Most University of Virginia athletics superfans probably don’t know who Rob Craig is, and that’s the way he likes it.
That’s because Craig works in game operations at UVA, controlling the scoreboard, keeping time and coordinating timeouts.
“If people don’t notice you, you know you did a good job,” Craig said.
But Craig does more than keep score on game nights. During the day, he doubles as a simulation technician in the University’s School of Nursing, acting as a “standardized patient” to help nursing students practice identifying and treating different conditions. In addition to acting, he helps set up skills labs and operate life-size mannequins, changing their vital signs and testing the nursing students’ knowledge.
Craig and other simulation techs lend their voices to life-sized mannequins for some simulations. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
“It’s one of those jobs where you wear so many different hats,” Craig said.
Craig has worked most women’s basketball games and many of the men’s games, in addition to a number of football, baseball, soccer, softball and lacrosse games. At one game he may be “the annoying guy with a headset during timeouts telling the referee we’re not ready to play yet”; at other times, he controls the game clock or the scoreboard or runs the shot clock.
“The shot clock, I’d probably say, is the most challenging, because there’s so much going on where you’ve got to be instantaneous. When that ball hits the rim, you’ve got to reset the clock. … If you mess up, everyone in the arena knows,” Craig said.
It takes an incredible amount of focus to keep track of everything that’s happening during a given game, enough that Craig said he frequently gives himself headaches. It’s worth it, he said. After all, his role in game operations is the result of a lifelong affection for everything UVA sports.
“I got indoctrinated at a very young age into loving UVA athletics, especially women’s basketball,” Craig said.
Rob Craig says if he does his job well, he blends into the background, like in this photo from 2024. Coach Amaka "Mox" Agugua-Hamilton talks to player Paris Clark during a January 2024 game, but Craig is visible at the courtside table between them. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
He grew up during a golden age of UVA women’s basketball with teams led by coach Debbie Ryan and players like Dawn Staley, Tammi Reiss and Heather and Heidi Burge. He became a sportswriter after graduating from Radford University and moved to North Carolina, where he mostly covered high school sports and Division II college athletics. But he found it grueling and wanted to spend more time with his fiancée, who was applying for graduate school.
Craig’s now-wife, Sarah Craig, was accepted to several programs, including UVA’s, where she currently works as an associate professor of nursing.
“Being from this area, and knowing UVA’s reputation, I was like, ‘Look, I’ll move. You’ve got to go to UVA,’” Rob Craig said.
He began working at Cavalier Cards, a sports memorabilia store, as an internet sales manager. He liked the job, but applied for jobs at UVA, especially in the athletics department. Craig got a plum position in the Nursing School simulation lab after a conversation with the lab’s director, Ryne Ackard, during a trip to New York with his wife and simulation lab staff. Ackard told him about an open position in the lab, and set up Craig to shadow a few simulations when they returned to Charlottesville.
“I ended up essentially interning for two separate (simulations), and absolutely loved it,” Craig said. “Having the instructors come to me at some points during the sim, going, ‘What did you see? What do you think of this? What do you think of the way the students were doing?’ made me feel incredibly valuable and respected, too. You don’t necessarily feel that way at a lot of jobs.”
In addition to running the simulation technology, Craig acts as a standardized patient in the alcohol withdrawal simulation. It’s one of the more intense simulations nursing students experience.
