By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Dom and Dom, as they are known at Old Dominion University, arrived at the L.R. Hill Sports Complex about the same time with their families in tow.
They hugged while their wives and kids greeted each other warmly and then chatted amiably. They smiled broadly and exchanged congratulations. And why not? It was a night to celebrate.
They were both at L.R. Hill to watch their respective teams learn their destinations on the 2023 NCAA Tournament selections shows.
Although they come from very different backgrounds, the affection and admiration Dominic Manilla and Dominik Mueller have for each other was obvious.
That bond, the fact that they genuinely like each other and work together seamlessly, is one of many reasons why the ODU men's and women's tennis teams have never been better.
Both teams won Sun Belt Conference titles and they both are in Chapel Hill, North Carolina this weekend competing in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
The ODU women defeated South Carolina, 4-2, Friday afternoon and take on No. 1-ranked North Carolina on its home court Saturday. The men take on higher-seeded Utah Saturday at UNC.
Manilla, who coaches the women, and Mueller, who coaches the men, grew up 5,000 miles apart, in different counties with very different cultures and speaking different languages.
Manilla was raised in rural Greenwood, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, west of Charlottesville, and starred as a tennis player at Western Albemarle High School. And although you wouldn't think that part of the state is a tennis hotbed, it is, thanks in large part to his father.
Ron Manilla is a legendary pro in the Charlottesville area who is known internationally as one of just 51 Master Tennis professionals in the world.
And while Manilla inherited his good looks from his dad, he missed out on the tennis genes. He was a walk-on player at ODU who played in the bottom half of the lineup.
Dominick Mueller was raised in Frankfurt, Germany, a booming metropolis whose downtown area is the economic capital of the European Union.
Dominic Manilla and Dominick Mueller with their wives and children.
His father was also a tennis star. But born in 1945, just as World War II was ending, his career as a pro tennis player was ended by the great prejudice that existed toward Germans at the time. Later on, he became a professional ping pong player.
Mueller's dad realized his son was good at an early age and began entering him in tournaments. As a senior in high school, he was ranked fifth in Germany in his age group and like many international athletes, left after high school to play in America.
Mueller had his choice of Power Five scholarship offers and chose Baylor where he was a perennial star and still holds school records.
Like their backgrounds, their paths to ODU were very different.
Mueller keeps a mural of Frankfurt's massive skyscrapers behind him in his office and the logo of his favorite Bundesliga soccer team, Eintracht Frankfurt (Eintracht can be translated as "harmony") on his desk.
Although he's been in America for nearly 18 years, he retains a thick German accent.
But his roots are more diverse and more complicated than you might expect. Although his parents are ethnic Germans, they were raised in Czechoslovakia in what is now the Czech Republic.
And he has Jewish roots on his father's side.
His grandfather was raised in an affluent Jewish family about an hour outside of Prague. Before World War II he was ostracized by his family, and cut out of the family business, when he married a Catholic woman.
His marriage may have saved his life during World War II. "The Nazis took people from mixed marriages last into the concentration camps," Mueller said. "My grandfather ended up in a concentration camp, but only a little while before the war ended."
Mueller's father, Pavel, was born in 1945, just before the war ended. And talk about good fortune. Pavel's older brother and sister were on a train headed to a concentration camp when the war ended.
His father was a standout tennis player, but given the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II, a guy named Mueller had little future in sports at the time, even if he spoke fluent Czech. He was assigned to a second-division program in Slovakia and eventually retired.
Mueller's mother, Zdenka, is also an ethnic German and was raised in the Sudetenland, an area where German had been the dominant language for centuries. However, after the war, more than three million ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland were forcibly evicted to Germany and Austria.
She and her family were able to remain in large part because they spoke fluent Czech.
The 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union, who came in to crack down on a democratic-minded Prague government, was the last straw for both Pavel and Zdenka. Pavel's family had seen its family business closed down by the Communists.
Most members of both families eventually emigrated to Germany.
Mueller hoisted aloft by his players after Monarchs downed South Alabama in the Sun Belt final
Neither Pavel nor Zdenka spoke German, and in order to become a German citizen, you must pass a language test. They met in a German language class and given their Czech background, were attracted to each other and quickly fell in love.
"When I was a kid, when my parents didn't want us to know what they were saying, they would speak to each other in Czech," Mueller said. "They didn't teach us the Czech language I think because they were worried that we'd be discriminated against if people knew we were Eastern Europeans."
His father sometimes accompanies his son on recruiting trips to Eastern Europe, where Czech is widely understood.
Both Doms have one childhood experience in common – they began playing tennis at such a young age they can't remember ever not having a racket in their hands.
Mueller also played soccer and basketball but eventually gave them up for tennis and began touring across Europe as a young teenager.
Europe has no equivalent to college athletics. German colleges and universities are largely tuition free, but to get coaching and training, you have to pay for it.
"If you're a European athlete, your dream is to go to America to play," Mueller said.
Besides, his father idolized America.
"My dad always told me that I would play tennis in America," Mueller said. "It was just a matter of where I would play.
"He loved America and the freedom it stood for, all the freedom he was denied in Czechoslovakia."
Mueller starred four seasons at Baylor, where he still holds the dual match record of 96 wins and was a perennial academic All-Big 12 selection. He graduated with a degree in finance and returned to Frankfurt for a three-month internship to work with Deutsche Bank.
He had a promising future in finance, "but I realized I hated the corporate world."
He was also in love with an American. He met his future wife, Katerina, while at Baylor.
"I always knew I was coming back," he said when he departed for that internship. But when he returned, he knew his future would be in tennis.
After a year serving as a volunteer coach at Baylor, he landed an assistant coaching position. He coached five seasons and earned a master's degree. His last season at Baylor, the Bears advanced to the NCAA semifinals and finished third in the nation.
He had developed a reputation for luring great players from Europe to Waco, Texas. When ODU needed a head coach for the 2015-2016 season, he was the clear frontrunner of the selection committee.
Since coming to ODU, he has won two conference championships and has a 105-54 dual match record. And the last two seasons, he did his best work, said Deputy Athletic Director and Chief Operating Officer Bruce Stewart, who headed the selection committee that hired Mueller.
Twenty months ago, Nicola Vidal, one of ODU's top players, was run down by a driver in a convenience store parking lot and nearly died. He was saved by a good Samaritan who put a tourniquet on his leg that stopped the bleeding from a torn femoral artery.
His teammates saw the accident, and watched Vidal nearly bleed to death, a traumatic experience that still haunts many of them. Later on, two other key players went down with knee injuries. Mueller kept the team together through that tumultuous season, said Oliver Tobisch, a senior from Frankfurt.
Mueller congratulates Younes Lalami after a win in the Sun Belt Tournament.
"He is such a good person. He made sure that we were taken care of," Tobisch said.
"His knowledge of tennis is unbelievable, but that's almost a secondary thing for him," Vidal added.
"He's a very deep human. He really cares about all of us. He cares about our emotions, all that we're feeling.
"He's helped us through the hard times. He's been through it all as a tennis player. The fact that he engages with you in those moments is not something every coach does.
"That's the difference between a good coach and a great coach."
Manilla is from tennis and coaching royalty, although like his father, considers himself a blue-collar guy.
Ron Manilla grew up in Pennsylvania, the son of a steel worker, who when asked to play tennis by a Catholic monsignor, he replied that tennis was a "sissy sport." The monsignor asked him to come onto the tennis court, and then showed him just how physically demanding a sport it is.
He was hooked on the game, and it led to a 50-year career as a tennis pro.
While Dominic Manilla learned the basics of tennis from his father, he got his drive from his mother. And that's no surprise, given that she is the daughter of the late Ted Marchibroda, who was head coach of both the NFL Colts and Ravens in Baltimore.
Manilla admires his father, who in addition to being the head pro at a Charlottesville club, led the special Olympics in central Virginia for years.
"He's touched so many lives through tennis," Manilla said. "He's built such a strong tennis community in the Charlottesville area."
And although his parents provided him with a good living, "my family is all from northwest Pennsylvania, and they're really blue collar," he said. "It just rubbed off on me."
So, it wasn't a huge surprise when he walk-on to the tennis team at ODU, which 20 years ago, was a more blue-collar institution than it is today.
He played at ODU for Darryl Cummings, who coached both the men and women, and the two remain close. Manilla turned out to be good player for the Monarchs – he played doubles for ODU in the NCAA Tournament – and early in his junior year, Cummings began to use him as a coach on the court.
"I didn't do any administrative work or anything, but I was starting to get my feet wet," he said.
Dominic Manilla's team did not lose a match in the Sun Belt Tournament
"He even let me coach some on the women's side. That really made me hungry to coach.
"I started looking at the game differently. I was picking up things that players were doing.
"It gave me some ownership of the team and made me feel like I was really contributing at a level better than being just one of the guys on the bottom half of the team."
Manilla helped make ends meet by giving lessons at the Norfolk Yacht and Country Club. He was studying for his graduate entrance exams one evening as a senior when he got a call from Cummings.
"I need an assistant coach and I've called 20 other people and no one is interested," Cummings said. "Do you want it?"
If you know Cummings, the remark about calling 20 other people was made in jest. Manilla accepted the job, and coached for three years and became even more convinced that coaching was in his future.
Then came a chance meeting with tennis great John McEnroe that allowed him to fatten his resume. He was introduced to McEnroe in New York by a former ODU teammate. McEnroe asked him over to his house the next day and said, "let's play."
"I played great," Manilla said. "About as well as I can."
He lost, 21-12, but McEnroe was impressed with his fundamentals and his work ethic and asked him to work for one of his tennis academies on Long Island.
"I was there for a year with an amazing group of guys," Manilla said. "There were a crazy bunch of coaches there and I learned a ton."
Stewart and Athletic Director Dr. Wood Selig stayed in touch with him while he was in New York. And when Cummings decided to step down, they reached out to Manilla and asked him to apply.
Selig and Stewart had decided then to split the men's and women's programs. Each team was to have its own budget and coaching staff. Manilla applied for both positions and accepted the women's job.
Dominc Manilla congratulates Tatsiana Sasnouskaya and Sofia Johnson after a doubles victory.
Manilla has been at ODU 12 years and has an impressive 180-83 record in dual matches, has won three consecutive conference titles in a row, and for the third year in a row, won a first-round NCAA Tournament match.
His teams are perennially ranked among the top 40 or higher and he generally has a player ranked among the top 25 nationally.
His blue-collar mentality and knowledge of the game have all helped him win. But Tatstiana Sasnouskaya, a senior from Belarus, said the secret to his success is his big heart.
She says that Manilla and assistant coach Yana Sokolenko "are like parents to me."
"They take care of me off the court and on. It's way more than them than coaches and players. They are like family. We're not blood related, but it feels like something way bigger.
"They truly care about me as a human."
When Mueller was hired at ODU, Manilla was among the first to greet him. Mueller knew that his relationship with the women's coach would be a key to his success. The programs share facilities and must cooperate.
Within the first few minutes of meeting Manilla, he knew he had a new friend.
"Dom was very welcoming," Mueller said. "He was excited I'd gotten the job and from the first day, he supported me and told me all about ODU, the things I needed to know to be successful.
"We both agreed, the better we both do, the better for our programs. We're trying to make tennis a brand for ODU."
They have succeeded and a myriad of factors have helped. Both programs are well funded and have the budgets available to play strong non-conference schedules.
The Folks-Stevens Tennis Center, a 172,000-square foot indoor facility with eight courts, is a Power Five-like facility.
But Stewart said the atmosphere Manilla and Mueller have established is the main reason both programs are prospering.
"Winning is very hard," he said. "But I'm a big believer that it starts with the right culture.
"With Dom Manilla, you don't come here unless you want to be a pro. He's set the bar real high. And ODU is a passion project for him."
Dominic Manilla with the pin from freshman orientation he has won at every match at ODU.
By that, he means that Manilla loves his alma mater. He wears a pin he received at his freshman orientation 20 years ago to every practice and every match. He wore it Tuesday morning as he watched three of his seniors receive diplomas at a special graduation ceremony hosted by President Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D.
"I wore it at my wedding," he said. "My wife said that was OK, but made me wear inside" his tux.
"I love Old Dominion," he added. "This is my home."
He and his wife Louise, and boys, Leonardo and Bodhi, live in Colonial Place. Louise is six months pregnant.
Manilla, 37, said his goal isn't to win a match or two in the NCAA Tournament. "I want to win a national championship," he said, adding that's possible at ODU.
"We're not going to the NCAA tournament for the experience," he said. "We're going there to win matches."
The men are back in the tournament after a five-year absence and Stewart said he's surprised it's been that long, given how well Mueller has coached and recruited.
"We were so fortunate to attract him from Baylor," Stewart said. "He's one of the most gifted and astute coaches I know.
"I'm so glad to see him back in the tournament. Given everything he and his players have been through, I know how much that means to all of them."
Mueller visits Frankfurt at least once per year, where most of his family in the Czech Republic relocated. His father's family members are pillars in the Jewish community there, and although he is Catholic, he said he often went to Temple.
"I have so much respect for the Jewish faith," he said.
And although he said he feels German, he said he and his family are staying in America.
"I love my job, I love ODU, and I cannot do this in Europe," he said of college coaching.
Like Manilla, he believes the ODU men can become a top 10 program.
Dominck Mueller said he would like to finish his career at ODU.
"I think we have everything that we need. Pepperdine on the men's side of tennis has shown it can win a national title. You saw FAU in basketball.
"It's interesting, as a competitor, you want to one day be at a Power Five school. I've coached at a Power Five school, so I know the landscape.
"We had more resources at Baylor, but sometimes it's more satisfying to win here. We have to work harder for our success."
He said Norfolk is now his home. His children, Benjamin, Zoe and Alexandra, "are native Virginians," he said.
He said, he would like to coach for another 10 or 15 years and then become an athletic administrator.
"I love the administrative side of my job," he said. "Ideally, that would be my career path.
"My wife and our family, this is our home. We love raising our kids here.
"I hope to retire from coaching here, move over into administration and be a Monarch for the rest of my life."
Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
Minium: Old Dominion's Two Doms Have Built ODU into a Men's and Women's Tennis Power
