BY TAFT COGHILL JR.

When Torrey Smith attended Colonial Beach Elementary School, he and physical education teacher Steve Swope shared a tight bond.

Swope said he recognized early on that the kid known as "Mouse" had special athletic talent.

So whenever Smith's mother couldn't afford to send him to one of Swope's camps or place him on a parks and recreation team, Swope allowed him to play free.

"Coach Swope knew me before I knew myself," Smith said in a telephone interview this week. "Every kid who's athletic in that town goes through coach Swope."

Still, there's one thing that would've threatened the bond between Smith and Swope--had Smith decided to attend the University of Virginia.

The Cavaliers' football program recruited Smith out of Stafford High School but didn't offer a scholarship. Smith is now a sophomore star wide receiver and kick returner for Maryland.

Virginia head coach Al Groh said on Monday that if he projected Smith's talent correctly, he would be a Cavalier now.

Swope, a Virginia Tech graduate, said not so fast.

"I would've never talked to him again, and he knows that," said Swope, who served as Colonial Beach High School's basketball and baseball coach for 30 years before taking a one-year break this year. "That would've been the end with us.

"Maryland, I can stomach. With the U.Va. thing, it would've been over. We'd have no more contact. I think he knew better after all those trips [to Virginia Tech football games] with me to never consider U.Va. I'll be very point-blank on that."

'GRUDGE' AGAINST CAVS

Smith will help lead Maryland (2-4, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) into tomorrow's 4 p.m. ACC clash with the Cavaliers (2-3, 1-0).

Smith said Virginia's coaching staff questioned his speed after he suffered a broken leg playing basketball and missed the first half of his junior season at Stafford.

He said the Cavaliers told him if he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds the following spring, they would extend an offer.

But after he did so at the Nike camp at Clemson University, Virginia coaches asked him to do it again on its campus. By then, Maryland had offered a scholarship, and Smith accepted.