UVa’s Ari Dimas Is Ruled Ineligible

Chesapeake’s Ari Dimas enrolled at the University of Virginia in the fall of 2008 as just another first-year student, without any plan to play intercollegiate soccer for the Cavaliers.

But the game pulled the Indian River HS graduate to the university’s men’s club soccer team, where he excelled.

The following year he was starting on the Cavaliers’ 2009 national championship team.

His was the career of a true student-athlete. From club player to a varsity standout midifielder who played in 59 matches during his career, starting 48 times over three seasons.

He graduated from the University last May with a double major in sociology and philosophy, but decided to enroll in graduate school and come back to play for his senior season.

As it turned out, he did not have one more season of eligibility. Dimas has been declared ineligible for the remainder of the 2012 season.

Six games into the 2012 season, it was discovered that according to NCAA bylaws, the year of participation with the club program counted as a year varsity competition, because the university sponsored the sport of men’s soccer on the varsity intercollegiate level.

Dimas played for the Cavaliers in 2009, 2010 and 2011. So, by the NCAA bylaws, his eligibility expired at the end of the 2011 season.

Dimas’s participation in the first six matches of this season (two exhibition, four regular season) will not result in a change of the outcome of any of those games.

The athletic department has been fined $3,000 by the NCAA for his participation in those six games. Dimas played in 59 matches during his career, starting 48 times. In 2011 he was named to the All-ACC Academic Soccer Team and the ACC Academic Honor Roll.

Dimas will continue his graduate studies in hopes of pursuing a master’s degree in commerce. He will serve as a volunteer coach for the remainder of the season.