You usually see the happiness when they pick up the hat, the hugs, the handshakes congratulating the high school senior football player for making his college choice.
Decision day: Follow the activity and excitement through these pictures.
What you don’t see are the tears, the sleepless nights, the arguments, the disappointment; the decisions that everyone thought were made and suddenly reversed.
You don’t see the kind of signing day drama that has been building in the Orange home of Louis Vecchio III, the 6-foot-4, 230-pound football star with the 4.6 grade point average. He is a great kid, articulate, an old soul, trying to balance his dreams with the dreams of his parents and completely overwhelmed by the choice he has to make: Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Princeton, Penn, Stanford, Cal or Boise State.
You don’t see Gammy, Louis III’s grandmother Dolly Springs, sitting at the kitchen counter in sweat pants with a cup of coffee at 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday as her beloved grandson finally, painfully, reluctantly makes a college decision that prompted her to say, “Are you going to be happy?”
You don’t hear his answer because Louis III wouldn’t answer.
On the biggest day of his life, no one in the room is happy.
• • •
He did it the right way. Louis III, a tight end and outside linebacker at Villa Park High, has always said football is merely the vehicle that gets him to college. Academics, he said, come first. He seems like he means it.
He has listened to and accepted the advice of his father, Louis Jr.: “You’re 18 now. But how is this decision going to feel when you’re 50?”
He visited Boise State in January, but they were never really an option because their academic standards simply weren’t high enough for anyone in the Vecchio family.
“Some nights, I stayed up until 12:30 talking about this decision,” Louis III said. “We definitely have lost a great amount of sleep.”
If you would have asked him last year, Louis III would have told you he was going to Harvard. In his mind, he had chosen the No. 1 academic school in the nation.
But Harvard gave him a deadline for his decision, and he wasn’t ready to decide. He wanted to be meticulous, weigh all the possibilities, see what other schools showed interest in him.
He told Harvard, “If you want a decision now, my decision has to be no.”
Harvard was supposed to call him to talk about his decision making process on the day after Christmas. They didn’t call.
His mother, Bonita, cried.
She cried again when he told Yale no. He visited Yale and thought the campus and the surrounding area – New Haven, Connecticut – was a bit too “gloomy.”
• • •
College is something Louis Jr. and Bonita Vecchio wish they could do over again.
Bonita chose Chico State. “I partied too hard and didn’t graduate,” she said. (She is now working on her Master’s Degree in Behavioral Therapy at Grand Canyon University.) She now works as a behavioral therapist.
Louis Jr. chose the State University of New York at Oneonta. He was a college wrestler and a good student, too. He got his degree in economics, but he regrets that decision. He now works as a benefits counselor and retirement planner. His degree never helped him in his career.
As parents, they want Louis III to pick the right school and the right major – and they found the right place.
They want him to go to the University of Pennsylvania. The Penn Quakers won the Ivy League football championship in 2012, but slipped to a 4-6 record in 2013. Penn has one current player in the NFL, Green Bay Packers guard Greg Van Routen.
The parents’ decision was solidified when Louis III was accepted into Penn’s prestigious Wharton School of Business. He was assigned to a “life mentor,” a Penn alum named George Weiss, who is the president of his own money management firm and recently donated $20 million to the University of Pennsylvania.
At Penn, the football players like to call themselves the “football mafia” to represent the close-knit family atmosphere on campus. Many of the football players get jobs on Wall Street when they leave Penn. The members of the “football mafia” call Weiss “The Godfather.”
“He’s the real deal,” Louis III said. “Google him.”
The Vecchios feel like they made the best decision for their son. Wednesday morning, a coach at Penn sent the Vecchios a picture of Louis III’s jersey (he will wear #92) in the school’s trophy case.
Penn would be the decision.
Louis seemed to be on board.
But then there’s the David Shaw conundrum.
• • •
David Shaw is the head football coach at Stanford, one of the nation’s top schools for both academics and football.
Shaw came to visit Louis III at Villa Park High School. Before Shaw’s visit, Stanford hadn’t shown much interest in Louis III. Their coaches met with the Vecchio family, but they didn’t offer a scholarship. When Louis Jr. asked if his son would be part of the Stanford football team when practice starts in August, they didn’t give him a straight answer.
At Stanford, Louis III would be a “preferred walk on,” meaning he would get to try out for the football team against 85 scholarship players. He would get grants and financial aid that would pay for his schooling, but he wouldn’t have a guarantee that he would be on the football team.
Of course, in his private meeting with David Shaw, Louis III said the coach told him he would be on the team.
But last month, when he tried to take an official visit to Stanford, the coaches canceled at the last minute. They would be out on a recruiting trip, and no one would be there to host him.
“Stanford is a great wrong decision,” Louis Jr. said.
• • •
So Wednesday morning, Louis III walked into his kitchen, in front of his parents, grandmother and brother (Lance).
“We were up all night,” Bonita said.
Without a smile, Louis III signed the letter for the University of Pennsylvania, and said, “It’s what you want. I want Stanford. You want Penn.”
He looked at his parents. There were no hugs.
“Stanford has too many unknowns,” his father said.
Bonita looked upset.
“You want your child to be happy,” Bonita said. “I’m just a tad bit sad he’s doing this because we’re twisting his arm.”
• • •
The Vecchios drove to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena Wednesday afternoon to appear on Fox Sports. Like so many players before him, Louis III was supposed to choose between three hats – Stanford, Boise State and Penn. The problem was this: No one could find a Penn hat.
For an hour in the Rose Bowl parking lot, father and son went back and forth about his decision. Louis III really seemed like he was going to change his mind and announce he would be attending Stanford.
Then he was invited to the stage. Since there were no hats, Louis III had to announce his decision.
“University of Pennsylvania,” he said with his first smile of the day. About 15 of his friends screamed “WOOOOOO” as he made his decision.
“The opportunities are too many to give up,” he said. “They’ll set me up with a great foundation.”
His father’s phone rang, and it was the coach from Penn. Louis III got on the phone and told the coach how happy he was.
Tears streamed from his mother’s face.
“I can sleep well tonight,” she said.
Contact the writer: ksharon@ocregister.com
