Two-Sport Athlete Dominic Gonnella Returned Home To Play For USF

Dominic Gonnella knows all too well what it takes to balance the scale in dealing with academics and athletics. After all, he spent most of 2021 flying back and forth between Arizona and North Dakota to play two sports while also earning academic honors. As a 19-year-old.

Following a two-week stint at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ spring training complex in Scottsdale that February, he returned to Fargo for North Dakota State’s spring football season, a season that was moved from fall 2020 due to the pandemic.

Soon after the Bison were eliminated in the quarter-final round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs in early May, Gonnella was back in Scottsdale preparing to play for the Diamondbacks’ rookie-level affiliate in the Arizona Complex League (ACL). Before too long, it was back to Fargo for the fall semester and a return to the gridiron.

“Back and forth with a lot of flights,” he said. “I was in spring training in Arizona where it was hot, and for spring football season there was still snow on the ground in North Dakota. It was a (busy schedule). There wasn’t much of a break.”

Gonnella, an outfielder who signed as a free agent with the Diamondbacks out of Bloomingdale High School in Valrico, Fla., about 15 miles east of downtown Tampa, played 31 games in parts of three seasons with the D-Backs’ ACL affiliate before being released July 29.

He is now entirely focused on the upcoming football season, but not with the Bison, for whom he battled through injuries to rush for 1,134 yards and five touchdowns in 28 games. Rather, he entered the transfer portal following North Dakota State’s final regular season game last year and decided to return to the Sunshine State to play for the University of South Florida.

Gonnella, who arrived on campus in the spring with two seasons of eligibility, has ties to USF. His lone sibling, Anthony, played one season of baseball (2017) for the Bulls and it was often a family affair at USF baseball and football games.

“Tampa is my home, and when I was 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 coach (Alex) Golesh and (running backs) coach (Matt) Merritt, who was incredible. The guys they brought in and the guys that were already here, we’re meshing. The goal is to flip it and head out of here on a high note. Build it back up.”

If USF is to “build it back up” following a dismal three-year run of four wins in 33 games, Gonnella will likely have something to do with it. While a sports hernia and his decision to enter the portal kept him from participating in NDSU’s championship games, he was nonetheless a member of the 2021 and 2022 FCS national champs. That is one large reason why, when he stood before his new USF teammates following an early preseason practice, he had everyone’s attention.

“It was one of the best things I have heard in a long time,” said Merritt, who has the distinction of being on staffs that won national titles at the FBS (Ohio State, 2015) and FCS (James Madison, 2019) levels. “He said that all of us know the stuff in the (meeting rooms). Now, it’s a matter of being able to do it full speed on the field. What that requires is to slow down your mind, relax and process the information. It is that veteran presence that is really felt in the (running backs) room.”

It is what Gonnella was a part of at NDSU that appealed to Golesh.

“Dom has played a ton of football, and as much as we like the football player in him, we wanted the culture part of it,” said the first-year coach. “That guy 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 at Florida Southern and FIU before a 20-plus year career in the U.S. Army, is one to tout his resume and raise his voice for the sake of it.

“I am not going to necessarily be a rah-rah loud dude, but I am going to pull somebody aside and get them on track,” said Gonnella, whose mother, Rachel, played soccer at FIU and was a middle school and high school English teacher. “It is always the little details that I feel like a lot of people overlook when it comes to winning a championship. When you get to the college level, everybody can run the ball well, catch the ball well and throw it far. You can have a really talented and well-rounded team, but if they are not disciplined and not sticking to their (assignments) throughout the game, there are going to be slipups and you will lose to teams that have less talent.”

Gonnella, who turns 22 on September 16, the day the Bulls host Alabama, was born in Fort Campbell, Kent. and moved to Florida when he was six. He grew up admiring the leadership qualities of Derek Jeter and was also a fan former Phillies slugger Ryan Howard. While baseball is a sport he still wants to pursue, he is entirely focused on continuing his football career at USF.

“I am not really stressed about (signing with) another (baseball organization),” said the management communications major, who twice earned Missouri Valley Conference honor roll recognition and is on target to complete his undergraduate studies this fall. “Right now, I am going all in on football and it’s great to be back home.”