Friday, July 17, 2009
UVa’s Colley Remembered fondly
Tech gets two more commitments as Notebook Plus files
Doug Doughty
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As I watched a video that friends at The Roanoke Times unveiled for my 35th anniversary Wednesday, I couldn’t help but think of Michael Colley.
Colley, a top assistant in Virginia’s sports information office for the past 20 years or so, collapsed last Saturday while taking a morning walk along Virginia Beach and never regained consciousness. He was 46.
There will be a memorial service this afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena and I wonder if there will be a room large enough to support his friends and admirers.
(Seriously, I am curious about the parking, but Colley was always one of the first people I would consult on such matters).
Colley wasn’t one to worry about his popularity, and I suspect he would be shocked at the widespread emotions that have been triggered by his passing.
I’ve heard Colley described as a curmudgeon and might have described him that way myself before I looked up the definition: “a surly, ill-mannered, bad-tempered person.”
There was a second definition: “cantankerous fellow.” Colley could be surly at times, but he wasn’t ill-mannered or bad-tempered. “Cantankerous” would be a good word for him.
I suspect that former UVa football coach George Welsh will be at the memorial service today, if he’s in town. I hope to see Welsh’s longtime secretary, Nancy Steinke, and ask her if she agrees with me, that there was a lot of Welsh in Colley, and vice-versa.
I’ve had a few run-ins with UVa people over the years but seldom with Colley. If the Cavaliers’ athletic teams weren’t distinguishing themselves or a coach wasn’t producing, Colley wasn’t going to volunteer it, but he also wouldn’t argue to the contrary.
When I’d walk into the press room at John Paul Jones Arena, set down my gear and get a bite to eat, I frequently would sit down at Colley’s table. Nobody knew more about UVa football or men’s lacrosse, but he wasn’t oblivious to the other stuff.
He also shared my fascination with the esoteric. When left-handed Jameel Sewell took over as Virginia’s starting quarterback in 2007, Colley was able to produce a list of past left-handed UVa quarterbacks that he regularly updated.
Colley also had the thankless task throughout his career of rounding up football players for UVa’s Monday and Tuesday interview sessions. Many of the players dreaded the interviews, and Colley grew weary of tracking them down. He even gave up the interview duties for a year or two.
But last year, he was back on interview duty. Turns out, nobody had been more successful at gathering the players than Colley. I think he took great pride in the number of players who attended at least one of those sessions last year. I think the final count was in the low- to mid-30s.
Somebody is going to have a huge task in replacing Colley, and you can bet it will be years before his successors realize everything he did.
FIFTEEN MINUTES BEFORE my departure for the Colley memorial, I retrieved a voice message from Mark Bendorf, the football coach at Robinson High School in Fairfax, who reported that 6-4, 215-pound linebacker Brian Laiti (pronounced Light-tee) has committed to Virginia Tech.
The Hokies also have received a commitment from Detrick Bonner, a 6-foot, 170-pound wide receiver and defensive back from Luella (Ga.) High School, where he had 21 receptions for 500 yards as a junior, when he also had four interceptions.
Bonner, who said in a phone interview that he does not have a preference between offense and defense, said he had offers from Michigan, Mississippi State, Toledo, Central Florida and Louisville. He committed to Tech two days after getting an offer.
Robinson coach Mark Bendorf said that Laiti’s final choice came down to Tech, Maryland, Boston College, West Virginia and Syracuse -- if there had to be a fifth choice. Laiti, youngest of four brothers to play for Robinson, had 147 tackles as a senior. He was rated the No. 15 junior in Virginia by The Roanoke Times.
