The season is finally here.

With last year’s 1-2 performance in the regional leaving a little bit of a sour taste in our mouths, we are anxious to get back out there this weekend in Myrtle Beach. Despite falling short of our goal of reaching Omaha, our 2006 team set several records, including most wins in school history as we hosted and NCAA regional.

The confidence and experience the returning players gained from last year allows us to look at it as a success as we prepare for 2007.

We came back from summer ball and had a really productive fall practice as the fall semester got underway. It was great to see some of our freshmen come out and play well right out of the gate. Neal Davis, Jeff Lorick and Matt Packer dominated on the mound.

And Tyler Cannon really swung the bat well and showed he can play anywhere on the infield.

After fall practice, we went into our winter strength and conditioning phase. [Strength and Conditioning] Coach [Ed] Nordenschild had us getting after it in the weight room and [assistant] coach [Kevin] McMullan certainly had no reservations about getting both our bodies and minds in shape.

The winter ended with our annual obstacle course, which marked the end of our Iron Cavalier Challenge – a weekly competition for points based on times and reps in events like ‘number of burpee jumps in 5 minutes’ or ‘’bows and toes for as long as possible.’ Congrats to Pat McAnaney and Beau Seabury on winning for the pitchers and position players, respectively.

This brings us to the spring. As the pre-season polls have been coming out, we have been recognized as one of the top teams in the country. This is definitely an honor and something to be proud of, but not something to rest on. We know that the only ranking we concern ourselves with is being one of the final eight teams at the end of Super Regional play.

The recognition puts a little bit of a target on our backs, and teams are going to come looking to knock us off, but that is exciting because that is why you come to a place like this to play. Coach [Brian] O’Connor stresses taking things one game at a time as there are going to be highs and lows to every season. Every opponent on our schedule is going to be ready to play. Our confidence in our preparation is going to allow us to meet those challenges.

As our daily team defense and intrasquads have come to an end, Thursday morning cannot get here soon enough when we bus down to Coastal Carolina. With all of the hard work we put in this off-season, we’re poised to get going against Elon on Friday.

Go Hoos!

Jeremy Farrell

(photo courtesy of Virginia Media Relations Office)