By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – "The Troubles" is the term used to describe the violent split that began in the late 1960s between Catholics and Protestants in British-ruled Northern Ireland. Given that 3,500 died over three decades, the term seems understated.
It certainly seems so to Alan Dawson. It's been 43 years since he left his home in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but he has searing memories of those days, which finally ended in 1998 with the so-called Good Friday agreement.
"As a kid, I'd known nothing else, so it was normal to me," he said. "You just tried to survive in your neighborhood, but my family was loving and my parents, Stanley and Isabelle Dawson, provided my siblings, Linda and Stanley, and me everything we needed."
He was a young boy when Dawson decided that in some way, he would chase his dream of leaving Belfast to go to America. "By the time I was 12, I knew I wouldn't spend my life in Northern Ireland," he said.
Fortunately, Dawson was an outstanding football player, or soccer, as we call the sport in America. Soccer gave him a way out from "The Troubles".
"The game has been so good to me," Dawson said. "It was my meal ticket out of Belfast, to chase my dream."
By the time he was 17, he was playing college soccer at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania, and although he would visit Belfast often, his life was now in America starting his soccer career.
Soccer has sustained him ever since, including the last 26 seasons as the head men's coach at Old Dominion.
Dawson, 60, announced last month that his 27th season would be his last at ODU. Dr. Wood Selig, ODU's director of athletics, named Associate Head Coach Tennant McVea as his replacement.
The Monarchs are unbeaten at 2-0-5 after seven games, including a stretch of five in a row on the road. ODU hosts Kentucky on Sunday night at 6 p.m. at the ODU Soccer Complex.
McVea, also from Northern Ireland, has been Dawson's assistant since 2017, and has been ODU's primary recruiter in recent years. And while he has an extensive resume, he knows he'll be filling big shoes.
Dawson has won 259 games in his 26 seasons at ODU, claimed six conference titles, taken his team to 12 NCAA Tournaments, and had 11 Major League Soccer draft picks. His 388-198-64 career record ranks him fifth among all Division I active coaches.
Selig said that Dawson is among a handful of coaches ODU has been fortunate to have who are among the best to coach in their respective sports.
"You look at (former men's basketball coach) Sonny Allen and you know the trailblazer he was," Selig said. "When you look at Marianne Stanley (women's basketball), Beth Anders (field hockey) and Wendy Larry (women's basketball), they were among the best of the best in their respective sports.
"And Alan Dawson is exactly that."
Dawson was 12 when he boarded a plane for a life-changing trip to America. He would spend three weeks of his summer in New Jersey. He stayed with a Catholic family (he is Protestant) and he fell in love with all things America, including its religious tolerance.
"I was sitting next to my English teacher, Paul Acheson, when we were flying over New York," Dawson said. "I asked him, 'What are all those blue things down there?' He told me they were swimming pools.
"I shouted to my teammates, 'Boys, they've all got swimming pools.'"
He continued to return to America each summer in Jersey and made a lot of friends, but none as close as one family, whose oldest son Robbie Pontecorvo, is godfather to his daughter.
At age 17 he left Belfast and enrolled at Lock Haven University (Pa.). He had grown up in working class Belfast and appreciated his partial scholarship more than most of his American teammates.
"We weren't on full scholarships," he said. "We all worked during the summer, sometimes at two jobs."
He played four seasons, winning a Division II national championship as a freshman, a two-year captain and got his bachelor's degree. He then caught a break when Lock Haven head coach Michael Parker, an English native, moved to UNC Greensboro as the head coach.
"He took me with him," Dawson said.
He spent two years there as an assistant coach, and was part of a staff that won a Division III national championship, and earned his Master's degree.
"My education was all paid for because of the game," Dawson said.
But his soccer career was just starting. At the age of 23, he was named the head coach at Methodist College and it was apparent from the start, the man can coach.
His first team went 8-6-3, his third team 14-5 and in year four, he took Methodist to the first of six consecutive NCAA Tournaments.
He would finish 129-30-1 in his nine seasons there, including a 21-1-0 record in 1995, when Methodist lost in the Division III national championship game.
"I had a great, great run at Methodist," he said. "It was Division III and coaches had to do all kinds of things there they don't have to in Division I. I taught class. We cut the field.
"It was a lot simpler than Division I. I really enjoyed my time there."
And that's in no small part because he met his future wife, Mari Jacobelly. She had a boyfriend at the time, but after meeting Alan Dawson, realized she'd met her true love.
The story of how they met might have been taken right out of a romance novel.
He was approached one day by a businessman who had brought three Irish players to Fayetteville Academy and asked him if he'd "take them on." Dawson quickly agreed and they all enrolled at Methodist.
One of the boys stayed with Mari's parents, Col. Jake Jacobelly, an Army veteran who earned three Purple Hearts in the Vietnam War, and Rene Jacobelly who was always bringing people together.
"I got an invite to dinner at Mari's house with the boys, and met her family before even meeting her," he said. "Eventually one weekend she came home with her boyfriend."
She was in college and had come home to visit. She was standing on a hill watching the Methodist soccer team play, when Alan first saw her and was instantly smitten. When they made eye contact it lingered and then she looked back at him again, with a little wave.
"I told the boys, 'Introduce me to her,'" he said.
Alan and Mari DawsonThey quickly fell in love and dated just nine months before they got married.
"She wanted the same things I wanted," he said. "Family and kids. She's tough, because she grew up in a military family and has been around the world."
They already had three children in 1995 – Alec, Garrick and Ellesse – when they decided it was time for the entire family to take a big gamble.
There wasn't much more Dawson could do at the Division III level and without Division I experience, he wasn't moving up. He applied for the open job at ODU in 1995 and didn't get an interview.
So, with Mari's blessing, he left a full-time job at Methodist for a part-time gig at the University of North Carolina, where he made about one fourth of what he made as a head coach.
"I had a wife and three young kids and decided to take a job that paid $16,000 and had no benefits," he said. "And Mari was all for it. She supported me all the way.
"We knew there was no other way that I could move up to Division I."
The gamble worked. After finishing 3-17 in 1996, ODU granted him an interview and he was hired by then Athletic Director Jim Jarrett. It didn't hurt that Joe Pereira, whom he had met at Methodist, was the ODU women's coach and spoke highly of him.
"I've known Joe since I was 23 and we're still very close," Dawson said. "He's one of my best friends."
Again, it was apparent early on that the man can coach. In his first season the Monarchs upset second-ranked Virginia and finished 7-9-1. Two years later, ODU was 15-4.
He would lead ODU on a wild ride for 26 seasons in which the Monarchs often went toe to toe with Power Five schools.
In 2002, the Monarchs qualified for their first NCAA Tournament under Dawson and in 2003, defeated N.C State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament after being ranked as high as second nationally.
In 2005, ODU upended nationally ranked Virginia, Davidson and N.C. State.
In 2006, the Monarchs advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, losing to eventual champion UC Santa Barbara, and in 2007, won the CAA title and again advanced to the Sweet 16.
In 2010, the Monarchs upset No. 2 UNC at the ODU Soccer Complex and received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, where the Monarchs then upset defending national champion Virginia.
In 2014 and 2017 the Monarchs won Conference USA championships. Although the Monarchs have struggled in recent years, ODU upset 20th-ranked Campbell and won at No. 4 Marshall last season with a team that largely returned intact this fall.
Belfast has changed immensely since Dawson was a child.
Although he often visits Belfast, Norfolk and ODU are now his home. He and Mari raised their children in Larchmont, which he calls a 'Leave it to Beaver' neighborhood. Now that their children are grown, Alan and Mari live in downtown Norfolk.
When he came to ODU, he assumed that at some point he would take a Power Five job.
Dawson said eventually that UNC reached out to him about returning to Chapel Hill as head coach.
"It wasn't an ideal time for my family," he said. "My daughter was in high school. So, I withdrew my name.. I told Wood that I'm going to stay, and he fought for me and got our program some things that we didn't have before."
Family and his Protestant faith have always been important to Dawson and his spiritual nature is well known to his friends.
There is a photograph of the 2001 soccer team on the top floor of the World Trade Center just three days before the towers were destroyed by terrorists. He said the many faces he saw that day still haunt him 22 years later.
"To be at the top of those towers on Saturday and then see them hit and come down on Tuesday, it was a very difficult thing," he said. "I remember talking to my team about it. They were devastated because they couldn't fathom. They saw faces, people taking tickets, selling concessions, who we knew were likely dead."
Alan Dawson with photo of 2001 team at World Trade CenterODU hosted the Stihl Soccer Classic that week, but given the tragedy, two teams opted out. One team called and said they wanted to play – Rutgers, which is located not far from New York City in New Jersey.
"In retrospect, it was the best thing that could have happened to my team," he said. "Maybe it was the same for Rutgers, because they were impacted. The kids needed to play out some emotion."
Last season he found a rock next to his car, he left the rock there and told Mari about it when he got home. She made him get in the car and they drove back for it. They found out that it had been painted by Tina Reynolds, a grieving mother in Indiana, who lost her daughter, Hayley, in a car accident. Dawson choked up when he realized who had painted the rock and kept it with him all of last season.
Last summer, he left the rock in South Africa for someone else to find.
He's a big fan of Van Morrison, the soulful rocker from Northern Ireland.
"A lot of his lyrics are about the areas where I grew up," Dawson. "We went to the same school and had the same music teacher!
"He's quite a bit older than me, but he's still touring and he's actually a very spiritual man. A lot of his music is gospel inspired."
Selig and an ODU booster took Dawson to Ft. Lauderdale a few years ago to watch Van Morrison in concert. "It was tremendous," he said.
Dawson teared up several times during a recent 90-minute interview, but don't mistake his sentimentality for softness. He's tough on his players, and he's a fan of perhaps the ultimate team of bad boys – the Las Vegas Raiders.
He's had Raiders' season tickets since the team was in Las Vegas and he and his son, Garrick, now share the tickets.
"My college roommate, Jim Whaley, was the guy who got me stuck on the Raiders," Dawson said. "In 1980, there was no soccer on TV, so there was nothing to be passionate about.
"So, I needed something to gravitate to, and the Raiders were the bad boys of the NFL. I didn't know what I was watching but I loved the fans and the nature of the team."
Later this season, his college roommate and his son, Alec, plan to catch a Raiders game in Sin City.
"Doesn't matter where the Raiders play," he said. "The Raiders are one of the historical franchises in the NFL and no matter where they play, the fans are fanatical."
In spite of his affinity for American football, it is European football that afforded him the chance to have a great career, and he will always be grateful.
"It is the vehicle that has driven me through life," he said. "I love the sport of course, but what it's done for me is beyond belief."
Yet one of the reason's he's stepping aside is because he realizes that there are things he wants to do, beyond coaching soccer, while he is still healthy.
Dawson recently lost his only brother, 64-year-old brother, Stanley. "He was about to retire," Dawson said.
He wants to spend time with his wife, who is a successful business woman in her own right. She owns PureCore Pilates Studio and together they own Dominion Soccer Academy.Alan Dawson family in Northern Ireland
Alan and Mari will spend some time traveling to see their three children, who all have successful careers.
Alec, their oldest, got his Master's degree in designing video games and works in Irvine, California for a gaming company. "The game that he played as a kid, he was able to work on, now he is a Lead designer for the company," Alan Dawson said.
Garrick is presently on tour with Coldplay, for whom he leads their philanthropic efforts. "He's seeing the world and that's great," Alan Dawson said.
Ellesse worked for a local fashion company but decided that job wasn't challenging enough, so she took a six-week course and moved to Fort Lauderdale and eventually became a chief stew on a mega Yacht. That's where she met her fiancée, Hayden. Who recently proposed to her on a safari in South Africa, where the couple plans to wed in March.
Selig watched Dawson's kids grow up and said they reflect their parents' values.
"His family is dynamic, generous and giving," Selig said. "His wife is successful in her own business career. It's a family of high performers. Each one of their children are so different and so unique.
"That's part of what makes Alan successful. He understands everyone's different, and he doesn't expect the same thing from everyone. He expects maybe the same success, but how you go about it or what you do, matters not as long as you do it well, and you treat people right and you do it the right way."
Dawson said he realized during the offseason that it was time for him to make room for a younger coach.
"I've been a head coach since I was 23. Being a head coach these days requires a lot of energy," he said.
The NIL and transfer portal, "are not what I signed up for.
"It's kind of come to the point where I know what I don't want to do. I'm going to enjoy the heck out of this season and then move on."
Asked about Dawson's legacy, Selig said it won't be just the wins and losses.
"I think, number one, you have to look at all the lives that he impacted in such a positive way," he said.
"To me, the most important legacy is the impact that he had on hundreds of young men and where they are, who they are and what they're doing today.
"He also had arguably one of the most successful men's soccer programs in the country. The past 26 years have been marked by NCAA runs, top 25 rankings, season ending rankings, a program that's been run cleanly without even a hint of any NCAA infraction.
"He's attracted diversity to this campus. And he's had high standards and left an extremely solid foundation for Tennant to build upon.
"So many who came here as young men grew and matured and became successful in part because of Alan Dawson. There is no greater legacy for a coach to have than that."
Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram