APRIL 2022

roc kbr idg

SPORTS EDITION
e
report
NO CHEAP
SHOTS
By TYLER PALICIA
The hidden costs
of D-III sports

TORN
DREAMS
By LINDSAY WHITE
ACL injuries in
women’s soccer

PAVING THE
WAY
Christine Clancy’s
Impact
By EMMA SMITH
Editor’s Note
T
he 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 life-
altering 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
 2
No Cheap Shots

5
Torn Dreams

8
Diversifying the Sidelines

12
Paving the Way

15
The Rockbridge
Renaissance Man

18
Sound the Horn

20
From Lusaka to Lexington

22
The Four Horsemen

24
Jonathan Molner is a
Man of Many Talents

27
A Star Fights Way Back

29
Beyond the Arc

Special thanks to Michael Todd, technical

director of the journalism department

Cover design by Jin Ni, Simona Radeva and

Catherine Xia

Front and back cover photos by Emma

Smith

© 2022
Design by Bri Hatch and Jin Ni

NO CHEAP
SHOTS
W&L student-athletes stay silent instead of asking for
financial help because of socio-economic stigma
Story and photos by Tyler Palicia

S
tef 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,
2
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.
“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
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
not earned a bachelor’s, graduate, figure out what sort of messaging that being said, we don’t know for
or professional degree, according to needs to go along with that.” sure. There may be something we
the Federal Student Aid office. don’t know about. That’s why we are

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

“Elite schools looking into it.”

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.
like Washington Jimmie Mack Johnson III, an
assistant football coach at W&L and
and Lee end up member of the DEI committee, said
being a pipeline to he believes that everyone at the
school should be able to participate
disproportionately in sports regardless of socio-
influential economic status.

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 student-
athletes.
“We need to look into how they
are currently handling things
if someone can’t afford to buy
something,” she said. “We need to
positions in our
society”
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

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.”
3
W&L in 2020, played football and on his equipment, trying to make their own riding boots, which can
ran track. “I had everything that I sure he has the best clubs he can. cost $200 to $1,000 a pair.
needed to play my sport,” he said.
“For football, the only thing that we “I have about 14 clubs in my bag. She also said athletes need to
did have to buy were cleats. Our Each club is about $200. Some purchase their own breeches, which
coaches made it very clear that if are $300. I have gloves, tees, golf cost roughly $100.
cleats were an issue, then we could balls,” he said. “It’s hard to give you
a price on that, but it’s just a very “The equipment can be expensive,
come to them. They just wanted to even though our coaches and the
let us know that they could alleviate expensive game in general.”
school do help us a lot. So, I think
that if it was an issue.” Choe said the cost of equipment it’s a good thing that DEI is looking
Jack Bosco, a sophomore on the doesn’t present a barrier for him. into it,” she said.
wrestling team, said he doesn’t But he said W&L could do more
believe his sport has to relieve financial pressure for “It feels like we
some of its student-athletes. “In
a financial barrier.
“All you need is terms of the school funding, are at a school
shoes to wrestle. there isn’t much. I mean,
we get a nice discount for
that has the
The shoes can
get pretty our golf shoes. We get about ability to provide
expensive, but $120 for those shoes. We get
a lot of gear—shorts, pants,
the resources
if you want to
buy cheap ones, rain jacket—for free,” he said. if they are
then you can It’s different for baseball communicated”
probably just players, sophomore Zach
find some for $60. Senders said. Stef Chiguluri
It’s not that bad.”
“We aren’t provided gloves. Gordon Reistrup, the head coach
Bosco said alumni Those are usually around of the equestrian team, said the
also have made $250 to $370, around university has purchased 10 of his
donations to help there,” he said. “You have team’s horses and pays for their
students in need. to pay for your care. He said the W&L riding team
“They want us to own cleats, those is unique in its affordability. “Unlike
succeed,” he said. are usually most of, if not all of our competitors
“When you start up, around $100. in our region, we do not charge a
you get backpacks, We don’t get fee for our students to participate in
shirts, pants, and turf shoes. Those equestrian,” he said.
socks—all for free.” are around the
Emily Guyer, assistant coach of the
same as cleats. All
riding team, said student-athletes
your underclothing
who ask for help can borrow gear
you have to pay for. We
from either her or Reistrup. “We can
don’t play in Florida, so
make sure everyone is provided for.
you have to play in long
No one goes without,” she said.
sleeves sometimes.
That can run you $30 For Chiguluri, the key to addressing
a shirt. I won’t say it’s financial insecurity among student-
cheap.” athletes is to convince them to talk
about it with their coaches. “It feels
But Rebecca Hagigh,
like we are at a school that has the
some a junior on the
ability to provide the resources if
sports cost more equestrian team, said
they are communicated,” she said.
than others. Junior student-athletes
golfer Caleb Choe must buy But she said it’s not easy. “It’s often
said he has spent something that people don’t talk
thousands of dollars about here.
Goalie Stefanie Chiguluri
out of his own pocket
4
 TORN
DREAMS
Design by Ana Dorta and Adam Lamberti
Whitney McCormick performs a kneeling shoulder press to increase core strength.
ACL Injuries in Women’s Soccer Cuts Careers Short
By Lindsay White
W
hitney 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.”
Photos by Lindsay White
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
5
other knee. Rehab
strengthens the muscles
around the injured knee
How an ACL Tears
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.

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 Diligent, intense rehab is the best their knee that they need.”
surgery to act “almost like a seat way to avoid another ACL injury,
belt” to provide the graft with said physical therapist Amanda Somers said she works with dozens
additional protection. Somers, owner of SSI Physical of athletes with torn ACLs every
Therapy in Greer, South Carolina. year, many of whom play women’s

“Tearing your Rehab requires athletes to engage soccer. She said her strategy
is getting them to buy into the
in repeated strength and agility
ACL is one of exercises after the initial healing process.

those things process to prepare the knee and

muscles around it for vigorous
that happens to physical activity.
everyone else, and Somers tailors her rehab methods
you never imagine to each patient’s sport. “When I
work with a soccer patient, I have
is going to happen worked with them on a ball, worked
to you” on their jumping, put them in
different soccer situations,” she
“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.”

Whitney McCormick said. “So, they’re not going back on The rehab process also helps with
the field without the confidence in the mental preparation of returning
6
to the field. Former professional
soccer player Blakely Mattern said
athletes simply need to go for it at
some point after rehab.
“So, I turned
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.
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.

around and threw She has days where she doubts her
progress. But she credits Wood, the
my brace off the athletic trainer, for pushing her out
field and played of her comfort zone in workouts.
without it. I never “She has definitely given me so
much confidence during rehab,”
looked back” McCormick said. “Each step of the
process is difficult, but the high
Blakely Mattern
I felt after reaching all of these
“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.”
Like many female soccer players,
McCormick knows she is at high risk
for another ACL injury. But she’s
not giving up.

“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. milestones was super awesome and “I feel like I have a lot of unfinished
But she said female players struggle motivating.” business,” she said. “Watching from
with the mental aspect of recovery the sidelines during recovery gave
Wood said athletes need constant me perspective on my true passion
more than the physical side when
encouragement from trainers for the game. I owe my recovery
they return to the field.
to keep morale high throughout to the twelve-year-old girl who
“I think a lot of time with ACLs, you recovery. dreamed of a college career to try
get to that point where you’re trying my very hardest. I want to make her
“I think setting short-term goals
to get comfortable with the thought proud.”
is really important, and rewarding
that you’re healthy again,” she said.
those goals, and celebrating those
“It’s like, you actually have a brand
goals is especially important when
new knee, but mentally, it is hard to
you have such a long rehab,” she
think about that after you’ve been
said.
through what you’ve been through.”
7
“ BE
GREAT. “
8
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

I
t’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.
“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 Perry-
Martin 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.

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.
Jimmie Johnson encourages players in drills.
9
 2
BLACK COACHES
OUT OF
61

11
BLACK FOOTBALL
PLAYERS OUT OF

10
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 student-
athletes 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.
Johnson (left) demonstrates an exercise for football players.
“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.
“I’m just trying to
change the world,
whether that’s
in my bubble or
in the broadest
sense”
Jimmie Johnson
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
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.
“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.”
11
Design by Lottie Folline
Paving the Way
Coaches and players cheer on the team from the sideline.
By Emma Smith
F
ormer 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
12
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.”
“You cannot be
what you cannot
see”
Erin Hughes
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
Photos by Emma Smith
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 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
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 huddle during a timeout.
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-turned-
assistant 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.”
13
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 not just having talented basketball
is,” Hughes said. “She isn’t trying players, but committed basketball
to sell you an exaggerated version players, and just really, really good
of the truth. She recruits the entire people,” Clancy said. “The people is
person and wants to make sure you what draws more people in.”
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

“I just want our

program to be
at the forefront
of diversity and
inclusion on this
campus”
Christine Clancy

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 even-
keeled, 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.
14
 Robert Hull
The Rockbridge
Renaissance Man
By Matt Gallagher

Robert Hull coaches lacrosse at Rockbridge County High School. Photos by Matt Gallagher | Design by Ian Dardani

M
any 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.
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.
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

With his 6-foot-3-inch and “The Division I schools that were

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
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 Hull played for W&L. Photo courtesy of
Robert Hull
15
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,
16
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.
“I don’t know how
he juggles so many
tasks, but he does
a great job doing
it”
Dina Farris
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
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.”
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
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 three-
three 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.
“He has helped
turn me into a man
and really made
this team special”
Smith Hall
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,
it’s theoretically easier for them “The way to build a consistent
to deter dodges. Players in a zone winner,” he said, “is by having kids
defense guard specific areas on the who are fully bought in and who
field rather than individual players. want it as bad as you do as a coach.”
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.”
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.
17
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.
Horn, No. 11, dribbles the ball during a game.
18
“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
Photos by Emma Smith
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.”
“She can do a little
bit of everything”
Christine Clancy
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,”

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.
“She’s one of the
best passers I’ve
ever played with”
Erin Addison
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 three-
point 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
Design by Riley Parker and Megan Murchie-Beyma
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 double-
double 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 out-
scored 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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
19
 FROM LUSAKA
TO LEXINGTON:
W&L’s Victor Ndhlovu practices on the field.
W
ashington 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
20
The Life of an
International
Student-Athlete
at W&L
Story and photos by Seamus Watters | Design by Simona Radeva
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
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
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,
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
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 lead-
by-example attitude than a lot of
the team,” McCarty said. “You can
feel a lot of his energy during the
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,”
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].”
21
 The Four Horsemen
By Ryan Raicht  Satterfield stayed in the game,
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 left-
center 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.    Cubs in the 2021 draft.
The catcher for Mason Satterfield
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.
22
The James Madison baseball team
which W&L came from behind to usually dominates their conference,
win, 6-5.  and many of players wind up
playing in college, or getting drafted
 “To me, Mason showed that by major league teams.
night that he can be the face of
Washington and Lee baseball,” said
W&L Head Coach Ted White. 
“It’s easy to grab a
Satterfield is one of four dynamic
teammate that is a
athletes on the team who graduated friend, like leaning
from James Madison High School
in Vienna, Virginia. The other three on a brother”
are infielder Erdmann, outfielder Head Coach Ted White
Zach Perkins, and first-year pitcher
Evan Blair. In 2020, the Warhawks ranked 18th
in the country in a preseason poll by
White said the four players know
the National High School Baseball
each other so well that they
Coaches Association. James
feed off each other’s energy.
Madison’s James Triantos was the
“You can see it in adverse
56th overall pick by the Chicago
times,” he said. “It’s easy
to grab a teammate that
is a friend, like leaning In three seasons with W&L, Perkins,
on a brother.”  a junior, has .343 batting average, a
.426 on-base percentage and a .552
Blair said he thinks of his Madison
slugging percentage. “Zach is a guy
teammates like they are his big
who puts his head down and comes
brothers. “I look up to all three of
to work every day with a positive
them in different ways and I feel
attitude,” White said. 
as though I can go to them for
anything,” he said. “Knowing that As a General, Erdmann has a .344
they each have my back gives me batting average, a .394 on-base
the confidence to go out onto the percentage and a .405 slugging
field every day and compete to the percentage.
best of my ability.”
Evan Blair throws a pitch during practice.
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.  season strong with a 2.93 ERA in
“Luke is an offensive-
first type of player that
has finally found his
defensive home at
third base,” White
said. “He brings
a much-needed
intensity to the
program.”  “Coming from a
Satterfield has
played in nearly
every game since
he joined the team.
His specialty is
defense. He has
committed only
Zach Perkins 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
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.”  player’s skill set.
In the game against 18th-
ranked 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
Photos by Ryan Raicht
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
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
Luke Erdmann fit for the program.
These four boys
checked all of the boxes.”
 
23

Jonathan Molner worked his way on to the W&L tennis team.
Jonathan Molner is a Man of Many Talents
By Andrew Arnold
T
he 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 Molner crushed Nelson with the
with him because he was the
lowest-ranked member of the team. he’d been working on for months.
He’d practice by himself hitting
Molner is a tenor in University Singers.
balls shot out of a machine. Or he’d
Photo by Jackson Sharman
24
Design by Jackson Sharman
Photo by Andrew Arnold
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,
improvements in his forehand that
He won the match that day, two sets
to zero, each set 6-2.
“To put that in football terms, it’s a
17-point win against a good team,”
Molner said.  thinks that’s because Molner didn’t
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
want anyone to hear him mess up.
“He is one of the people in
our section who gets his part
memorized first,” Lewis said.  laude with a double major in
“It’s a natural
habit for me. I
want to do better
than other people”
Jonathan Molner
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 multimillion-
dollar 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
Molner became the seventh man on the team.
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
economics and mathematics before
earning a J.D. in law from Yale. He is
a managing partner for PRIMUS, a
national private equity firm. 
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
Photo by Andrew Arnold
25
stakes were high.”  about what someone else is doing.
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.  backwards to help them,” 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
Molner often logs extra practice to stay competitive with his teammates.
26
“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
Shane Lynch, director of choral
activities.  six nationally ranked Division III
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
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.”
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.
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

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
Katherine Faria practices on the lacrosse field. Photos by Ian Dardani
27
the field and know Design by Dennis Hull
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 top-
ranked 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 game-
winner in overtime.
She also scored
four goals against
Gettysburg in 2020,
leading the Generals
to a 12-9 win. Faria trains at the gym as part of her physical therapy regimen.

Her past performance against
Gettysburg in particular made
standing on the sidelines during the
game even worse.
“Katherine is a
skilled, strong
offensive player
with a high
lacrosse IQ”
Tracy Tucker
“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
28
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.  contact drills.
“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
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 non-
“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.”
 Beyond the Arc
Kamdyn Curfman takes a shot during practice.
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.  of the day he leveled up and it is a
“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
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
Photos by Jack Hunter
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 2021-
22 season with a 16-16 record,
marking the first time VMI had
consecutive seasons with .500 or
better records in a decade. VMI
29
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.  seasons to increase efficiency on
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.
30
Curfman led the conference in
made three-point field goals and
was named second-team All-
SoCon.
“We’ve found that
skill is even more
of an equalizer”
Logan Dahms
The VMI coaching staff has relied
on analytics over the past few
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
shot attempts are three-pointers.
VMI ranks first in the country in
both categories, according to
teamrankings.com, a
sports data website.
The team also led the
nation in made three-
pointers per game this past
season.
“I wouldn’t be allowed
to take some of the shots
I take here at a lot of
programs around the
country,” said Curfman,
a guard who led the
conference as a junior
with 297 three-pointers
attempted. “The three-
point shot is emphasized,
Coach Earl and Tanner Mans
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 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 high-
utility 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
and rebounding rate combination
causes us to oftentimes get fewer
shot attempts.”  The team’s failure to force mistakes
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.  opponents. The team tied for 349th
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
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,
31
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.   “I feel good when we can really
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 three-
pointers 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
32
of high school. is next year,” Mans said, “we as a
unit will continue to get better and
“It’s not that everybody goes here, work extremely hard to continue
you hand them a gun, and then they the program’s momentum.”
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.   
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 Logan Dahms
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
33
34