Cavalier Corner is the publication just for UVa sports fans!
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Cavalier Corner: When is your busiest stretch of the year and do you ever get any down time? Fetzer: "The most down time is the week of Christmas; that's the only re- ally down week of the year. The busi- est time is honestly right now, the fall. This is when we host all of our official visits and we're still doing in-home visits for recruiting. "You've got cross country season kicking off, and all the non-cross country athletes are starting their fall training and conditioning. You're working through everybody's sched- ules and, myself personally, I try to spend as much time with each group as much as I can to kind of get to know them a little bit better." Cavalier Corner: How have the new track facilities impacted recruit- ing? Fetzer: "[The new track] puts us on a level playing field with the other schools in our conference. Before it was a hindrance, and now we have what everybody else has. "We don't get that recruited against us anymore. Once the next phase of the project gets completed, it will defi- nitely give us an upper hand there." Cavalier Corner: The women's outdoor team experi- enced a tremendous bump in your first spring in Charlot- tesville, taking home a second-place finish at the ACC Championships. How cool was that to be a part of and how has it set the program up for future success? Fetzer: "It was great for the young ladies to have that opportunity to finish second after coming off of some years that were not so successful. The biggest thing was getting them to believe that they can be successful. "It's about ownership and the individual athlete believ- ing in themselves. We want to walk away with trophies in the future, but that was a great start to my career here." Cavalier Corner: Before coming to Virginia, you coached in the Pac-12, the SEC, and the Ivy League among others. What is so special about UVa? Fetzer: "Virginia is the total pack- age. It's got incredible academics, the ACC is the premier conference in the country for overall athletics, and the surrounding town is unbeliev- able. Charlottesville is a great place to live and the camaraderie of all of the coaches at UVa is unlike any place I've ever been. "When you add all those things to- gether, 'The total package' is the best way that I can describe Virginia." Cavalier Corner: You get to work with the cross country, indoor track and outdoor track teams. Which one is your favorite? Fetzer: "I was a football player primarily in high school and college, but one thing that I took away from my track days in college was the relationships that I built with some people that I would not have necessarily hung out with. "Track and cross country are so diverse from the stand- point of you have so many different pieces to the puzzle and different personalities, and getting a chance to get to know some of those people was pretty special, and some of those individuals are still some of my closest friends to this day." — Drew Goodman five questions DIRECTOR OF TRACK & FIELD/ CROSS COUNTRY BRYAN FETZER Fetzer led the women's outdoor track team to a second-place finish at the ACC Champion- ships in 2012. PHOTO BY JIM DAVES/COURTESY UVA