CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – On Nov. 13, 2022, Sage Ennis was 400 miles southwest of the University of Virginia. A tight end on the Clemson football team, Ennis and his fellow Tigers were a day removed from a 31-16 home win over Louisville, one that clinched a spot in the ACC championship game.

That same day, in Charlottesville, a gunman shot and killed three UVA football players – Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry – after the trio returned to the UVA campus with classmates following a field trip. A fourth player, Mike Hollins, was seriously injured but has since recovered.

Ennis was nowhere near Charlottesville that day. But Thursday, on the three-year anniversary of the darkest day in Cavaliers’ football history, he’ll be among the current UVA players who pause to hear the University Chapel’s bells toll as students, staff and faculty observe a moment of silence.

“I wasn’t here when it took place but I think that it’s always going to be near and dear to the hearts of everybody who was here, who was involved in it,” Ennis, who transferred to play for the Cavaliers before the 2024 season, said this week. “And then for the program and all the teams who come after. It’s a time to think back and remember, but also I think of it as a celebration of those guys’ lives. It’s great we get to do that.”

Following the ringing of the bells, there will be a march from the chapel to the memorial tree that was planted on the Casteen Arts Grounds in the players’ memory. That night, there will be a candlelight vigil on the South Lawn.

UVA coach Tony Elliott was in his first season leading the program that year. He said this is “a tough week” for the players, coaches and staff who are still at UVA from 2022. But he also praised all the newer Cavaliers for embracing the memory of Chandler, Davis Jr. and Perry.

“We got about 100 guys that weren’t here,” Elliott said. “They own it, carry it with us, but they may not be fully understanding.”

Within the football program, the trio is never far from people’s minds. In the new football facility, a display honors the three players, with mannequins dressed in their jerseys.

There are 20 players still on the UVA roster who played the 2022 season, a campaign that was cut short after the shooting tragedy. The Cavaliers didn’t play their final two games that season, a home non-conference date with Coastal Carolina and a road date at rival Virginia Tech.

Some of those remaining players are key faces on this year’s surprising 8-2 squad, a group that includes defensive tackle Jahmeer Carter, safety Antonio Clary, offensive linemen McKale Boley, Noah Josey and Jack Witmer, linebacker James Jackson, kicker Will Bettridge and punter Daniel Sparks.

Elliott makes sure current players understand and appreciate the responsibility of wearing the jersey numbers that Chandler, Davis and Perry wore for the Cavaliers.

Suderian Harrison, who went to the same South Carolina high school as Davis, wears Davis’s No. 1, as does Jackson and injured cornerback Dre Walker.

Alabama transfer defensive tackle Hunter Osbourne and freshman wide receiver Dillon Newton-Short both wear Chandler’s No. 15.

And Bettridge, a high school teammate of Perry’s in Miami, has worn Perry’s No. 41 since the tragedy.

Of course, it isn’t just the football program that still grieves that November day three years ago.

Much of the university and the community were rocked by the news. Next week’s expected sentencing of the shooter, Christoper Darnell Jones Jr., figures to bring back more painful memories. Jones was 22 at the time, a UVA student and, briefly, a member of the football team.

University police chief Tim Longo was in his third year in that post when the shooting occurred.

“This happened on my watch,” Longo told Cville Right Now. “And that? That walks with you forever.”

Longo said Jones’ sentencing could provide a measure of catharsis, particularly if he accepts responsibility for his actions and, perhaps, even sheds light on his motivation. Still, it won’t erase what happened.

“This one, this pain will never go away,” Longo said. “It will never go away, from the families to the players, the coaches are our community and that, that’s heartbreaking. With every anniversary, they say time heals all wounds. Not this one.”