Andrea D’Arrigo, who was the jewel of the Virginia men’s recruiting class of 2013, has been granted his release from Virginia after signing a National Letter of Intent in the fall.
D’Arrigo, in a blog post, says that he began the process of requesting a release in June after he was told by the academic departments that he would not be able to participate for his native Italy at the World Junior Championships this coming week in Dubai because of conflicts with the beginning of the school calendar.
“The difficulties gradually increased until they become insurmountable when I was banned from participating in the Junior World Championships, to avoid absences during the first 3 weeks of the school year,” D’Arrigo said in Italian. “This was a blatant violation of the provisions at the time of signing the NLI, which in June led me to start the process of cancelling (my NLI) provided by the NCAA, a formally cleared by the Virginia Cavaliers .”
In the post, dated from mid-July, D’Arrigo thanked the new staff, lead by head coach Augie Busch, for granting his release.
As for his long-term plans, D’Arrigo said in a later post that he would return home to train with Gregg Troy (head coach of the University of Florida), “define his athletic future,” and start college there, though he did not specifically commit to swim for the Gators at the NCAA level.
Meanwhile, D’Arrigo took bronze medals at the European Junior Championships in both the 200 meter (1:49.56) and 400 meter (3:51.74) freestyles.
In limited yards action with the Gator Swim Club, D’Arrigo has been 1:39.71 and 4:18.97 in the 200 and 500 yard freestyles, which means he should be an immediate NCAA qualifier, at least, wherever he winds up.
Virginia still has a freshman class of 7 freshmen, including 17-time High School All-American Adam Whitener from Saline High in Michigan, who is a 44.6 in the 100 free and 1:38.3 in the 200 free; a 48.8/1:46.9 butterflier Adam Whitener; and 1:39.6 200 freestyler Barry Mangold.
Neither Virginia nor D’Arrigo immediately responded to a request for comment; D’Arrigo is currently in Dubai for the 2013 World Junior Championships.
His last meet was the Italian Junior Championships, while staying in the country to prepare for World Juniors, where he was 1:48.9 and 3:49.2 in the 200 and 400 long course freestyles. That 200 time converts to around a 1:35.0 in yards.
D´Arrigo moved from Rome to train in Gainesville before he began his senior year, so he´s already familiar with the training at UF, and he also has dual citizenship between Italy and the US. He is listed on the Florida roster now.
His addition means they are going to have some big decisions to make at the end of the year. All the guys who were on last year´s national champion 800 free relay are returning and now they have the best middle distance recruit in the country coming in.
Changing a decision over where to get a college education over being able to miss 3 weeks of school at the start?!? Can understand that a scholarship involves expectations which need to be met. Easy to see that UVa was not a suitable fit for him.
An athlete expected to go to school! What was UVa thinking?