St. Thomas Aquinas College has never had an NCAA champion in any sport, men's basketball coach Dennis O'Donnell said, but its men's basketball team has been to the White House twice during his tenure.

Once a finalist for the prestigious White House fellows program, O'Donnell took to heart a question put to him during the interview process -- why would he ever want to leave teaching and coaching to be a policy-maker? He never became a fellow, but the experience netted him some connections that he has used to give his teams experiences they are unlikely to ever forget.

"The best way to describe it is 'it's who you know,' " O'Donnell said. "I never became a White House fellow because I would have had to give up teaching and coaching to do that. I just kept in touch with people through the years."

The first time O'Donnell took his student-athletes to the White House was during President George H. W. Bush's term. The team was playing Gallaudet University in the Capitol City, and O'Donnell made a call to one of his connections. It just so happened that Bush was hosting a state dinner for the president of a foreign nation while the team was in town.

The student-athletes were invited to watch the ceremonies and listen to the band play on the South Lawn before the dinner.

The second visit came in 1991while the team was holding practices at Georgetown University, also in Washington, D.C. O'Donnell made another call, and his team was able to head over to the presidential mansion to watch the president take off on Marine One, the Sikorsky VH-3D Sea King helicopter that transports the president.

"We've had some pretty good times at the White House," O'Donnell said.

The most memorable brush with the presidency occurred not at the White House, but in an arena in California. The New York team was on a four-game tour of California schools in 1996, when the team had the opportunity to meet with President Reagan in the arena after the game. It was several years after Reagan had left office. The student-athletes were staying at a Holiday Inn in Bel Air, and the night before, O'Donnell gave them a crash course in presidential etiquette.

"We prepped the kids. I said the president is always addressed as 'Mr. President' even after he leaves office, and I said it's just protocol when he walks into the room to stand up," O'Donnell said. "Almost on cue, (Reagan) walked into the room and every kid stood up."

O'Donnell said he remembers it like it was yesterday, particularly the looks on the faces of the student-athletes. The meeting lasted 30 to 45 minutes, and both the student-athletes and the president were quite at ease with each other -- the president even commented that the St. Thomas Aquinas warm-up colors (maroon and white) were the same as those of his own alma mater, Eureka College.

"Every kid was like, 'Wow.' It's like a page comes out of a history book for them," he said. "They were excited."

--Michelle Brutlag Hosick