VCU’S DEA WORKED ON ‘LINCOLN’

Autumn Dea (far left) with Spielberg (center) on the set of ‘Lincoln’.

This item previously ran on the blog in October of 2011, but was removed after about a day. Apparently, there was a misunderstanding about when it would run, and the production company’s desire not to disclose information about the film. “Lincoln” has since been released in theaters and has garnered significant Oscar buzz. Below is the original note on former VCU Field Hockey player Autumn Dea.

RICHMOND, Va. – Field Hockey junior and cinema major Autumn Dea is having a bit of a surreal week, her first as an intern with the Assistant Director’s Department for the movie Lincoln, which will be filmed mostly in Richmond. The film will be directed by Steven Spielberg and includes stars Daniel Day-Lewis (who will play Abraham Lincoln), Joseph Gordon Levitt, Sally Fields and Tommy Lee Jones. Shooting began today.

“It’s just nuts,” says Dea, a Honey Brook, Pa. native. “There are hundreds of crew members. It’s like a dream. Whenever I go in, I’ll look at the call sheet for the day and at the top it’ll say Director/Producer, Steven Spielberg. I’m just staring at it.”

Dea, the only current VCU student-athlete majoring in cinema, will be helping the second directors on set. According to skillset.org, “Second directors prepare and draw up the next day’s call sheet, (which involves confirming the details of who needs to be on set and at what time, the transport arrangements, extras required etc.).”

Field hockey season is in full swing, which makes this a less than ideal time for Dea to serve and internship. During the season, Dea will work on Lincoln roughly three days a week, which will require her to wake at 5:45 a.m. on those days. Although juggling field hockey, class and an internship is draining, Dea says it was a no brainer.

Dea played field hockey at VCU from 2009-11.

“It’s something you can’t pass up. You make it work,” she said.

Dea had previously worked as a freelance editor and a volunteer on some smaller productions, but nothing approaching this scale. According to IMDB, the production budget for Lincoln is rumored to be $100 million. Shooting is expected to continue through December.

Spielberg is one of the most influential directors and producers ever, churning out films like Schindler’s List, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., The Color Purple and Jurassic Park, to name a few. Rarely is there a Spielberg-directed vehicle that isn’t a blockbuster.

With that in mind, Dea said that pretty much every VCU cinema major (about 100) applied to work on the film in some capacity, but only a handful were selected.

When she graduates next year, Dea will weigh her options. She’s considering applying for the VCU Brandcenter to study advertising. From there, Dea expects to end up in New York or Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry. Ultimately, Dea says she’d love to be a director.

“I like being a storyteller. I like conveying a concept,” Dea said. “The chance to put your ideas out there in possibly the most influential art form…and then you can be so creative and you can do so much with film.”

HERE’S THE (POSTSEASON) SITUATION…

VCU’s last fall sports conference championship came in volleyball in 2005. The Rams have four chances to end that drought this fall.

VCU sports are enjoying a record-breaking fall, and for the first time since 2000, field hockey, men’s soccer, women’s soccer and volleyball will all play in the conference tournament in the same year. A couple of them have legitimate NCAA at-large shots as well. Here’s a quick look at the postseason prospects of VCU’s fall athletic programs.

FIELD HOCKEY (13-5, 4-3 A-10)
Remaining Schedule: Regular season complete
Atlantic 10 Tournament: The Rams are the No. 4 seed and will meet top-seeded Richmond in the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 2 at 11 a.m. in Amherst, Mass. Click HERE for the A-10 Championship page.
Conference Championships: None
NCAA Appearances: None
Current NCAA RPI: 30
The Skinny: If this were hoops, VCU’s 30 RPI would be a sure ticket to the NCAA Tournament. However, the NCAA Field Hockey Championship is 16 teams, which means the Rams need to win the A-10 Tournament to dance. It won’t be an easy task. The Rams are 0-3 against the A-10 Tourney field (Richmond, Temple and UMASS) this season.

RAMS CONQUER LONG AND WINDING ROAD

VCU traveled 4,700 miles by bus this season and often employed “body warm-ups” to ward off stiffness and boredom. “You name it, we’ve probably stretched in it,” says senior Kelsey Scherrer.

RICHMOND, Va. – On the first road trip of the year, a 640-mile roundtrip jaunt to Piscataway, N.J., the VCU Field Hockey team committed an act so heinous, it could have derailed the entire season.

They forgot to bring movies.

“I think they were okay, but for us coaches, it was awful,” lamented first-year head coach Shannon Karl.

The DVD oversight was forgiven, but not forgotten. Player itineraries for subsequent trips were amended to include “movies” in bold lettering under the necessary items checklist. It’s hardly a trivial request. When you’re on the road as much as VCU this season, you’ve got to do something.

Of VCU’s 17 matches this season, including one scrimmage, 13 have been played on the road. In all, the Rams have logged a staggering 4,700 miles and 95 hours in bus travel. That’s nearly enough mileage to drive from Richmond to Darwin, Minn. – home of the World’s Largest Ball of Twine – and back, twice. They’ve become so acquainted with their bus driver (David, in case you were curious), that he attends their home matches as a fan now.

FALL SPORTS, SUMMED UP IN ONE PLAY

It was another banner weekend in VCU Athletics. Fall sports were unbeaten (again). Volleyball and field hockey swept a pair of matches, women’s soccer beat Richmond, men’s soccer picked up a draw and a win. Nice, tidy 6-0-1 weekend. Heck, for good measure, 17-year-old freshman Jake McNulty fired a 69 in the first round of the OBX/ODU Collegiate Sunday morning for the VCU Golf team.

VCU fall sports (volleyball, field hockey, men’s soccer, women’s soccer) have a combined record of 50-14-7. If the regular season ended today, all four would qualify for their respective conference tournaments for the first time since 2000.

Below is a great example of how we roll at VCU. Redshirt freshman Uzoamaka Ibeh is a great kid from Jersey. Works hard. Great teammate. But she hasn’t played much as a Ram. Saturday’s match with Duquesne marked the seventh appearance of her career. That didn’t stop her from diving headlong into the scorer’s table to make this save. I was practically on top of the play and it was much better in person. All hustle.

MCBEE’S CAREER REBORN IN WEIGHT ROOM, AT FORWARD

Senior forward Haley McBee has a team-leading four goals and 10 points in four matches this season.

Haley McBee’s freshman year didn’t exactly foreshadow a day when she’d become a prolific scorer for the VCU Field Hockey team.

It was a tough rookie year for the Stafford, Va. native. She struggled to keep up. The speed and physicality of the college game eluded her. She felt lost.

“Coming to college I was completely physically out of shape, and mentally I wasn’t there either,” McBee, a 5-foot-4 senior forward said. “I guess I kind of thought I’d be fine, but I didn’t really realize just how in shape you had to be for college.”

McBee’s results, four goals and two assists in four matches this season, are a far cry from that first year, or any other point in her career, for that matter. Prior to this season, McBee had scored three goals in 33 career matches. Now, she’s one of the catalysts of a 4-0 VCU squad.

She owes much of it to that challenging freshman season, when McBee appeared in a grand total of three matches. It was a humbling experience, one she vowed not to duplicate.

“After the fall season, I knew that I never wanted to feel out of shape and not ready for my team again,” says McBee, a 21-year-old exercise science major.

McBee hit the weight room hard that spring. Additionally, she has spent the past two summers on campus, working with the VCU Strength and Conditioning staff.

THE WRAP: SEPT. 11 – EVERYBODY’S A WINNER AT O’SHEA’S!

R.I.P. O’Shea’s.

I had a flashback this weekend, as VCU teams were barreling through their schedules and piling up victories.

It was the summer of 2003, and I was in Las Vegas for my college roommate’s bachelor party. By 4 a.m. of the first night (because Vegas deserves a minimum of two nights, even if it kills you) we five remaining souls, including four of us who had flown cross-country that morning, found ourselves at the gritty Las Vegas Strip outpost O’Shea’s, an Irish-themed casino whose dingy carpets and worn felt underscored years of neglect.

In recent years, O’Shea’s adopted a debauched college frat-house approach, complete with loud music, cheap brew and scores of beer pong tables, a strategy that, while kitschy, earned the place a rowdy reputation and passionate following that regularly packed the house. [Note: O’Shea’s closed this summer to make way for a new, glitzy property.]

This was not that O’Shea’s.

THE WRAP: SEPT. 4

Senior Kelsey Scherrer became the leading goal-scorer in VCU history in Sunday’s win over Columbia.

FIELD HOCKEY (2-0; 1-0 last week)
Scherr Shot
THE story of the weekend was me, successfully cooking an unburned meal for my wife on her birthday. The SECOND biggest story of the weekend was senior Kelsey Scherrer scoring the 39^th goal of her career – a game-winner – in VCU’s 2-1 win over Columbia. Scherrer, who has two goals in as many games this season, passes Alycia Yoder, who racked up 38 goals from 1991-94.

“I foam at the mouth when I get in the circle with the ball,” Scherrer said, rather colorfully, of her nose for the goal.

Opening act
With Sunday’s victory, VCU is 2-0 to start the year for the first time since 2009.

See ya when I see ya
Following a pair of victories at Cary Street Field, the Rams will hit the road for the next six matches. Only the Grateful Dead have been on the road longer.

Ram-blings
“We are playing…this is a phenomenal year. We play as a team, as a unit on the field. We come off the field and we’re not as tired as we have been [in the past] because we’re playing as a unit. We’re connecting, we’re finishing. We’re doing the things we practice. We’re doing better every game. This has been the best game we’ve played so far and it can only get better.” – Kelsey Scherrer on VCU’s 2-0 start

SCHERRER STREAKS TO HISTORY

Senior Kelsey Scherrer became VCU’s career leader in goals scored Sunday.

RICHMOND, Va. – It’s hard to imagine Kelsey Scherrer stopping goals, considering how natural she looks when she’s scoring them. But it almost worked out that way.

Scherrer, a senior forward for the VCU Field Hockey team, grew up as a softball catcher. When she picked up field hockey in the seventh grade, she eyed the logical transition to goalkeeper. But the team didn’t have pads small enough for Scherrer, who now stands 5-foot-1.

“So they stuck a stick in my hand, and they were like, you’re fast, go and do your thing,” Scherrer said Sunday. “The rest is history.”

On Sunday, she secured her place in VCU history.

With a go-ahead goal – the 39^th of her career – in the 66^th minute of the Rams’ 2-1 win over Columbia at Cary Street Field, Scherrer became the leading scorer in program history, eclipsing Alycia Yoder.

Although the gravity of the moment wasn’t lost on her, Scherrer exchanged hugs with teammates and says she’ll keep the record-setting ball, she was quick to stress that the most important benefit of the goal was VCU’s victory and the team’s 2-0 start. Besides, she says, you can’t score all those goals by yourself.

“It’s huge, it’s awesome. It’s a record that the whole team can celebrate together. I have the easy job,” Scherrer said. “My team, they’re the ones that set me up. Everyone that I’ve played with in the past, all the people that have graduated like Marle van Dessel, they set me up beautifully and I just finish it. I do the easy part.”

Maybe she’s just good at making it look easy. Despite her diminutive stature, Scherrer has a rare blend of speed and quickness on the field hockey turf. On Sunday, her skills were on full display. She continually created scoring opportunities in the second half by streaking past slower defenders or using nifty stick work to find open space, hallmarks of her career.

VCU Head Coach Shannon Karl, then an assistant, recruited Scherrer four years ago out of Cape Henry High School. At the time, the Karl was trying to rebuild a long-dormant VCU program. Scherrer was one of the first difference-makers Karl and then-Head Coach Kelly McQuade were able to sign. Their faith in the lightning-fast forward paid off. In her second season, Scherrer scored 15 goals and VCU posted its first winning season in 17 years.

“Kelsey’s got a lot of fight in her,” Karl said. “She’s a true competitor. You can tell she loves the sport of field hockey every time she plays. She’s a very, very intense competitor. That’s what she’s done for our team for the past four years, and that’s what she’ll continue to do this fall in her senior campaign.”

Against Columbia, Scherrer had five shots on goal in the second half before she was able to finally find the back of the net, but her ability to shrug off those misses is what will continue to make her dangerous.

“[There was some] frustration because I’m very hard on myself. I foam at the mouth when I get in the circle with the ball. When I know that I’ve done something and I end on a mediocre shot to goal it’s a little bit frustrating. But I’ve learned in my senior year that’s just something you’ve got to let fuel you. Now it frustrates me in a positive way. I get more goal hungry.”

That’s a scary proposition for VCU opponents.

SCHERRER, BOYD NEAR MILESTONES

A native of Chesapeake, Va., senior Kelsey Scherrer has scored 11, 15 and 11 goals, respectively, in her first three seasons.

Fall seasons are just beginning to pick up steam, but a couple of Rams are already on the cusp of reaching milestones worthy of some Jersey Shore fist pumping (so long, Jersey Shore).

Field hockey senior Kelsey Scherrer will enter Sunday’s home match with Columbia (1 p.m., Cary Street Field) with 38 career goals. With one more, she’ll most past Alycia Yoder (1991-94) and sit alone atop the Rams’ career list. Scherrer scored once in VCU’s season-opening win over Missouri State last Friday.

VCU FIELD HOCKEY
Career Goals
1-Alycia Yoder (1991-94), 38
1-Kelsey Scherrer (2009-2012), 38
3-Marle van Dessel (2007-10), 36

Meanwhile, volleyball’s Kristin Boyd, a senior outside hitter, will head into Friday’s match with Kent State at N.C. State (4 p.m.) with 998 kills. With two more, she’ll become just the fifth Ram to reach 1,000. Boyd averages 3.08 kills per set this year, so expect that milestone to come early.

VCU VOLLEYBALL
Career Kills
1-Shannon McMeekin (1991-94), 1,362
2-Elisa Kuehnel (2005-08), 1,184
3-Lauren Connell (2000-03), 1,136
4-Cindy O’Brien (1993-96), 1,045
5-Kristin Boyd (2009-2012), 998

You’ll also notice that Boyd is within a reasonable shot of the Rams’ career kills mark. For what it’s worth, Boyd blasted 440 kills last season. She has 37 already this year and is 365 away from passing McMeekin. Not that it’s directly relevant, but she can also bench press a Cadillac and leap over water tower.

In honor of both Boyd’s and Scherrer’s “killer” instinct. Here’s something for the drive home.

THE WRAP: AUG. 27, 2012

VCU Volleyball captured its first tournament victory since 2009 at the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge.

Wrapping up the weekend in VCU Athletics, but not with an actual rap, because that would be awkward.

VOLLEYBALL (3-0)
Last week: at Ball State Active Ankle Challenge (Muncie, Ind.)
8/24: Def. Illinois State 3-1
8/25: Def. Ball State 3-1
8/25: Def. Gardner-Webb 3-1

Love the trophy, but what in the world is an active ankle?
VCU swept three matches over the weekend to win the Active Ankle Challenge at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. It marks VCU first 3-0 start since opening at 5-0 in 2009, as well as the program’s first tournament victory since that season.

It matters because…
The Rams win over Ball State could prove important down the road, and not just in case they meet BSU-alum Dave Letterman in an airport. The Cardinals were 25-8 a year ago and 36 in the RPI. If Ball State is anywhere near as good this season, it would constitute one of the biggest, if not the biggest, road win for the Rams in decades.

Networking
VCU middle blockers Jasmine Waters and Martina Samadan, a freshman, led the way. Waters, a fifth-year senior, hit .522 and averaged 1.00 blocks on the way to Most Valuable Player honors. Samadan averaged a staggering 1.92 blocks per set and was named All-Tournament, as well as Atlantic 10 Co-Defensive Player of the Week. Sophomore libero Amanda Love also picked up an All-Tourney citation.

Put it in quotations
“Getting a win like this after we beat Illinois State yesterday was great. The thing is, when the selection committee is trying to decide on an at-large, you need these kind of big wins. To get one opening weekend is fantastic.” – Head Coach James Finley following VCU’s win over Ball State.