During her final years at FIU, she also worked with Next Level (nXlvl). It was a new NIL app geared toward student athletes and bringing them together with fans, brand marketers and recruiters.
The CEO of the company was Tom Broering – she called him “a family friend” – and she became his executive assistant even as she was a shooting guard for the Panthers.
Although Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities were not yet permitted for college athletes when she was at BGSU, they were when she was at FIU.
Along with some deals she got with Walgreens and CVS pharmacies, she developed her own line of clothing – called OT2 – which incorporated her initials and her jersey number in college.
Ordered online, the hoodies and shirts came with a Scriptures reference: “Be Strong and Courageous”
It’s part of the Bible verse – Joshua 1:9 – that says:
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
As for her, after grad school she went to Ann Arbor, Michigan and became a players’ liaison with University of Michigan athletes and an onsite marketing manager for nXlvl.
She helped Wolverines athletes with NIL deals, especially by assisting them to create content for the nXlvl app.
But by last fall she was beginning to miss her involvement in basketball and after going to a couple of early-season FIU games, she knew she wasn’t done with the sport.
And no wonder.
She’s a Trice.
And they are one of the best-known and most-accomplished basketball families ever in the Miami Valley.
Her dad, Travis Trice Sr. – now an assistant coach of the Wright State Raiders men’s team – had played collegiately at Purdue and Butler and was the longtime leader of Wayne High basketball.
He had coached the boys’ team for a decade and in 2015 he led the Warriors to the Division I state title. He then switched to the girls’ team at the school – in part to coach Olivia – and one team made it to the regional finals.
In all, 24 of Travis Sr.’s players got Division I basketball scholarships. Three of them went to his and wife Julie’s children – Travis II, D’Mitrik and Olivia.
Travis II became Wayne High’s all-time leading scorer with 1,555 points. He then helped guide Michigan State to the Final Four and finished his collegiate career with 1,135 points.
Since then, he’s flirted with the NBA – through Summer League and preseason stints – and has been playing professionally overseas for the past decade.
D’Mitrik became a starting guard for the Wisconsin Badgers and in five seasons scored 1,430 points. He has played professionally overseas since 2021.
Another brother, Isaiah, played at Sinclair Community College.
With her family so deeply rooted in the sport, Olivia was open to the offer from Scott Johnson, the program director and head coach of the West Virginia Thunder, the AAU team she’d played for as she was finishing her own stellar career at Wayne.
Johnson asked her to coach one of the Thunders’ elite teams and another one involving the younger girls in the program.
Thanks to her dad, she also met Clint Sargent, who took over the WSU program when Scott Nagy left.
She said Sargent allowed her to “job shadow” the coaches last season and she promptly immersed herself in Raiders basketball.
She was at most early-morning practices and sat a couple of rows behind the bench at Nutter Center home games. She went on a few road trips with the team and often talked to players, coaches and WSU administrators, including new athletics director Joylynn Brown.
“I learned the ropes at Wright State.” Olivia said. “I learned what it took to be a coach and see if it was something I’d like to pursue.”
She hit it off with Sargent and saw how he ran the program: “He’s a great coach; a great man; and a great father. I can’t say enough about him. He has integrity.”
Offering that same type of salute when talking about her dad, she soon realized what others already knew.
Some people thought she’d be a good coach from the way she approached the game as an athlete.
“I wasn’t always the strongest or fastest or most athletic player, but I could think through the game pretty well,” she said.
After her season at WSU, she was planning to take the AAU job in West Virginia when she got a call from Raiders’ women’s coach Kari Hoffman, who had tried to recruit her when she entered the transfer portal on her way from Bowling Green to FIU.
This time Hoffman’s offer was a dream come true.
She brought the now 24-year-old Trice onto her staff as the director of basketball operations and an assistant coach.
‘They didn’t get off easy’
Growing up, she said people compared her to “the coach’s daughter in Remembering the Titans.”
In that movie, Coach Bill Yoast’s daughter Sheryl – played by Hayden Panettiere – is a passionate and fully-engaged follower of the high school football team her dad guides alongside head coach Herman Boone, played by Denzel Washington.
“On my Instagram page I do have a picture of me in the gym with my dad and I can’t be more than about two,” she said.
She said her parents didn’t push her into sports and let her develop her own love.
“I was a girlie girl, too,” she laughed. “I had princess heels, and I tried to put on makeup when I could.
“I remember making my brothers join me in little tea parties,” she said with delight. “They didn’t get off easy.”
Soon, though, she put down the cup and saucer and picked up a ball and that’s when the party really began.
She won All-Greater Western Ohio Conference honors three years in a row; was a good student and ended up being named Miss Wayne High School.
After two seasons at Bowling Green she said she wanted to get a new, more expansive experience of life and found that with FIU and the city of Miami.
“I loved all the diversity,” she said.
At FIU, she was one of just four players on the roster from the U.S. She saw considerable playing time there and would end up playing 139 games in her college career.
Across the hall
When we spoke late Wednesday afternoon, she’d just returned from the airport where she picked up Travis II, who’d come in from Puerto Rico where he’s played the past couple of seasons, while also playing in China.
D’Mitrik already was home from his team in Slovakia. His girlfriend had just given birth to their daughter, Londyn, and now the whole Trice family – including Travis II’s son, also named Travis, but known as Trace – was together for the first time in a while.
“I’m a family girl and that’s why I’m so excited being back home,” Olivia said.
While she feels a special connection with her dad, she also has a bond with her mom.
“My mom is a super mom,” she said. “She was always rippin’ and runnin’ with us kids when we were a young age. She made sure we all got where we were supposed to be – at games, practices, wherever. And she made sure we had someone there to give us support.
“At one time my parents had one of their kids in college, one in high school, another in middle school and one in elementary school. And my little sister Ace (Acelynne) was in preschool.
“When I had Senior Night at FIU, she and my aunt made the 19-hour drive to get there.”
She said her mom – who has been an interpreter for the deaf for almost 27 years – taught her sign language and now she’s fluent in it. She said that’s important to her and she’s proud of it.
“It just feels good being back around my family,” she admitted.
And at WSU that means being right across the hall from her dad’s office in the Raiders practice facility.
“We can go to lunch together or I can walk across and pick his brain on how to handle different things, both on and off the court,” she said. “It’s been amazing. I just feel really blessed to be here.
“Kari is a great boss to have and I believe we have a special group of girls for this season. I’m just a few years older than the players and I can connect with them on some levels.
“I’m really looking forward to our season.”
More and more, Olivia Trice is realizing she’s not done with her basketball involvement.
She’s just getting started.
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