Zetts tastes Italian dream

By TOM ZETTS

The former YSU quarterback encountered obstacles, but victory was the end result.

Ciao from Italia.

As you may or may not know, I arrived in Parma, Italy, on May 22 — less than 24 hours after receiving the call from our coach, Andrew Papoccia.

We had previously been in contact about the opportunity to play for the Panthers, who are a perennial contender for the Italian Super Bowl.

However, my desire to bring closure to my college career meagerly outweighed my desire to continue playing. Hence, I spent the spring time student teaching at Campbell Memorial, coaching baseball at Boardman and throwing the javelin on occasion for YSU’s track team.

Back to the point: after reading John Grisham’s “Playing for Pizza,” my nerves had calmed about the prospect of meeting an entire team of non-English speaking Italian football players.

I had thoughts of rugby-esque builds encompassing egos unrivaled by the proudest of men. Ha, I was wrong. Instead, I was welcomed by Mimmo and Cloche (pronounced “Mee-mo” and “Closh”). My first two Italian friends proudly sported their Youngstown State T-shirts and left me in awe.

Who are these guys? Where am I? Youngstown State Football T-shirts?

I was at a loss for words.

Luckily, they filled in the blanks — and in English. These two guys formerly played for Bologna, a rival team that is less than an hour away by train. There, they met Jon Tekac, another former Penguin, and the story all comes together.

After only three short practices, it was game day. No more than 40 players boarded a plane flying from Bologna to Catania, Sicily. Elephants Catania (nickname first over here) was quarterbacked by former Arizona Wildcat and Buffalo Bill, Jason Johnson. He and an American wide receiver were responsible for the best offense in the IFL.

I needed a series or two to become acquainted with the game, but once we got going, the Panthers’ offense never looked back.

We punted on our first possession, I threw an interception on our second, but from then on we scored each time we had the ball.

My first touchdown was a 30-yard run! The passing touchdowns were soon to follow. The Elephants’ offense was equally powerful. They jumped out to a 19-7 lead before we rallied, recovered an onside kick, and scored 20 straight to take a 27-19 lead into halftime.

We scored every time we touched the ball in the second half, but trailed 57-56, with a little less than a minute remaining. We began our final drive on our own 30 yard line.

A dropped pass, deflected pass, and a sack left us with fourth down and 12. On fourth, I scrambled to my left, reversed field, losing ground, and before getting sacked threw up a prayer in the direction of Marco Tunnera.

He hunted it down and snatched it away from the Elephants’ defender 10 yards past the first down. Time stopped briefly and in the confusion I hollered “Clock it, Clock it” letting everyone know we would be spiking the ball.

Our American wide receiver, Corey Mazza, looked at me as if to say “do something!” So, in my clearest English, I said in return, “fake!”

Performing my best impression of Dan Marino, I called “Hut,” looked to the ground and began my throwing motion as everyone calmly stood and watched; except Corey. He casually strolled off the line of scrimmage, then burst towards the end zone. Meanwhile, I picked my head up, found him, and lofted a ball over top everyone as they could only watch in disbelief.

There were 22 seconds left after our 2-point conversion. Panthers Parma was on top 64-57. I’ll throw one more shocker out for you. They put me in on defense.

I played free safety the last few plays of the game and actually knocked down the final Hail Mary.

Our celebration began, and the feeling that I thought was gone forever returned. Victory. The 500 fans, 90-yard field, or walk from the airport didn’t matter. It was all the same.

The emotion. The desire. The focus. The brotherhood. The victory.

And after handshakes and hugs, pats on the back and slaps on the butt, I was once again a part of something.