Virginia Military Institute’s cadet-athletes have to juggle cadet life, heavy academic course loads, and their NCAA Division I sport. Committed to both academic and athletic pursuits, balancing their rigorous schedule in both sports and school requires a certain level of commitment and discipline. Behind the Balance is a series that focuses on those cadet-athletes and how they handle the hurdles of the day-to-day. 

LEXINGTON, Va. March 25, 2025 — With dreams of commissioning into the United States Air Force, Val Tonnu ’26 was aiming for a military college experience. She knew if she deviated from that, her drive to continue the path to the Air Force could diminish, along with her grades potentially suffering. 

Despite not being accepted into the Air Force Academy, she pushed on and decided Virginia Military Institute was the right choice.  

“I think I need to be at this place, or else I'm going to go a little crazy,” she said. 

As a civil engineering major, she’s enrolled in 18.5 credits this semester, while also swimming on VMI’s swim and dive team. 

“Originally, I wasn't going to swim, because I really did not enjoy swimming my senior year of high school. I kind of just fell out of love with it," she admitted. It was much like being burnt out over the sport. 

When she attended the Summer Transition Program before she matriculated at VMI, someone from the team urged her to contact Coach Scott Thacker. Now, she feels like she’s found her purpose on the team, as well as a newfound love of the sport.  

She said she values the effort she and others put in on the team — character is something she respects.  

“I'm never going care about your competitiveness or your performance level, but I'm going to care about the effort and the type of person you are,” she said. “I want to help the younger kids understand that it’s really your character that helps make you.” 

Tonnu is just mirroring what she experienced her first year on the team: a level of leadership that pushed her to succeed. She said the outgoing 1st Class members were caring towards the rats on the team. 

"No matter what, they just wanted us to succeed,” she explained. “And not just in the pool, but they'd always ask us how we were doing in school and how our day was. That's something I want to carry on throughout the team.” 

It can be a struggle to keep up with the day-to-day outside of the pool. As a long-distance swimmer — swimming the 500-, 1000-, and 1650-meter — she knows about endurance.  

Cadet-athletes at VMI not only have their responsibilities with their selected sport but cadet duties on top of that. Cadets are also required to take physical fitness classes twice a week, participate in ROTC all four years, prepare for room and uniform inspections, practice for parade, guard duty, and more. 

She’s up during the week at 5:25 a.m. to prepare for morning swim, then breakfast and onto classes until lunch. After lunch she either has a lab or can get some schoolwork done. 

“I usually take a lot of the time in between classes to go do work,” she said. “Having a schedule, and the fact that at VMI, it's a premade schedule for you, it helps a lot. I do prioritize that time in between classes, even if it's just like the 10 minutes in between class, I can go to my teacher's office and ask them for help.” 

She credits the engineering department for providing any help she needs to keep her grades in good standing or if she has any questions.  

Swimming allows her to be with herself, she said. She’s able to clear her mind, space out, or even go through what she did in class prior to practice. 

“If I’m upset or have a bad day, I get to practice and don’t think about it anymore,” Tonnu admitted. "It gives me a lot of time to think. During our long sets in the pool, I'm either singing a song, or I think about schoolwork a lot. My friends and I think about schoolwork, and we'll think about a random problem that we had in class, and I'd be like, ‘oh my gosh, that's how you do it.’” 

She said not only is the team gaining recruits that are faster and stronger, but they’re more positive and supportive.  

As one of the co-presidents of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee, she’s finding her voice more and more.  

“I think my leadership style is a lot different than it used to be like, because when I came in, obviously you're a little scared and you don't want to speak up as much. In high school, I didn’t speak up, I was a huge people pleaser,” she said. “It bled into the way I led, because I let people walk over me. But I think this place has helped me put my foot down. And people are a lot more encouraging and supporting of my ideas.” 

Laura Peters Shapiro
Communications & Marketing
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE