Dino Babers on 3 Virginia football players killed in shooting: ‘It has affected our building’

Syracuse, N.Y. — Dino Babers opened his weekly press conference Monday addressing the shooting that killed three Virginia football players late Sunday night.

The Syracuse football head coach has two assistant coaches on his staff that coached at Virginia, and the Cavaliers played the Orange earlier in the season in the JMA Wireless Dome.

Babers said offensive coordinator Robert Anae and quarterbacks coach Jason Beck were fielding phone calls earlier Monday morning as more information about the shooting and the victims became known.

“That is something that affects everyone. It has affected our building,” Babers said. “We have coaches that know those players and they have been fielding phone calls and stuff like that. It’s a disturbing time, and once again puts us back to what’s truly important: family and football and putting those things in the right perspective. It’s a big thing to us.”

Virginia President Jim Ryan confirmed in a morning news conference that linebacker D’Sean Perry, wide receiver Lavel Davis Jr. and wide receiver Devin Chandler were killed in a shooting Sunday which occurred on the UVA campus.

Two other students were injured but have not been identified. Ryan said one is in good condition and the other is in critical condition at a local hospital. The students were returning to campus on a charter bus from a field trip to Washington, D.C. The shooting occurred shortly after 10 p.m. Sunday night, officials said.

Anae and Beck spent six seasons at Virginia together prior to joining the Orange staff in January.

Babers spoke about the connection coaches and their families make with players, and the difficult conversations they must now have with their children about the loss of these athletes. He spoke of traditions within the SU program, like Thanksgiving dinners at coaches’ houses and Halloween trick-or-treating, that create bonds between coaches’ families and the players.

Beck has three elementary-aged children. Anae also has three children who are older.

“It’s a lot deeper than what it looks like on the surface when you’re talking about a tragedy like that happening so close to home, which is really sad, but also when you have people who were really touching this, who were really on the ground,” Babers said. “It’s an emotional thing.”

Syracuse hosted Virginia earlier this season in a game that ended up coming down to the wire before the Orange emerged victorious, 22-20. Davis caught a 4-yard touchdown in the game.

Babers said that even though football is competitive in nature, “there’s love transferred between” players and coaches when they shake hands postgame.

The shooting has reverberated across the sports world Monday, with programs, coaches and pro athletes around the nation offering their condolences.

All classes were canceled at Virginia on Monday, and the Cavaliers’ men’s basketball game against Northern Iowa scheduled for 8 p.m. was canceled.

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips issued a statement via the conference’s Twitter account around noon.

“There are simply no words that can fully express our collective pain over their devastating and senseless loss,” Phillips said. “...the ACC family stands in support of all members of the Cavalier family, and we will do whatever is asked of us in the days and weeks ahead. Our focus is on the young men and women impacted by this tragedy.”

Former Virginia footall walk-on Christopher Jones Jr. was arrested and charged with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, police officials said.

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