Before the men’s basketball team took the court against then-No. 23 Wake Forest on Feb. 16, the Tech men’s basketball program and the uncle of Allen Calloway presented a check in the amount of $7,021 to the American Cancer Society in the name of the former player, who passed away a little more than a year ago after a battle with cancer.
Calloway – who wore No. 21 while at Tech – passed away on Feb. 15 of last year after being diagnosed three years earlier with a rare cancer. In September of 2005, he found out that he had a rare, inoperable tumor in his leg and the cancer gradually spread to other parts of his body. He died at the age of 25.
Despite being in and out of the hospital, Calloway finished his coursework for his degree in residential property management. As a player from 2003-05, he played in 83 games, starting nine of those.
Against Wake Forest, the Hokies won the game, rallying from an 11-point deficit with just under 12 minutes to play.
“That game reflects Allen and who he is and was to us,” Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. “We were determined and resilient. We stayed together.”
Calloway had some nice games during his career. As a sophomore, he scored nine points, grabbed four rebounds and blocked three shots in Tech’s upset of Georgetown, and then he scored seven points and had five rebounds in a Big East tournament win over Rutgers – Tech’s only Big East tournament victory.
The game, though, that stuck out in Greenberg’s mind was an exhibition game against the University of Saskatchewan in 2005. Calloway played in the game that marked his last as a Hokie. In that game, he drew a charge, and before the Wake game, Greenberg relayed the story and showed his team the spot where Calloway drew that charge.
“I have such a vivid memory of him playing in that exhibition game,” Greenberg said. “I didn’t want him to play. He just wanted to play. He said, ‘Coach, I want to get on the court one more time.’
“I went through the story with the guys in practice. I walked right over to the spot where he took that charge. He was fine with just getting on the court one more time.
“He was really a special kid. I visited him when he was in intensive care and he had his Virginia Tech degree upon that wall. He loved this place.”
All-Academic teams announced
The Atlantic Coast Conference named its 2009 All-Academic teams for various fall sports, and several players in four sports received recognition for the Hokies.
To be eligible for consideration, a player must have earned a 3.00 grade-point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.00 cumulative average during his academic career.
Here is a list of Tech’s honorees:
Men’s basketball
Ben Boggs, Fr. (Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise)
Football
Brent Bowden, r-Sr. (Interdisciplinary Studies) **
Chris Drager, r-Soph. (Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise)
John Graves, r-Jr. (Human Development)
Jarrett Boykin, Soph. (Apparel, Housing and Resource Management)
Men’s soccer
Emmanuel Akogyeram, Soph. (University Studies) *
Alexander Baden, Sr. (Accounting and Information Systems) **
Craig Burnell, Jr. (Environmental Science)
Charlie Campbell, Jr. (Finance) **
James Gilson, Sr. (Finance) *
Women’s soccer
Robin Chidester, Sr. (Communications) *
Kelly Conheeney, Fr. (Communications)
Jennifer Harvey, Sr. (Chemistry) *
Emily Jukich, Sr. (Political Science) *
Brittany Michels, Soph. (Apparel, Housing and Resource Management)
Volleyball
Jill Gergen, Sr. (Mathematics) *
Cara Baarendse, Fr. (Marketing)
(* - two-time honoree; ** - three-time honoree)
Three Tech athletes receive postgraduate scholarships
The Atlantic Coast Conference announced a list of 36 student-athletes who have been selected for the Weaver-James-Corrigan Award, which goes to selected student-athletes who plan to pursue a graduate degree following their completion of undergraduate requirements. Each recipient will receive $5,000 to go toward graduate education.
The Weaver-James-Corrigan Award is named in honor of the late Jim Weaver and Bob James, as well as Gene Corrigan, all of whom are former ACC commissioners.
The three recipients from Virginia Tech are swimmer Abby Barney, runner Paul LaPenna and thrower Matej Muza. Barney, a senior from Virginia Beach, Va., majors in human nutrition, foods and exercise, while LaPenna, a senior from Londonderry, N.H., also majors in that same field. Muza, a senior from Zagreb, Croatia, majors in geography.
