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Flag Football Tournament at UVa Benefits Crisis Hotline

Posted: 3:13 PM Nov 3, 2012
Reporter: Nate Sulham

Flag Football Tournament at UVa Benefits Crisis Hotline

Many current and former members of the Virginia lacrosse family were on hand at Lambeth Field Saturday for the fourth annual Will Barrow Memorial Flag Football Tournament.

All proceeds from the benefit go to the UVa HELP Line, a non-profit, student-run crisis hotline.

The UVa HELP Line is an anonymous, confidential telephone service serving the residents of Charlottesville, Albemarle County and the University of Virginia. It is affiliated with UVa's Madison House. HELP strives to provide callers with an empathetic ear for any sort of issue they wish to discuss and on finding long-term services in the community for callers, such as counseling services, medical services or drug treatment programs.

Many Virginia players, and also players from other schools such as North Carolina and Maryland, all descended on Charlottesville to help honor Barrow and raise awareness for suicide prevention.

The event was started four years ago by former Wahoo Max Pomper. His younger brother, Brian, was one of the point people of this year's tournament, along with Bobby Hill and Blake Riley.

As a fourth-year player in 2008, Barrow was a captain of a squad that advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Championships. He was considered one of the top defensive midfielders in the country throughout his career. During his senior season, he finished with a career-high 28 ground balls, while scoring seven goals and adding three assists. Following the season he was selected in the second round of the Major League Lacrosse draft by the Chicago Machine and appeared in five games during his rookie year. He appeared in 63 games during his UVa career and scored 18 goals with seven assists. Barrow also was a member of the Cavaliers' 2006 NCAA Champion team.

"The challenge is you don't want to really worry about how much money you raise," explained co-founder Mikey Thompson. "The real goal is to get the word out for the HELP Line and just letting people know that if they're ever in a tough situation that there are people there who are willing to help."