From one Cavalier to another, let me offer you some advice: If you want to be in on the most happening gathering of Virginia sports fans around, you'll need three things: A computer, a sense of humor and a grain of salt. Forget bars, the bookstore and tailgates -- the best place for no-holds-barred conversation on all things Cavalier is at TheSabre.com.
I promise they didn't pay me to say that. In fact, many of my cohorts at The Cavalier Daily have gone on to writing gigs at The Sabre, but I've never looked into taking the plunge. After reading the message boards for three years, I'm just too scared. A few angry e-mails about an injured quarterback I can handle, but the unadulterated, up-to-the-minute wrath and reactions of hundreds of thousands of Virginia fans is a little more than I want to go up against.
"Up-the-minute" and "unadulterated" is precisely what The Sabre is, especially on the site's message boards. There is a lot more to The Sabre -- articles, interviews and analysis available to those who pay for a subscription -- but the boards are arguably the heart of the site, and the banter on them reflects the pulse of the Cavalier faithful.
As I wrote this column, the top items on the football message board were a link to a story about Virginia linebacker Kai Parham in the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star and name suggestions for a Virginia-Maryland winner's trophy. This is typical Sabre fare: Part news, part gossip, all connected to Virginia.
Credit goes to the Web site's creator and message board operator, Mike Ingalls. C-VILLE Weekly recently ran a story on Ingalls and his site, calling him "a self-taught Web designer with an orange-and-blue heart." The Sabre, originally Ingalls' hobby, has grown into a full-fledged business, but Ingalls still supervises the message boards, yanking anything irrelevant, insulting or obscene.
Still, the conversation is often heated: Last basketball season, post after post went up criticizing Virginia coach Pete Gillen, asking how much it would take to buy out his contract and why his team had fallen from such lofty expectations. With the number of users on the Sabre boards and the frequency of their posts, we can only hope that Gillen's mother wasn't reading.
Watching a Virginia Tech fan risk virtual life and limb on the site by criticizing the Cavaliers is a similarly amusing experience. If you decide to get into the fray, however, be careful. It takes only a small spelling error to become the butt of board jokes.
The board is tough, but it's tough love. Sabre members and posters often tailgate together before games -- both home and away. The tailgate, which hundreds of fans attend, is called "Wilk Hall" in honor of a post that asked for the location of "Wilk Hall." Apparently, the postee had misunderstood the U.Va. ticket office's directions to "Will Call." The ribbing for that mistake was hilarious, but the name stuck. It's refreshing to think that people who interact every day electronically might actually get some face-to-face time, out from behind their electronic handles.
I am a different kind of Sabre user. I am one who has no handle, who never posts, instead choosing to lurk around the boards looking for that Sabre staple: The scoop.
Gossip about Virginia sports goes up on the Sabre boards faster than any other site I've found. A certain basketball player have a wild night on the Corner? Expect it to be on the basketball board before dawn. Boston College joining the ACC? Expect to see it on The Sabre well before you hear see it anywhere near Virginiasports.com. In the area of recruiting especially, The Sabre is the best place for information (and misinformation) on an otherwise secretive process. Potential Virginia recruits get no slack from Sabre users: They are complimented and criticized as readily as the coaches that recruit them.
Maybe the time will come that a post compels me to finally sign up and really join this electronic Cavalier nation. I've been tossing around ideas for a handle, more difficult than you would think on a site that hosts every fathomable variation of the word "Hoo."
Every Saturday, I realize I am one more football game closer to the end of my final season as a U.Va. student, closer to a time where I may live in a place where no one wants to argue about Wali Lundy's pro potential or Schaub's chances at the Heisman. Check the Sabre boards for "HooLovestheCubs" -- You may well find me getting my Virginia fix there.
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