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SU's victory against
Notre Dame with the Orange
Part 2: Pasqualoni Discusses Family, Football and the Future of the Orange
1/28/2004 3:56:10 PM | Football
What is your biggest thrill of being a father?
I think something that every parent goes through is when you realize how important you are to the kids and how much they depend on you. How critical everything you do is – decisions that you make, the positive influence and the direction you provide. I think all that is very gratifying. When they call you ‘Daddy’ or ‘Mommy’ – that is it. That is the joy.
Before Christmas, the boys’ school had the kids sing Christmas Carols for the parents. I was out on the road recruiting, but I made sure to get home for this. The kids parade out on the stage. Now, I could not imagine doing this at three years old because I was so shy, but here’s Tito, he walks on the stage and sits where he is supposed to and he is so excited to see his parents, Jill and me, in the audience, that he can’t stop waving and smiling. He is singing Christmas Carols and doing all the gestures with the group, but seeing the smile on his face and just being there was so much fun. It was just unbelievable. The kids are so much fun.
What do you and your family enjoy doing together?
If we get some time off during the winter, we go to visit Jill’s parents in West Palm Beach (Fla.). That is a double-whammy because we get to be around family, who live and die to see the kids, and you are in warm weather. During the summer, we go to Rhode Island to visit my family, which gives us the opportunity to visit family and friends, go to the beach and be in warm weather.
We enjoy outdoor activities here, too. The kids love our backyard with the hill and the snow. We build a mound of snow in front of the stone wall that is part of a hill to make a slope. The kids love to sled and play. They look like half the snow on the hill is on them when they are done, but they love being out there. We also have a pool membership which has been great during the summer. The kids have made a lot of great friends there.
I think there are a lot of nice people in this community. It is a great atmosphere for the kids to grow up and learn. From an educational standpoint, the University has a tremendous impact on this community. Syracuse is a wonderful medical community, as well. The care, facilities, knowledge and support here, medically and educationally, are excellent.
Your program has contributed a great deal to this community with its involvement with many organizations, including the Special Olympics, Pop Warner Football, and the local schools. What motivates you to direct this activity?
We believe it is an important role for all of us. We enjoy being part of this community. I also am involved in my hometown, Cheshire, Conn., which has had an unusually high percentage of cancer diagnosis. It is scary high – to the point that they started testing the water. Two years ago I was invited to speak at an annual cancer awareness event, which is one of the largest in the country. I had thought I was going to a hometown event, but it was amazing. When I arrived there were 10,000 people. I am with Chris Berman, from ESPN, on this huge stage that might be set up at a concert. They raise $750,000 in one weekend. The concept of it is that the teams seek donations related to the distance they will walk and they camp out for the night before the walk and then they wake up and go.
Jill brought the idea back here and had a Relay-for-Life event at the soccer center. It was a great event. It is hard, however, for us to do a lot because of the time commitment of football and our kids. She is obviously very busy with the kids and I have a big commitment here with the football program. We have to make decisions about our time. Right now we both have limited time, so we do what we can.
The Syracuse community has high expectations for its sports teams. You have stated many times that your program understands these expectations. What would you like to express to the community about Syracuse football?
We hope that the fans will really love the kids. Love what the program stands for. Come out and root for the kids and for the program every Saturday. If things don’t go exactly the way we would all like them to, there is absolutely no problem with fans voicing their concerns. Just be there to root for the kids the next week. That is what I see happening in other programs. I think at Penn State, if they lose a game, the fans voice their concerns, but there are still 100,000 fans in the stadium the next week. It was that way when I was there as a player. During my junior year at Penn State, Syracuse beat us at our Homecoming, making our record 2-3. We were obviously having a very disappointing year and they probably booed that team as much as I have ever heard any team booed up to that point, but the next week, the stadium was full again.
We hope the fans have confidence in what we are doing and understand that we are trying to do the right thing every single day, that we are working with young people in a very competitive atmosphere, but we are still in the business of education, in the business of growth and development. If somebody makes a mistake, we cannot release them and get on the waiver wire and bring somebody in or try somebody out. College football does not work that way. Our philosophy is that once we offer a kid a scholarship and bring him here, he is part of the program and we have a responsibility to the development of that kid as a person and player, regardless of what happens.
We are trying to bring a quality product to the field every single Saturday. I am not so sure we all always appreciate the quality of what we are watching. We did not average a sellout in the Carrier Dome when Donovan McNabb was here or when Marvin Harrison was here or when Dwight Freeney was here making every single play. Do we realize what we are looking at? I don’t think we do. Through the years we all have had a chance to be in a stadium and watch some pretty darn good football players, all the way back to Jim Brown in 1956 to the present.
If Walter Reyes stays healthy next year, knock on wood, he will be one of the great backs of all-time at this University. I am talking about the caliber of Marvin Harrison, Donovan McNabb or Keith Bulluck, who right now might be the best linebacker in football.
We are trying to bring in the best players and to do the best job we can in coaching. We are trying to bring the fans entertainment. You can’t call plays based on entertainment value. In my mind, you have to call plays to win the game. You are trying to do what you feel you have to do to win the game, but you still want it to be entertaining. That is something that we are going to try to do a better job with. I just hope that they appreciate the kids and like the program. I think it is a quality operation.
