By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Zachary Redding’s schedule is demanding, and the word “demanding” understates just how busy his life is these days.
He’s a sprinter for the Old Dominion swim team, meaning he participates in short races such as the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly.
And he’s a good one – he was one of eight ODU swimmers to qualify for the National Invitation Championship, held this past weekend in Ocala, Florida.
Being a swimmer means that three days a week, he’s in ODU’s Scrap Chandler pool for swim practice at 6 a.m. sharp.
But he’s also an ODU nursing student, and that means after practice he quickly showers and drives 14 miles to ODU’s Virginia Beach campus where he settles in for four or more hours of classes.
When he returns to Norfolk, he must do a “makeup” practice on his own in the pool – the team practices twice a day. And he must also do makeup workouts in the ODU weight training room at the Jim Jarrett Athletic Administration Building, workouts he misses because he’s at the Beach learning how to care for patients.
And one day a week, he drives to a local hospital where he serves a 12-hour clinical day, watching and learning from nurses in the field.
His evenings are usually when he does his homework. And when the swim team travels, academics can become difficult. That often means doing classes via Zoom.
“It’s very difficult to do both nursing school and swimming,” said Redding, a junior from Middletown, Delaware. “The requirements of the nursing program are very high, and balancing things at times is very hard. Yes, it’s hard for him, but Zach is amazing,” added Dr. Lynn L. Wiles, chair of ODU’s Ellmer School of Nursing. “He is an awesome student. In some sports, it just won’t work. We once had a basketball player and the schedules just were incompatible. But Zach makes it work. He does an amazing job talking with faculty and the clinical coordinators.
“Going to the hospital to do a clinical is non-negotiable in our program. We’ve tried to be creative in meeting his swimming needs. He’s made it much easier because he’s so organized and on top of things.”
To say he’s excelled academically, well, “excelled” also isn’t quite strong enough of a word, either.
His grade point average of 4.0 was the highest the highest at the University last year. That was before got an A- in one class. But he has had nothing but A grades ever since, and his GPA is a 3.99.
As a sophomore he was named the Atlantic Sun Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
In some ways, he was relieved to have gotten that A-.
“At times I strive to be perfect, and I know I can’t always be perfect,” he said.
Why nursing? Redding said he has always had an interest in medicine and helping people. He briefly thought of becoming a doctor, but the prospect of four years of medical school beyond college, in addition to an internship of three years or more, was just too much.
“You don’t start practicing and making money until you’re maybe in your 30s,” he said. “Nursing will give me the opportunity to get a job right out of college.
“I always felt like medicine was kind of like my calling, and you put those two pieces together, it just kind of worked out for me.”
As a junior, he’s just getting knee deep into his nursing classes, and so far, he loves what he’s doing.
“It makes me feel good to be able to help people who aren't able to help themselves,” he said. “As a student nurse there’s not much I’m able to do yet to physically to help patients. But it’s been eye opening. I didn’t realize how busy nurses are. Not every patient gets all the time they want or need with a nurse. So, it's very nice that as a student nurse I can go in there and make them feel important. I go in there and have conversations with them, and make them feel cared for.”
Few student-athletes have majored in nursing at ODU – Hailey Duncan, a women’s volleyball player – was the most recent graduate in 2022.
And Redding is the first male student-athlete to attempt completing a nursing degree while also competing in his sport.
“Hailey was never in class on a Friday, because the volleyball team was always playing, but she zoomed into every class,” Dr. Wiles said.
While nursing has traditionally been a trade dominated by women, that is changing.
“I wondered if I would be the only guy in the program,” Redding said. “But we have 88 students in our cohort and 11 of them are men. I expected to be the only guy but when I got there, I was happy to see other guys.”
Redding is an ODU prodigy of sorts. His mother, Kari, swam at ODU. She met her husband, Brian, in Norfolk. He was in the Navy and stationed at Naval Station Norfolk.
After moving around a few years, they settled in Delaware to be close to his mother’s family.
“My Mom definitely played a role in my decision to come to ODU,” Redding said. “She’s been telling me about ODU since I was very young.”
His younger brother, Grady, is also a swimmer who will attend the University of Delaware next fall as a freshman. And that will make for some family competition next season as Delaware is also a member of the ASUN.
“It will be interesting to swim against him next season,” Redding said.
While Redding works hard and is dedicated to swimming – he finished third in the 50 and 100 free and the 100 butterfly in the recent ASUN meet – he says athletics are secondary to academics.
“I love swimming, but getting my degree is more important to me than being an athlete,” he said. “My nursing degree is something that will carry me on for the rest of my life.”
A life, he understands, will include dealing with a good deal of tragedy. He knows there will be times when patients he’s caring for will be suffering and that some will die.
“I haven’t personally experienced tragedy like that,” he said. “But I know it’s something that at some point, I will experience. But I feel like I have the right coping skills, the right mindset, to be able to bounce back and be supportive of families and loved ones.”
Dr. Wiles said she and other faculty have seen his compassion first hand.
“He really likes to encourage other students,” she said. “He helps his lab partners study. He’s hard working, diligent, caring and compassionate in the clinical setting. He’s just a good kid.”
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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