Charlottesville was a zoo the morning of Aug. 28, 2004. Minivans were parked on medians, parents were sweating up stairs with mountains of clothes, and box fans were being revved up in every window.
On that blazing hot summer day, the best group of athletes the University has seen in a long, long time moved. As Dean Octopus swiped these future headliners into the old O-Hill for their first meal of shoe-leather roast beef and corn dogs, nobody recognized them. Nobody had any idea what kind of impact the Class of 2008 would have on Virginia sports, and there's a chance it won't fully sink in until everyone assembles on the Lawn five weeks from now at graduation.
Still, as the greatest class of athletes U.Va. has had in years moves on, it's almost hard to remember back when it all began.
Four years ago, Sean Singletary lived in new dorms. He came to the University as the crown jewel of Pete Gillen's 2004 recruiting class -- the last the former coach would ever land -- because the dominant Philadelphia prep star had chosen Virginia over Kansas (yes, he would have been on this year's national title team).
In his first game wearing the orange and blue, Singletary matched up against Arizona's Mustafa Shakur, one of the top point guards in the country.By the end of the night, the 19-year-old Singletary had dropped 15 points and eight assists to help the Cavaliers secure an 18-point upset.
Gillen wasn't jumping on the bandwagon quite yet, though. "What we have generally found out with freshmen is that they will play very well in the security of the home crowd," he told The Cavalier Daily. "Generally speaking, they'll have problems that may come up on the road. But he is very, very good."
Chris Long had been going to class and running through summer practices for months by the time his classmates moved in. The Charlottesville native with the famous father had been the earliest commitment in Virginia football history, signing on the dotted line back in November 2002.
"Chris wants to be recognized as his own individual and he wants to create his own identity," former Virginia defensive line coach Mike London told The Cavalier Daily at the time. "I'm sure when he gets here, he'll establish that in some way."
John Blake, Long's coach at St. Anne's-Belfield, had already seen his prodigy go through a transformation by the time he sent him down the road to Virginia.
Chris "has worked harder [at STAB] than any athlete I've been around," Blake said at the time. "When he first came he could hardly walk and chew gum. He was just a tall, lanky kid and he was clumsy. But he's made himself an athlete; he has made himself better."
Even Long himself, that same clumsy kid who has a shot at going No. 1 in the NFL draft this month, admitted how his father Howie told him to focus on school in case football didn't work out.
Howie "really likes U.Va. and wants me to get a good education," Long said back in 2004. "After all, not everyone will play after college."
Around the same time, Sarah Kirkwood was living in Bonnycastle. The future All-American and Rhodes Scholar Finalist didn't take long to make a splash alongside her sister Emily, and in the Cavaliers' season-opening match, Kirkwood led all scorers with 22 kills, including eight in her first-ever collegiate volleyball game.
"I was really nervous," Kirkwood told The Cavalier Daily afterwards. "I had been getting antsy to play. It took the first couple of points, and then I started to relax and remember that this is the same game I had been playing since I was 10 or 11."
Somdev Devvarman, meanwhile, was sharing a cinderblock room in Kent. At the U.Va. Fall Invitational in September 2004, the upstart Devvarman, already a star in his native India, beat junior teammate Rylan Rizza for the U.Va. Fall Invitational tournament title.
Coach Brian Boland was impressed, but wasn't above making some tweaks.
"There are some things that I think Somdev can improve on," Boland said after the match. "And that's what's exciting, considering the level he's already at."
Four years later (and presumably after Boland's fine-tuning) Devvarman is the best college player in the country.
Ben Rubeor was in Hancock. Pushed into a starting job while his peers were navigating Cabell Hall, the freshman had five goals by halftime of his first collegiate scrimmage.
"Of course I felt good about [the goals]," the future All-American and Tewaaraton Trophy finalist said afterwards. "I'm not going to look too far into it. I'm just trying to improve."
It's only been four years since all this happened. That's nothing. The Democratic primary season has gone on longer than that. Still, four years was enough time for a group of scrawny, wide-eyed freshmen to become the most dominating collection of athletes Virginia has seen in a decade. And now that they're leaving, so am I -- what's that saying about lightning never striking twice?
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