NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion's tennis players won't be in town Saturday when 2,000 ODU undergraduates walk across the stage at S.B. Ballard Stadium to receive their diplomas.
Both the ODU men's and women's teams will be in Chapel Hill, North Carolina this weekend competing in the NCAA Tournament, the women against South Carolina and the men against Utah. And under usual circumstances, that would mean they would miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime event.
But after both teams recently won Sun Belt Conference titles, ODU President Brian O. Hemphill, PhD. carved time out of his busy schedule and invited the Monarchs to spend several hours Tuesday at the Jacobson House, where he and his family reside.
Standing on his front porch attired in traditional graduation garb on a sun-splashed morning, President Hemphill held a short but emotional graduation ceremony.
He handed degrees to five members of the men's tennis team, three from the women's team and Leah Onosato, the Japanese-American golfer who won the Sun Belt Conference title and will be competing next week in the NCAA Tournament. They were first of 96 student-athletes, the largest senior class ever for ODU athletics, to receive their degrees.
The student-athletes will miss the pomp and circumstance of Saturday's ceremony and the camaraderie of being with thousands of their classmates. But, as ODU Athletic Director Dr. Wood Selig said to the student-athletes, "a lot of people would like to be where you are today."
Dr. Selig was speaking to their Sun Belt championships and upcoming trip to NCAA competition, but as graduation ceremonies go, this was far more intimate and so much cooler than most.
President Hemphill's speech was short but to the point.
After reminding the student-athletes they had been taught at ODU to have "a commitment to justice for all members of our society," President Hemphill added: "Every career in every life portends the opportunity to serve, even at the highest levels of our chosen fields.
"When we are true to the ideals of our calling, when we weave service into the fabric of our lives, it doesn't matter whether we're teaching in the front of a classroom or performing on a stage, we can be what some would call a servant leader.
"Please know like everyone here today, I am immensely proud of you."
ODU men's tennis player Oliver Tobisch
After 20 or so minutes of picture taking – how many graduates get to take a selfie with the President? – the coaches, athletic trainers and support staff from both teams were then led into the Jacobson House.
For the next 90 minutes, they broke bread with President Hemphill and First Lady Marisela Rosas Hemphill, Ph.D, and shared fellowship with their teammates, coaches and administrators.
The meal wasn't technically part of the graduation ceremony. It was a reward for winning.
"When President Hemphill first arrived, he made an offer to our coaches and student-athletes that if they were successful enough to win a conference championship and go to the NCAA Tournament, he would host them for a team dinner at his house," Dr. Selig said.
It was the third such meal Dr. Hemphill has provided for an ODU team in 2022-23. Coach Angie Hind's women's soccer team won the Sun Belt title in the fall, giving ODU championships in three of the 11 Sun Belt sports in which the Monarchs compete. ODU is tied with Arkansas State for the most Sun Belt titles in 2022-23.
The ODU baseball team could make it four by winning next month's Sun Belt Tournament.
President Hemphill with Leah Onosato
Andreas and Ute Tobisch came 4,132 miles from Frankfurt, Germany to Norfolk to see their son, Oliver, graduate and play in this weekend's NCAA Tennis Tournament. They were touched by President Hemphill's generosity and the time he gave during a busy week to fete their son and the other players.
"This was a wonderful event," Andreas Tobisch said. "We are so impressed."
Selig noted that both teams, and Onosato, overcame adversity.
Onosato finished 42nd in the Conference USA Tournament in 2022, a season in which coach Mallory Kane said her game collapsed.
Like millions across the globe, she lost her mojo while suffering from depression as a result of the pandemic. She got help from ODU's athletic mental counseling staff, retooled her game in her native Japan and won the Sun Belt Tournament two weeks ago.
The men's tennis team was horrified 19 months ago when Nicola Vidal was run down by a driver in a convenience store parking lot and nearly died. Vidal's teammates were with him and unsuccessfully tried to staunch the bleeding from his torn femoral artery.
ODU Athletic Director Dr. Wood Selig
He was finally saved by Perrin Priest, an Eastern Shore oysterman who slowed the bleeding by putting a tourniquet on his leg.
Teammates Francois Le Tallec and Luca Maldoner also both had serious knee injuries. Maldoner suffered a torn ACL in March of 2022 and it's not unusual for it to take a year for an athlete to recover.
Yet the Innsbruck, Austria native returned to the court in the late fall and won the deciding match last weekend in a 5-2 victory over South Alabama in the Sun Belt final. Vidal and Le Tallec also returned and helped their teammates defeat the Jaguars.
"Luca was our Hollywood story," said Dominik Mueller, the ODU's men's head coach. "For him to come back that quickly from a torn ACL was amazing."
The women's team, a traditional national power, was cruising toward its third consecutive conference championship when Mya Byrd, a freshman from Norfolk's Maury High, collapsed during practice on April 7.
Head coach Dominic Manilla attended to her briefly before trainer Bobby Broddus took over and administered first aid. Byrd's heartbeat was weak, and she was unresponsive, so he began to do chest compression.
Many of her teammates cried as they watched in anguish.
She regained consciousness and was rushed to Sentara Norfolk General Heart Hospital, and after days of testing, was found to be healthy. She returned to the court recently and was with the Monarchs when they won the Sun Belt title this past weekend.
The trauma of watching their teammate being attended to, and not knowing whether she would live, "hit everyone associated with our team very hard," Manilla said.
"It says a lot about an outstanding group of young men and women that they were able to fight through adversity the way they did," Selig said.
Dominic Manilla, Dominik Mueller, Bruce Stewart and Mallory Kane
Bruce Stewart, ODU's deputy athletic director and chief operating officer, chaired the search committees that brought Mueller, Manilla and Kane to ODU and says he isn't surprised all three helped their players navigate stormy waters.
"All three have an unwavering commitment to student-athlete welfare," Stewart said. "They recruit globally and are focused not just on winning, but more importantly, on developing people who will be successful in life."
All three teams they coached excelled academically.
Oliver Tobisch received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering with a concentration in aerospace engineering and will return to ODU this fall to work on a master's degree. He graduated with a perfect 4.0 grade-point-average.
Vidal and Le Tallec received bachelor's degrees in business analytics. Teammate Brandon Perez received a bachelor's in leadership with a minor in business management and Maldoner a bachelor's in sport management.
Onosato, who never had a grade below an "A" in her undergraduate and graduate studies, received her master's degree in applied linguistics.
Three women's tennis players also graduated with honors: Tatsiana Sasnouskaya earned a bachelor's degree in cybersecurity; Shahar Biran a bachelor's degree in economics and Alexandra Viktorovitch a bachelor's degree in business management. She begins work on her MBA this summer.
President Hemphill with Tatsiana Sasnouskaya
All three women's tennis graduates made the Dean's List every semester and the women's team has had the best combined grade point average among ODU women's teams three of the last seven semesters. The ODU men also had the highest GPA among men's teams in three of the last seven semesters.
Athletics Academic Adviser Farrah Young worked with both teams.
"You are arguably our two best teams, men and women, of any we have, when you combine academics and athletics and success," Dr. Selig said.
"You have really set the standard."
And can add to it this weekend in Chapel Hill.
Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
Minium: President Hemphill Hosted Special Graduation Ceremony for ODU Athletes Headed to NCAA tournaments
