The tale of Penn State football and managers Tyler Kaluza and Nick Venturino is one well-suited for the holidays.
It’s full of family, tradition, and hometown boys made good.
There’s also appreciation and gratitude, plus hard work with good cheer.
As well as lessons learned and shared.
Kaluza (wearing a hat in the photo at right) and Venturino are townies, born in State College and 18 years later crossed College Ave. to attend Penn State. They followed in some pretty big footsteps that helped make Nittany Lion football great — and are still working to make it great again.
Kaluza is a fifth-year senior at Penn State, studying secondary education, and is the son of Rick and Jenny Kaluza. He is the team’s senior manager for defense, and works extensively with assistant coach Sean Spencer and the Nittany Lions defensive line.
Venturino is a junior, studying Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management, and is the son of Tom and JoAnne. He works with Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Bob Shoop as well as the special teams.
When Nick becomes the senior manager for defense in 2016, he will be the third State High grad in the position over the past four seasons. Tyler and Justin O’Brien are the other two.
Penn State is not only where they go to school, but also their employer — managers who are upperclassmen get some tuition assistance — and their life, lifeblood, and family. The regularly work 40-hour weeks and also attend classes, with all afternoons and weekends spoken for from August to December andy then again in March and April.
And they wouldn’t have it any other way.
THE FAMILY BUSINESS
“Penn State football is a part of me, of who I am,” Kaluza said the other day over lunch at, appropriately enough, The Corner Room. “This is my town. This is my university. In my 22 years, I’ve seen the highs and lows of Penn State football and have been a part of it — tailgating, going to games with my family, then being a manager.”
Kaluza’s grandfather, Jim Williams, played center and linebacker at Penn State under Rip Engle. As a high school football coach, he was 65-13 at State High, before moving on to Penn State for three decades, first as a football assistant coach through two national title seasons and then as an administrator. His dad Rick is a Penn State grad and is currently Penn State’s associate athletic director of finance, and in the past had oversight responsibilities for football as well. And his sister Morgan is a manager for the Penn State women’s basketball team.
“Just seeing my grandpa being a teacher and coach made me want to do that,” Kaluza said. “My dad has always been there for me as a mentor from sports and academics — all the way.”
Kaluza has had a connection with Penn State football for as long as he can remember: “I’ve seen the team do really well, then see them do badly. The 2005 season was unbelievable and put Penn State back on the map. Then everything happened and now we’ve started to see it turn around,” he said. “To see everyone come together again for the good of the campus, the football team, has been great to be a part of. And through it all there has been this great camaraderie – the players, the coaches, the staff, everyone involved. It’s been kind of surreal. It’s more personal for us than anyone else.”
Us, as in both Kaluza and Venturino.
Venturino’s dad, Tom, was an integral part of Penn State football for decades. In later years under Joe Paterno, Tom was director of football operations and served as Paterno’s right-hand man. (Fans would recognize Tom as the driver whenever Paterno was in a golf cart or the football program’s beat-up pick-up truck.) And Nick’s brother Chris was a football manager for several years; he Nick and were on the staff together in the 2013 season. Since he went to the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1, 1996 — a 43-14 win over Auburn — Venturino has been to every Penn State bowl game. (The string will continue with the TaxSlayer Bowl next week.)
Venturino started as a Penn State football manager the spring of his senior year at State High — Bill O’Brien’s first spring with the program as well. He credits former equipment and facilities coordinator Spider Caldwell, for nurturing him, mentoring him, and teaching him — not just about football, but about life. “I’d come in early sometimes to help Spider out,” he said. “He taught me what hard work – and caring about people – were all about it.”
Kaluza agrees. Wholeheartedly.
“I was hesitant at first,” said Kaluza, who contemplated going to a Division III school and continuing his football playing career; he was a center at State High. Eventually, he chose Penn State. It was the right decision. “It’s a testament to the bosses when I started — like Spider and Kirk Diehl and Dan Sowash — they took my under their wings — as well as senior managers that I stuck with it to the point where I am today,” he said.
“They showed me not only how to be a Penn State football manager, but what it means to be a Penn State football manager. How you carry yourself as a person and a man,” Kaluza added. “That’s a testament to Spider and Coach Paterno. They brought those values to the equipment room. You hear all the stories about Spider, but the thing you should about him is how much he cared about us.”
ABOUT THE BIG BOSS
The pair has nothing but praise for current head coach James Franklin, in addition to O’Brien.
“Coach Franklin and Coach O’Brien have been very appreciative of what we do as managers,” Venturino said. “They constantly remind us of our responsibility to make sure practice goes well.”
Penn State’s managers pair off with assistant coaches, and help them prep for drills — all according to a daily, ever-changing script given to them by football’s director of administration, Kevin Threlkel. That means pylons are and tackling dummies are in place, footballs are at the ready, drill stations are erected and torn down in seconds, and coaches’ whims and wails are attended to.
“You have to anticipate what’s next,” Kaluza said. “We know what needs to be done to make practice run smoothly. When it doesn’t, there’s bound to be yelling.”
As managers, they also do laundry, clean and repair helmets, prep gear, and pack and unpack for game day — whether it’s up University Drive to Beaver Stadium or halfway across the country. Franklin is a stickler for details. That means Penn State’s 13 football managers are as well.
“Coach Franklin is keen about the presentation of the locker room,” Kaluza said. “So we’re very careful in how do we things, from setting up the jerseys to how things are hung in the coaches’ locker room.”
Both managers agree about they like best about their jobs — the travel, the game-day atmosphere in Beaver Stadium, and most of all, the players themselves.
“The best part is the players,” Venturino said. “When I first started, some of them took me under their wing and made sure things were done right. It’s nice working with players. They really appreciate us. Away games are a great experience — it’s fun getting out of State College, especially since we grew up here.”
For Kaluza, seeing good guys who were once third-stringers become stars — and stay the same kid — means a lot, on a couple of levels.
“Our relationship with the players has been very important to me,” he said. “To see them grow up, to get their chance to play and succeed — guys like Carl Nassib or Anthony Zettel or Garrett Sickels — and then to maintain that relationship means a great deal. There are a couple of knuckleheads here and there, but 99.9 percent of the players treat us with respect and likewise with us about them. It’s not like we’re the ball boys and laundry guys who clean their jocks. It’s a testament to the guys they’ve been recruiting and continue to recruit.”
TUNNEL VISION
Testament, too, to the managers. Especially the ones for whom Penn State football has always been like family. It’s what Kaluza has always dreamed about.
“Since I was five or six, I remember that announcer on Senior Day and all the guys coming out through the years,” he said. “To have that experience yourself, to come out of the tunnel and hear your name over the loudspeaker, then shaking Coach Franklin’s hand and being with your family after having been a part of the Penn State football family for so many years – wow, it is a very special feeling.”
