Not much has changed since Kyle Dixon graduated. We have
potential stars, but they still have a long time to play to see if they can make this
list. The biggest difference I see between current players and previous ones is they
don't work as hard on defense or groundballs. To win championships you have to
have blue collar workers and that's usually the role of midfielders.
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