By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Tristin Ianonne dubbed them "The Founders" shortly after he was named the Old Dominion football team's assistant director of operations. And the nickname is apropos.
Bruce Stewart, Tim Kovacs, Daniel Cornier and Wendell Mitchem are all who remain from the staff from ODU's first football team, which debuted on Sept. 5, 2009, with a 36-21 victory over Chowan.
They worked in temporary offices before the University built the L.R. Hill Sports Complex or renovated Foreman Field. There wasn't even a football on campus for the press conference when ODU named Bobby Wilder its head coach.
One was hastily purchased at a local sporting goods store.
"The thing about what they did that is so awesome is that they didn't have anything but a vision," ODU coach Ricky Rahne said. "We already have couches in my office. We have equipment. We have practice fields".
"They were starting from scratch. That had to be a unique experience."
It was unique, and one in which they all played differing but important roles.
Hired in 2007, Stewart was the architect behind ODU's football program. From providing the support infrastructure, capital construction, football scheduling to having major input on managing personnel and budget, Stewart called the shots.
ODU was the second startup football program for Stewart. The Columbus, Ohio native, who has a law degree and a Master's in Sports Management from Ohio State, in addition to an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Morehouse College, was vital in guiding Coastal Carolina's football program successfully off the ground.
Deputy Athletic Director and Chief Operating Officer Bruce Stewart
"In my field of work I use all three of my degrees on a daily basis," Stewart said. "They have served me well throughout my professional career."
In Stewart's four seasons at Coastal, the Chanticleers were 6-5, 10-1, 9-2 and 9-3.
His expertise in scheduling afforded both schools the opportunity for early success. The Monarchs spent their first two seasons as a Football Championship Subdivision independent and for every VMI, Cal Poly and William & Mary on the schedule, there was a modest sprinkling of Division II and non-scholarship Division I schools.
That allowed ODU to go 9-2 and 8-3 in its first two seasons. Both programs qualified for the FCS playoffs in their third seasons, and met in the FCS playoff second round in 2011. ODU won that game and finished sixth in the national polls.
Stewart's scheduling mastery continued when ODU moved up to the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Monarchs have hosted Virginia Tech, North Carolina and N.C. State and will welcome Wake Forest, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Army to Norfolk in the future. No Group of 5 program has had the kind of success scheduling home games against Power 5 schools as has ODU.
Stewart's responsibilities have grown in the last 14 years. He was recently named deputy athletic director and chief operating officer and has added men's basketball to his highly competitive men's and women's tennis programs to the sports he oversees.
Cornier, Kovacs and Mitchem were all ODU students who began work as unpaid student assistants.
Mitchem's father called a friend at ODU who gave Wilder a recommendation. Although he had no experience doing video, Mitchem was assigned to work with the video staff.
"I had no idea what I was doing," he said. But he quickly learned on the job and is now ODU's football video coordinator.
Cornier was a student manager for the baseball team who, when he volunteered to help the Monarch football program, was tasked by Wilder to work on the video crew.
But the first time he saw a machine known as a scissor lift, which lifts videographers 30 or so feet above the practice field to take video, he quickly realized he'd much rather hand out gear and repair helmets than challenge his fear of heights.
"I said, nope, I'm not doing that," Cornier said. "I'll work in the equipment room."
He has worked well. He's now the Assistant Athletic Director for Equipment Operations.
Kovacs had the most indirect path to football. He went to a meeting called to promote the program's first signing class. He tagged along with a friend who wanted to try out for the team.
"I had no interest in attending the event," he said. But his friend insisted that he go with him and when the event ended, he got to meet Andy Rondeau, then ODU's defensive coordinator.
Rondeau pointed at Kovacs and said rather sternly, "what can you do for me?"
"I said, 'why not, sure, I'd love to help out,' not realizing what I was doing," he said.
He began by entering recruiting data into a computer in makeshift offices in the Jim Jarrett Athletic Administration Building. "I think at the time there were five computers total," he said.
He worked four years as a volunteer, but after he graduated, he followed his parents, who moved to Birmingham, Alabama. "I was broke," he said.
He volunteered two years at UAB, where he finally started earning a salary, but came back when ODU joined Conference USA and Wilder offered him a paying job.
Kovacs worked his way up the ladder and is now the director of football operations. He and Iannone are Rahne's right-hand men. Kovacs handles travel, the budget, compliance and anything else Rahne asks him to do.
Tim Kovacs, at left, helps lead ODU football team onto the field.
While the Monarchs are preparing to play Charlotte Saturday in their regular-season finale at S.B. Ballard Stadium, Kovacs is already working on spring practice and summer camps. He's also thinking ahead to a potential bowl bid, should ODU defeat the 49ers.
"They are among the most unselfish individuals in our department. I'm fortunate to have them as colleagues," Stewart said of the trio.
"They represent the kind of graduates that ODU develops and produces extremely well. You can always count on them to deliver
"What they do daily underscores their passion for this institution. It's not necessarily a job but a lifestyle for those guys. It's their beloved institution that has given an incredible amount to them through their matriculation.
"They are repaying it back two-fold. I promise you they aren't doing it for financial prosperity."
Such is the lot for most people in athletics. It's not unusual to work from early morning until late at night and to do so without glory or fanfare, just the satisfaction of knowing you're helping athletes succeed on the field and in the classroom.
It takes a special kind of person. The hours can be disruptive to family life and it's a grind physically and emotionally.
But everyone, from sports information directors to trainers to coaches, knew what they were getting into when they chose to work in athletics.
Cornier said that "we're like everybody else in this building. We're here all day.
"We stay as long as we need to stay to get the job done. Yes, we all work hard, but so does everybody else in this building. We all work our tails off."
Daniel Cornier
So what do they do?
Mitchem has the coolest job, although one that has strict daily deadlines.
He has a staff of student assistants who man six or seven cameras during practice. After practice, he will cut up video so that coaches can see each play from five or six angles. He does so under deadline pressure because the staff is eager to watch video.
He and his staff will also prepare video of upcoming opponents for coaches to watch.
He edits video as games are being played and is so busy he often doesn't know who's winning or losing. A student assistant brings him an SD card of video from three cameras at the end of each quarter. He cuts it up, providing three angles on every play.
"Ten minutes after the game, the video is all ready for the coaches to watch," Mitchem said.
An hour after ODU's 24-17 victory at Middle Tennessee last weekend, as the charter flight made its way from Smyrna, Tennessee to Norfolk, coaches were watching video on IPads.
"Wendell and his staff do such a good job," Rahne said.
Cornier and his staff are responsible for providing players, coaches and staff with all of their equipment and attire, from helmets to jerseys to shoulder pads to shoes, kicking tees and everything you see on the sidelines during games.
ODU has more than 100 players he outfits and about 35 staff members whose game attire he launders and lays out for them each game. He and his staff set up and break down the practice field and locker room for each practice and game. He packs a 53-foot tractor trailer for every road game, which sometimes leaves 48 hours before a game to get to its destination on time.
And he tends to overpack.
"The feeling of being asked if we have something and then to realize we don't have it, that's the worst feeling in the world," he said.
Wendell Mitchem and his film crew
ODU has four sets of jerseys and three sets of helmets per player and the players go through about 400 pairs of cleats. He and his staff also do laundry every day in three huge washing machines not only for the football team, but for 12 other sports.
Kovacs job is one that requires attention to detail. He makes sure meals are ordered for the team after practice and on the road. He schedules charter flights and hotels. He schedules Rahne's speaking engagements and he and Iannone often travel with him to events.
As players, coaches and staff line up to check in with TSA agents before a charter flight, he rattled off every name for 150 or so people in a traveling party. He makes sure everyone has a room key at the hotel, and then attends to setting up meals for the team.
"You're always planning ahead to make sure you have everything ready," Kovacs. "But the biggest thing is the budget. I deal with that on a daily basis to make sure we're being resourceful and being good stewards of our funds."
When Wilder resigned in 2019 and was replaced by Rahne, Kovacs was among the coaches and staff told they would be let go. But Rahne was quickly impressed enough to retain him.
"The thing that struck me about Tim was his institutional knowledge," Rahne said. "I think the thing that drew me to him most is that he was so loyal to coach Wilder while also being open to my way of doing things.
"He only speaks highly about the past, but he never fought me on anything I wanted to do to change things. And he had some ideas on how he thought we needed to change things as well.
"That kind of dichotomy was awesome. I don't want somebody who is going to say something just to save his hide. And he was never going to do something like that.
"He was very open about his appreciation of the past but also excited about the future."
Their favorite memory? For the three ODU grads, that's easy. That 36-21 victory over Chowan, when a sellout crowd of 19,872 jammed into old Foreman Field and cheered wildly.
As ODU alums, they appreciated more than newcomers what football meant. It changed the perception of the University. It gave students and alumni a sense of pride that had not previously existed.
Tim Kovacs encouraging ODU players on the sidelines
ODU had long been stereotyped as a commuter school, even though nearly 5,000 students live on campus and thousands more live neighborhoods close to ODU.
Football gave people a chance to tailgate and alumni a homecoming game which gave them a reason to come back to campus.
"People were just so happy to have football," Cornier said. "There were so many people tailgating."
"There were people watching the game from the top of the parking garage. There may have been more people outside than stadium than were inside," Kovacs added.
Stewart said he has a different memory, one that is repeated three times each year – when ODU athletes received their degrees at graduation.
"That's why we're here," Stewart said.
ODU's 49-35 victory over Virginia Tech also ranks among their favorite memories. The largest crowd ODU ever hosted at Foreman Field, 20,532, cheered loudly and thousands rushed the field after the game.
But Mitchem said his proudest moment came after the game when Tech's video coordinator emailed him to let him know his students were completely professional.
No cheering is allowed in the press box and his guys suppressed their desire to cheer for their team even during a monumental upset.
"That really made me proud," he said.
However, the game that most sticks in their minds is ODU's 2016 victory over Eastern Michigan in the Bahamas Bowl. That's because it was extremely challenging to manage logistics in a foreign country.
Cornier said he began getting calls from equipment managers at other schools who'd been to the Bahamas even before it was announced ODU was headed to Nassau. You'd better start packing, he was told. Today.
Kovacs had to order passports for staff and players, line up a charter flight and take care of logistics on an island where transportation and other resources can be difficult to arrange.
Cornier and his staff had less than a week to pack two shipping containers with equipment watch as they left on a tractor trailer headed for the Port of Miami, from where it was shipped to the Bahamas.
Mitchem had to set up video on practice fields and a stadium that were designed for soccer and lacked creature comforts, such as a press box.
"The trip itself is a blur," Kovacs said. "But it was a great experience for our student-athletes. The exposure for ODU made everything we had to do worth it."
Only one set of post-game meals was provided by bowl officials and Eastern Michigan claimed them. Kovacs had to hastily order meals for players, coaches and staff. How he pulled that off at the last second is a miracle.
Cornier, meanwhile, spent the third and fourth quarters of the game with Scott Foreman, ODU's equipment truck driver, packing stuff back into shipping containers.
He learned who won the game when Wilder dropped by and said, "Congratulations, Danny."
Although the game was played in mid-December, it wasn't until mid-February, just before spring practice began, that the containers returned to Norfolk.
"I was so glad to see everything was still there when we opened them," Cornier said.
The Founders aren't the only people who've been with the program since the first season.
Rodney Harmon and Guy Williams have worked with the Monarchs from the start.
They are sideline communication techs who work for the University's Information Technology Department but are with the Monarchs every game, making sure that all sideline communications are working.
That includes the head sets worn by Rahne and other coaches who communicate with coaches in the press box.
"They both play very important roles," Kovacs said.
All four of the Founders say they have no intention of going elsewhere.
"I love the community in which we reside, the leadership and vision of our trajectory as an institution, and most importantly the students in which we serve," Stewart said.
Mitchem said he never envisioned that he would ever work for an FBS football team, especially at his alma mater. He says it's his dream job.
"You lose sight of how lucky we are sometimes because of how busy we are," he said. "We take it for granted sometimes.
Bruce Stewart
"Really, football is secondary. It's the people, everyone from the coaches to the players to our staffs, who make this job special. I enjoy the camaraderie with all of them.
"I've met a lot of people over the last 13 years who I stay in contact with to this day."
Kovacs said he loves working for Rahne and said the program is headed in the right direction.
ODU's four-game winning streak, and 5-6 record, mark a dramatic turnaround for a program that was 1-11 in 2019 and because of the pandemic, did not play in 2020.
"Ricky and his staff are taking the program back to where it was in the past," he said. "And they're doing it the right way.
"They truly have a passion for the game, for our players, and they're doing everything we need to do to make sure the program gets to where it should be."
"I truly love what I do," he added. "All of us do. This is more than just a job for us. This is our university.
"We all have a personal investment in ODU football."
An investment has reaped dividends for the Monarchs.
Minium worked 39 years at The Virginian-Pilot before coming to ODU to cover athletics for odusports.com Follow him on Twitter @Harry_MiniumODU, Instagram @hbminium1 or email hminium@odu.edu