Football star honored for academic success

Mike Germino, Penn's All-Ivy lineman, is a GTE Academic All-American. Please forgive Penn defensive lineman Mike Germino if he doesn't seem overly excited at being one of only 24 college football players named to the GTE Academic All-America first team. You see, the Wharton senior has been picking up awards for his work both on and off the gridiron for the past few weeks and didn't immediately understand the scope of his latest momentous honor. "I think I didn't even really realize what kind of award it was until one of my friends e-mailed me and said that it was in the USA Today," Germino said. "And I picked up the paper and I saw it in there and I was just kind of like, 'Whoa, man, this is pretty cool.'" Two weeks ago, Germino was honored as a first team All-Ivy selection for his outstanding play on the field for the Penn football team. This fall, the senior terrorized opposing quarterbacks to the tune of an Ivy-leading 9 1/2 sacks and a team-high 12 tackles for a loss. And last week, the Longmeadow, Mass., native was named to the GTE District II Academic All-America Team -- for the third consecutive year. Germino maintains a 3.54 grade point average with a finance concentration in Wharton. From the district level, Germino was nominated for national honors, and it was on Tuesday that Germino picked up his biggest award yet -- he was one of only 24 football players from over 200 Division I-A and Division I-AA programs to be selected for the National GTE Academic All-America first team. "This was the third year in a row that I got the district award, so when [Director of Penn Athletic Communications Shaun May] said, 'You made the national team,' I was like, 'Oh, whatever, Shaun, it's not really a big deal' -- because it was the third year I'd got it," Germino said. "Then just to see that it was the one team, that there was the 22 guys that made the national team, that was pretty cool. "And ever since then, I've been pretty excited about it." Germino was joined on the GTE first team by two fellow Ivy Leaguers -- junior wide receiver Eric Johnson from Yale and senior defensive back Ben Green from Harvard. The Big Ten and the Big 12 led all conferences in the number of student-athletes honored, with four selections apiece. The GTE Academic All-America Player of the Year is Chad Pennington, a senior quarterback from Marshall, who is also in contention for college football's prestigious Heisman Trophy award. Germino is the second Penn football player in recent years to have garnered All-America honors -- defensive back John Bishop earned the distinction following his senior campaign in 1997. As a junior in 1998, Germino recorded 34 tackles, including a team-high 10 tackles for a loss, and also picked up 5 1/2 sacks en route to earning second team All-Ivy status. Penn ended the season allowing only 78.9 yards per game on the ground -- the sixth-best rushing defense in Division I-AA. Any way you look at it, the Quakers defensive line was a major contributor to the team's 1998 Ivy League title. And this success is what Germino will always remember of Penn. "Winning the Harvard game, and standing on the railing of the bridge over the river and watching the student body standing in the road throwing the goalposts in the river -- by far it stands out more than anything," Germino said. And, though the Quakers did not repeat as Ivy champs during his senior season, Germino still feels he can take some solace in his All-Ivy and All-America recognition. "It's different in the sense that it's an individual achievement rather than a team achievement. I wouldn't say its nearly as big of a rush as winning conference was," Germino said. "But this is cool because it's an all-encompassing award and it really makes you feel that not just in football, but your whole time in college, you really achieved something in everything that you did and you tried to do." Germino plans to take a month off to spend with his family after he completes his degree this semester. He will then set out to tackle one of his biggest challenges yet -- working at the equities trading desk at J.P. Morgan in New York.

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