Minium: Sofia Johnson Chose ODU Sight Unseen, And The Monarch Tennis Star Is So Glad She Did

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – Sofia Johnson had just turned 16 years old when college coaches began to recruit her to play tennis, and because the pandemic had much of the world shut down, she would have to select her future college home sight unseen.

The London native was the No. 1-ranked 16-year-old in the United Kingdom and thus was highly sought after. Many other universities, including LSU and Southern Cal, offered her scholarships.

But Old Dominion’s Dominic Manilla, it seems, was the most persistent. He won her over, all by Zoom, since on-campus visits weren’t allowed.

“He gave me the impression that he really wanted me to be here,” Johnson said. “Those of you who know coach know he can be insistent.

“But I had no idea what to expect when I got here.”

Monday afternoon, nearly four years after she first enrolled at ODU, she stood before about 400 ODU donors, student-athletes, coaches and others, and said she got so much more than she expected from her time in Norfolk.

A year ago, she had offers to transfer from Power 4 schools that included lucrative Name, Image and Likeness financial contracts. She said that she briefly “struggled” with what to do.

But the relationships she had built with Manilla, associate head coach Yana Sokolenko, her teammates and even academic counselor Amy Lynch, caused her to realize that the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere.

“The commitment and dedication that I received from my coaches towards improving my tennis career, along with the lifelong relationships I’ve created here, and the high standard of education I’m receiving here, outweighed anything else I could have received at any other institution,” she said.

“Old Dominion has become my family when I can’t be with my family.”

Johnson spoke at the Barry M. Kornblau Endowed Scholarship Luncheon, an annual event designed to celebrate those who endow ODU athletics scholarships.

The Old Dominion Athletic Foundation has raised more than $40 million that is invested in more than 100 endowed scholarships.

The $40 million creates about $1.5 million in interest income per year which helps ODU meet its annual $11.5 million obligation to fund scholarships for more than 400 student athletes. The actual endowments are not touched and thus theoretically can last forever.

Ten scholarships were added this year, Dr. Wood Selig, ODU’s director of athletics, told the gathering, including one funded by former football player Ronnie Cameron, another funded by the family of the late Jerry Brunick Jr., a long-time ODU donor and member of the ODAF Board, and one established in the name of former men’s soccer coach Alan Dawson.

The endowed scholarship program was begun by Dr. Jim Jarrett, the former ODU athletic director, whose wife, a former Virginia Beach tennis pro, endowed the Sugie Scott Harrison Jarrett Scholarship. Johnson spoke as the recipient of that scholarship.

“I can’t imagine our scholarship going to a more impressive person,” Sugie said.

Impressive indeed. Johnson, who has been ranked as high as sixth nationally, is an All-American who went to the NCAA singles round of 16 as a junior.

She was the 2024 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and her 7-6, 6-7, 6-2 victory over then 19^th-ranked Sarah Hamner gave ODU a 4-3 victory over 19^th-ranked South Carolina in last season’s NCAA Tournament.

Johnson is 25-6 this season and has won 10 of her last 11 matches. She led ODU to the Sun Belt regular-season title, and the Monarchs travel to Rome, Georgia, for the Sun Belt Tournament next week.

She excels just as impressively in the classroom, where she has been a perennial Dean’s List student while majoring in business administration with a concentration in economics and business systems and analytics.

“She has such high standards in everything she does, I thought it would be very difficult for her to maintain those standards with that major,” said Lynch, director of student-athlete services for ODU.

“But as with everything she does, she’s focused and works so hard.”

Johnson doesn’t come from a tennis family even though her brother, Kristofer, played tennis at Alabama State.

Their father, Troy, is a physical trainer and both Sofia and Kristofer were told they had to participate in sports. “Eventually, we were told to pick one sport and we both picked tennis,” Sofia said.

They not only picked tennis, they both became serious tennis players and when you’re a teenager in Europe, that often means moving to the United States. European countries don’t have college athletics as they exist in America. In the UK, they would have had to pay for training and court time while attending a university.

At ODU, her room, board and tuition have been paid for, she has received some of the best coaching and physical training available and the academic assistance the University offers will have allowed her to receive her degree in May’s graduation, summa cum laude.

“I couldn’t get the training I wanted in England,” she said. "It's hard to play in England because it is so much smaller than America. So many young people come to America to go to school and play tennis and there’s a reason why.”

When she was being recruited, Johnson focused only on Manilla and Sokolenko, since tennis was the reason she was coming to ODU.

“I was so young and I really didn’t look at anything other than the coaches,” she said. “But when I came here and it’s been four years now, it’s like everything has been so good.

“I had no idea how everything here would be excellent, that I have such a great coach. It wasn’t what I expected, but in a good way.

“I have friends I’ve made here that I can’t imagine not being with after I graduate.”

Her parents are both immigrants to the UK. Her father comes from the Ivory Coast, her mother, Monika, is from Hungary.

The family often spoke Hungarian at home and Sofia is fluent.

Johnson’s future is muddled because of the uncertainty regarding the NCAA and the settlement with the federal government that once implemented, will allow colleges to begin directly paying athletes. It is expected the NCAA may give all seniors an extra year of eligibility, but that decision may not be made until the summer.

Manilla says Johnson could benefit from another year.

 “Sofia had just turned 17 when she got here,” Manilla said. “She was so young. She was a baby.”

And she struggled at times as a freshman but by the end of the season, was on the Conference USA All-Freshman team.

Yuliia Starodubtseva, the former ODU All-American from Ukraine, who is playing professionally in Germany, “has kind of become our standard.

“And you know, Sofia was doing at 19 what Yuliia was doing at 22.”

Manilla said that Johnson came to ODU as a shy young woman without a ton of self confidence.

“I think that her confidence has grown, and I think that tennis has been her vehicle for her confidence, which is just great to see. She’s been such a good captain. She’s led by example.

“We’re really hoping she gets that fifth year. I think she still has so much room to grow.”

Regardless of whether Johnson spends another year at ODU or moves back home to England, one thing won’t change – her gratitude toward Manilla.

Johnson said Manilla was at his best last season while she was in the clinching match against South Carolina.

"Dom was at my side every point because he knew how nervous I was," she said. "I'd never been in that kind of situation before and he was really the one that helped pull me through, helped calm my nerves.

"It's really difficult for me to calm my nerves by myself and he knows that because of the relationship we have." 

“I want to thank him for being my father figure here in America,” she added. “I’m so glad he was so persuasive. I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I had not gone to ODU.”

Minium is ODU’s senior executive writer. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram