The RamRoll

AROUND THE HORNS TACKLES MOUNT VCU
By Chris Kowalczyk
7-24-09

In a bit of shameless self-promotion (we just can’t help ourselves) I thought it would be fun to give my own take on our “Mount VCU” discussion here on the interwebs. FYI, to cast your own vote, click here.

The purpose of Mount Rushmore was essentially to celebrate the first 150 years or so of American history and depicts the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, figures who shaped the country. So, I want to look at “Mount VCU” from a similar point of view. I wanted to look at the players and coaches that shaped the school in the 41 years since the merger of RPI and MCV.

Before I get started, let me just say that Google is a drug. Here are some cool things I learned about Mount Rushmore in the last couple of days:
1. Mount Rushmore took 14 years to complete (1927-1941).
2. Each president’s nose is 20 feet long, except for Washington’s, which is 21 feet long.
3. It cost $989,992.32 to build. I’m so glad they were able to do it for less than $1 million. Cue the Dr. Evil clip.

THE PLAYERS
Picking just four student-athletes for something like this will no doubt leave people wondering why player X didn’t get picked, etc. Feel free to debate the merits of one player or another, that’s part of the fun. Throwing fruits and vegetables at me is the less preferred route. For what it’s worth, Teddy Roosevelt was a controversial choice for Mount Rushmore.

The other debate is about the criteria used to select something like this. Is it simply the four best players in school history? Should it be those who helped shape VCU Athletics in its infancy? Should it be the players that put the school on the map? My copout answer is going to be that I think it should be a combination of all three, but let’s look at some possible candidates in different lights.

Mount The Players You Might Not Have Thought About, But Should’ve
Maria-Elena Calle, Women’s XC/Track (1997-2000): Track and cross country don’t grab a lot of headlines, but Maria-Elena Calle might be the best athlete to ever compete at VCU, period. Calle was a six-time (SIX TIME!) All-American in cross country and track & field and competed in 10 NCAA Championship events during her career.
Daniel Andersson, Men’s Tennis (1996-2000): Andersson was simply the best player on VCU’s most successful program. For a program that has produced six All-Americans, it’s staggering to note that Andersson’s 144 career wins are 45 more than the next closest Ram. Andersson was a two-time All-American and led VCU to the 2000 NCAA Championship match.
Martina Nedelkova, Women’s Tennis (1997-2002): In case you haven’t notice the VCU Women’s Tennis program is pretty solid too. Nedelkova is the program’s all-time leader in singles wins and was an All-American in 1998 and 2001. She qualified for the NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournaments three times each.
Jen Parsons, Women’s Soccer (2001-04): Parsons’ hold on the VCU record book is as firm as they come. She scored 58 goals for the Rams, 21 more than the next closest player. Her 131 career points are 46 more than anyone else. Parsons, the 2003 CAA Player of the Year, owns the second, third, fourth and fifth highest single-season goal totals in school history. That’s consistency.

Honorable mention: Alycia Yoder, Field Hockey (1991-94); Matthew Delicate, Men’s Soccer (2000-03); Kelly Hoover, Women’s Basketball (1985-1989); Becky Crow, Women’s Basketball (1978-1982); Andrea Ondrisova, Women’s Tennis (1997-2002); Richard Wernerhejelm, Men’s Tennis (1994-98); Arnaud Le Cloerec, Men’s Tennis (2003-07); Davion Lambert, Men’s Track & Field.

Mount Professional Baller
Eric Maynor, Men’s Basketball (2005-09): Arguably the best player to roll through VCU’s flagship program, Maynor is the first NBA first round draftee in school history.
Brandon Inge, Baseball (1996-98): You could make an argument for other VCU baseball players were better than Inge (debatable), but none has had as solid a pro career (not yet, anyway). In his ninth major league season, Inge recently became the first Ram selected to an all-star team for one of the four major sports. It might be a while before a VCU player earns a spot in the NHL All Star Game or the NFL Pro Bowl, for that matter.
Gerald Henderson, Men’s Basketball: Henderson pieced together a solid 13-year NBA career and collected three NBA Championship rings. Bling is everything.
John Rollins, Golf: I think next to NFL punter, professional golfer is the second most desirable professional sports gig. Seriously, if you have kids, teach them to punt and golf. Anyway, Rollins bagged a couple of CAA Player of the Year awards and an All-America citation at VCU, then went on to collect more than $11 million in tour earnings in what is still a relatively young career. 

Honorable Mention: Frank Moser, Men’s Tennis; Sean Marshall, Baseball; Jerry DiPoto, Baseball; Cla Meredith, Baseball; Quanitra Hollingsworth, Women’s Basketball; Gonzalo Segares, Men’s Soccer; Dominic Oduro, Men’s Soccer.

Mount Alphabet Soup
I literally have friends I’ve known for 15 years who still cannot properly pronounce my last name. I’m dead serious. So this category is near and dear to my heart. In addition, instead of busts chiseled into the mountain, we could just have these athletes names etched into granite.
Kirill Pishchalnikov, Men’s Basketball (2007-present): The most joy I have gotten the last two years traveling with the men’s basketball team was watching the linguistic gymnastics performed by broadcasters and public address announcers as I attempted, with limited success, to teach them how to say KP’s named correctly.
Boris Kodjoe, Men’s Tennis (1992-96): Kodjoe isn’t that crazy, is it? It is if you use his full name, which is Boris Frederic Cecil Tay-Natey Ofuatey-Kodjoe (Thanks Wikipedia!). How cool is that? There is a 129 percent chance I would introduce myself to people at parties like this.
Ana Luiza Bernardes De Borja, Volleyball (2005-06): Man, VCU Volleyball really brings some heavy hitters in this category. I could have seriously completed this group with VCU Volleyball players from just the last four years. Griselle Lopez Pereira, Ludmila Francescatto, Renata Salvatori, Jessica Ojukwu, Elisa Kuehnel, Belinda Behnke-Biney. I have seen P.A. announcers weep during starting lineups. 
Shahrzad Firouzabadian, Volleyball (2003-05): I hate to use two players from one sport here, but this is just too good to pass up. For the record, it’s pronounced SHARE-zad Fir-za-ba-dee-an.

Honorable Mention: The last four VCU Volleyball rosters.

Bonus Round
Boris Kodjoe, Men’s Tennis (1992-96): Kodjoe, whose brother, Patrick played basketball for the Rams. Kodjoe was a good tennis player, but according to my female friends, he is also (hand quotations) attractive. After VCU, Kodjoe parlayed his good looks into a successful acting and modeling career. If we put Kodjoe on our Mount VCU, we could probably pull in more visitors for year.

Summary
There will likely be others not named on these lists. You could make a case for about 14 other men’s and women’s tennis players, and I’m sure there will be plenty people trumpeting the cases of guys like Len Creech, Charles Wilkins, Kendrick Warren and Calvin Duncan on the men’s basketball side. Each has its merits.

If I had to seriously narrow my choices down to four, legitimate players, I’d probably go with Maynor, Calle, Andersson and Inge, but it’s close in a lot of areas. I could be compelled to add a number of players for different reasons.

COACHES
Paul Kostin, Men’s & Women’s Tennis (1991-present): Paul Kostin is McGyver. If you gave him a tennis racket, a crate of oranges and a lock of Andre Agassi’s hair, Kostin would turn them into a CAA Championship and an NCAA berth.

In 19 seasons at the head of the VCU men’s program, as well as the last eight guiding the women’s, Kostin has delivered 13 CAA trophies and 22 NCAA appearances. His 2000 men’s team reached the NCAA Championship final before falling to Stanford. In the last 30 years, two non-BCS conference schools have appeared in the NCAA men’s tennis final, VCU and Pepperdine.

In 2008, Kostin became the fifth coach in Division I history to reach 800 combined victories. He has coached 12 All-Americans at VCU.

Kostin has done all this, meanwhile, down on Cary Street, which is nothing like some of the tennis palaces erected at some other CAA and ACC schools with less impressive resumes.

J.D. Barnett, Men’s Basketball (1979-85): His tenure is far shorter than any of the coaches on this list, but his accomplishments in just six seasons are remarkable.

Barnett helped put VCU on the map in the early 80s, leading the Rams to five NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournaments in six years, including three second round appearances.

His 1984-85 squad went 26-6, captured the Sun Belt Tournament title, earned the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament West Region, finished the season ranked No. 11 in the nation, cured polio and fed the homeless.

Barnett’s 132 wins rank second and his .733 winning percentage is first in school history.

Jack Bell, Men’s Golf (1982-1998): Jack Bell won five conference championships and did so in three different leagues (Sun Belt, Metro and CAA). He also coached three All-Americans in Jerry Wood (1990), John Rollins (1997) and Reg Millage (1999).

In 1998, after winning four consecutive league championships, Bell pulled a Jim Brown and retired. He was elected to the VCU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003.

Tony Guzzo, Baseball (1983-1994): This was a legitimately difficult decision for me. Paul Keyes has more than 500 wins and seven NCAA appearances under his belt since taking over for Guzzo in 1995. However, it was Guzzo that put VCU Baseball on the map.

When he took over in 1983, the Rams didn’t even have a permanent home and were shuttling between high school fields and other dumps. VCU was coming off a stretch of eight straight losing seasons, some of them so bad they’ve burned the tapes. However, by 1987, Guzzo had turned the Rams into a contender. In 1988 the school received its first NCAA bid. In 1992, VCU came within one victory of the College World Series.

Questions or comments? Contact Chris Kowalczyk at aroundthehorns@yahoo.com