Life's calling for Siciliano
A choice opportunity also is a high-wire act: Ohio State's new quarterbacks coach is charged with developing Terrelle Pryor
Thursday, October 22, 2009
By Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
PHOTO (top): Nick Siciliano, left, observes prize pupil Terrelle Pryor during pregame warmups against Wisconsin on Oct. 10. Pryor's struggles this season have swung the spotlight to Siciliano. (Neal C. Lauron, Dispatch)
Late on a summer night in 1999, minor-league baseball umpires Rob Healey and Nick Siciliano drove the roads outside Port Jervis, N.Y., searching for a place to eat.
"After the game, we didn't get any food provided to us, so we went driving around, and nothing was open," Healey said. "We ended up stopping at a gas station and buying Ben and Jerry's ice cream for dinner."
And?
"I had Cherry Garcia," Healey said.
Siciliano dined on Chunky Monkey.
"He's a little freaky like that," Healey said, laughing as he recalled the scene.
Such was life on the perpetual road for the two beginning, low-level umpires assigned to the New York-Penn League. They might have dreamt of the day they'd call a World Series, but they dealt with low pay, long days, arguments with managers and players, and obviously no guarantees of dinner.
They also got to know each other like brothers, sharing a car and a hotel room.
"It's like being married, but you don't get to go to work to get away from each other," Siciliano said. "In many ways, it was fun, and what a great experience. But it was a hard life."
Which is why in that summer of '99, Siciliano had grown restless. His father knew why.
"I'll be honest with you, I was surprised he went into baseball for a while," Nick Sr. said. "His heart was always in football."
Healey could tell that, too, although Siciliano had grown up in the Youngstown suburb of Austintown, and Healey was a native of Cranston, R.I. The conversations filled in the blanks.
"He's always been dedicated to football," Healey said. "I knew when he was in high school over at Austintown, he was the quarterback, and he's always had great success."
So when it came to pass this summer that Siciliano was named quarterbacks coach at Ohio State, "I wasn't surprised at all," Healey said.
That doesn't necessarily go for the masses, who have started to wonder just who this Siciliano is, now that prized sophomore quarterback Terrelle Pryor has been inconsistent in his second year as a starter.
Siciliano had worked closely with ailing quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels the previous two years, gaining an NCAA waiver to do much of the coaching last year as Daniels battled cancer. When Daniels moved into football administration in the summer, OSU coach Jim Tressel saw it as natural to make Siciliano the QB coach.
"I don't know if it's loyalty as much as it is knowing what a guy can do," Tressel said. "You've seen the guy do tasks, and teach concepts, and has gone out and grown on his own. It's sort of taking a known over an unknown.
"I guess you could go out and bring in an unknown. But a known entity who has been trained by people you know understand what needs to be done, that's a big plus."
