Centreville (Va.) High School offensive lineman Matt Welsh, the #3-ranked junior in the state of Virginia by Doug Doughty, has committed to the Hokies. Welsh's commitment was reported by the Roanoke Times, Rivals.com, and Justin Ditmore of WSLS Channel 10 in Roanoke.

Welsh, who stands 6-5, weighs 275, and runs a 4.98 forty-yard dash, attended the Tom Lemming photo shoot this past Sunday at Virginia Tech. He has gained 25 pounds since the end of the 2001 football season.

It is very unusual for an offensive lineman to be ranked highly by Doughty. Granted, Welsh's #3 ranking from Doughty is only his junior-class ranking, and Welsh might be ranked lower when Doughty releases his preseason (August) and postseason (December) senior rankings, but one must go all the way back to Doughty's 1992 rankings to find an offensive lineman in the top three; back in 1992, Quincy Winn, an offensive tackle from Deep Creek High School in Chesapeake, was ranked #3 by Doughty. Winn committed to Pittsburgh.

The Roanoke Times reported that Welsh also had offers from Tennessee, Virginia and Michigan State. Centreville alumni who are currently on Tech's team are LB Blake Warren and OL Will Montgomery. Tech is also recruiting another Centreville junior, LB Brett Warren, Blake’s brother.

Speaking of recruiting, many of you have asked us when we're going to populate our TechSideline.com recruiting database with 2003 recruits. Other recruiting services are adding players and building their 2003 recruiting lists, but TSL has not done so.

The reason why is that we're working on a redesign of our database. This spring and summer, we're modifying the database to include more info and present that information more clearly. We anticipate this to be a summer-long project, and we're holding off on adding new players until the upgrade is complete.

Until the database is upgraded, we'll report any recruiting news and commitments via News and Notes and TSLMail. When we're ready with the new database, players such as Matt Welsh and others will be added.

Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed that we have updated our 2002 football schedules to show Tech's August 25th game with Arkansas State as a 2 pm game on ESPN. Previously, the game's time and TV status were undetermined.

For now, we at TSL are going with ESPN's information.

Tech's softball team came on strong the last two weeks, closing out the season with ten straight wins to finish 40-16 overall, 12-8 in the Big East.

Tech has won six straight Big East games and seven of their last eight, and on the strength of that performance, they finished fourth in the Big East. That's important because only the top four teams get to play in the Big East tournament.

Tech's last four wins of the season were critical, as they swept double-headers from Boston College and Seton Hall, both of whom finished just behind the Hokies at 11-9 in the conference.

The good news is that the Hokies get to play in the tournament close to home, at the James I. Moyer Complex in Salem, Va. This is the first time the tourney has been held at the Moyer Complex. The bad news is that Tech is pitted against #1-seed Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish were 38-14 overall, 18-2 in the Big East, and they whacked Tech by scores of 10-0 and 8-0 on April 20th in Blacksburg.

Tech will play Notre Dame at 1:30 pm on Thursday, May 9th.

In other non-revenue sports news, the Hokie baseball team has forged into first place in the Big East with eight games left to play (six in the Big East). As in softball, only the top four teams in the conference make the conference tournament.

In golf, the Tech golf team will play in the NCAA Central Regional Golf Tournament in Little Rock, Arkansas on May 16th through the 18th. The Hokies are the #4 seed in the 27-team regional, and they made the regional by winning the Big East golf championship recently.

There are three regionals, and the top 10 teams from each region will move on to the NCAA championships on May 29-June 1. Last year, the Hokies finished #8 in the country.

Tech is currently ranked 10th nationally in the Golfstat.com poll, 12th in the Golf Coaches Association of America poll and 18th in the Golfweek/Sagarin poll.

TechLocker.com is blowing out some inventory in a big spring sale. We've got T-shirts as low as $8, sweatshirts as low as $14.95 and $19.95, a great selection of kids' stuff, VT khakis, TechSideline.com apparel (also dirt cheap), and lots of great gift items, watches, and accessories.

Friends of Virginia Tech and the Golf Club of Virginia present an opportunity to play golf with Frank Beamer! Next Monday, May 13th, Coach Beamer will be golfing at Beacon Hill golf course, and the Golf Club of Virginia wanted to take the opportunity to invite as many Hokies as are interested to come play the Beacon Hill course with Coach Beamer that day.

The festivities will start at noon and will include lunch, beer and soft drinks, carts, green fees, and a chance to meet Coach Beamer, all for just $90 a person. Please feel free to bring any Hokie or a friend of a Hokie that would like to play.

You may contact Jimmie Lynn, who is with the Golf Club of Virginia, at 703-851-1170, Tim Kampa, owner of the Club at 703-625-9611, or Tom Cooper (Friends of Virginia Tech) at 703-819-2823 anytime. These numbers are their cell phones.

Come out, have fun, play golf, and meet Coach Beamer!

TSL News and Notes Archives