Minium: ODU Men's Soccer Team Has a Ton of Newcomers, and A Renewed Resolve to Win
By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Jago Lott loved his coaches and teammates at UMBC, but after four years there, he was looking for something different.
He wants to play professional soccer at the highest level possible and was looking for a program that would push him to excel not only on the field, but in the classroom.
He also plans a post-soccer career in business and was looking for a school with an outstanding MBA program.
“I felt like I’d squeezed all of the juice I could at UMBC and I needed to go somewhere else to be pushed,” he said.
So, the 5-foot-8, 160-pound graduate student from Somerset, United Kingdom, entered the transfer portal and said he found what he was looking for at Old Dominion.
He called ODU Head Coach Tennant McVea, who when asked if he would push him to get better, "He told me that I will push you harder than you’ve ever been pushed," Lott said.
He loved the dedication to winning, as well as the dedication to academic success and community service, that he saw when he visited ODU. So, he enrolled at ODU in the spring and said he’s never worked harder than he has with the Monarchs.
“This was definitely what I was looking for,” he said.
He was far from alone. McVea and assistant coaches Nathan Jones and Josh Spencer recruited a 16-man class that was ranked among the nation’s Top 25 best by Top Drawer Soccer.
With some key returnees in the fold, including goalkeeper Michael Statham and forward Michael Eberle, the Monarchs enter tonight’s home opener against George Washington at the ODU Soccer Complex with optimism.
“We will be good this season,” McVea said. “We could have a very special season.”
McVea loves his team, including off the pitch.
“I want our fans to know the character on this team, that the character of our young men is very high,” he said. “I want our fans to latch onto our players.
“Our young men are so involved in summer camps, in engaging with young players, and in serving the community. Our players understand that is bigger than them, that they can have an impact on other peoples’ lives.”
Earlier this week the team helped ODU students move into dormitories and more than a dozen players went to schools all over Norfolk to welcome students back to class.
ODU ranked second nationally last season in the number of community services hours donated by men’s soccer teams, with 23 players donating a total of 233 hours feeding the homeless, reading to school children or mentoring students one-on-one.
"I really like that part of our program here," Lott said. "Getting involved in the community is such a great thing."
This is McVea’s second season at ODU. He took over the program last season from Alan Dawson, who retired as the nation's fifth-winningest active coach after 27 years in Norfolk. McVea was Dawson’s long-time assistant, but hasn’t been shy about making changes to remake the program into his own.
Dawson’s old office was turned into a meeting room and the locker room refurbished last season.
During the offseason, ODU soccer alum John Higgins funded a refurbishment of the Monarch team room to turn it into a comfortable place, with a U-shaped couch, a 95-inch TV and other amenities designed to make the players feel comfortable.
CLICK TO SEE ODU SOCCER NEW TEAM ROOM
ODU has nine starters from the team that went unbeaten during the spring exhibition season in which the only blemish, if you could call it that, was a tie at Virginia.
McVea has an experienced defensive backline, with Teagan Dunne, Evan Watt, Marcelo Randolf and Jett Aktan.
Barrett Saul, a transfer from West Virginia, will join Lott and Abdou Magib-So, a sophomore from Paris, France, in the midfield.
“We feel like we’ve got four or five guys who can play in the middle for us,” McVea said.
The forwards are largely newcomers, although Eberle has moved from the midfield to up front. Nicholas Alves is a junior returnee likely to find minutes on the pitch. Kolby Godbolt and Jake Lane will see playing time up front, as will Miguel Menendez, a transfer from William Penn.
Jamie Wynne, a transfer forward from Dublin, Ireland; Alex Kryazhev, a transfer from Farleigh Dickinson, and Micah Wayland, a 6-3 sophomore from Richmond; and Lewis Rourke, a junior colege transfer, will also see playing time.
Otu Bisong, a freshman from Herndon, Virginia, "has a lot of learn but he's an athlete. He can glide by people."
Although optimistic about this season, McVea is also realistic. The Sun Belt is a power league in men's soccer. Marshall won the NCAA title in 2020 and was second last season, losing in overtime in the national championship game.
Marshall was picked to win the Sun Belt title by coaches and ODU picked seventh in the 10-team league. Four of the schools picked to finish ahead of ODU - West Virginia, UCF, Kentucky and South Carolina - are in the Big 12 or SEC for football and most other sports and thus have far larger budgets than most mid-major schools.
ODU was picked just behind James Madison and ahead of Georgia Southern, Georgia State and Coastal Carolina.
"Nobody on our campus faces the type of competition that we face in the Sun Belt," McVea said. "I'm not going to say that we're going to win a Sun Belt title this season.
"But we're continuing the lay the foundation so that when this program becomes a machine, when we have what it takes to be competitive on a national level, then we will compete for a Sun Belt title.
"And when we can do that, we can compete for a national title."
McVea's team is the most American-oriented squad the Monarchs have fielded in many years. There are 22 Americans and eight from overseas.
"With the current climate in college sports, and where we are, it didn’t make monetary sense for us to go after a lot of internationals," he said.
"For us it was always about identifying the right personel. And we found a lot of good players closer to home.
"None of our transfers are blind and by that I mean one of us has a personal relationship with the player or has coached them or recruited them in the past.
"If we find an international who fits, then we're going to sign him."
Which was the case with Lott, who is in the third semester of the MBA program at ODU.
"Finishing my MBA is a priority for me," he said.
"Everything I was looking for off and on the pitch, I've found here. They've helped me improve the strengths I have but have also helped me work on my weaknesses.
"When I look around, we are surrounded by quality people in this program. No matter what happens, we have people who are going to work hard, put the time in, and if it's not going to be perfect then we know that we'll leave everything out there."
Minium is ODU’s senior executive writer. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram