Minium: Santana Saunders Wants to Become a Secret Service Agent, and Given His ODU Football Career, He'll Be A Good One

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – At 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds, Old Dominion offensive lineman Santana Saunders is tall and muscular and will stand out at whatever profession he chooses once his football career has ended.

But a Secret Service Agent?

Walking next to the President with dark glasses and a microphone in his ear?

“I guess he knows he will never work under cover,” quipped head coach Ricky Rahne about Saunders during his Monday radio show.

Maybe not. But Saunders said he’s wanted to be a Secret Service Agent since he was in middle school and he's been planning on it ever since.

He majored in criminal justice at ODU and did a brief summer internship with the Secret Service.

And he will be a good Secret Service Agent if his ODU football career is any indication.

The senior from Upper Marlboro, Maryland has been a steady, hard-working player who has been a leader in the locker room. And he is a rarity in current college football – a guy who never entered the transfer portal.

Saunders will play his final game for the Monarchs Saturday when ODU concludes its season at Arkansas State at 3 p.m.

Saunders is everything you would want in law enforcement. Smart, hard-working, thoughtful and with a good moral compass.

But truth be told, the quality that should endear him to any employer is his loyalty.

In this age of the NIL and transfer portal, Saunders has been fiercely loyal to ODU.

Saunders enrolled at ODU in 2020, as a part of Rahne’s first class, the one that spent their first season at ODU on the sidelines – the Monarchs did not play in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Saunders is the sixth-highest rated player ever to sign with ODU, according to 247Sports. He turned down offers from East Carolina and Buffalo, to come to Norfolk.

"I remember coach Rahne visited me in high school once," he said. "And he brought the whole coaching staff with him.

"Who brings the whole coaching staff? That told me that Old Dominion really wanted me.:

I didn’t ask Santana, because I didn’t want to put him on the spot, but surely others have tried to recruit him away from ODU ever since.

He’s seen teammates come and go and learned from those who figured out, he said, “that the grass is not always greener on the other side.”

“The bonds that I built with this team, coaches and staff. It’s hard to drop that and go somewhere else,” he said. “You build all of those relationships with coaches and players and leave for the last six months of your career?

“That’s challenging to do, to find what I found here somewhere else. I love the area. The people here have been great.”

But most of all, he said, he loves Ricky Rahne.

“The one-on-one personal bond I have with coach Rahne is rare,” he said. “It’s rare to have such a relationship with a Division I football coach. It’s hard for a coach to make time with his players.”

Rahne, he said, has gone out of his way to create that kind of relationship. The door to Rahne’s office is always open to players, when he’s not in a meeting or on the phone. And Mondays he generally reserves most of the day to talk to his players.

“His door is always open for me,” Saunders said. “We’ve talked so many times, sometimes for hours, about everything. About life, about family. And sometimes about football but usually not.

 “Why would I leave that?

“Loyalty is a choice. And in life, loyalty is required, Loyalty is the key to anything in life. You owe that to people in your life.

“The grass isn’t always greener. Some guys leave for better opportunies and they get it. Some leave and they don’t. To make that gamble is a decision you have to make for yourself. For me, I didn’t want to risk that.

“And I’m glad I didn’t.”

As for his desire to join the Secret Service, he said “I guess it’s in my DNA.”

Serving in law enforcement and/or the military is clearly a family trait. He had an aunt who worked in the CIA. He has an aunt and uncle on his father’s side who are police officers. Two grandparents served in the military in Vietnam.

And his uncle is a sniper in the military.

He will work out this winter and prepare for a potential invitation to an NFL camp.

“But the NFL is not guaranteed,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you are.

"And eventually, I hope to join the Secret Service. 

“Obviously the road is not going to be smooth. Life can be challenging. But I’m on the right path.”

He wasn’t always on the right path, he said. He struggled at as a young man to do the right things in the classroom and on the field. His parents, Raphael Saunders and Kim Watson, were a major reason, he said, that he got his act together in high school.

“I was eight years old when my parents divorced,” he said. “That was a tough time in my life. I didn’t think I’d ever see my father again, but I saw him two months later. And things have been fine. They’re friends. They worked together for me. They had to.

“Anytime they are around together it’s emotional for me. Whenever they get together with me, it’s a joy.”

Having a father is something many of his childhood friends had to do without.

“A lot of my friends lost their dad,” he said. “He tried so hard to be a good dad and I’m thankful for that because I have friends whose dads just don’t try at all. And I mean, that sucks.

“I feel like a young man needs a father in his life, to guide him in the right way to do the right things, especially a dad who’s been there your age, playing sports, experiencing the things you experienced.

“My dad had so many answers for me.”

He lived largely with his mother after his parents divorced. His father works for the Metro system in Washington, D.C. and his mother with the U.S. Patent Office.

“My mother has been such a great influence on me,” he said. “She has super powers. When I call her and need something, she makes things happen.

“She’s an independent person and is an awesome mother.”

He paused for a second, and added: "I've been blessed."

Saunders is, like his teammates, disappointed that the Monarchs won’t go to a bowl game. ODU needed to win its final two games to become bowl eligible and fell to Marshall, 42-35, last weekend.

“What’s most disappointing was all of the mistakes we left on the field,” he said. 

“We want to have the best of practice, we want to make sure we have the best moments together, that we cherish each other, because after Saturday, this team is never going to be the same again.

“I think this last game, it’s bigger than the postseason. To me, more important than a bowl game, is how do we finish this season? Are we going to finish our season strong? How we finish will set the tone for next season.”

He said he’s spending extra time this week with his teammates and coaches.

“I’ve actually done that every day since the season started,” he said. “I’m spending more time talking with teammates. I aggravate coach Rahne a little more.

“I’m going to miss the people here, the fans, the players, the coaches. I’ve had a great time being here. The fans, when they see me walking, they wave at me, they come by and talk to me.

“I’ve appreciated that. I’m just going to miss the genuineness of the people here.”

Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or fllow him  on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram