Straight Shooter – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/1/1998 12:00:00 AM | Football
October 1, 1998
COLUMBUS, Ohio – By Robin Jentes, OSU Athletic Communications
%^$Put yourself in this position. 95,000 crazed fans outfitted in scarlet and gray chanting, screaming your name as you walk through the tunnel to the opening onto the field. As you get closer, you grip the hands of your fellow teammates, while the chants grow louder and the playing of the Buckeye Battle Cry surrounds you.
%^$You are the starting quarterback of the No.1 ranked team in college football. The Ohio State Buckeyes. You are the man everybody has been discussing as the silent leader. The one that will help carry this team, with your dynamic arm, to a victory in the Fiesta Bowl. You’ve won big games before. But the fans want more. You want more. A national championship.
%^$Feeling any pressure, yet?
%^$As you read this, senior Joe Germaine is intensely pursuing this very story line. Unlike us, however, this soft-spoken player is ready. There are no sweating palms or sleepless nights for Germaine. He is confident, because he has been preparing for this moment his entire life.
%^$”All summer, we have worked hard so we can win the national championship. That has been our team goal and I believe we can accomplish this, ” said Germaine.
%^$Germaine says this with only intense eyes, no cockiness or swagger to his statements. Cocky and him do not mix. He is a player that believes in obeying the rules and doing what is right. A player that believes in his teammates’ abilities and not only his own. A player that will only show his opponent up with a touchdown pass.
%^$”He has never put himself above anybody and I really marvel over that,” his mother Phillis said. “Joe has always been polite and is really a nice person.”
%^$”I guess I have always been a straight-shooter. My role here is to lead by example,” Germaine said. “So I am not trying to impress anybody. I am here to win.”
%^$His demeanor on the field is the same off the field-polite, positive and kind. Something he credits to his family’s teachings of commonsense values and strong beliefs while growing up in Mesa, Arizona. As Mormons, Joe Sr. and Phillis Germaine taught each of their five children the principles of respecting others, working hard and being loyal to your family.
%^$ “I really believe that family should be the cornerstone of each person’s life,” Germaine said. “You should care and concentrate the most about your family because they are your family. That is how important it is to me.”
%^$That is why the Germaine family had never missed a practice or game before Joe headed to Ohio State and now always have at least one family member present at each home game.
%^$ After all, football has always been a family sport for the Germaines. With his father and two older brothers playing football, it was no surprise that the youngest of the Germaine siblings wanted to play, so his mother signed him up in the Pop Warner youth football program.
%^$In that first week of practices, Germaine’s coaches watched the batch of eight-year-olds go through certain drills to see which position would best suit each player. Being a huge Walter Payton fan, Germaine had hopes of starting at running back. But his coaches saw something else-a quarterback.
%^$When the announcement was made, Germaine was furious and went home crying to his mother. Encouraged by his parents, Germaine toughed it out that first year with the Leprechauns and years later, would lead that same team to a state championship.
%^$”One thing my parents taught me was toughness. That is something I have taken from them the most, because it has been one of the keys to the little successes I have had.” Germaine said. “It helps you tremendously in football, because when you are mentally tough then you are able to handle anything that is thrown your way.”
%^$That one lesson, according to his mother has helped Germaine become unquestionably one of the top quarterbacks in the country.
%^$”It seems he has always had a battle each year he has played football, but he finds it within himself to do the job,” Phillis said. “He may be overlooked, but he never gives up.”
%^$The Germaine family had its biggest test when Joe decided to head to Ohio State after spending only one year at Scottsdale Community College. Not only would Germaine’s football abilities be tested, but also his Mormon lifestyle. He would be moving from the safe confines of Mesa, a predominantly Mormon city, to Columbus, a melting pot that may as well be on the other side of the planet.
%^$”At first, it was very difficult, because of my church here not being as strong and not having as many members,” Germaine said. “However, my family did a good job instilling our principles and beliefs at a very early age and also the people here have been great.”
%^$Being the only Mormon on the team has also helped in bringing an inner strength to Germaine that he has carried onto the football field. Through his religious teachings, Germaine has learned self-control, which has prepared him as the leader of this team. He doesn’t believe in using his temper.
%^$”Sure, I will get angry, if during a game a play does not go well, but not to the point where I will openly vent my frustrations on my teammates,” Germaine said. “We are close here and everybody wants to do well.”
%^$Still many of Germaine’s critics feel that he does not get angry enough, because of his quiet and calm demeanor. Even some believe that he cannot lead Ohio State in vying for a national championship title, because they mistake his quietness as a weakness in his leadership skills. Yet, Germaine is proud of who he is and can only change his critics perspectives with the one way he knows-playing well and winning.
%^$”I guess more so in athletics, people think of my personality and they think I can’t be competitive or someone they can take advantage of. But that is definitely not true,” Germaine said. “I am one of the most competitive people I think there is. I want to win as much as anybody.”
%^$And Germaine has already quieted these critics with the opening of the season, when he completed 13-21 passes for 150 yards and three touchdowns in just one half of the Toledo home opener.
%^$Though he does this without a swagger in his step or a brash comment. He competes and performs at his best, because this is the only way he has been taught.
%^$So, now you can breathe a sigh of relief. You are not walking through the tunnel to 95,000 fans to the opening of Ohio Stadium. You are not the one leading the No. 1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. You are not the one that every Buckeye fan is hoping will help capture the school’s first national championship since 1961. But be thankful that Joe Germaine will be.
