Speaking November 11th is Dr. Camden Wood Selig who joined Old Dominion in 2010 as Director of Athletics at Old Dominion University, where his “Championship Effort” philosophy has helped to guide the department as one of the most respected and successful intercollegiate programs in the nation.
During his tenure, Selig has directed the University’s move to Conference USA, overseen the transition of the football program to the FBS level, and led major athletic facility expansion and enhancement for virtually all 18 programs.
One of the most dramatic and gratifying accomplishments for Selig has been the academic success of the 18 intercollegiate teams. Highlights from 2016-17 include:
– 172 student athletes (36%) earned Dean’s List honors with a 3.4 or higher GPA.
– ODU led all C-USA schools, for the fifth straight year, with 286 student athletes on the league’s honor roll with a 3.0 or higher.
– Baseball, women’s lacrosse and men’s basketball finished in the top 10 percent in their respective sports in APR scores, while eight teams earned one-year scores of 1000, and all teams scored above 950.
Monarch teams have performed well on the playing fields under Selig, highlighted by:
• Ten Conference Championships since 2010, including men’s soccer earning ODU’s first C-USA title in 2014 and again in 2017 and football’s CAA regular season title in 2012. Women’s lacrosse won its first Atlantic Sun Championship in 2016, while women’s golf won its first conference championship and made their first appearance in the NCAA Championships in 2017. The men’s tennis team won the C-USA Championship in 2017, winning a conference championship for the first time in 24 years.
• 63 Post Season Appearances, led by two consecutive FCS championships appearances by football in 2011 and 2012, a Final Four appearance by field hockey in 2011, four straight NCAA appearances by men’s soccer, the men’s basketball team’s semifinal appearance in the NIT at Madison Square Garden in 2015 and 30 wrestlers qualifying for the NCAA championships since 2010.
• The football Monarchs finished the 2016 season 10-3 and won the Popeyes Bahamas Bowl, the first bowl game in school history.
In Selig’s tenure there have also been many firsts, or achievements that haven’t been done in a number of years, including:
• First ever regular season Top 25 national men’s basketball ranking (Jan. 5, 2015).
• Baseball ranked in the Top 25 nationally for first time since 2007 (May, 2017).
• Football Bowl Game first one ever with win in the Bahamas Bowl (Dec. 23, 2016).
• First ever NCAA Women’s Lacrosse appearance & Conference championship (2016).
• First ever NCAA Women’s Golf appearance & Conference championship (2017).
• First in C-USA with number of 3.0 or greater student-athletes for 4 consecutive years with 286 in 2016-17 (2017).
• Jennie Simms (2017) WBB, first AP All-American since Shareese Grant in 2005 and Jennie Simms first conference player of the year since Lucienne Berthieu in 2002.
• Rachel Eckert became the first ODU diver to qualify for the NCAA Championships (2015).
• Adam Moundir is the first men’s tennis player to qualify for the NCAA Singles men’s tennis championship since Alex Seleznev in 2006 (May, 2017).
• Chris Mecate and Alexander Richardson both earn wrestling All-American honors in 2015, first time ODU had two All-Americans since 1991.
• Chris Mecate was the first wrestler to earn NCAA All-American honors in back-to-back years since Mike McCarthy in 1976 (2016).
• Men’s Soccer won their second Conference USA Championship in four years (November, 2017)
• Men’s tennis wins Conference USA Championship. First men’s tennis conference championship in 24 years (April, 2018)
One needs only to visit the ODU campus to see Selig’s contributions to the growth and improvement of Monarch athletic venues. Projects completed and initiated under Selig include:
The Bernett & Blanche Mitchum Basketball Performance Center, a privately funded $8.4 million state-of-the-art facility, is complete and is the new home of the ODU men’s and women’s basketball teams.
– A $3.5 million expansion of the L. R. Hill support facility for football.
– The addition of a $2.3 million video replay scoreboard, LED ribbon panels, and digital tables for the Ted Constant Convocation Center for the 2015-16 season.
– The $500,000 Paul A. Keyes Indoor Hitting Complex, which opened in the fall of 2014.
As collegiate athletic costs continue to rise, Selig has placed a high priority on increasing revenue, with a goal of 10 percent annual growth. Since his arrival in 2010, athletics has exceeded those goals every year:
• Donations to support the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation annual fund have jumped from $2.73 million in 2010 to $9.35 million in 2016-17 and $12.22 million in 2017-18.
• Total philanthropic gifts to athletics have surpassed $62.73 million since 2010-11.
• Corporate sponsorship revenue facilitated by ODU Sports Properties has generated $18.26 million in gross revenue since 2010-11.
• Annual athletic ticket revenue has increased from $1.5 million to $4.3 million during the past six years.
Hampton Roads Community outreach and support has been a staple under Selig’s leadership:
– Selig spearheaded the return of the annual Khedive Shriners’ Oyster Bowl game to Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium in 2011 and helped raise over $100,000 for the Shriners’ Children’s Burn Hospital since that time.
– Monarch student athletes, coaches and staff members donated over 1,000 hours of community service in 2016-17.
Selig spent 11 years directing the Western Kentucky University Hilltopper athletic program, which won 70 Sun Belt Conference championships from 2000-2010 and a national record 19 crowns in two seasons, 2008-2010.
Prior to his stint at WKU, Selig served as the Senior Associate Athletic Director at the University of Virginia from 1988-1999, overseeing external operations his last five years. He began his athletic career as the Director of Ticketing at VCU, where he served from 1985-1988.
Selig was a four-year member (2006-2010) of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee and served as chair for both the Sun Belt Conference Athletic Directors and the Men’s Basketball Committees during his tenure at WKU. He has served on the prestigious Division I Championships/Sports Management Cabinet and locally is a Board of Trustees member for the Norfolk Collegiate School and serves on the board of the Norfolk Forum. He was named the Tom Fergusson Metropolitan Person of the Year award by the Norfolk Sports Club in 2014, symbolic of his impact on the region’s sports profile.
Selig was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, where he attended Norfolk Collegiate School. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Washington and Lee University, a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Virginia, with a minor in business from the UVA Darden School of Business.