Daiva Gerbec Mitchell's Ashland University basketball journey – from All-American to injury bystander to NCAA Division II national champion to giving up one more year on the floor – has ended as a member of the 2025 class of the AU Hall of Fame.
Mitchell will be honored as one of five 2025 Hall of Famers (see release link), two Eagle Forever Award honorees and two 2024-25 AU Student-Athletes of the Year at the 2025 Ashland University Hall of Fame Induction and Student-Athlete of the Year recognition, Oct. 11 at 9:30 a.m. at the John C. Myers Convocation Center – prior to the Eagle football team's 101
st Homecoming game at 1 p.m. vs. Thomas More at Jack Miller Stadium/Martinelli Field.
"My initial reaction was just feeling really honored, honestly," Mitchell said. "To be able to be in that group is a privilege and an honor, and it means a lot to me, just to recognized for the work I put in at Ashland.
"It brings back so many good memories."
Mitchell was a starting forward on Ashland women's basketball's first NCAA Division II championship team in 2012-13, earning first-team Academic All-American, first-team Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) All-Midwest Region and Midwest Regional all-tournament team honors along the way. As a sophomore in 2010-11, Mitchell was a Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) honorable mention All-American, first-team Daktronics All-Midwest Region, first-team All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and GLIAC All-Academic Excellence Team.
In just three collegiate seasons (having missed 2011-12 due to injury), Mitchell scored 1,258 career points – which puts her 18
th on the program's all-time list. Her 557 points during the championship season are ninth-most in AU women's basketball annals, and her 120 offensive rebounds that season continue to be the most for any Eagle women's basketball player in one campaign.
Mitchell was recruited out of Bishop Watterson High School in the Columbus, Ohio, area, to play for two other AU Hall of Famers – head coach
Sue Ramsey and assistant coach and eventual head coach
Robyn Fralick.
"I started playing AAU between my junior and senior year," Mitchell recalled. "Eventually, I started getting a lot of phone calls. What struck me about Ashland and coach Ramsey, coach Fralick, was I could tell it was a place where I could really thrive and grow.
"It was a really clear decision, like it just felt right, right when I made it."
Mitchell's first two collegiate seasons saw the Eagles go 14-14 and 19-10 – a team on the rise heading into her junior season. And then…
"Then I got injured," she said. "I'll never forget it. We were all excited about the season. We actually did a running test…and it was during that test that I tore my Achilles (tendon). It was devastating. We knew we were going to be good that year. To have the amazing run that the team had during that season and go to the national final, it was like a dream. I don't think anyone was really expecting that when we first started the season.
"It was a tough year for me, too. Most athletes…have a lot of identity in their sport. You spend so much time, effort and energy in your sport – it can get taken away in a second. It was such an identity crisis for me. I had to explore other interests of mine, which was pretty good for me. It really taught me how to be a team player."
The 2011-12 Eagles went 33-2 and lost in the national championship game. With Mitchell back in the fold for 2012-13 – teaming up inside with yet another Ashland Hall of Famer,
Kari Daugherty Pickens, Ashland was 37-1 and won the D-II championship.
"What a special year," she said. "The caliber of women that I played with was just outstanding. The whole year was just so special. Kari is just a next-level person, athlete, etc., that I learned a lot from. Being out on that court throughout that whole year was a privilege. Those games where she was out, it also kind of forced me as a player to reach my maximum potential again.
"To see the community gather around that team…to see it packed out for our games. Our games were packed. To have the community be there for us in such a supportive way was amazing."
Mitchell did have one more year of eligibility at AU for 2013-14 due to the season-long injury in 2011-12, but chose not to use it – a decision which was a hard one for her to come to.
"I had a lot of things I wanted to do," she said. "It was hard, too, because all my really close friends, this big group of women that I started with, were all graduating. I think I just felt like it was my time to be done. I wanted to do certain things. I wanted to go to medical school. I really felt like it was my time to finish.
"It was hard for me after I finished. It's a huge transition for athletes. Obviously, it was the right decision for me, but I missed it so deeply much. It was not an easy transition."
Mitchell is a sports medicine doctor, getting to work with athletes, and works at one of the branches of the West Virginia University in Wheeling. She married another former Eagle,
Adam Mitchell, an assistant coach for Duquesne men's soccer. They have a son, and have another on the way.
What would Mitchell say to anyone who was considering coming to Ashland University?
"Ashland University is a truly special place, where you're getting more than just a good education," she said. "You're meeting people that are genuinely good people, that you can build strong relationships with. It also has a nice, sort of, smaller environment, where you can grow as a person, too.
"It's just a really special place."
And what will induction morning be like for Mitchell?
"I think it's going to be great," she said. "It will bring back so many memories, just walking around that campus. It will be another one of those things where I feel like it's a Disney movie. This is the sweet stuff in life, to be able to be honored for something like this. It's a real privilege."
