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The majority of what has been unofficially dubbed ‘‘The Virginia Tech Massacre” happened in a classroom building 40 feet away from where Whitaker had stood with friends a little after 9 a.m. In all, a lone gunman, a student on campus, killed 32 people (and himself) and injured 25 more on the campus of Virginia Tech that day in the deadliest shooting incident in modern United States history.

‘‘It was scary. Scary and sad at the same time,” said Whitaker, The Gazette Player of the Year in football in 2004 at Northwest High in Germantown and the Hokies’ second-string quarterback as a redshirt sophomore this year. ‘‘We didn’t know what was going on, so we just got out of there as quickly as we could. But we definitely knew we heard gunshots. When we found out what had happened we couldn’t believe it, we couldn’t believe one individual could do that.”

Not long after 7 a.m. that day, Andre Smith awoke to blaring sirens, several of them, emanating from the police cars and ambulances rushing to the dormitory building just across the narrow campus street from his.

He thought someone had an asthma attack or some similar malady, but he wasn’t alarmed. Then he and some dorm mates watched as the police posted yellow caution tape around the entrance to the building, and then even more disturbingly as emergency medical technicians carried out a body of a girl, who as Smith said ‘‘Didn’t seem to be with us anymore.”

‘‘That’s when I started to think something wasn’t right,” Smith, an All-Gazette first-team selection in 2005 at Seneca Valley and a redshirt freshman tight end for Virginia Tech, said.

Still, he prepared for the day and went off to his mandatory study hall at Lane Stadium, not too far away from his dorm.

It was there, sometime later, that he learned what he had witnessed earlier in the morning — the immediate aftermath of the first leg of the shootings. Two victims had been shot in a dorm room across the street at around 7 a.m. The classroom incident Whitaker had been so close to killed 30 more.

‘‘It was unbelievable,” Smith said. ‘‘Then to find out his dorm was right behind ours and that he walked right by our dorm to get to the first shooting, that made us think long and hard about what could have been. We talked about how it could’ve been different if one of us had walked outside when the shooter was going to the other dorm or if he’d come in our dorm instead.”

Smith and his classmates were forced to stay in the study-hall room in ‘‘lockdown” mode for more than three hours while law-enforcement and campus officials stabilized the situation.

As time wore on that day and the days following, the grim truth took shape. The losses were tragic, senseless, and Smith and Whitaker, as well as thousands of others, had experienced them first-hand, leaving them stunned and shaken.

Moving on

It’s four months later. And the reminders of the shootings are everywhere on campus. But that’s the way a lot of the Virginia Tech community wants it, especially the football team, ranked ninth nationally in the preseason polls. The players and coaches have taken responsibility for bringing back a ‘‘feel-good” air to the campus, while not forgetting the loss of lives.

‘‘Coach [Frank] Beamer reminds us every day of the people who passed here in April,” Whitaker said. ‘‘We’re definitely playing for them. It’s going to be a special season. The football team has a chance to bring this university back together, and that’s what we’re planning to do.”

As the season approaches — the Hokies open up at home on Saturday, Sept. 1 against East Carolina — the school has plans to honor those killed in the shootings, and the first football game, which will be televised nationally on ESPN at 12 p.m., is central to that planning. All athletic teams, including the football team, will wear a ribbon patch with a VT logo on their uniforms, a military flyover at Lane Stadium is scheduled just before kickoff on Sept. 1, East Carolina and the Atlantic Coast Conference are presenting pregame checks on the field to Virginia Tech officials to benefit the victims’ memorial fund.

There will also be tributes and ceremonies held by dignitaries from around the campus and the country, though details have not yet been finalized. The national media is calling Virginia Tech ‘‘America’s Team” and even more people than usual will be paying close attention to how the football team performs this fall. Which means Smith and Whitaker, who both should see playing time — Whitaker has been taking snaps at wide receiver during practice, just so the Hokies can get his athleticism on the field, though he’s not switching positions; and Smith is in a three-way fight for the No. 1 tight end job, but since Virginia Tech plays a lot of multiple tight end sets he’ll be on the field plenty, whether he starts or not — will be in a fishbowl of sorts, along with their teammates. And they’re taking the added responsibility and attention very seriously.

‘‘They gave us these bracelets to wear that say ‘32’ on them,” Smith said. ‘‘We wear them, and we won’t forget. Things are kind of back to normal, but it’s still in everybody’s mind. It still seems unreal that it happened. But, it is motivating each of us to work even harder, to focus more and to play for them. ... I cannot wait for the season to start.”