Padecky: Former Casa Grande football standout leaves game behind
His feet hurt all the time. Sitting. Standing. Reclining. Walking, for sure. They hurt all the time. And they aren’t even a nuisance. Not even worth a shrug. John Porchivina has never been happier.
What made them hurt, well, Porchivina said it was the best thing that ever happened to him. Better than that star-studded football career he had at Casa Grande. Definitely more satisfying than getting that football scholarship to Cal. All those pats on the back, all those flowery compliments, all those adoring spotlights, all that was less than two years ago.
Which makes the next sentence feel like an ice water splash on that resume.
“I hardly ever think about football anymore,” said Lance Corporal John Porchivina of the United States Marine Corps.
John Porchivina doesn’t think about football? Huh?
John Porchivina lived football, inhaled it like oxygen. Once, it was as close as it could get as being a reason for living for him. He loved the contact, the success, the looks he would get that made him feel like a rock star. What teenager wouldn’t? At any age, applause can be a drug. When it comes on the heels of 3,508 all-purpose yards and 45 touchdowns - his statistics over two seasons as a Gaucho - such applause can send corrupt the best of talents.
Which makes the next sentence feel like another ice water splash on that resume.
“I took plays off,” he said. “I took practices off.”
Porchivina did all that and he didn’t bust it from whistle to whistle?
“I was a team captain, but I wasn’t a leader,” Porchivina said. “I just did what I wanted to do. If a teammate screwed up or had trouble with something, I wouldn’t help him out. It wasn’t me screwing up. Why bother?”
And then Porchivina said something that you won’t hear from every 20-year-old.
“I was a self-centered (rhymes with grit),” he said. “What can touch me? I lived without consequences.”
To look at oneself so unforgiving and without compromise is difficult for anyone at any age. But the journey John Porchivina has taken to propel him to finish first in a Marine recruiting class of 518 - the celebrated Honor Graduate - is a story worth sharing. And Porchivina has. He has spoken twice to this year’s Casa’s football team. Now back in San Diego, Porchivina spent the month of September at home to see family and friends and relate his 13-week Marine boot camp experience.
His message to this year’s Gaucho team was as clear and direct as his self-assessment of a high school football player.
“Don’t take it (football) for granted,” was the first thing he said to the players. “College sports is not a game; it’s a job. Every down you play in high school, that’s about as good as it’s going to get for you. And I wish I had taken school more seriously; I just skated by.”
Yes, you guessed it, wasn’t a player who slept through that speech. Porchivina’s name carries weight around this school. He was NBL back of the year in 2014. He was first-team All-NBL both on offense and defense. He ran for a school-record 301 yards against Windsor.
His is a cautionary tale and the first caution is reality. He was the grit when he arrived at Berkeley. Least that’s what he thought. He was red-shirted his freshman year. He broke his hand. He sat. And watched. With headaches.
“I noticed I was having head issues,” he said. “I was having memory issues. A friend would tell me to get going, we had to get somewhere and I couldn’t remember.”
His father, Rudy, was a bit more specific.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he had one, two, maybe three concussions,” said the elder Porchivina, a small-business owner. “Yes, there are concussion protocols in college and those are for the players seen playing on Saturday. For practice squad guys? You gotta really, really love that life (to practice for an entire year with no chance of playing).”
Sitting was an ice water slap all by itself for Porchivina, an Honorable Mention at the 2013 U.S. Army All-American Combine.
He decided to leave Cal and go to SRJC. The University of New Mexico became interested. San Jose State was in play. All the while a thought kept resurfacing, nagging, refusing to go away.
“Sure I could have kept playing football, but who would I be benefitting other than myself?”
Rudy was a Marine but that history wasn’t pushing Porchivina’s decision.
He was only four when the World Trade Center was attacked, but he had a memory of that. He saw the news. He saw the rise of ISIS. He saw the rise of commitment in himself, and it wasn’t football.
“I was surprised (when John enlisted),” Rudy Porchivina said. “I never glorified it. It’s a tough life. He wanted to be an infantryman. That’s no cakewalk. The phrase I use all the time is this: No one cuddles their newborn infant and says, ‘I hope you’ll grow up and be an infantryman.’ Yes, you want the White House or being a doctor or a lawyer. But infantry in the Marine Corps?”
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: