Va. Tech's Grief Eclipses Its Games

Athletic Dept. Tries for Balance After Shootings

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 17 -- Jim Weaver spent a day and a half planning the conversion of Virginia Tech's basketball gym, something he had never conceived doing as the school's athletic director. He oversaw the construction of a staging area for President Bush, the placement of memorial flowers for the deceased and the organization of enough folding chairs to turn a basketball court into an auditorium.

By 2 p.m. Tuesday, he and the Virginia Tech athletic department had turned Cassell Coliseum into the center of campus grief in the wake of Monday's shooting rampage, during which 33 people were killed. Normally the home of Virginia Tech's basketball teams and volleyball team, Cassell hosted a convocation to begin the collective mourning process.

As Weaver walked in to the event with his wife, Traci, the setting felt surreal to him. He turned to her and said: "We don't walk in here for this purpose. We come into this building to see an athletic competition."

The shooting created a difficult balance for the athletic department. First, it had to assist the university with previously unimaginable logistical issues. Second, it needed to make decisions about when to continue competition, contemplating insignificant games in the wake of monumental tragedy. That decision: The Hokies will resume play starting Friday, aside from the football team, which canceled the remainder of spring practice, including the annual spring game scheduled for Saturday.

"Five, six, seven days removed, we felt that was palatable to play," Weaver said. "The coaches wanted to do it. Any young person who either feels like they can't compete or doesn't want to compete, or should there be friends who are deceased and funerals to attend, they will be excused from playing.

"There obviously are never any guidelines for things like this, and you try to do what you feel is right. We have the best interest of our student-athletes at hand, and we want to do right by them."

Because the football team is not engaged in a competitive season, Weaver left the decision to Coach Frank Beamer on whether to continue. He met with his coaching staff and Virginia Tech sports psychologist Gary Bennett in the morning and decided to call off the remainder of the spring, instead calling a team meeting for Monday.

Practicing football would have been too difficult, Beamer said. No matter that no football players were injured, reminders of the tragedy surround the team. Safety Cam Martin believes he shared a science and religion course with Ryan Clark, 22, the first victim named and a member of Virginia Tech's marching band. Three Hokies -- quarterback Sean Glennon and wide receivers Eddie Royal and Justin Born -- went to the same high school, Westfield in Chantilly, as the shooter.

"I know it's important to grieve and then get on and let's go," Beamer said. "But I think for us right now, it's the right thing. Gary Bennett felt like this is going to affect everyone at Tech regardless of how close they were to the victims. Some of the times those players, they're feeling things."

Canceling the other athletic events would have been more difficult because of their competitive nature, Weaver said. The men's and women's track teams, men's and women's tennis teams and men's golf team all compete in Atlantic Coast Conference championships this weekend, while the baseball, softball and lacrosse teams will play ACC games.

The first game played on campus will be Virginia Tech's baseball team against Miami at English Field on Friday. A game against William & Mary was scheduled there for Wednesday, but Virginia Tech announced the cancellation of that game Tuesday, as well as a softball game at East Tennessee State scheduled for Tuesday.

Of all the contests, football's spring game likely would attract the most attention, no matter that it would have been an intrasquad scrimmage. Both the campus and community have a rare affinity for football, creating one of the best atmospheres in the nation on Saturday afternoons or Thursday nights at Lane Stadium.

"Whether or not they want to admit it, a lot of people come here for the football and the atmosphere," said Martin, a rising senior. "It's a real football town, college town. When September comes around, I think that's going to be kind of a unifying thing for everybody, bring everybody together."

On Tuesday, the stadium filled with roughly 20,000 students, many of them blanketing the field, in an overflow of the convocation. In the fall, those same students will fill the bleachers.

"I hope we'll have an impact like other sports teams have had in recent years," Glennon said. "The Yankees during 9/11 and the New Orleans Saints during Katrina let people escape from tragedy. I hope we can do the same thing."