By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Every weekday morning, weather permitting, Old Dominion Head Baseball Coach Chris Finwood grabs himself a cup of coffee and walks into the outfield stands at the Ellmer Baseball Family Complex, where he sits and contemplates the day ahead.
“Usually, I’m thinking about what we have to do to win the next game,” he said. It’s also his way of following the progress of the $24 million makeover of the ODU baseball stadium.
Last Wednesday morning was just like any other. The Monarchs would be hosting Norfolk State in a few hours. Today is a game we have to win, he said to himself, as he braced himself against a chill breeze.
Little did he know that later that day, he would etch his name into the ODU record books.
The Monarchs rolled past their city rivals, 16-4, a victory that allowed Finwood to tie legendary coach Bud Metheny as the winningest coach in ODU baseball history.
As he was walking off the field, Finwood saw a social media post that indicated that he had indeed tied Metheny for the record. He broke the record with Friday’s 13-7 win over App State.
Now in his 15th season at ODU, Finwood has won 425 games at ODU and 667 overall, including his previous stints at VMI and Western Kentucky.
In nine of his 14 previous seasons, his ODU teams have won 30 or more games. He’s taken four teams to NCAA Regionals, including the 2021 team, which lost to Virginia, 4-3, on a walk-off, 10th-inning home run in the regional championship game.
“I had no idea that I had tied Bud Metheny until I looked on my phone,” he said. “I’m proud and humbled. We’ve had some great coaches here at Old Dominion. Bud Metheny, he’s a legend. But we also had Tony Guzzo, Pat McMahon and Mark Newman.”
“To be ahead of all of those guys in the win column, it’s a great honor. It’s something I take a lot of pride in.”
After pausing for a second, he added: “I grew up with Old Dominion baseball. So personally, it means a lot. I care a lot about this University.”
Finwood is indeed a local guy, although like so many others in a region full of the military, he was a transplant.
Finwood moved to Hampton when he was in middle school – his father, Kenneth, was in the Air Force, and the family moved all over the world before settling on the Peninsula.
Once here, Finwood came across the tunnel every summer to participate in ODU baseball camps.
He might have gone to ODU or any one of half a dozen schools that recruited him, but his Dad strongly suggested he go to VMI. “He said I needed the discipline,” Finwood said. “Best advice I ever received.”
Newman and McMahon were ODU’s coaches when he attended camps and later worked with them as a player and assistant coach.
“I got to know all of those guys well,” he said. “I learned a lot of baseball things from Mark Newman that I still use today. Mark was one of the smartest coaches I ever knew.”
His one regret is that he never met Metheny, the former New York Yankee came to ODU as head coach in 1948 until he retired following the 1980 season. Metheny went out with a bang, as the Monarchs defeated Virginia his final season to claim the state championship.
Metheny, of course, was from a different time. At one point in his career, he was the director of athletics and head baseball and basketball coach. Coaching a team, especially in the day of the transfer portal, is now a year-around job.
“Bud is still thought of so affectionally here,” Finwood said. “He did so much for ODU athletics.”
Finwood said he has much greater concerns than setting records.
His Monarchs are 12-12, 2-4 in the Sun Belt, and have a difficult schedule ahead, including three-game sets against No. 11 Southern Miss and No. 15 Coastal Carolina and a single game at No. 9 Virginia. There’s also a three-game set with Arkansas State, which is 16-8 and sits just outside of the D1 Baseball Top 25.
“Records are nice but I’m more concerned with how our team is playing,” he said. “We haven’t been quite where we’re expected to be here at Old Dominion the last couple of years. And that’s frustrating for all of us. We’ve got to pitch better and I believe we will. Offensively, we’re had some guys step up who struggled a bit last season and that’s good. The cold weather so far this year has hurt us. As it warms up, I think we’ll make more progress.”
On a personal level, it’s been a good year for Finwood. He became a grandfather on Feb. 24 when his son, Grayson, had a child, Sterling Finwood.
“An amazing experience,” he said of becoming a grandpa.
The $24 million transformation of the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex was supposed to be done this spring but hit unavoidable construction delays. It is now scheduled for completion this summer.
The Monarchs played most of their games on the road last season, with a few home games sprinkled between Norfolk’s Harbor Park and Hampton’s War Memorial Stadium.
The Monarchs are playing at home this spring, but it’s not quite the same as usual. Construction continues in the stands, meaning the Monarchs dress and shower in the Jim Jarrett Athletic Administration Building.
The University put temporary stands in the outfield, which has allowed fans and family members of players to attend games, although more than 350 feet from home plate. Finwood credits President Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D, for that decision.
“We’re so grateful for all the University did to allow us to play at home this year,” Finwood said. “The President really stepped up for us in a big way. The stadium renovation has definitely hurt us. We knew it would. You bring a recruit in and all you can show him is a photo of what it’s going to look like. We’ve lost kids because of it. When it’s done, when they hand us the keys or the codes to the stadium, it’s going to be so great, especially for our players. Our new stadium is going to be first-class in every way. We’ll get kids then that we haven’t been able to get the last few years.”
He credits Rick French, ODU’s Senior Associate Athletics Director for Operations, for keeping him sane during the reconstruction.
“Thank God for Rick French,” Finwood said. “Every unexpected obstacle we’ve faced, he’s been there to help fix things. They’re building the stadium now while we’re playing, so that leads to some problems. And he’s always there with answers. When it became apparent that the stadium wasn’t going to be ready, he rolled up his sleeves and worked with the administration and figured out everything we needed to just play a game.”
This is Finwood’s last season working for Dr. Wood Selig, ODU’s director of athletics, who hired him twice, both at ODU and Western Kentucky. Dr. Selig will retire in December after nearly 17 years at ODU.
“When you work for someone for 20 years, well, that’s kind of unheard of today,” Finwood said. “We’ve worked well together. He’s given us all of the support he could have possibly given us. We’ve become good friends. But we’ve been able to keep that separate and professional and it hasn’t been hard. He’s my boss and I answer to him. We’ve done my contracts sitting on his dock. I’ve been loyal to Wood and always will be.”
Finwood tries not to look too far ahead, but is looking ahead to this summer, when the stadium is scheduled to be completed.
He has invited every member of the 2021 team to come visit and receive a guided tour of the stadium.
Without that team, there would be no new stadium.
The Monarchs won the Conference USA Tournament, beating Louisiana Tech on its home field, and were seeded No. 11 in the NCAA Tournament. That gave them the right to host one of 16 regionals.
But because Bud Metheny Stadium, as ODU’s stadium was then known, lacked the amenities necessary to host a regional, the Monarchs went on the road to the South Carolina regional. The Monarchs upset the Gamecocks, 2-1, before losing to UVA in the regional final.
“I’ve told all of those guys, from all of our teams in the past, ‘Hey man, drop by this summer and I’ll walk you through the place.’ They deserve it. They made it happen.”
He plans to work closely with ODU and Old Dominion Athletic Foundation officials to try to maximize the monetary potential of the new stadium.
“You can create revenue in college baseball and especially in a facility like this,” he said. “We’re going to have to get to work on that but it’s going to be exciting. We know we need to put a good team in there and we will. Marketing people like to say they don’t want to be dependent on the results to attract fans. That’s now how it works. If you win, and you have a nice place, then people will come. We’re going to have a very nice stadium. And we intend to win.”
Minium is ODU’s Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
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