I'm
Mike:Aaron and I'm
Aaron:Mike and you're listening to the monarchist podcast today. We welcome Dominic Manila head coach of our old dominion women's tennis team. Coach Don played at ODU, worked as an assistant at ODU for three years before taking a position at the John McEnroe tennis academy in New York. A year later, coach Dom returned to ODU. It took the reins as head coach of our monarchs and ODU. Tennis has seen tons of success. The team has won two straight conference USA titles reached new Heights in both team and individual rankings. And it's been named conference USA coach of the year in 20 19, 20 20 and 2021. Thanks for
Dom Manilla:joining us coach. Thanks for having me guys. So
Mike:coach congratulations on another great year. So you've been here since 2011. How does it feel leading your home and mater to new Heights? It's gotta be pretty special.
Dom Manilla:Oh yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's incredibly special. You know, I graduated here in oh seven and then, you know, to have been here so long as the head coach now in, in that capacity you know, to be doing well means a lot to me, you know, old, Dominion's been a, a major part of my life. I've been here for almost half of it now. And you know, so it's, it's, it, it feels better to do it here than I think it would anywhere else for sure.
Aaron:Coach we know you grew up in a tennis family, your dad worked as a tennis pro at bores heads sports club, and now serves at the tournament director of ATP WTA event. Head coach of us special Olympic team. So obviously has done tons of awesome stuff that you've been around. Your brother's also an accomplished player who has experienced coaching at the D one level. How old were you when you realized that, you know, you could make this
Dom Manilla:as a career? I, you know, I, I do remember it, it was my, my summer. Going into third grade. So it was, I think I was seven years old. Maybe turning eight. I spent that's when my dad was having camps and you were allowed to go there all day if you were seven. And so I did like kind of an all day camp and I did that every day, all summer, and I just kind of fell in love with the game. And you know, because I was there before and after camp, you know, I got a lot of time on the backboard and these types of things. So I started just really loving to play. And obviously when you're young, you want, you think about being a player? Not necessarily a coach, but you know, I still have, I have in my office somewhere, I have like a paper I wrote when I was in third grade. When I grew up, I wanna be a tennis coach or a tennis player or a tennis coach. And so I've, I've known for a long time. This is what I, I wanted to do. You know, like you said, my, my brother's a coach. He, well, he used to be a coach now. He's, he's got out, he got a, he got a real job. We'll say he lives in Chicago, but. He used to be a coach. He won a ring with the university of Virginia. And then he coached at university of Michigan central Florida, and then at the university of Iowa. So he's really been around the block as a coach himself. My father is an international master professional with the PTR. So there's not very many of those. He currently serves as the. The, the head coach, the lead coach for special Olympics USA. They just want a gold medal in doubles over the weekend, by the way. So that's, that's fantastic. But yeah, you know, coaching's always been kind of in my life and it's been the type of people that I look up to have always been kind of coaches my uncle on my mother's side is a football coach. His name's Ted marcher. Broda my, mom's a marcher Broda. And so I've you know, I grew up going to football games and, you know, talking to him and then, you know, when he moved here to Weems Virginia, which isn't very far away, you know, I had the, the privilege to visit him a few times and, and talked to him. And so, you know, again, you know, coaches have always been the types of people that I look up to in my life. And so, yeah, I feel like I've, I've known, I wanted to do this for a.
Aaron:That's awesome. It sounds like if you ever have a question, you can just reach into the family Rolodex. You don't even have to go to any of your colleagues
Dom Manilla:at other colleges. no, I do. I learned, we learned a lot from everybody, you know?
Mike:So do, did you say Ted March, bro? Like the coach of the col yes. Yes, yes. Okay. Wow.
Dom Manilla:Yeah. So I, I got to go to super bowl 25 when he was offensive coordinator for the bills and yeah, my mother's been to two super bowls. Yeah, it's been, it was pretty cool. That's sweet.
Mike:So I gotta say, I feel awful for your brother being in Iowa when he was yeah. They just continue the program when he was a coach there. Right?
Dom Manilla:Yeah. And just kind of at the beginning of the season, they kind of let him know, but he was already planning on moving on and it was kind of it was kind of a good opportunity anyways, so yeah.
Mike:So me and you are both O alum. Do you have a favorite memory from your time as a student athlete? And do you think your experience playing here helps with coaching and recruiting
Dom Manilla:here? You know, if I had a favorite memory it's probably, you know, competing as a player, I got the chance to compete against subway tournament as a player. You know, all, all those experiences you get as a player, you know, I think those are probably the memories I cherish the most. You know, but then, you know, the, the community that you know, I kind of fell in love with here. You know, I, I left and came back, you know, I, you know, I graduated, could have left. I stayed and then I left and I came back. So, you know, I, the community and everything has really been important to me and important in my life. So those are the things I take from being an alumni here. You know, with recruiting in regards to recruiting. Yeah, I think it, it, it can help a little bit. I think it helps tug on the heartstrings a little bit with some, with, you know, especially with families. My, my brother went here, my sister went here as well, so there's a lot of things I can tie to old dominion and it gives you it. Not that any coaches don't have credibility when they're recruiting their, their team. But you know, it does give you an extra layer of, I feel like it can give you an extra layer of credibility when you're selling that school. And you can say, Hey, I fell in love with this place. And you know, not only that, you know, I'm, I'm an in-state kid, I'm an American, you know, we're recruiting international a lot. So, you know, and I'm, I'm a man. So I don't, well, I was, at that time, I was a boy when I was being recruited but you know, on the men's side, the, the scholarship situation is very different. So parents can know that, Hey, oh, well he paid a lot, you know, to play just kinda like baseball players do a lot of baseball players have to pay. And so they understand that sacrifice. And then those PA those parents, my parents have decided that, Hey, not only am I gonna go there, but my brother and my sister are also gonna go there. So, you know, I think it is, it does. Kind of in case your, your sell a little bit better and just kind of put a nice little bow on it for it. But I don't think it's ever been the, the make or break, you know, for, for somebody, you know? Yeah. Makes
Aaron:sense. So, coach, before you accepted the fulltime head coaching position at old dominion, you were working at the John McIn tennis academy. Give us a little insight as to what the, what the day in the life of Dominello was in New
Dom Manilla:York. Well, it was, it was quite a hectic and I think that's one of the reasons I came back pretty quick. not, you know, not that, not that not that, you know, being a head coach isn't a lot, but that was just a lot in a different wave. It was just a lot of time on court and it was just a lot of just 14 hour days, you know, just that takes a lot on you physically. And it was tough to get time off and it was just a, just that type of environment. But man, I learned, I learned a lot there. You know, I learned man, I, I think the biggest thing I learned is that, you know, professional players are very good and I think that when I was there, you know, and being around so many pros, you know, from day to day, cause we worked with John every day, you know, I was on court with John every day and working with those, that level of, of person and you know, their attitude and how they approach things. And then the level that John can still play. But then, you know, like Andy Rodick would be around and Jim curer would be around and you know, so you'd have people playing there and you saw how good they were. And so it kind of created a different standard for me for good, you know what, Hey, what's good. You know, and in that world where I was good is wow, you know, you've won a grand slam, you know, and everybody else kind of is like, not that good, you know? So, you know, the players that I was looking at and they were going to college. I never thought they were, you know, that good coming outta the academy, but man, they went into college and they did great. So I, I, I saw a pathway to take somebody and develop them into a D one college tennis player. And I was able to apply a lot of those lessons that I've learned, you know, cause I came from a coach coaching background already, but I, I kind of that kind of tidy everything up for me. I learned some new technical stuff, a little bit modern way of looking at the. And then I was able to come back and apply a lot of those lessons to, to the team. But I, I, I will say though, you know, that, that I think understanding the next level goes a long way, you know, and I think that's really helped me here at ODU is just that, Hey, you know, if for somebody, if you, if you wanna have a really good college player, well, they're probably gonna be at least a decent pro you know, at least cuz if not, then they're probably not a great college player. And you know, and I've, you can, when you've seen that level and you've worked with that level you can see the steps they've taken to get there. You can identify those in the recruits, you know, and you can see the type of kid when they're 16, like, oh yes, this is the, this is the type of person. This is the body type that in eight years is gonna be a withstand, a professional type environment and schedule and you know, physical load, mental load, et cetera. And so I think those are the types of things I learned there. I really enjoyed the, the fruits of that. Cause I've applied it here at old dominion.
Mike:So after that you take the OU head coaching job in 2011. At that point, what was your vision for the program and how much has that changed since then?
Dom Manilla:Well, it's I'm, I'm proud to say we've stuck pretty much two plan. I went in there with a lot of, probably a little bit too much paperwork. I had some graphs and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, I had, I had list content, you know, lists and, and these kind of things. And I had a, I had a one year plan, a three year plan, a five year plan and a 10 year plan and pretty much everything, you know, which really is just a list of objectives that you want to hit. Every, every one of those spots, you know, with 1, 3, 5, and 10, and, you know, for, for most of those things, we've hit, you know, at the 10 year mark we're about where we wanted to be competing on a national level. You know, we're competing to get to the suite 16, you know, I think that's where we want it to be. If, if I think anybody who's hired, they say, Hey, where do you wanna see your program in 10 years? I think that, you know, at a, at a place like old dominion, this is, this is where this is a great place for us to be. So those are, those are some of the things I hit and. The only I had one year with, with quite a few injuries. I think it was my, my, my fifth year. And I felt like that was kind of a step back for us. And, but in, but when I look back at it, it actually wasn't, it was, it was just, we were going and we, it was just, it was almost like a little plateau, you know, when you're smoking meat or something and it, it just plateaued for, for a year, but then it, we just accelerated through. And since then you've seen us get these, these four years in a row, top 25 births. And you know, had we not had, COVID it would've been four years in a row. You instantly tournament as well. So yeah, there there's that. Yeah.
Aaron:so coach, that's a great segue. I mean, we're seeing sustain success. It's not a three year period. Great season. Back down and up. You, you guys are performing, every year. I mean, first ever trip to the national indoor championships, multiple conference USA titles. What would you attribute to being able to keep that quality in the momentum going forward?
Dom Manilla:I think retention within your program is important. You know, I've been fortunate enough that I've been here just going into my 12th season as the head coach. So you know, I, I, this is only my second assistant I've had and you know, the assistants you work very closely with and you get, you, you, you, you know, you have you really do everything together and, you know, you spend more time with them. You do, then you do your spouse, to be honest, you know, you travel with them, everything. And I've been fortunate enough to have two assistants that they. Vision of the program has aligned very well with my vision of the program. There's never a, Hey there's no, there's no, Hey, come on this way or that way from either party. And, you know, like our, our, our eyes are looking the exact same way and that, that has really helped. And so then, you know, when you have an administration, like, I, you know, like my supervisor is Bruce Stewart and wood SEAK and I speak to both of them, you know, multiple times a week, you know, wood texts me several times a week, Bruce. I talk to all the time you know, and I have great relationship with those guys. So, you know, I think that. You know that retention, you know, I've had Bruce Stewart as a supervisor since I was a since I was assistant with the men. So I think that's, so that would put us at 15 years now, I've been working with Bruce. So I think that retention and, you know, the same vision has helped because you have support with decisions that you have to make to keep on track. And, you know, sometimes it's like, Hey, we've worked six months on this recruit, but you know, Dom says, Hey, she's, she's just not looking the way we want her to and you gotta cut her and you know, everybody's on the same. Same page. They all, they all turn around. We, we, we all get together. We look at it and we, we let it go. And, you know, that's, that's part of it. And, you know, the, the sacrifice that comes with, you know, being this level and sustaining this level I have people around me that are willing to sacrifice just as much as I am, you know, with coach, coach Lanco and you know, Bruce and wood, you know, they, they all worked very hard for this team as well. And so when you have that type of commitment to, you know, the, the vision, the objectives, and, you know, it can't really say goals because we have the same, pretty much the same goals every year, you know, try and win conference, try and make the NCAA, the tournament. And you don't, you don't make it because of the goal. The goal's always there, you know, so, you know, it's your process, whatever it is. And so every year you have to adapt with your processes and, you know, especially, you know, especially nowadays with communication with players, You know, it just, it seems like every, there, there was a way that we all used to communicate. It seems like, and, and now there's a new way, but now there's a new way. And you know, now next year there's gonna be a new way. And so you always have to be on top of those types of things. And, you know, I don't think you have to be a young person to be on top of those things. I think that, you know, just, just their eagerness to communicate with your players, the eagerness, to communicate with your recruits and your staff. I think those types of things goes a long way. And if you have those eager, that eagerness, you're gonna adapt to whatever platform you're gonna communicate with on anyways. And so I think that all of us have an eagerness to do well. All of us have an eagerness to make the sweet 16 and that that's actually part of our code. If you don't, if you don't wanna win a hundred percent, then we don't want you around. And the people that we have around wanna win a hundred percent.
Mike:Well, I love that mentality. It's great to hear. I know we've me and Aaron were lucky enough to talk with Bruce during the when we were hosting Penn state at student Folz and his belief in you and, and coach Mueller and the programs. It's. It was pretty awesome to hear how much he believed in you guys. Cause yeah, I haven't heard him talk about that about any other program, but you guys, and no, it's saying a lot. He's a positive guy. Yeah, but he was, he couldn't say anything more nice about you guys than,
Dom Manilla:I don't know. It, it was all good to hear.
Aaron:That's I think the best way that I can say it is he is fully invested in your program.
Dom Manilla:Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, Bruce comes to our conference, you know, he's seen us win both titles. You know, and then I. Don't think we've played five NCAA matches here. I, I don't think BR wood or bruises missed any of them, you know? So it's just, just awesome. You know, they travel with us. You know, it's just great.
Mike:So we got a big move this year conference wise. Yeah. Conference USA had quite a few teams who took the sport seriously at rice, UAB, middle Tennessee state. Charlotte. What do you know about our future opponents in the Sunbelt? And do you foresee the change in conference having any impact on the program's future?
Dom Manilla:Well, yeah, you know, you mentioned those teams in conferences say that were all very good. And but you know, there's also FIU FA U in north Texas, you know, so north Texas, they school a coach from Illinois to coach there. You know, they, they've had a great program over the years. And you know, I remember in 2000. In 2020 ODU made rice won the conference. ODU made it at large FIU, made it let large and F AU made it at large. And so, you know, conference, you would say that year was arguably, it was, it was, it was more than the big 10 put in. It was more than APAC 12 put in that year. PAC 12 kind of had a bad year. So we were, you know, the fourth best conference in the country. So conference USA has done an amazing job with women's tennis. You know, you talk about that retention. It's a bunch of coaches, you know, there hasn't been much movement in that conference since I've been there. There hasn't been much movement with coaches. Charlotte brought in an awesome coach. I'll tell you what, that guy, Anthony Davidson, he got our conference coach the year, this year. And I gave him a run for his money for that award, by the way. But he, he cause, you know, we won the tournament, but he, he really earned it, man, that guy has really hustled and he's made Charlotte a very formidable team. And I think that he, him and his whatever program he's running here in the next couple of years, that's gonna be doing well. But you know, so we came from a strong, strong. You know, group of five conference and it was, you know, ODU, rice, you know, those types of programs, you know, like I, you know, Pepperdine now, you know, I, I we're, we're mid majors, UCF, we're, we're mid majors, but we're kind of more major mids, you know, you know, we're kind of the big mid-majors. So I like to call us major mid. So I feel like we're going a little bit from a, a major mid conference to a mid major conference when it comes to our type of the way we compete, you know, this year, our first, I think our first eight matches were power five. You know, we went down and played Florida and Miami and, you know, we, we, we beat who do we beat? We beat It be Georgia tech and Ole miss, you know, early on to, to qualify for national indoors where we lost to Texas a and M and Pepperdine, and we beat we beat Wisconsin there. So you know that that's gonna be a lot different from what we're gonna see in Sunbelt. So in conference you would say we were allowed to schedule whoever we wanted. So a big part of my job was scheduling 20 matches every single year in the spring. And so I had that, that That leeway to schedule and to, you know, place teams, how I want. And you can schedule yourself based on whatever team you have. You can schedule yourself strength to schedule with the RPI that, Hey, Hey, like this last year I had a team, I knew I had a team and I knew I had a team two years ago leading into this year. So we set ourselves up with a real dinghy of a schedule and I didn't anticipate doing so well early on that we qualify for national indoors. That was an incredible feat for our program, by the way. But, and so then we had three more tacked on that, Texas, a and M who had the best season ever in the SCC that would under undefeated in the SCC. That's never happened before then we played Pepperdine and then we ended up beating Wisconsin. So you know, those types of pushes, I won't be afforded anymore. That that type of push is gonna be replaced by 17 mandatory schedule. So that's gonna be a little different. It's gonna be a little different for us to play our way into the NCAA tournament. It's gonna be a little bit more difficult for us to achieve that top 25 ranking just because we're gonna have less opportunities to do those types of things. Now. You know, I've said it in the board meetings here. The top four players in the conference are on our roster. I'm talking about conference it's Sunbelt conference. The top four players in the Sunbelt are gonna be on our roster. I believe that all the top out of the top 10 players, all of our players are in the top 10. So there's that's, we should be the team that, you know, that is setting the standard in the Sunbelt. When I got into conference USA, there was not as many teams that are doing so well as there are now. So I hope that we're gonna have that kind of ripple effect with us coming in that is gonna kind of lift people up. But you know, the scheduling's gonna be different. So, you know, if we dropped out of the top 25 next year or the year. I don't think that has anything to do with our level of play. It just might be a function of the scheduling and you know, we're the, the goals are, you know, the goals, we talked about goals, but the objectives that we're going after are still gonna mistake. We still wanna make sweet 16 are better. That's our same bus line.
Mike:So I gotta imagine playing a really tough schedule prepares you much better for the NCAA tournament. The girls already know they can compete with the best in the country when they've already played them and beat them going to schedule like this, does that change, that kind of mentality, or they still gonna go in there and thinking they can beat anybody?
Dom Manilla:Well, you know, I guess that's where, you know, one of the roles of a coach is to kind of, you know, make sure that the mentality is, is in the right place. You know, that's, that's part of our job. It's gonna be part of my job. As the head coach of old dominion, as we transition into the Sunbelt that we can maintain or improve, but at least maintain this level that, that we've had in conference USA, you know, and that's at, at this moment, that is my role. And you know, I, I'm here to oversee that transition right now. And so I, I don't. I don't anticipate it changing our mindset. I anticipate it's recruiting the exact same way. I anticipate as having similar levels of success but things that we've actually moved past as a program like several weeks, this year, when we, the rankings came out, we actually didn't even talk about 'em as a team because they really just started to not mean as much to us, you know, cuz we were going after different things at that point, you know, Yuli was trying to become an all American and singles and doubles the first player at older minute ever do that. She, she did earn that last week, by the way, Tanya became an all American in doubles as well. So we start thinking about those things, Hey, how are we gonna make it to the sweet 16, those types of things? So the rankings, you know, for our program, you know, we've kind of checked boxes. We, we're not too worried about rankings. We would like to have a top 10 on our resume. We, you know, it's gonna be tough to get there now, but you know, we're really still thinking about those bigger things. Like, Hey, all Americans, you know, producing all Americans on the roster, you know, making it to the sweet 16.
Mike:All right. So speaking of recruiting we know Europe is kind of a hotbed for old dominion with just looking at the roster. It's clear that Europe is important, full dominion, tennis. How do you go about Def identifying these athlete?
Dom Manilla:Oh man. I'll, I'll take any way to identify, you know, anybody, you know, it's, it's hard to find players that are really good, you know, somewhere, you know, if you, if you think about it, there's gotta be a certain level between, you know, in, in our sports, there's gotta be a certain level between, Hey, the, the, the, the best junior and then the pro, you know, and that, and the, that level in between, there's gonna fit perfect for us, but Hey, also they need to have graduated within six months ago and they need to be able to speak this level of English and, and these types of things. So when you narrow it down, there's really only about 20 kids out there in the world that can fit this spot that we're looking for an old dominion. There's a lot in the United States. There's a lot there. There's a lot here. There's a lot here, but ones that actually want to come to old dominion, the ones that'll actually select old Domin. You know, there's only about 20 out there and they're hard to find, you know, for example, we had, when we recruited Alexander Victorvi two time conference player of the week, this year ranked in the hunt ranked in the top 1 25 all year. But when we recruited her, she was number one in Sweden. She took an official visit to us, Texas and Miami. She chose all dominion chose old dominion, not every kid is gonna choose old dominion out of those, out of those visits, Sophia Johnson, her choice came down to Southern cow, LSU and old dominion. You know, so not every kid, especially a number one player in UK, like Sophia is gonna choose old dominion. So we have to identify not only do we have to identify great players, but we have to identify great players that are gonna choose old dominion over other great institutions with great programs, you know? So we really look under every rock and, you know, everywhere we, we, we gotta look, we look and Yeah, we recruit United States as well. You know, like this season we have Maya bird coming from, from ma high school, man. Yeah. I mean, how proud of how proud we are of that. I can't even, you're jumping ahead on this coach. Yeah, I know Yeah, but I can't even tell you how proud we are to like sign somebody like that. You know, somebody who's had so much success, you know, in the states as a player and, you know, as a player here in Norfolk and then for her to wanna stay, you know, that means staying close to the parents, staying close to the, and also staying close to pressure. You know, there's a lot of pressure playing in your hometown the entire time. So, you know, it just says a lot about her, first of all, but man, we're very proud that, you know, may is coming and then Allison and Isaac's out of Outta California as well. So yeah, with recruiting it's, it's, it's all in all hands on deck all the time. Always checking with former players, always checking with you know, a lot of our former players are under plane on the tour right now. So we're always touching in with them. Have you seen any good 16 year olds, any 17 year olds, you know, wherever it is. And then we usually try and fly and catch them at the next tournament and try and really make a presence. You know, like we have, we have shirts we wear at ODU, it says it, you know, for our matches, it says, Hey, ODU here, you know, but when we go recruiting, it says old dominion university, you know? So there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no nobody's confused.
Mike:so once you've identified those athletes, which obviously is very difficult, especially with the competition, you're going against beating those power fives. That's that's amazing. How do you sell them on the school and the program?
Dom Manilla:Well, you know, when you kind of you know, and all that stuff is just fluff, you know, like, you know, you know, we're to talking about programs that are a certain level and our Le our program's at a certain level, you know, so, you know, when, when you can kind of get through all that fluff of, you know, the, the power five and that kind of stuff and all those, those, like intensifiers you, you can really boil things down when you boil O you down OD is a really great place. It's a really great place, you know, especially for tennis, the, the, the location's good for tennis. It's a pretty moderate climate, you know, last year is a little cold, you know? So when we bring in, you know, really kind of a bummer when you recruit players on a climate, oh, it's warming all the time. We might have a month when it's cold, then you bring in a player in January and it's like one degree for, you know, three months, you feel a little bad, but you know, but for the most part, the climate is pretty favorable for tennis players. You know, it, there's a beach here. You know, it's a, it's a big school, but it's a small campus and it's, you know, there's a lot of things you can sell. It's a, it's a big city with a small town feel and you know, it's, there's a lot of things you can sell here when you boil. Like I said, when you, when you get rid of all that power five stuff, I mean, there's not many places I think that are much better than ODU to choose from. And I think that when these players at the level that we're recruiting at, they're very, they're very aware. They're very cognizant of things around them. This is individual sport. You know, this there's no passing the ball. There's no like, Hey, where are you going? What are you gonna do? You know, this is their individual choices. So when they get there and they meet with us and, and when we go over there and we meet with their families, we make sure there's a good connection. You know, we, we sell it, you know, we make sure we tell them what they want to hear, you know, in the cell. But you know, for the most part, we we just make sure that it's a situation that. You know, none of our recruits have ever really called and said, Hey, I chose old dominion. You know, that it just hasn't really happened for us. That way it's just kind of happened, you know, like, Hey, all of a sudden, Hey, okay, Hey, send me over your, your test scores. Hey, send me your transcripts. Okay. Hey, great. Hey, you're gonna talk to Amy. She's gonna, your she's gonna get you set. We did classes. Boom, boom, boom. And then Bing, boom. And then all of a sudden, yeah. Hey, I'm here. Yeah, you're here. Hey, great. Cool. I'll pick you up at the airport. Yeah. Hey coach. Yeah. So the final, the final box to check is like, just get her, just pick her up at the airport, get her on that plane, you know,
Mike:Once they get off that plane. Coming from Europe, imagine there's a little bit of culture shock or maybe even some language barriers that you have to, to, to work with.
Dom Manilla:What's that like it can be, you know, and I think for sure, every single one of them experiences it, but. The level of which they express it is different for everybody. And you know, some players really, really feel it more than others. And but for the most part, the international students that we have, you know, we recruited them, not because they're the same level of somebody that we could have gotten. You know, in Northern Virginia or, you know, in New Jersey, we, we don't recruit 'em for that. We recruit them because they are, you know, a level above that they're better than somebody that we could get here. And so when we bring them, it's usually they have tons of international experience, tons of international traveling experience. They've probably gone away to a boarding situation for a year, if not four years in some situations, or they've been taken up by their country and haven't seen their parents in seven years anyways. So a lot of players come from that type of situation. So the, the attitude about traveling for sports and going away for a couple months at a time and coming back, isn't really looked at the same as it is here. I know with my kids, if they're like, Hey man, I'm gonna, I'm gonna dip over to Europe for four months and I'm gonna come back for, I'll be back for Christmas dad, but I'm gonna dip away for another five or six. I don't know. I'll be like, whoa, you know, but you know, the attitude is very different when it comes to it because it's, it's a great opportunity. First of all, you know, we're giving 'em a full scholarship, a full cost and attendance. You know, and then, you know, and soon here with this ni L situation we're gonna have to be offering you know, some sort of ni L deals to 'em, you know, in order to maintain our level and to be relevant in the recruiting scene. You know? So again, I think they all experience some level of it though, because this is this is probably the most finite decision they've made with their tennis careers. Because from before that it was always week to week thing, Hey, I'm gonna go to this tournament and then I'm gonna go to this tournament. Then I'm gonna go to this tournament, then I'm gonna go back and train. Then I'm gonna go this, but now it's like, Hey, I've decided, and I've signed up to be here for a year. And then I'm expected to sign it for another year, you know, to like graduate. And that's a long time in a mind of a 17, 18 or 19 year old. And I think that's the biggest shock that they feel is to say, this is now my, my home, you know? And I think that they, they feel a little bit about that with the level of English. Excuse me. We haven't had too many issues lately. You know, our team GPA last spring was at 3 84 this year, I think it was about a three, five you know, we, we never really have any issues with, with grades or anything like that, actually a recruiting class or recent recruiting class, we, we chose between some recruits that we had, they had committed to us without asking them. And the cut up was like, Hey, you know, this person had a four. Oh, and this person didn't. And so we went with the four. Oh. And so, you know, there was a, there was a class that we, that was the cutoff. You had to have a four oh. To make our team. So with that level of commitment to academics, as usually also comes, you know, just that level of intellect that comes that type of person, that level of, you know, attention to, you know, their work ethic, you know, or, or in They're just that discipline. They lived their life with. So, you know, when they sign up say, Hey, I, I know that I need to go to, I'm gonna go to college. And I know I need to know English. That type of person usually gets on it and they make sure they're learning it. So by the time that test rolls around and whether it be a couple months, six months or a year from when they decided to make that jump to the, to the states and play college tennis, that they they're gonna be super prepared. So we're, we're usually, you know, forced enough to have great students and you know, very well rounded student athletes here.
Aaron:So coach, obviously you're busy all year round you and your assistant coaches, looking for talent to identify out of the whole world down to 20 individuals who fit the mold for old dominion. And you just gave us a little bit of an insight as to their mental makeup, their great in the classroom now from a physical obviously. You're recruiting tennis players. So from when we talked, talked to coach Ronnie, we asked him, Hey, what are you looking for in an athlete? He described some of those attributes and we talked to coach, coach Kane with golf. She talked a little bit about that as well. So when you've got those 20 athletes that you narrow it down to tell us what you're looking at there with regards to being an athlete, you playing the game of tennis,
Dom Manilla:well, to be a successful tennis player, especially at the level that you know, like you know, we're talking about all American levels and, you know, four out of our top six in our lineup this year ranked in the top 2,125. So you know, that, that level's very impressive. S Shaha Barran who played Yaka BOIC. Nearly missed being an all American last year in doubles and she's our number five. She wasn't in the top 125, the person who played number six first year Shaha Barran was a former fed cut player for Israel. So all these players are very, very good. And to be that level of, of a tennis player, you have to be in incredibly good shape and you have to be very athletic. So usually in my situation that comes with the types of results that we are recruiting. You know, like if we are recruiting a top 20 ITF junior, which means a top 20 junior in the world That person is, is, is I can pretty much tell you that 19 and a half of the, the top 20 juniors right now are physical specimens are real, are really in shape kids and can really do special things. Athletically, you know, they could probably, they probably do things, you know, better ambidextrously than most of us do. They see better, you know, there's just, all these things kind of come with that level. So when you start, you know, early on, yeah. You know, we recruited. you know, we looked at, we looked at players, we were looking for some size. We were looking for players who had parents who had athletic, who had, who had athletic backgrounds, you know, like, you know, anybody who was like in, you know, a sprinter or, you know, track and field or hockey players. We had hockey players, sprinters Maya's parents are, are, are athletes. Maya's mother was a sprinter mother's FA Maya's father was a football player of Virginia tech. You know, so, you know, those types of things went into it. But now, you know, we are trying to identify players, like we said, you know, those 20 in the world with the types of results, but the types of results we're looking for, don't come without that level of, of physicality. And, you know, we've said it for a few years. I don't know which coach gets credit for this quote, but it, it pops up different coaches saying it all the time. And so I've just latched onto it and it's 100% true. Good players don't get tired. And, you know, and we're recruiting good players, you know? And so I think that, that, that says a lot about it. Now, when we bring him here now, when we bring him here that we really lay it on, we really lay it on. You know, we really hit the weights harder. I think we hit the weights harder than probably any, any women's program in the country. A lot of that is due to a couple years ago, we signed on pat Ebury as our volunteer assistant coach. He was as our volunteer assistant strength coach, excuse me. Now he, his background is he was Agasy strength, coach San strength, coach Roddick strength coach. He was with U S T a he's a university, Kentucky strength coach hall of Famer. So he has an amazing background, I think, in Our oldest Chapman is one of his most recent clients that he's been working with, but we had him for a year. And so he was up here and he really just really taught me how to work the players very well. And you know how to work. 'em so hard and. That same summer before I started working with pat, excuse me, I'm going a little bit backwards. I had a fortunate, I was fortunate enough to travel to the tournament with Jamie lobe and Ashley. We hole two good American players to the city open in, in DC. And they were played a professional tournament and it was a, it was a rain delay. And so we were in there with all the top, you know, top 50 players in the world and SACA was there and Demetra and, you know, we were there and, you know, doing the medicine ball and stuff like this, but SACA who was kind of the up and coming player. She was in there just working out at hardcore, I mean, lifting big weight, big weight, slinging around big weights before the matches. And she did it for about three hours and she was just this monster of a woman. And then she went out there and absolutely kicked her opponent's ass. And I was just really inspired by that. So then I went out and hired. Pat. And so then pat came in and brought that professional level of, Hey, strength, conditioning, how you eat and you know what you do, what you wanna, you know, how you want to, you know, what you do when you step off the plane, what you do when you get to the hotel, you know what we're gonna do before the matches when you eat, how you, all these things, you know, pat helped us with, and it really rewired our program, you know, so much so, so that right now, like over the summer right now, I, I tell the players, Hey, if you have a choice to go play tennis or go to the weight room, go to the weight room, you know, go to the weight room. And I think that that probably spreads across all sports, you know, you know, the ones that are good. And so that, that stuff, yeah, the physicality. Of it. I don't know if you guys have seen our team, you know, up close, but they're very, they're very impressive. And you know, that's, that's been going on in our program for, for several years now and we're gonna continue that. And you know, it comes from the top, like to Tatiana, SAS, not, you know, Yuli was obviously very impressive as an athlete. But you know, Tanya is equally as impressive. So I think that she sets the tone for the rest of the team. Yeah,
Mike:I don't know about Aaron, but this was my first year attending O tennis matches. Men are women. Mine too. Was my first, every time I was there, you guys were just destroying so well, we haven't lost you doing
Dom Manilla:something right. We haven't lost at home since. 2018, I think so. I think we it's been a while. Yeah. So not, you're not the only one hasn't seen, so we're gonna be tested next year. We host Florida state, Kansas. Those are, those are two off my tough top of my head that are gonna be tough. So that, that streak that Street's gonna be tested, you know, at some point the Street's gonna get a little annoying, you know, I, I gotta make sure it's really quick, you know, you
Aaron:don't, it's not annoying to me. And we'll definitely, we'll definitely be there, especially if there's bagels, like there were last time
Dom Manilla:yeah. You just, you know, I, I just, I just don't want to, you know, I'm really proud of that streak, but, you know, we didn't really, we didn't pay much attention to it until it was like, oh yeah, you've guys have gone three years out losing homes like, oh shoot. You're right. You know, it's like, man, we're scheduled too easy, you know? So we, we gotta get that figured out. So, you know, or at least have some, you know, more marketing, we got some nice ones that will be tech at home this year, Missouri at home. So those, those are nice. We, you know, but, but we really either have to, so. Streak is a good streak. If we, if we survive next year, let's say, you know, so so you mentioned
Mike:her earlier but the 20, 22 class has two exciting Americans in it. Yeah. You got highly rated Alison Isaacs of Dana point California, and two times state champ and hometown girl, my bird of Moy high school. What type of players can fans expect out of these two?
Dom Manilla:Well, you know I think highly of all my players, I think they're all, all very good. And, you know, that's why we invite these people to be on our team and I'll start with Alison Alison. You know, we were recruited, we, we were, we were contacted by her agent, you know, that they use for recruiting pretty early on in her process that she was looking for a team that is ultra into just growing and getting better and has the type of players and coaches that really just eat, breathe, and sleep tennis. And that's really us, you know, we, we really are tennis fanatics and our assistant coaches here working right now, actually, and it's eight 15 on a Tuesday. So, you know I think that she was really attracted to that. And her family was very attracted to that because they've been very committed to her game for a very long time. You know, they sent her to the, to Everett academy where she's one of their top players for several years. And then she went back to California. I, when she was at Everett academy, she was number one 16 year old in the state of Florida, by the way. So she's, you know, very great acumen. And then she went back to California with coach Tom downs, and then she went to Texas. So they they've invested quite a lot of just, you know, you know, a lot of resources, all types of resources into her game. And so they wanted to make sure she went to a school as an American player that she wasn't just gonna get swallowed up and just kind of be part of the part of a group of players and just might just be kind of pushed aside and, and not really develop at the rate that she wanted to be. Cuz that's really, all her life has been about as tennis. That's how most of our players are, but Allison really, really expressed that differently. How important tennis was to her in her, you know, in, in her process of being recruited by us, she did it really well. It was very honest. And, and so I thought that she was a great type player for us and I, you know, and I think that her first year she's probably gonna fit in to the middle of the lineup and kind of the middle lineup for us is about the five spot. I think she's probably around there five, six, but you know, I never really, I can't even believe I said that. Who knows where she's gonna fit in. You know what I mean? When people come to college, you know, so many things change, you know, and you know, she's gonna be here for several months before she even, even plays a match for all dominion, you know as a team match, you know, so, you know, diets change, sleeping habits, change, everything changes. And you know, her coachings are gonna change. She's going away from parents. She's been around for a long time. So we'll, we'll, we'll see where she fits in, but she's been, she was a top American, she was a top 30 American you know, we've had a top 30 American on team recently, Victoria allez. You know, she, she was a transfer from university of Virginia. She was a top 30 player, a five star just like Alison and she fit. Very nicely at the top, you know, by the end of her career. And she was, she helped us go to the end NCAA tournament. So we're looking for that type of, of player from Allison, a very nice impact player for us with Maya. Maya is not gonna have the type of experience that some of these other players have had coming in. However, Maya has a ton of upside with that. You know, she's a winner first and foremost, you know, we know that, and also I've been fortunate enough to get to know her, her family over the years. And, you know, just, just Maya just checks a lot of boxes for us. You know, the type of person we're looking for at old dominion, you know, and you know, to be a two time state champion at ma and then to choose old dominion is very special. So we're very proud of that. And so I think the sky's the limit for both these players. We'll see how they adjust to college life. We'll see how. You know Allison didn't play high school tennis, you know, Allison played, you know, the, you know, a, a tour, a circuit and Maya played high school tennis. So we'll see how, you know, the two players adjust you know, to, to the college game and not only just college game, but, but you know, the highest level in the, in the nation. So we'll see outta there. I do
Mike:wanna note Maya if not for injury, she probably wins a third, right?
Dom Manilla:Yeah, she was, she was pretty well on her way. You know, you don't wanna disrespect the, the current champion, the person, the, the kid who won. But yeah, Maya was Maya's. Maya was looking like it was very looking very good for Maya. Yeah. I wouldn't have bet against her. I'll say that. Yeah, very unfortunate. She got hurt cause she was definitely gonna win her third, her third title, you know, which is in. Could have been her fourth, if you think about it, had it not been for COVID, you know? Yeah, Brooke Wilington had done that for a couple years before for us. She was a four time state champion who was on our squad. I always thought that was really cool.
Mike:that's super impressive. Winning as a, freshman's gotta be so difficult, but
Dom Manilla:don't know. We also also have, we also have one more spot to fill, so we have one more recruit that we're looking for in this recruit. We've, we've really been sitting on for a long time. So not this, this recruit per se, but this spot, you know, we're really looking for another, another top player. You know, the standard set by, you know, Yulia this year to be a great player at old doin is very tough. You know, Yu's all American and singles and doubles. Let me brag about Yuli real quick. Like I mean, Yu Yulia, she had 92 wins second all time at O two time conference player of the year, four time all first time singles, four time all first time doubles. And she was ranked number one in a country this year in, in doubles with Tanya, you know, so it's just, and you know, again, all Americans, so, you know, These players and these freshmen, they see that, you know, and they see, oh, they're number, one's an all American, this great. Oh, shoot. Their number two is also an all American, oh, shoot. Their number threes ranked. Oh my God. Their number fours ranked their number five played fed cup. So there is a feeling when they get here, man, I gotta get it going or else, you know, I'm just, I'm just not gonna fit in and you know, so there is that, that, that, that, that, that sense that comes with them. And it's a lot, you know, we, we practice a lot. We push a lot but that's what they've signed up here to come to hold the minion. That's what they've signed up for.
Aaron:So what I'm hearing coach here is if you are a top high school player, either in this country or out of this country, then older, the minute is a place that you should be looking. Oh,
Dom Manilla:yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, we we've, we've signed top players, you know, for several years now, you know, so I think that's, and that's something I'm very proud of. That's you know, there's, there's some brands that you can, that you wear and there's some brands in Europe that you can wear that get recognized as well. Like on the tennis scores in Europe, if you wear a university of Virginia logo who won the title again this year, I think that's their fourth in the last 10 years. It's, you know, kind of, eh, you know, but if you wear a university of Virginia logo or a Baylor shirt, Or a UCLA shirt, people even in Europe are like, oh, I, you know, does your kid play there? That kid, you know, your kid must be really good. You know? And my goal is always like, Hey, when those parents wear ODU an old dominion university, cause I don't care about the ODU ones, are they, you get an old dominion university, but if the parents have old dominion university, you know, par other people, other people playing tennis know that, Hey man, you know, that's where good players are, you know, just like the bailers and those types of things. So yeah, I think that that's, that's part of our goal and yeah, I think that that players do notice us, especially when we're taking out these big time teams.
Aaron:So Mike mentioned it earlier that we had the opportunity to go to our first U tennis matches It's a fantastic facility. I mean, we really enjoy it's beautiful and. You just had the outside resurface. We noticed we were walking by a couple months ago. I think it was probably right before conference tournament, but they had painted 'em all nice and blue or certain resurfaced them. Does that play a big role in, you know, the day to day operation of you and the team and, and everything of how, how great that facility
Dom Manilla:is? Well, it's a fantastic facility. It sure is. And so it just makes everybody's life easier and more and more productive to be honest, you know, like we have, we have the resources in facilities, you know, to, to get it done. We have eight indoor courts and we have 12 outdoor courts, the 12 outdoor courts. We'd like to get a little bit more competitive with, with, you know, more, more, you know permanent seating and these types of things that a lot of our, the players, places that we compete against have, you know, when you bring a recruit to. A place and, you know, you show them the courts or something. When we bring 'em inside, we can say, Hey, yeah, we can bring 'em on the court too and say, yeah, you're gonna play here. And there's gonna be a hundred people up there, a hundred people up there and you know, the scoreboard's gonna be going and there's gonna be music. And it's just a great energy and there's gonna be 15 people here. And the, you know, and, and they can envision themselves playing it inside. You know, they can see that when we go outside, we don't have that vision as much. So we'd like to kind of tighten things up, make it a much more intimate experience. Permanent seating helps with that scoreboards actually help with that without you even realizing it, it kind of just kind of gives it that 3d border almost, and you know, lighting those types of things. But, you know, for the most part, this facility has just been wonderful. I never played a match here. You know, I, I, I graduated right before it opened. It was here, but we weren't in it yet. So, you know, I'm very, I feel very fortunate that it, you know, my first head coaching job was here with a facility like this, cuz holy smokes. But you know, it's all in arms race. And I tell you what, man, a lot of, a lot of places have a lot of nice, nice things now. And I, you know, I think our indoor facility, we are still at the, in the top echelons of indoor facilities for sure. Our outdoor that we need to catch up a little bit with. Especially if we want to keep trying to bring these types of recruits and who are visiting these, these types of places that we set are they're visiting.
Mike:So speaking of this facility we were gonna talk about budget next. When can we expect we, I know Bruce mentioned the scoreboard to us at that Penn state match. Can we expect that in the next year or two or,
Dom Manilla:you know, I'm not sure, you know, spending money post COVID is just such a different thing, you know, especially if it's on Capital projects, let alone like a non, you know, it's a, it's a capital project, but you know, not something that you know, is like super necessary, you know, it is, we do need it. We absolutely need it. But, you know, spending, you know, it's gonna be a hundred thousand dollars for a scoreboard and then probably another $20,000 for the install. And, you know, the way everything's wired out there with fire lanes and stuff like that, probably have to do a study. So, you know, it's gonna be a lot of money for a scoreboard. So, you know, I think we still, you know, maybe next year that'd be great. That's great to think about, I think that's in our, our minds that we're thinking like, Hey, let's get this done, but if it, if it didn't happen for the next three years, I also wouldn't be shocked either just, just post COVID, just the way things are working and, you know, you know, Ricky and football's trying to navigate this ni situation and, and Jeff is as well. And so, you know, even so now with this, it's like, man, you know, just, you know, What do you, you, it's very sensitive, which you ask people money for now, you know? And so it's, it's just, that's just where we are as an Olympic sport at all. Dominion.
Mike:Going back to budget is that something you're managing mostly on your own or you working with the outside department on that? Like,
Dom Manilla:so, so what, what do you mean by that question? Do you mean like, Hey, do we, do we raise our money or do they give us an operating budget or, or a line out of budget? Well, both cause
Mike:the, we know you got a lot of
Dom Manilla:travel.
Mike:Yeah. That gets expensive. yeah. Yeah. Hosting tournaments that that can get expensive. Yes. Are you going out in fundraising and then that's what you're working with or. So,
Dom Manilla:so I we're working from no knowledge here, so, oh, no problem. I get, I get an operating, I get an operating budget from our, our department. I used to have to turn in, Hey, how are you planning on spending this money lately? I haven't needed to do that cause we've been doing a good job with that type of stuff. So we get our operating budgets. And from there we start picking away at the, the things that, you know, like the capital things we need throughout the season, we need balls. We need you know, single stakes. We need a higher officials. We knock all that stuff out and usually. Pretty close to the spring season. That's all burnt up. you know, spent it on recruiting over the summer, those types of things. And then we have to go into the money that we've raised and for us to compete at the same level, as some of these other programs that we're competing against, you know, you and Aaron, you said like, how do you do it year after, after year? Well, there's really only one way to do it. You gotta do it the right way. Cuz if not, it's all just, it's all the ESEI and you know what you got there, man, you know? So we, we gotta do it the right way and doing it the right way costs a lot of money. So, you know, on top of what, what, you know, wood and Ken brown give our, our program, we have to, we have to raise another 75 to a hundred on top of that every single year. And we've been fortunate enough to know the right people. It's to be able to take of that for us and, and you know, who are like to win and see our vision and really like they're team members.
Aaron:So let's have a little bit more fun with a couple of these questions.
Dom Manilla:Okay.
Aaron:Give us your best tennis
Dom Manilla:story. Best tennis story. You know, you'll pro you know, winning conference titles are really good. You know, those are great. You know, this year when Yu and Tanya became number one in the country, that was very special to me. You know, Yu is somebody I coached for five years, you know, I, she came to me when she was 17 years old. And she graduated with her master's degree just this year. And so when she became number one in the country over, you know, and she wasn't recruited really by anybody. And so she was kind of a, she kind of came outta nowhere and we developed her and we got her to number one in the country. So we felt very good about that. That was a little feather in my head. I felt very good about that, but. Conference titles, man. You know, those are good. Also I played a tournament with, with Johnny Mack one time and that was a lot of fun. That was pretty cool. So I played a double, he was my doubles partner. in
Aaron:real life. Is he like, you know what I've seen on TV or completely different person when you're
Dom Manilla:playing? That's pretty much him, man. Thats pretty much him was shocked too. I thought, oh, it's, it's all gonna be a, you know, a thing, you know, and then not that's him. That's it very, very cool. Very, very nice. Very nice. Very cool. Always, always willing to help you as
Mike:long as you're not an official, right?
Dom Manilla:Yeah, yeah. Or a tennis or a tennis racket. That's that's a lot of his tennis guys and officials though, you know, it's a, it's a curse. I dunno. what's the favorite court you ever played on? Favorite court I've ever played on? You know? I, I like it here at ODU, cuz I've been here for so long, but there's a court that I grew up on. That's no longer there that if I, I think I could hit on, I think I would, I would like to hit on that, but it it's gone now. Also I took a, I went, I took a recruiting visit to England one time and highly took me over this cool place. And we hit on these grass courts. And man, I can't even remember the names, name of the place, but it was just a very different tennis experience. It was that very Hoy toy, white London, tennis lawn, tennis field to it. And I had never experienced that. It was, it was just kind of, it was just kind of neat and memorable, but those, I think that would be, those are the courts that I, I remember the most. Actually courts, I remember the most in college are, you know, as a coach are ones that we lose on where I've lost on the courts at North Carolina, man. I know exactly like. How that Jordan logo painted between quarts five and six. Like some of 'em like where they went out of the lines a little bit. And I, I know exactly that logo from just looking at it, you know, sometimes. So it's funny how you, how you remember things, you know,
Mike:so coach we're not sure if you're aware, but our group we take fundraising seriously, a lot of that's for ODU, but we also host toys for tots fundraisers in the fall at the oyster
Dom Manilla:bowl.
Mike:We, we really love raising money. What is your favorite charity? And could you tell Monar nation a little bit
Dom Manilla:about. Well, my favorite charity over the past several years has been anything pretty much anything to do with special Olympics and especially special Olympics, Virginia. And that's something that my my entire family's been involved with. I think it was kind of a natural progression with all of us being so involved in sports that we got involved with special Olympics, but my father hosts a lot of special Olympics events throughout the year. And he is also the, the the head coach, the lead coach of team USA, special Olympics. So that's something we've always held pretty close to us. We always did a couple big events every year. Slowed down a little bit with COVID, but we're picking it up again this year soon, but so it's always been special Olympics that we've it's kind of been closest to me in our program. That's a great call. That's awesome. Yeah.
Aaron:So coach, you've got 15, 20 minutes. The kill on campus and you're sitting there and you don't have anything to do. Where's your favorite place on the campus to go?
Dom Manilla:So I got a, I got a few places I really like, but you know, like when I, when I think about it, it's really kind of anything around Kaufman mall, you know, I'm really excited to see what they do with web center to say, they're gonna smash that and redo it. So we'll see what happens. I haven't even seen any renderings if you have you guys. But they've been saying that not of that one, not yet couple years, they've been saying they're gonna crush it, but, but you know, kind of anything around Kaufman mall, I really like, you know, it's this rule on my team. You can't ride a line if you're a player. So I like to ride if you're a player, if you're a player. So, so I, I like to zip around on those lime every once in a while. Cause I know they're pretty dang dangerous, you know, but, but when I, I, I really find myself kind of just zipping around the mall a little bit Kaufman mall, and then I go over that little bridge over by the science building and see all those turtles there. I don't know. They, they gotta have a thousand turtles in that little pond there. And then there's the little orchid Conservator there and there's a greenhouse and that's pretty cool. So I, I go in there and I I've sat down in there in that greenhouse a few times is pretty fun. And you, but really anything around C mall I think is really great. And you know, over the years, cuz I've been here 20 years and Mike you've been here a long time as well. You know, just how, just how everything's filled in, you know, so, you know, not, not only the parking lots, but you know, mm-hmm, just the, you know, they filled in the parking lots, but then they trained, they planted trees 20 years ago too. And so all those trees have come in. It's just, it's just become a really beautiful campus. So I, I, I really, I really enjoy it.
Mike:All right. So we've both been here a while. You gotta have at least one of your favorite restaurants on campus and in Norfolk let's hear 'em
Dom Manilla:well, campus has gotta be, you know not there as much anymore though. I'm a little bit older, but probably perfectly Frank. So, you know, on campus. Yeah. You know, I mean, I think that's, everybody's
Mike:I think, I think they need to sponsor us
Dom Manilla:at this point. They, they do everybody
Mike:they've been mentioned in every episode.
Dom Manilla:I think we're sponsoring them. We just don't even know it.
Aaron:Did you know that they have a good Caesar salad?
Dom Manilla:No, but I'm not gonna order the Caesar four
Aaron:oh, okay. Probably town. How in town Mike's gotta know you're out in town,
Dom Manilla:one you know, off campus. So, you know, off campus. Man, I really like no frill, you know, I never, I don't think I've ever had anything. I didn't like it. No frill, but you know, I, you know, I hate saying I love Cogans don't hate to say I love Cogans.
Mike:Do you have a preference between north and the original?
Dom Manilla:The, I think it's north, the one here by dirty flow and yeah, the north one. Yeah, little more space. And a few more people our age, Mike, I don't know. yeah. Well have
Mike:doc still say they, they have their Alliance to the OG. Cogans just because of all their great memories of their twenties there, so, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I had to ask.
Dom Manilla:Nah, it wasn't my place in college. Why I wasn't over there too much in college, so yeah. But I knew it was there. Definitely
Aaron:knew. So what's your favorite
Dom Manilla:tennis movie? You gotta be honest with you. I never seen one, man. Have you?
Aaron:Actually I haven't seen it yets on my wishlist with king Williams, I think, or,
Dom Manilla:oh, I haven't seen that yet. I need, I haven't, I'm a little embarrassed. I haven't seen that, but yeah. Are there any other ones, Mike? There's a few, I don't know. We ate many choices. There's a, that like a couple years,
Mike:like, yeah, that one's for, that was for the women that wasn't for the men.
Aaron:I guess that wasn't a fair
Dom Manilla:question. Yeah. Oh man. You know, got one.
Mike:You can answer. I won've got one. You can answer. I will will say the one about the Williams sister's father. They focus a lot on the, I think I it's one of the 10th academies in Florida, but I don't think it's voluntary. It's another, it's another one of them. Yeah. Rick
Dom Manilla:Macy. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Rick Macy. Yeah.
Mike:So that's a big part of the movie, their time in Florida.
Dom Manilla:I, I gotta see that. I I'm embarrassed that I haven't seen that.
Mike:I think I ran quarantine in line at elation. Getting a year to go. So do you have a favorite brewery in the
Dom Manilla:area? Yes. I like, I like smart mouth. I think I like the most there's supporters of our men's program by the way. So but I, I like all the, I like all the breweries around here. I, I actually haven't been drinking that much beer the last couple years since COVID, I think I drank too much beer since at, during COVID, you know, that initial shutdown. Yeah. You know, that, that springtime, you know, going into summer when everybody was really shut down, you know, like that April may. Right. You know, so I don't know. I might, I might have bearded myself out then, you know, I'm not sure well, when
Aaron:we, when we talk with Ricky, he, we fi figured out that he is a big fan of the colsh. If, if, if me, you, Mike, and the rest of the monarchists were coming up with our. Know, monarchy brew. What would
Dom Manilla:it tell us what it would be? Me, you know, I'll usually you know, I'll usually start with an IPA and then I'll, if, if I gotta slow down, I'll go to the logger route. I'll go to the logger route. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not gonna go cold style. That's a little, that's a little tooth light for me. I don't know.
Aaron:Hopefully Ricky's not gonna listen to this one. speaking of other coaches, if you had to pick one of your fellow coaches at old dominion to be what you would think to be the most formidable tennis player that you would have to face, if you had to pick one of those, you think is the best player, who would they be
Mike:and why? Honestly, you can't pick Dom Miller obviously.
Dom Manilla:Yeah. Yeah.
Aaron:Can't be, can't a tennis
Dom Manilla:coach. Can't can't anyway. So I would say Chow. I bet you, Fred from volleyball is probably good. You know, his dad's a player. I know that I saw Fred walking in here the other day and I don't know if he saw me, but he had like a vintage racket. You know, you don't really have that. The racket he had and the way he was holding it, I was like, oh man, he's a player. You know's what he is doing. I haven't seen him hit a ball, but I think Fred could be pretty good. You know? I bet you Ricky's good. You know, Ivy league guy, you know, he, he probably knows how to play tennis. I don't know. You know, just my gut. You know, Bruce, Bruce Stewart plays a lot of tennis, you know, he's he's he comes in here and plays quite a bit, actually. Yeah, really. And Ted Ted Alexander used to be a tennis teaching professional.
Dom:I
Mike:learned something new every day.
Dom Manilla:Yeah. Blaine Taylor Taylor was a high school tennis coach. I learned, yeah. Bla told me that today. Couldn't believe it's.
Mike:Oh man. So keep it on the fun one. We've been asking everybody, everyone loves music. Do you have a favorite musical artist? And do you have a bucket list concert you want to go
Dom Manilla:to man? I listen to all types of music, literally all types of music, you know, slip, not country raps, you know, on the way over house, listening to Billy strings, you know, kind of a, a bluegrass guy. I really like him, but I think if I could see anybody right now, I mean, just to see, I'd probably like to see like Jay-Z and Beyonce, maybe, you know, Jay-Z's getting a little old, you know, I'd like to see him before. It's not that. He is not there yet. I've seen Kanye seen Kendrick seen Lil Wayne seen Drake, never seen Jay though. So I'd like, I think I'd like to see him and obviously Beyonce queen beat. That'd be cool to see her. So I think, I think that's who I'd like to see everybody else. I think I could, everybody else think I could pull off in some way else, you know, all the people I think I can see Billy strings in Virginia Beach at the end of the summer or something, but man, I don't know how I'm gonna see Jay-Z Billy strings
Mike:tore the roof off the Ted earlier this year.
Dom Manilla:Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Dude. He's he's. He's great, man. He's great.
Mike:And I, I think someone from the Ted told me that they're planning on trying to get him back for multiple nights cause of how popular that show was. Oh,
Dom Manilla:fantastic. That's great. And all the beer they sold yeah, I bet it's a good it's fiduciary for sure. So I, there he's in Virginia Beach with Willie Nelson, I think. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think that's my list, you know, then maybe, maybe like Garth Brooks or something, you know, like eight time entertainer, country, music of the year or something. Yeah, that'd be a good one.
Mike:So, coach, this is a fan made podcast for the fans. If
Dom Manilla:you
Mike:could ask Monarch fans to do one thing to help keep the success of ODU women's tennis at the level you have built, what
Dom Manilla:would it
Mike:be?
Dom Manilla:Well, I would, I would, you know, first of all, I'd tell, you know, I think it'd be thanks, you know, thanks for making us relevant O you thanks for making women's tennis relevant at ODU, you know We're a very good team, but you know, there's a lot of very good teams. There's a lot of very good women's tennis teams that are very silent on their campuses. And you know, old dominion it's, it's been very different for us, you know, and you know, our old dominion women's tennis is, is relevant in old dominion athletics. So thank you very much for that. You know, that's, that's a lot because of the fans, it's because there's shares of posting, you know, we post something, you guys share it, you guys follow us, you come to our matches. We're one of the most attended teams in the country when it comes to attendance for women's tennis matches, for sure. You know, and I think it's just things like that. So just please just keep sharing our posts, sharing our stories and come and coming to the matches. And thank you so much for making women's tennis relevant here at old dominion.
Aaron:Absolutely coaching. Hopefully before next season, we can get you to come back on maybe and give us a little preview of, what's to come and get Monarch nation excited to come back and actually see. One of your one or more of your
Dom Manilla:matches in person. That'd be fantastic. Thanks so much, guys. All right.
Mike:Thanks for coming on, coach. Go monarchs, go monarchs, go
Dom Manilla:monarchs.