Dakota State will face off against Indiana State on October 8, 2022 at Memorial Stadium in Terre Haute, Indiana. (Photo by David Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Dominic Gonnella knows all too well what it takes to balance academics and athletics. After all, he spent most of 2021 flying back and forth between Arizona and North Dakota playing dual sports while earning academic honors. As a 19 year old.
After a two-week stint at the Arizona Diamondbacks spring training complex in Scottsdale in February, he returned to Fargo for the North Dakota state spring football season, a season that was postponed from fall 2020 due to the pandemic.
Shortly after the Bison were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs in early May, Gonnella was back in Scottsdale preparing to play for the Diamondbacks’ rookie affiliate in the Arizona Complex League (ACL). It wasn’t long before it was back to Fargo for the fall semester and a return to the stage.
“Back and forth with many flights,” he said. “I was at spring practice in Arizona, where it was hot, and North Dakota still had snow on the ground for spring football season. It was a (busy schedule). There wasn’t a big break.”
Gonnella, an outfielder who signed with the Diamondbacks as a free agent in 2020 from Bloomingdale High School in Valrico, Fla. about 15 miles east of downtown Tampa, played 31 games over split three seasons for the D-ACL affiliate Backs before it releases on July 29th.
His focus now is on the upcoming football season, but not on the Bison, for whom he has struggled through injuries and has rushed for 1,134 yards and five touchdowns in 28 games. Instead, he entered the transfer portal after North Dakota State’s last game last year and decided to return to the Sunshine State to play for the University of South Florida.
Gonnella, who arrived on campus with two seasons in the spring, has ties to USF. His only brother Anthony played one baseball season (2017) for the Bulls. As a family, the Gonnellas attended USF baseball and football games.
“Tampa is my home, and growing up I wanted this team to be great,” he said, recalling electric quarterback Quentin Flowers and an exciting brand of football under then-coach Willie Taggart. “So I met trainer (Alex) Golesh and (running backs) trainer (Matt) Merritt, who were amazing. The guys they brought and the guys who have been here before, we’re a match. The goal is to turn it over and rebuild it.”
If USF wants to “get back on its feet” after a dismal three-year streak of four wins in 33 games, Gonnella will likely have something to do with it. While a sports fracture and his decision to enter the portal kept him from attending NDSU’s championship games, he was still a member of the 2021 and 2022 FCS national championships. That’s one of the main reasons why he caught everyone’s attention , as he faced his new teammates after an early pre-season practice session.
“It was one of the best things I’ve heard in a long time,” said Merritt, who has the honor of being among the teams to win national titles at the FBS (Ohio State, 2015) and FCS (James Madison, 2019) have won . “He said that we all know the things in the (meeting rooms). Now it is important to be able to give full throttle on the field. To do this, you need to slow your mind, relax, and process the information. It’s that veteran presence that’s really felt in the (running backs) space.”
in Spring 2023 to play for the University of South Florida.USF athletics
It’s what Gonnella was involved with at NDSU that attracted Golesh.
“As much as we like the footballer in him, we wanted to have the cultural part of it too,” said the first-year coach. “Dom has played for championship teams and knows what a (winning) culture looks like and what hard work looks like.”
Not that Gonnella, whose father Joe played baseball with Florida Southern and FIU before a more than 20-year career in the US Army, is one to praise his resume and raise his voice for it.
“I’m not necessarily going to be a vocal guy, but I will pull someone aside and put them on the right path,” said Gonnella, whose mother Rachel played soccer at FIU and was a middle and high school English teacher. “It’s always the little details that I think a lot of people overlook when it comes to winning a championship. By the time you get to the college level, anyone can run the ball well, catch it well, and throw it far. You can have a really talented and diverse team, but if they’re not disciplined and don’t stick to their (tasks) throughout the game, you’re going to slip up and you’re going to lose to teams that don’t have as much talent.”
Gonnella, who turns 22 on September 16, the day the Bulls welcome Alabama, was born in Fort Campbell, Kentucky and moved to Florida when he was six. He grew up admiring Derek Jeter’s leadership skills and was a fan of former Phillies hitter Ryan Howard. Although baseball is a sport he still wants to play, his focus is on continuing his football career at USF.
“I’m not really stressed when I sign with another[baseball organization],” said the management communications major, who has twice received the Missouri Valley Conference honors list and is on track to graduate with his undergraduate degree in the fall. “Right now I’m totally following football and it’s great to be back home.”
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Tom Layberger is a Tampa-based freelance writer and broadcast statistician. During his career, Tom has worked for Beckett Publishing, The Topps Company and the Versus Network, among others. In addition to forbes.com, Tom is a contributor to the Tampa Free Press. He is a member of the Football Writers Association of America.
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