Like Bon Jovi, I'm halfway there. As my second year at Tufts officially draws to a close, I keep hearing of things I must do before I graduate. Paint the cannon, they tell me. Pull an all-day Dewick, meet with President Bacow and run the Boston Marathon. Do a TDC show, run NQR and get on top of Jumbo. Sure, I'll get to all of that eventually, but there's one thing on my own list that I feel has to be shared, something everyone should do before they graduate: Have a conversation with Rocky Carzo.
For those who don't know this hidden gem on campus, Rocky is the former athletic director here at Tufts and still has an office in Halligan, amid the hustle and bustle of computer science and electrical engineering. He's older than paper, but you'd never be able to tell from the way he enthusiastically describes to you his experiences atop the Jumbos' athletics program while recounting the time he met Joe Paterno or offering you a water bottle. This is a man who, 20 hours after meeting with you, will call your cell at nine in the morning, scold you for fibbing about being asleep and then give you some post-interview afterthoughts.
I had the good fortune of spending two hours in his office this year, staring wide-eyed at the man who knows everything about Tufts sports. I would say that his knowledge could fill a book, except that he's already written one. Anything Rocky says is instant gold — the quotes that motivational posters and emphatic speeches are made out of. To the Class of 2010, my graduation gift to you is my own book, titled "Life Lessons From Rocky Carzo." Enjoy the excerpt, and congratulations. (Note: He doesn't curse nearly as much as these quotes show.)
Rocky on the three components of competition: "Effort and mistake minimization are critical, and in order to do that, you have to understand why they are so important. The reason they're so important is that they're easy to control. If you make a mistake, you have to know the third critical part, which is not repeating the mistake and absolution."
Rocky on winning: "Any time you get a penalty, all of that adds up, and the team that makes the fewest mistakes generally wins. And it will generally win whether the personnel is better or not. Good coaches recognize that, because that's a good way to get the win-loss thing started, is to keep from losing first and then start to go to winning."
Rocky on becoming good: "When people transmit knowledge to you, it's just words. Talking about it doesn't win any games. Translating that into movement, specific movement adhering to the principle of distance and help, and putting it together makes us better. The anticipatory sense doesn't develop unless you know what the options are. The difference between the average and the good guy is 100,000 reps. That sounds like bulls--t, but it isn't."
Rocky on teamwork: "When someone's in trouble, everyone has to buck up and help them. If you're out on the field thinking, ‘Mary had a little lamb,' and I should have done that test well or I flunked that test, who are you punishing? Now you're ruining the practice and the game; is that the way to go? No. If they come out of that saying I'm responsible for me, you've done a hell of a job. It's my responsibility to get everything in order, and it's a balancing act, but the person who's done it comes out of college with a better set of personal management skills than the person who doesn't."
Rocky on the latest Super Bowl: "Peyton Manning throws one bad pass in the whole game and suddenly everyone thinks that New Orleans is the greatest team since sliced bread."
Rocky on feeling down in the dumps: "You'll get lower than whale s--t sometimes when you're losing, and it's bad news, and you want to throw yourself off a bridge."
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Alex Prewitt is a rising junior majoring in English and religion. He can be reached at Alexander.Prewitt@tufts.edu.
