Temple University Athletics
TE Steve Maneri
Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University
Steve Maneri Blog: Dec. 4
12.4.09 | Football, Owl Bowl
Growing into Men
Senior tight end Steve Maneri (Saddle Brook, N.J.) is concluding his career at Temple University. Over the next two weeks, members of the Senior Class will share their thoughts as their final season of wearing the Cherry & White winds down and they gear up for their first bowl appearance.
December 4, 2009
62-0. 62-0. (Yes, I meant to put it twice) 63-9. 47-0.
Those were just a few of the scores from the 2006 season. A season where roughly twenty 18-year old boys ran onto that field each Saturday and were met by bigger, stronger men. The men of the 11 teams in 2006 that beat us. The men that one day we hoped we would become. However, that day was a long ways away, and it wasn't easy to be a Temple Owl in 2006.
The locals used to throw rocks at us on our practice field, shouting out obscenities. Professors would label us before even getting to know us. There were seniors who were thrown off the team, seniors who quit, and seniors who got suspended for fights, academic miscues, or anything else you can think of. I could tell you that today if one of my seniors stopped showing up, there would be 10 of us lined up at the coaches' doors trying to figure out what happened and what we can do to get him back. But thankfully, that's not an issue anymore, because those boys who ran onto that field in 2006, those boys who got their butts kicked by a combined score of 496-131, those boys who were the laughing stock of college football, those boys became men.
What does becoming men really mean? Isn't every idiot who grew hair on his chest considered a man in today's society? Sigmund Freud believed that everyone was born with an id. Having an id basically means that you are compelled to do whatever makes you feel good at the time without any regards for situation. As children matured, they began to develop awareness of their surroundings and eventually morals and values. Their decisions reflected these values.
Well, in a way, this process outlined by Freud can be applied to the Temple Football Program over the last four years. As boys, our decisions reflected our ids, but there was a man who did everything he could to change that. When Coach Golden first got to Temple, he started laying the bricks for a foundation, which meant lots and lots of rules.
My fellow seniors and I came to Temple after being the cool guys who pretty much did what we wanted to do back in high school, only to be told to follow a long list of rules that we were not accustomed to. We had to sit in the first or second row of all our classes, we had to be five minutes early to everything, we couldn't wear hats or headphones inside buildings, we had study hall, and we also had an 11 o'clock curfew.
I remember one of my teammates saying that it was like going away from home and being adopted into a family of really strict parents. But to those of you out there who grew up with strict parents, aren't you satisfied with the way you turned out? Wasn't it all worth it? It has been for us so far. The id is no longer calling the shots. Now when that girl hits one of us up at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday during game week, or when we get invited to the Kappa Sig party on a Thursday, our upcoming game is usually helping us make that decision. Any Joe Schmo can down a few beverages at a party, but it takes men to have a goal and sacrifice what ever needs to be sacrificed in order to achieve that goal.
Sacrifice. While most of you see us running onto that field chanting and flying around having the time of our lives on Saturdays, don't think for a second that there wasn't a ton of sacrifice to get there. We go to school year-round and spend the summer taking classes and spending our days conditioning, weight lifting, and scrimmaging each other on the practice field under the sun. Then in the cold winter months when the rest of the world is sleeping, the football team is getting up at 5:30 a.m. for workouts all over the place. From running the stadium stairs at Liacoras Center, to the Art Museum steps, to Boathouse Row, the Temple Owls are working. So if you happen to be suffering from insomnia this winter, take an early morning walk and you might just see a Temple football player working his butt off.
You've heard about the freshman 15? How about 30? Or in some cases even more than that. Since I've been at Temple I've gained about 60 pounds, and others on the team have had to gain or lose even more. It's become a habit now. Every 4-5 hours that I go without eating, I start to feel guilty, like I'm cheating myself and cheating the program. Playing football for Temple is not just a team sport or an extra-curricular activity; it's a way of life. Even the weekends in the offseason, when guys are letting loose, there is still a standard to represent. One of my teammates had another person challenge him while he was out socializing last summer. You know what my teammate did? He walked away. And it has nothing to do with fear, because my teammate easily could have had the upper hand in an altercation. He sacrificed his pride for the greater good of the team. The guy who challenged him was a person with nothing to lose, and doing anything other than walk away would do nothing but hurt the team.
One of the biggest sacrifices we've made was spending time with our families. You'll often hear a Temple football player refer to the team as his family. That's because we see each other a lot more than we see our actual families. We are enrolled at school during both summer sessions, all of August for training camp, and this year we'll be hanging out all winter break preparing for a bowl game. I've spent three of the last four Thanksgivings with my teammates, and this year it's looking like we'll be spending Christmas together, too! (Sorry Mom!) Not only do we spend time together, but we've been through hell and back together. Whether it was early morning team punishments, heartbreaking losses (during the 2008 season), or guys having family problems, the one thing that stayed consistent through it all is that no matter what happened, we would all end up back at that football facility on Monday morning.
In my four years at Temple, I'm proud to say that I've been part of one of the biggest four-year turnarounds in college football history. However, while the outside world only sees the finished product, I'm here to tell you that there was a lot more to the story than just X's and O's. Coach Golden took a group of 18-year old kids, and relentlessly molded us in to the men that we are today.
John Wooden once said that “It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” Once we took care of the little things, big things started to happen, and the biggest will be after Christmas! Hope to see YOU at the bowl game!
- Steve Maneri
December 4, 2009
62-0. 62-0. (Yes, I meant to put it twice) 63-9. 47-0.
Those were just a few of the scores from the 2006 season. A season where roughly twenty 18-year old boys ran onto that field each Saturday and were met by bigger, stronger men. The men of the 11 teams in 2006 that beat us. The men that one day we hoped we would become. However, that day was a long ways away, and it wasn't easy to be a Temple Owl in 2006.
The locals used to throw rocks at us on our practice field, shouting out obscenities. Professors would label us before even getting to know us. There were seniors who were thrown off the team, seniors who quit, and seniors who got suspended for fights, academic miscues, or anything else you can think of. I could tell you that today if one of my seniors stopped showing up, there would be 10 of us lined up at the coaches' doors trying to figure out what happened and what we can do to get him back. But thankfully, that's not an issue anymore, because those boys who ran onto that field in 2006, those boys who got their butts kicked by a combined score of 496-131, those boys who were the laughing stock of college football, those boys became men.
What does becoming men really mean? Isn't every idiot who grew hair on his chest considered a man in today's society? Sigmund Freud believed that everyone was born with an id. Having an id basically means that you are compelled to do whatever makes you feel good at the time without any regards for situation. As children matured, they began to develop awareness of their surroundings and eventually morals and values. Their decisions reflected these values.
Well, in a way, this process outlined by Freud can be applied to the Temple Football Program over the last four years. As boys, our decisions reflected our ids, but there was a man who did everything he could to change that. When Coach Golden first got to Temple, he started laying the bricks for a foundation, which meant lots and lots of rules.
My fellow seniors and I came to Temple after being the cool guys who pretty much did what we wanted to do back in high school, only to be told to follow a long list of rules that we were not accustomed to. We had to sit in the first or second row of all our classes, we had to be five minutes early to everything, we couldn't wear hats or headphones inside buildings, we had study hall, and we also had an 11 o'clock curfew.
I remember one of my teammates saying that it was like going away from home and being adopted into a family of really strict parents. But to those of you out there who grew up with strict parents, aren't you satisfied with the way you turned out? Wasn't it all worth it? It has been for us so far. The id is no longer calling the shots. Now when that girl hits one of us up at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday during game week, or when we get invited to the Kappa Sig party on a Thursday, our upcoming game is usually helping us make that decision. Any Joe Schmo can down a few beverages at a party, but it takes men to have a goal and sacrifice what ever needs to be sacrificed in order to achieve that goal.
Sacrifice. While most of you see us running onto that field chanting and flying around having the time of our lives on Saturdays, don't think for a second that there wasn't a ton of sacrifice to get there. We go to school year-round and spend the summer taking classes and spending our days conditioning, weight lifting, and scrimmaging each other on the practice field under the sun. Then in the cold winter months when the rest of the world is sleeping, the football team is getting up at 5:30 a.m. for workouts all over the place. From running the stadium stairs at Liacoras Center, to the Art Museum steps, to Boathouse Row, the Temple Owls are working. So if you happen to be suffering from insomnia this winter, take an early morning walk and you might just see a Temple football player working his butt off.
You've heard about the freshman 15? How about 30? Or in some cases even more than that. Since I've been at Temple I've gained about 60 pounds, and others on the team have had to gain or lose even more. It's become a habit now. Every 4-5 hours that I go without eating, I start to feel guilty, like I'm cheating myself and cheating the program. Playing football for Temple is not just a team sport or an extra-curricular activity; it's a way of life. Even the weekends in the offseason, when guys are letting loose, there is still a standard to represent. One of my teammates had another person challenge him while he was out socializing last summer. You know what my teammate did? He walked away. And it has nothing to do with fear, because my teammate easily could have had the upper hand in an altercation. He sacrificed his pride for the greater good of the team. The guy who challenged him was a person with nothing to lose, and doing anything other than walk away would do nothing but hurt the team.
One of the biggest sacrifices we've made was spending time with our families. You'll often hear a Temple football player refer to the team as his family. That's because we see each other a lot more than we see our actual families. We are enrolled at school during both summer sessions, all of August for training camp, and this year we'll be hanging out all winter break preparing for a bowl game. I've spent three of the last four Thanksgivings with my teammates, and this year it's looking like we'll be spending Christmas together, too! (Sorry Mom!) Not only do we spend time together, but we've been through hell and back together. Whether it was early morning team punishments, heartbreaking losses (during the 2008 season), or guys having family problems, the one thing that stayed consistent through it all is that no matter what happened, we would all end up back at that football facility on Monday morning.
In my four years at Temple, I'm proud to say that I've been part of one of the biggest four-year turnarounds in college football history. However, while the outside world only sees the finished product, I'm here to tell you that there was a lot more to the story than just X's and O's. Coach Golden took a group of 18-year old kids, and relentlessly molded us in to the men that we are today.
John Wooden once said that “It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” Once we took care of the little things, big things started to happen, and the biggest will be after Christmas! Hope to see YOU at the bowl game!
- Steve Maneri
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