Minium: Jess Livsey Strives For ODU Swimming Success Both out and in of the Pool

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – She was 5 years previous when her sister obtained a brand new swim swimsuit, and when Jessica Miller noticed her sister in her new outfit, she instantly wished one, too.

“My Mom was like, ‘Well, she got a new swim suit because she joined the swim team,’” Jess mentioned. “And she added, ‘You can join the swim team if you’d like.’”

Jess mentioned sure, and within the 4 a long time since, has hardly been too removed from a pool.

Jess Livsey, as she is now referred to as, has been Old Dominion’s males’s and girls’s swim coach for seven seasons, and by each measure, her tenure at ODU has been successful.

Both her males’s and girls’s groups have set a excessive bar for tutorial achievement, for doing good deeds and for his or her college spirit, and so they do fairly effectively within the water as effectively.

With a crew stocked with swimmers majoring in well being sciences, math and engineering, the ladies had a composite grade level common of three.67 and the lads a 3.4 within the 2024-25 college yr.

Moreover, Zach Redding and Bryce Mortimer have been named second-team Scholar All-Americans.

The males’s crew led the nation in hours spent doing volunteer work locally in 2024-25 – that features feeding the homeless and mentoring or studying to highschool youngsters. And this fall, the lads set a crew document with a 3.52 grade level common.

The swimmers would be the most college spirited of all ODU student-athletes. The males’s swim crew clothes up in overalls and cheers ultimately zone at soccer video games.

Both the women and men have worn swim fits at volleyball matches and once more, cheered ultimately zone.

But Jess mentioned maybe the good factor they’ve performed is when her ladies wore swim fits ultimately zone of a soccer sport throughout a pregame downpour – they have been nearly the one spectators within the stands on the time as rain poured down on them.

“They sent me a picture in the stands in their swim suits and their caps,” Jess mentioned. “I was like, ‘What are you guys doing?’ They responded, we might as well represent. We can handle getting wet. I thought, good for them. Swimmers, sometimes they just put it out there.”

The Monarchs do their justifiable share of successful races as effectively.

Mortimer received the 200 breaststroke within the ASUN swim meet this previous weekend whereas Addison Elliott broke the ODU document within the 100 backstroke. The males’s 800 free relay crew of Benjamin Schattenberg, Grey Bremer, Nick Martin and Redding broke a college document.

Redding set the varsity document within the 100 butterfly and the lads’s 200 freestyle relay crew of Redding, Jordan Smolsky, Robby Young and Mortimer additionally broke the varsity document.

One can hardly think about a greater position mannequin for the 52 younger women and men that she coaches.

An ODU alumnus, Jess is a working mom with two younger youngsters who, together with assistant coach Elizabeth Ray, is accountable for two groups.

Swimmer Lauren Masters, a junior from Winchester, Virginia who’s in ODU’s occupational remedy program, mentioned Jess instructions respect due to how a lot she cares.

“She’s very involved in all of our lives,” she mentioned. “She knows everything about us and is always there for us. She really cares.”

But she added that Jess additionally calls for laborious work.

“She has high expectations for all of us.”

Redding, who’s in ODU’s nursing program, mentioned Jess “is somebody who at all times has your again and can at all times rally behind you.

“She is always on your side and by your side giving us positive reinforcement.”

Jess describes herself as an “Army brat” who moved round a lot of the nation as she grew up as a result of her father was within the Army. The household ultimately settled in Northern Virginia, the place she was a standout swimmer at Lake Braddock High School.

She was recruited to swim at ODU by long-time Coach Carol Withus and was a four-year letter winner earlier than graduating in 2004.

She spent 5 years teaching at different faculties – Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and Davidson College simply exterior of Charlotte – earlier than returning to ODU as an assistant coach.

When Withus retired in 2019, Jess was named the pinnacle coach.

Her daughter, Lorelei, is 10 and son, Matthew, is seven and she or he is married to David Livseyy, who was a standout swimmer at South Carolina and whose dad and mom each swam at ODU.

Truth be instructed, Jess says she ultimately would have taken the plunge and joined the swim crew and not using a new swim swimsuit.

“I come from a long line of swimmers,” she mentioned. “My grandmother nonetheless holds Illinois state data that may by no means be damaged as a result of they modified the pool distance.

“Swimming helped me when I was young and we were moving around the country. There were two places where we knew we could find people, could find new friends, either the youth center or the swim team. So, I always joined the local swim team.”

She was a prodigy who at age 12, was swimming in nationwide meets.

“I was on a national team when I was in high school and traveled the world,” she mentioned. “I got to see some really cool places. It sounds crazy now, but my parents were putting me on a plane when I was like 12 or 13 years old to go swim all over the country.”

Jess had at all times wished to grow to be a chef and journey the world on a cruise ship. But as she coached youth groups whereas in highschool, and later whereas at ODU, she realized, teaching was her calling.

“I got into summer league coaching when I was 15 and just fell in love with the relationships. Carol (Withus) was the driving force for me. She said to put it all down on paper.”

With the assistance of ODU’s educational advisors, she obtained licensed as a coach, and the remaining is historical past.

Raising two youngsters whereas teaching two groups “is challenging,” she mentioned.

“But you just have to make it work. We live in Colonial Place, where David grew up, and his Mom is nearby. My parents live in Suffolk. We have a great support group.”

ODU might have one of many nation’s oldest swimming pools utilized by a college and the Monarchs are fiercely happy with a facility they name “The Scrap.”

The J.C. Scrap Chandler pool is called for the long-time athletic director and swim and monitor coach on the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary, as ODU was recognized till 1962.

The pool was opened 1970 as a part of the now demolished ODU fieldhouse, however has been completely renovated. The plumbing was ripped out, the pool tile changed together with the sound system, lighting and scoreboard. The locker rooms have been not too long ago reworked and a crew assembly added.

“It’s an old pool, but we love it,” Jess mentioned. “It has history. We love swimming here. We’ve been thinking of ways to help raise money and someone mentioned naming rights for our pool. But I was like, we can’t not call it the Scrap.”

Many of her swimmers start preparations this week for the National Invitation Championship, held in Ocala, Florida from March 12-14. It is akin to basketball’s NIT, and a comparatively new occasion, she mentioned, that offers swimmers who might not high quality for the NCAA meet an opportunity to compete.

“It has created another postseason option to the NCAA meet that has really helped us be able to open the eyes of athletes as to what their options are,” she mentioned. “It has allowed them to set their goals higher. And our teams have really done well. We’ve definitely come a long way. We’re sort of at the tail end of a rebuilding phase for the men and our women, we’re sort of in the middle of rebuilding. We have 26 girls on our team and only four are seniors. But not all of our goals are in the water. Our whole team, they’re all genuine people. They’re here for the right reasons. They really do a great job of achieving so many things that aren’t in the water. Our kids love getting out there in the community and helping people.”

She mentioned she will be able to’t take credit score for the success of her swimmers, however then tells a narrative that reveals, certainly, she ought to obtain credit score.

“My first semester as a head coach, the men’s GPA was something like a 2.8,” she mentioned. “We were in Florida, on our winter training trip, when the grades came out and I pulled them all aside. I said to them, ‘What are we doing here guys? You are so much better than this.’ Sometimes you just need to be reminded that you do have the ability. Collectively, they decided that they were going to do better. And they really have.”

Minium is ODU’s Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at [email protected] or comply with him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram

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