Growing Up on the Gridiron by Vicki Mayk

Author:Vicki Mayk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beacon Press

While embracing new academic and athletic experiences, Owen retained ties with what had been part of the most perfect and important part of his life—the time spent as a Parkland Trojan playing high school football. His continuing romantic involvement with Abbie helped him to straddle the old and the new, the life of a Penn student and that of a Parkland football boy. High school friends who attended college within driving distance of Philadelphia visited the house on Baltimore Avenue for parties. Emily Toth DeLuca met her future spouse, Owen’s roommate Luke, on such a visit, while she was still dating her high school boyfriend. Abbie’s sister Jess continued to date his hometown buddy Mike Fay, another Parkland connection.

At home, Owen’s house remained a gathering place for the Parkland football boys. During one break, he invited his high school friends to a party, even though he still had a term paper to finish. Music blasted in the Thomases’ basement rec room as friends walked in and out. Owen sat in the center of it all, laptop balanced in his lap, only occasionally looking up to admonish one of the guys: “Hey, don’t break that.”

Owen and his high school teammates realized soon after starting their college football careers that the game they loved as boys was now a different experience. High school football, while requiring commitment, was carefree when compared to the demands of playing in college. Their high school coach, Jim Morgans, had been a father figure. College coaches, whose jobs often hinge on win-loss records, tend to be all business. It is equally intense for college players, who live the game 24/7, rooming with teammates and planning class schedules around athletic commitments.

“You play in high school, and it’s because of the friends, the camaraderie. You play in college and survive four years, it’s because you love the game,” said Marc Quilling. “In college, it’s not an easy thing, when you’ve got a full academic load, you have six a.m. lifts, and go to three classes or whatever. Maybe you take a quick nap after lunch. Then you go right down to films, practice, dinner, study hall. Then you do it all over again. It’s a full-time job. It’s a double major. Because Saturdays and Sundays are full too. Saturday’s a game day. Sunday you’re waking up early. We do a full workout and we’re watching films.”

Despite the grueling schedule, Owen and Marc were forging close relationships and finding a new brotherhood at their colleges. Mike Fay was disappointed by the lack of commitment among his teammates at Kent State University in Ohio. With 120 players on the team, only a handful of starters, which included Mike, were committed to winning. The second and third string players huddled around heaters on the sidelines, oblivious to the play happening on the field.

“It was very apathetic, our school, towards football, Kent State. Not a very good tradition. No one really cared,” Mike says. “We would go five wins, seven losses.” At the end of the season his father would encourage him to stay, telling him to give it one more year.

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