By Harry Minium<\/p>\n
ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 At least 1,000 and perhaps as many as 2,000 Old Dominion fans will be in the stands today at 5 p.m. at Camping World Stadium when the Monarch football team takes on South Florida in the 11th annual StaffDNA Cure Bowl.<\/p>\n
But I doubt many will root as hard for ODU as 12-year-old Delaney Thrift, a seventh grader at Great Bridge Middle School. When she learned the Monarchs were headed to Orlando, she immediately told her parents, \u201cWe have to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was telling people that we were going to Orlando even before we agreed to go,\u201d said her mother, Courtney Thrift.<\/p>\n
Of course, Eric and Courtney Thrift readily agreed. They\u2019ve been season ticket holders since ODU began playing football in 2009, and while that was before Delaney was born, no one they know is as passionate about Monarch football as their daughter.<\/p>\n
When ODU lost to Western Kentucky in overtime in the 2023 Famous Toastery Bowl in Charlotte, North Carolina, \u201cDelaney cried her eyes out,\u201d Courtney said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe cried harder than she did at my father\u2019s funeral. She just loves ODU.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trip will cost the Thrift family about $2,000, when you take in air fare, hotels and meals.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this is a family vacation trip for us,\u201d Eric said. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t miss this game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be cheering as loudly as we can for ODU tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a good thing, because ODU fans will be badly outnumbered, probably by a factor of 10 to 1. USF is but a short drive from Orlando and thousands of USF fans are expected to make the trip.<\/p>\n
Given the enthusiasm ODU fans displayed Tuesday night at a party sponsored by the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation, the Monarch faithful will be heard. Ted Alexander, the radio Voice of the Monarchs, gave the group a pep talk that ended with people yelling the \u201cODU\u201d chant.<\/p>\n
The ODU fans were located in an upstairs portion of the Sports and Social at Pointe Orlando, a local sports bar. Diners downstairs looked up, trying to figure out what was going on.<\/p>\n
ODU has a number of alumni in South Florida and many are coming to the game. Stephanie Carr Field, a former ODU cheerleader, is a school teacher in the Miami area, but is taking a day off to get to the game.<\/p>\n
Tommy Conrad, the former ODU basketball guard and longtime NBA scout, and Stephanie\u2019s former classmate, \u201cshamed me into coming. He said if he\u2019s driving here from South Carolina, that the least I could do was come to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
She will join Conrad and others at an ODU Alumni Association tailgate outside the stadium beginning at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n
More than 100 ODU students have tickets to the game provided by the University, including 50 student-athletes who tradtionally make a ton of noise at Monarch athletic events. The ODU Swim team will bus over from Sarasota, where they have been competing and working out this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many former ODU football players will attend, including two of ODU\u2019s all-time best players, who flew from Virginia to attend: former placekicker Jarod Brown<\/a>, who set an ODU record with a 54-yard field goal in a game at Pitt and is ODU\u2019s leading scorer with 380 points; and Jonathan Plisco<\/a>, who was a three-time All-American punter who is the all-time FCS leader with a 45-yard punting average.<\/p>\n Brown is a business development analyst for CAE USA in Newport News and Plisco director of FP&A for ADP in Norfolk.<\/p>\n \u201cWe both love ODU and ODU football,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAnd this team has been so much fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n Virgil Tyler, who flew from Northern Virginia to Orlando, has been a season-ticket holder since 2009, but he\u2019s coming to his first bowl game. He attends every home game but rarely goes on the road with the Monarchs.<\/p>\n He earned a degree in mechanical engineering in 1990 and is coming in part to support his alma mater.<\/p>\n \u201cThis team has a high-flying offense,\u201d he said. \u201cI just like this team. They\u2019ve really done well.<\/p>\n \u201cThis year turned out to be a really good year and our defense, it\u2019s so tenacious.\u201d<\/p>\n But he has another reason to be in Orlando.<\/p>\n He met his wife, Cheryl Jackson Tyler, at ODU and she passed away seven years ago from breast cancer. And the Cure Bowl raised nearly $7 million for cancer research in its first 10 years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe loved to go to football games together,\u201d said Virgil, who started a foundation in his wife\u2019s name that gives scholarships to STEM high school students.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want to miss the game in Orlando because this is where we used to vacation. When I heard the game was going to be played here, I said to myself, \u2018I gotta go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The Thrift family often travels to road football and men\u2019s basketball games. But Delaney is an up-and-coming softball player who plays for the Coastal Marlins travel squad, \u201cso it\u2019s becoming harder to do that,\u201d Courtney said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we wanted to support the team and give her the opportunity to attend this game. We haven’t had a winning season in a while, so this team has been a joy to watch.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew that if ODU won, she would be so upset at not being there.”<\/p>\n \u00a0And hopefully, she\u2019ll have no reason to cry this time around.<\/p>\n \u00a0The ODU Bowl Season is presented by\u00a0Miller\u2019s Home Comfort<\/a>. For over 40 years, Miller\u2019s has remained a powerful presence in the Hampton Roads community. From our initial start as a simple oil company to our growth as one of the area\u2019s leading heating, cooling, IAQ and plumbing businesses, we’ve thrived because our customers trust our knowledge, honesty, reliability and professionalism.<\/p>\n Minium is ODU’s Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at\u00a0hminium@odu.edu<\/a>\u00a0or follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n To see past stories from Minium,\u00a0CLICK HERE<\/a><\/p>\n