UVa star back on course

When prep phenom Jonathan Villanueva first decided to forgo a professional soccer career in Europe and attend the University of Virginia, George Gelnovatch was practically doing cartwheels outside of Klockner Stadium.

The UVa coach had snagged the most heralded recruit in the country.

As a freshman, Villanueva lived up to a good portion of his hype. The Dallas native was the team’s fourth-leading scorer and was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team.

However, last year, by most accounts, Villanueva took a large step back as a sophomore.

“I think I may have been a little over-confident and may have lost some of the drive that I had my freshman year,” Villanueva said. “That year I was very excited and very focused. I think last year, after all the success I had, I stopped working as hard probably.”

Tonight, Villanueva and Virginia open their ACC season at home against N.C. State. UVa (2-3), coming off a 3-1 loss to Virginia Commonwealth, is off to its worst start since 1983 — but Gelnovatch, who recently signed a four-year contract extension, doesn’t seem worried. After all, he’s been starting six of his nine freshmen.

“I think this first-year class has motivated our team, our staff,” Gelnovatch said. “Just in terms of pure talent, this is what I would deem an extremely talented team. This influx of quality guys this year is probably the largest number of quality that we’ve had in a long time.

“It hasn’t shown yet in the results, but we have a talented group and I think it motivates you to play.”

Villanueva, 20, has slowly been working himself back into Gelnovatch’s good graces. In the spring, the junior received a suspension for violating team rules. The 5-foot-10, 160-pounder had to sit out a week of preseason in August and has only recently reclaimed a spot in the team’s starting lineup.

Villanueva says having so many talented freshmen in the mix has served as an additional wake-up call.

“All these new guys have come in and have really pushed me to be even more focused — just to get playing time,” he said.

With Yannick Reyering — the team’s leading scorer from last year — now playing football, Villanueva is being counted on to pick up some of the scoring slack.

Villanueva, a Parade All-American — he was voted the top midfielder in the country coming out of South Grand Prairie (Texas) High in 2006, is hoping for a big season. So far, he has two assists in three starts.

“I’m very confident,” he said, “but at the same time I’m trying to take on a bit of a leadership role and show some of the new guys the way.”

Gelnovatch is keeping his fingers crossed.

“I hope that the things he is saying he is really taking to heart,” Gelnovatch said. “He has to work hard defensively and do all the little things. He’s obviously very skillful and a gifted passer, dribbler. Nobody’s ever questioned the ability he has there. But if you had a pie chart, that’s only a sliver of the game.

“The bigger pieces are how fit you are, and are you willing to chase, and are you willing to tackle and willing to compete all the time? Those are the issues that he needs to deal with. I think it’s early in the season, but he’s strung a couple of really good games together that have shown some decent signs that he’s starting to click a little bit.”