Hard work rewards Tbmich
By Mike Kluck
Senior Reporter
Patience has always been an impor
tant part of Jared Tpmich’s life.
It is something the senior rush end
on the Nebraska football team has
needed to succeed in both football and
life.
“My position takes a lot of patience,
and a lot of people don’t realize that,”
Tomich said. “You’re running 10 yards
every play, and you might not get to
the quarterback nine out of 10 times.
“You can’t quit on it. You got to give
it that 10th try and try to get through.
That’s how it is with school, too. In the
past, it’s been a rough road. You just
can’t stop.”
Tomich’s development as an athlete
and a person started long before he
walked on to the Nebraska campus as
an academically ineligible lfeshman—
a casualty of Proposition 48 — in
1992.
It began in the third grade, when he
was placed in special education classes
and labeled by his teachers as a lazy
student who did not care about school.
It was a label that followed and
haunted Tomich throughout his school
years, even though he and his parents
knew he wasn’t apathetic toward his
school work.
“I had a hard time with keeping my
focus on school,” Tomich said. “I tried
all the time and never got any success
out of it. It (school) kind of pushed me
into a hole to kind of give up.”
His parents, James and Cheryll
Tomich, said they wouldn’t let Jared
give up on school. They had seen his
ability to leam, and his parents knew
he wasn’t the same person his teachers
described.
When Jared was 10 years old, he
began to train his miniature schnauzer
for dog shows and obedience classes,
another activity requiring patience.
James Tomich said Jared’s four
years of working with the dog proved
«
Most people take that hard-working
attitude and put it on the field, but I had
to take that football attitude and relate it
back to school ”
Jared Tomich
NU rush end
that Jared could learn.
“He was better at sight learning,
than book learning,” James Tomich
said. “But he worked hard in his dog
obedience classes.”
Even though he struggled in school,
Jared began planning his college days
as a student in junior high.
Also at that time, Jared became in
terested in football and weight lilting,
which fueled his interest in college,
Cheryll Tomich said.
“He was determined to work in the
weight room, and that also gave him a
drive to work harder in school,”
Cheryll Tomich said. “He wanted to get
a good college education.
“Jared didn’t know how to tell us
what his problems were with learning.
He didn’t learn like the other children.
We didn’t know until his junior year in
high school how to help him.”
As a ninth grader, Tomich again had
to rely on his patience. At 5 foot 9 and
160 pounds, he played comerback for
the freshmen team at Lake Central
High School in St. John, Ind. After
Jared’s freshman season, James
Tomich said he knew his son could play
college football.
But with more than 2,500 students
at his high school, Tomich did not start
for the varsity squad until his senior
season. That year, he earned all-state
lionors as defensive end.
Elmer Britton, Lake Central’s foot
ball coach of 29 years, said although
Tomich had a learning problem in high
school, it didn’t hinder him on the foot
ball field.
“Physically, he’s the best player I’ve
ever coached, period,” Britton said
“He’s a great kid, humble. He’s every
thing college football ought to be.”
Tomich was successful in football
as a senior, but again he had to show
patience. His grades scared away mosi
college recruiters. A Purdue coach told
Jared he wouldn’t survive in college
his mother said.
By February 1992, Tomich hadn’1
received a single scholarship offer,
Only Cincinnati and Nebraska asked
him to walk on.
Tomich was set to go to Cincinnati
before Britton talked to a friend, Ton
Peterson, who trained under Boyd
Epley, Nebraska’s director of athletic
performance.
Peterson contacted Nebraska De
fensive Coordinator Charlie McBride
who immediately traveled to St. John
to see Jared and his family.
Cheryll Tomich said it was
McBride’s persistence that convinced
Jared to attend Nebraska, even though
he knew no one in Lincoln.
“When I came out here, I was tak
ing a chance,” Tomich said. “I didn’t
know anybody, and Phil (Tomich’s
iguana) was the only thing I had to talk
to. So it was lonely the first couple of
days, especially being a prop (48) and
not being able to be involved with the
team at all.”
During his first year, Tomich said,
he questioned his college decision
nearly every night and often considered
transferring.
However, he did receive some good
news shortly after arriving in Lincoln.
He was tested and diagnosed as hav
ing attention deficit disorder, a learn
ing disability.
“It was a great relief to know that it
wasn’t me being lazy,” Tomich said.
“But I think it was more of a relief for
my parents to know. Not that they have
thought that I was lazy, but it was nice
to put a label on it.”
Still, that didn’t make it any easier
i for Tomich to learn.
“I have to have patience with things,
school especially,” he said. “I need to
work through my problems with school
and take my time. Most people take that
hard-working attitude and put it on the
field, but I had to take that football at
titude and relate it back to school.”
Tomich’s first season was difficult,
and he sat out the following season as
a redshirt. But he returned to Lincoln
in the summer of 1993 with his girl
friend, Lisa Walczak, who started
classes at UNL.
Walczak helped Tomich study and
i become involved in the academic pro
gram at NU’s Hewitt Center. Walczak
said she noticed a difference in Tomich.
“College was an awakening for him,
because in high school it was easy for
him not to have to work up to the stan
dards,” she said. “Once he showed him
self he could do the work, it made it a
lot easier for him.
For the next 3 1/2 years, Tomich did
his homework both on the field and in
the classroom. He also became en
gaged to Walczak.
Please see TOMICH on 20
NU kickers
no longer
unproven
By Trevor Parks
Senior Reporter
Unlike this time a year ago,
the Nebraska kicking game is
solid.
In August 1995, the
Comhuskers were dependent on
a true freshman place kicker and
a sophomore punter who had no
collegiate experience. But with
the emergence of Kris Brown
and Jesse Kosch, the kicking
game questions had been erased
two weeks into the Huskers’ run
to a second straight national title.
“We both have a good year
under our belt,” Brown said.
“We have some big-game Expe
rience.
“There is no fear of the un-'
known anymore. We know ex
actly what it is going to be like
to perform in a game.”
One of three true freshmen to
play last year, Brown made 58
of 61 extra points and 13 of 16
field goals. Brown, from
Southlake, Texas, also set an NU
freshman record with 97 points,
one more than fellow freshman
Ahman Green, an I-back.
Kosch, a junior from Colum
bus, who took over for Darin
Erstad, returns after a success
ful year in which he averaged
40.3 yards per kick on 27 punts.
Kosch said the year of expe
rience improved his confidence
level, especially in big games.
“Last year I always got ner
vous,” Kosch said, “really ner
vous, probably more than I
should have before a big game.
But this year, that year of expe
rience will really help.”
Get a global attitude.
Study Abroad
For further information
UNL International Affairs
1237 R Street
472-5358
email: iaffairs.unl.edu
web: iaffairs.unl.edu
Great Selection
Low, Low Prices!!
^Jeans
^Sweaters
^Sweats
^ Coats
°\lission Thrift Mart
1829 “O” Street
Get
Suspended
The First Week of School
All Suspended Mountain
3ikes at Final
Markdown "Prices.
SPECIALIZED
Welcome to UNL
Don't ENDANGER your smile
by letting your teeth become Extinct
University Health Center
DENTAL OFFICE (JV
15th and U Streets vlJ
Appointments available 472-7495
Your full-time UNL Student I.D. card provides
FREE admission to all of the following regular
season Nebraska athletic events:
I®"
car
Women’s Basketball
Swimmimg & Diving
«• Track & Field
«- Wrestling
»*' Soccer
■» Cross Country