Minium: Isaac Weaver's Life Was Shaped by Loss of his Father and Those Who Stepped Up For Him

By Harry Minium
 
College football has turned into a Darwinian world since the NCAA opened the transfer portal nearly three years ago. Thousands of players, all assuming the grass is greener, have entered the portal, and some have indeed moved up to bigger programs.
 
Isaac Weaver is a stud football player for Old Dominion University who at first blush appeared to be a prime candidate for the portal. At 6-foot-6, 303 pounds, the sixth-year senior offensive lineman from Marietta, Ga. is considered a potential NFL draft pick.
 
"I wouldn't say it's a matter of if" he plays in the NFL, said ODU offensive line coach Kevin Reihner. "It's a matter of where."
 
Nearly two years ago, ODU was transitioning between head coaches after a disastrous 1-11 season, and then the Monarchs did not play in 2020. Had Weaver entered the portal, he'd surely be playing at a Power 5 school this fall.
 
But Weaver said he never seriously considered leaving, especially after Ricky Rahne was hired as ODU's new coach 21 months ago.
 
"That's not who I am," he said.
 
"I'm one of the leaders on this team. I wasn't going to abandon my teammates."
 
There are few players more loyal, hard working and genuine than Weaver. A gentle guy off the field who plays guitar in his spare time, but on the field is "one mean cuss," Rehiner said.
 
Weaver is smart, driven and polite, a 'yes sir, no sir' kind of guy. And there's a reason why he developed into such a straight-edge young man.


Isaac Weaver with his blended family. 
 
He suffered a catastrophic loss before he was old enough to understand what death was about. At age seven, his father died.
 
They say it takes a village. In this case, a village of male figures, from his grandfather, stepdad and so many coaches he played for, combined to help his mother, Kristen Weaver, raise him into one outstanding human being.
 
"He's the absolute best," Rahne said. "I love talking to him. The amount of love  he has for Old Dominion and for his teammates is just awesome."
 
Weaver was born and spent his first six years in Alaska, then moved to Houston, Texas for a year. His father, Jason, had cystic fibrosis, a disease that often weakens the lungs.
 
Jason Weaver was in China teaching a class when he caught a virus and became seriously ill. He was transported back to Texas, and as Isaac's mother said, "the virus attacked and totally destroyed his lungs."
 
Kristen, a school teacher, was mired in grief and had no support network in Texas.
 
So, she moved her son and daughter, Erica, to suburban Atlanta to be near her parents, where she not only handled the loss of her husband admirably, but she also bravely decided upon a new career.
 
Kristen had a teaching degree from Georgia State, but in part because of what she saw her husband go through, she decided to go back to school and become a respiratory therapist.
 
"I just felt like it was what I needed to do," she said.
 
She needed a lot of help to fulfill that dream.
 
She re-enrolled at Georgia State and left for school each day at 6 a.m. and came home in the evening. Her parents, John and Judy Seltenrich, would come over to her house and get her kids off to school and then would be there when they came home.
 
They'd help them do their homework and then the kids would spend a little quality time with Mom.
 
She eventually got remarried to Steve McGuiness, creating a blended family. Steve has two daughters, Erin and Megan, from a previous marriage.
 
Isaac Weaver said Steve McGuiness stepped up in his life in a big way.


Weaver with his Dad, Jason
 
"He's been a great stepfather, a very positive person in my life," he said.
 
And every ODU fan owes McGuiness a thank you, for without him, Isaac Weaver never would never have played football.
 
"Isaac was swimming and doing a lot of other sports," Kristen Weaver said. "I was just so hesitant to allow him to play football."
 
Isaac went to Steve and asked him to help persuade his mother to allow him to play.
 
"Steve told me, 'I really think you need to let him try this,' " she said. "I was worried. But it turned out to be a good thing."
 
He got a late start and was a late bloomer, but Weaver was a 3-star recruit at Lassiter High School in Marietta, Georgia. He had offers from Georgia State and Florida International, in addition to ODU.
 
Bigger schools passed over him primarily because he weighed just 250 pounds and they were not convinced he could become big enough to play at a high level.
 
He redshirted as a freshman in what was ODU's greatest season in FBS. The Monarchs finished 10-3 in 2016 and defeated Eastern Michigan in the Bahamas Bowl.
 
"We all had so much fun in the Bahamas," he said. "A bowl game is something you never forget."
 
From there, it was all downhill until this season. ODU was 5-7 in 2017, upset No. 13 Virginia Tech before going 4-8 a year later and was 1-11 on a team that nearly upset nationally ranked Virginia in 2019.
 
Then came 2020, when the Monarchs did not play because of the pandemic.
 
Weaver, defensive back Joe Joe Headen and linebacker Jordan Young are the only players to return from 2016, meaning they are the only players to experience a bowl game while playing at ODU.
 
Rahne knew he had to re-recruit the best players from 2019 and met early on with Weaver, who acknowledges he knew the football team needed a culture change.
 
"I think all three of those teams should have been bowl teams," he said. "I remember in 2017, we went to Middle Tennessee and needed to win to become bowl eligible. I was angry with how poorly we played. The culture wasn't where it needed to be.
 
"In 2018, we were absolutely loaded."
 
Rahne quickly convinced him the culture was going to change.
 
"It was just the way he carried himself," Weaver said. "He has so much confidence, and you can tell right away how smart he is, that you could tell this guy is not going to lose, it's just not an option with him.


Before the hair cut 

"I had a gut feeling that he was going to turn the program around very quickly."
 
He said once Rahne hired Reihner and the other assistant coaches, "it reinforced in my mind that the program was going to change."
 
Reihner said strength and conditioning coach Dwight Galt IV – who worked at Penn State with Rahne – let him know that Weaver was "the heartbeat of the offensive line and to some extent, the heartbeat for the team."
 
"I was prepared for him to be skeptical of a new staff," Reihner said. "But from day one, he was a sponge. He has no ego. If anyone here has earned the right to second guess, it was him and he never has."
 
Pundits don't think the program has changed enough. ODU is picked last in the Conference USA East Division by every national publication and ranked anywhere from 119th to 129th in ratings of the 130 FBS schools.
 
"If feels like we're kind of an afterthought," Weaver said. "No one is expecting anything from us except the people in this program. We have kind of it's us against the world mentality.
 
"A losing season is not an option in my eyes and everyone on the team feels the same way. You look at our coaching staff, and where they've coached (Penn State, LSU, Oklahoma State) and the great teams they've coached and they believe in us.
 
"That helps us to believe in ourselves. Our goal is to go to a bowl game."
 
Weaver moved from left tackle to center in 2019 after Nick Clarke graduated. Now that Virginia transfer Gerrik Vollmer is playing for ODU, Weaver could move back to tackle. He's played both positions in practice.
 
Wherever he's played, Weaver has been Mr. Consistent. He missed only one play in 12 games during his redshirt freshman season and that's because his helmet came off.
 
In the two years since, he missed just one game with an injury, against FIU, that ended a streak of 32 consecutive starts.
 
Reihner said he's spent a lot of time talking with NFL scouts inquiring about Weaver.


After the hair cut 

"If I haven't talked to all 32 teams about him, I've talked with 30," he said. "Isaac has such high character. He has a great knowledge of the game.
 
"And he can play all five spots on the offensive line. In a league where you carry just eight linemen, that's going to make him very valuable."
 
Weaver is as physical as they came in the violent world of football trenches and sometimes, his mom has a difficult time believing that's her gentle giant of a son.
 
"That's why I was so hesitant for him to play, because I didn't know he had that intensity," she said. "He's very driven, very focused, very passionate about things.
 
"But it always surprises me to see that side of him come out. He's that gentle boy at home. To see him on the football field, where does that come from?"
 
Weaver still has that soft side. Reihner said Weaver made sure to make a quick trip to Atlanta for Mother's Day.
 
"He's very thoughtful about things like that," he said.
 
He was also thoughtful when Reihner's father died shortly before ODU's spring game. Weaver was among the first to reach out to him.
 
"He had a unique frame of reference when it came to supporting me," Reihner said. "I really appreciated that.
 
"He's a uniquely mature and wise young man."
 
Weaver likes to unwind after a long day of school by playing the guitar. He took guitar lessons as a child, but they didn't stick.
 
Later on, he began watching YouTube videos and taught himself to play. He loves country and rock and will play only for a few selected teammates. He politely declined the chance to do a recording for the odusports.com website.
 
"It's something I do outside of football. I think it's kind of important to have multiple things in life that you can do," he said. "Football takes up so much time and energy. At some point, you need another outlet."
 
He also spends a ton of time in the classroom. He graduated with a degree in biology with 3.4 grade point average has a 3.7 GPA in ODU's graduate exercise science program. He will have his master's degree in December.
 
Fans may not recognize him when the Monarchs open at home on Sept. 11 against Hampton. When he last played, he had hair down to his shoulders.
 
He began growing his hair as a senior in high school in one of the few rebellious moments his mother can recall. "My entire life I always had short hair, the neat haircut, it had always been high and tight," he said. "My grandpa would take me and I would have the exact same haircut every time I went.
 
"I kind of got sick of it. So I asked myself, why not grow my hair out?"
 
It took five years for him to finally set sick of his long hair. He cut his hair last September, trimming it high and tight again. He donated his locks of hair it to a charity that makes wigs for cancer patients.
 
"I love his short haircut," his mother said, as would just about any mom.
 
Weaver was inspired to major in biology by his mother's decision to become a respiratory therapist. He had intended to go to medical school but now wants to be a coach or a strength and conditioning coach.
 
"I think back on my life and what so many coaches did for me," he said. "Kids playing football on this level, they have such different backgrounds.
 
"You never know if a kid is from a single parent household or whether they've lost people close to them. I had so many father figures step up in my life. I owe so much to all the good coaches, all the good people who made an impact on me."
 
Including his Mom.
 
"I always felt like he would do something with kids," she said. "He's always been good with kids.
 
"I'm so proud of the man he's becoming. When I lost my husband, and I was going to have to raise my children alone, I was very worried about how it would affect them over the long term.
 
"I know one thing, that his dad would be super proud of who he is now."
 
Minium was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in his 39 years at The Virginian-Pilot and won 27 state and national writing awards. He covers all ODU athletics for odusports.com Follow him on Twitter @Harry_MiniumODU, Instagram @hbminium1 or email hminium@odu.edu