Brian O'Connor explains the importance of Kyle Teel being able to mentor his brother, Aidan

It’s a been a long 2023 season for Aidan Teel, sidelined for Virginia as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. But the Cavaliers freshman has leaned on his older brother, junior catcher Kyle Teel, according to head coach Brian O’Connor.

Sibling duos have been a theme for Virginia under O’Connor, as the Teels mark the seventh set of brothers to play for the Cavaliers under the current regime. It’s also the second time two brothers have been on the team at the same time — the first two being Jake and Zack Gelof.

“Certainly we’ve had a long history here of brothers in our program. And I’m very, very proud of that and the Teel brothers is another set of them. And this has been a tough year for Aidan Teel, just with having Tommy Johns surgery last spring and not being able to compete for us this year. But it’s great that the two brothers are together and Kyle is just such an older, loving brother and cares so much for Aidan. To be here with him this year and providing him support in his freshman year has been great,” O’Connor said.

And as Virginia prepares to head to Omaha for the College World Series, O’Connor is making sure the younger Teel isn’t an overthought.

“Aidan’s a team-first guy. He’s been with us all year. He’ll go with us to Omaha even though he can’t compete because I know that he’s going to play a major role in the future of our program,” O’Connor said.

Aidan Teel seems to be a bit less of a troublemaker than his brother

While the head coach has plenty of admiration for Teel and his musical abilities, what he did not have was patience for repeated meeting with the UVA dean of students regarding noise complaints in the dorms.

It was Teel’s freshman year and O’Connor recalled twice fielding noise complaints from the dean of students regarding DJing in the dorms. Recalling the episode with some humor two years later ahead of Virginia’s trip to the College World Series, O’Connor shared how he solved the problem.

“I am fully aware of Kyle Teel’s ability to DJ,” O’Connor said. “Because I can tell you his freshman year in the dorms, on two different occasions, I was approached by the dean of students regarding issues of loud music being played in the dormitory. And it was Kyle Teel’s speaker. So on the second occasion, I told Kyle that he has two hours to get that speaker over to my office. And that — it’s the largest speaker I’ve ever seen. I don’t know why you’d have it in a dorm room. But apparently he was playing it loud enough that you could hear it at the dorm next to his. So it lived in my office for the remainder of the year. And he came and picked it up later on. So one of the many stories about young Kyle Teel and how much fun he is to be around.”