Mamma mia! Zetts playing again in Italy

By Joe Scalzo

The Boardman and YSU product is now playing football for Parma, Italy.

A few weeks ago, Tom Zetts stood on a football field more than 4,000 miles from home, far from the land of cutoff shorts and backward caps and Cap’n Crunch and free refills of Pepsi and grocery stores with easily-to-locate peanut butter and. ...

Well, you get the picture.

His team, the Parma (Italy) Panthers, was trailing by four points against a favored team from Austria with less than a minute left. The week before, in his first game with Parma, Zetts had tossed the game-winning touchdown with 22 seconds left. His command of the language — and the playbook — was still pretty sketchy, but his confidence crossed cultural barriers.

With his team huddled around him, the former Youngstown State quarterback looked over at one of his teammates, winked and gave him a thumbs up.

You can guess what happened next. He drove his team downfield, then, with 10 seconds left, zipped a touchdown pass — to an Italian, instead of an American, wide receiver — to win the game.

“He won them over with that play,” said Jon Tekac, a former all-conference linebacker at YSU who is now Zetts’ teammate.

“It was wild,” added Zetts.

At this point, you might have a couple questions. Like, how did Zetts get over in Italy? Wasn’t he just (pick one) quarterbacking YSU in the fall? Coaching baseball this spring? Throwing javelin for the track team? Graduating?

Oh, and here’s another one: Isn’t this story an awful lot like John Grisham’s book, “Playing for Pizza”?

The answer to the last five questions is yes.

As for the first one, well, let’s go back a few months.

The Parma Panthers, the same ones featured in Grisham’s book, are coached by a former Illinois State player named Andrew Papoccia. Around Christmas, he was looking for a quarterback. He called Zetts, who said no because he had to finish his student teaching and graduate.

But he got his passport ready … just in case.

Around that time, his friend from Boardman High, Dave Sypert, bought him Grisham’s book. Zetts put it on his shelf, where it sat there until May 20, when Papoccia called Zetts again, this time telling him his starting quarterback, Danny Brown, had just got hurt and to ask if he’d be interested in joining the team … the next day.

“I said, ‘Yeah, absolutely,’ ” said Zetts, who graduated from Boardman in 2003.

He packed a suitcase full of clothes, and the book, and began his career as a professional quarterback.

Zetts has thrown 10 touchdowns in three games — all wins — as the Panthers (who have played for the Italian Football League Super Bowl the last two years) have won seven straight after a 1-2 start. Twice, they’ve scored more than 60 points with Zetts under center.

“It’s quite a switch from Youngstown,” said Zetts, a four-year starter who holds pretty much every YSU passing record. “It’s a blast. It’s a little more relaxed than college football, but at the same time these guys care just as much about football as anyone I’ve ever played with.

“That’s what counts. The attitudes, the bonds, those kinds of things are all still there.”

The life is exciting, although not glamorous. Zetts makes 1,000 Euros a month (about $1,500) and shares a four-bedroom apartment, a cell phone and a van with four other teammates. He has a phone to call home, Internet access and, once a week, a free team meal courtesy of the Panthers’ president.

Tekac, who coaches a team in Ravenna, Italy, for a few months each year, is one of three Americans (the league limit) on the team. Like Zetts, Tekac joined the team after a player got hurt. Like Zetts, he first saw the country because of football.

Four years ago, Tekac was playing in the af2 when he hurt his knee. He came to Italy to coach. The New Wilmington, Pa., native split his time between an assistant coaching stint at Duquesne and Italy.

“I just fell in love with the culture,” said Tekac, a Spanish major at YSU who has since learned Italian. “I’ve been coming back home every six months, but I’ve thought about staying here forever.”

Zetts is still adjusting to the culture, although playing with a bunch of Italians is nothing new to a Valley native. (“There’s a bunch of Vince Gliattas out here,” he said, referring to his former YSU teammate.) Italians dress more formally — shorts and flip-flops are no-nos — and use public transportation more frequently. He’s had to adjust to paying for water at restaurants, paying to use restrooms and, recently, overpaying for his meal at a restaurant.

“As we’re walking out of the place, I said in Italian, ‘This is the last time we’re eating here,’” Zetts said. “My teammates loved it. I got more laughs than I’ve heard in a while.”

There are a lot of things he loves, too. Like the people. And the pizza. And the pasta. And the gelato. Especially the gelato.

Zetts has also enjoyed traveling around the country — Parma is located at the top of the boot, near cities like Torino (which hosted the last Winter Olympics) and Bologna — and he’s been fascinated by the country’s cathedrals and by cities like Palermo (aka “The Mafia Capital of the World”).

“I might come back next year, but I might not,” said Zetts, who will be in Italy until mid-July. “It’s kind of driven me to make the most of everything.”

Tekac has the same idea. At 28, he’s not sure how much longer his body will let him play football. But he enjoys coaching and teaching English and, well, life in general.

“My whole thought process to living is, you’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities presented,” he said. “I’m so happy I came over and I’ve grown so much as a person and met so many cool people.

“That’s what life is about. You can’t be afraid of risk. You can’t sit on the sideline. Because you never know what day will be your last.”

scalzo@vindy.com