Up for any challenge
11/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
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For Frank Giacalone, the tougher an assignment is the better. When deciding on his college major, Giacalone sought out the most challenging one he could find. “I loved math and science at a young age,” Giacalone mentions. “So when it came time for me to decide on a major at Lehigh I chose engineering because I was told it was one of the more difficult ones.” Four years later Giacalone has handled the difficult major, in addition to being a key contributor on Lehigh’s football team and an active member of the campus community. All while not backing down from any challenge that’s come his way.
Giacalone is the middle of three boys in his family. His older brother, Vincent, played football at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and is currently coaching the game while earning his teaching certificate. Giacalone’s younger brother Joseph is also a college football player, at Delaware Valley College where he plays on the offensive line. “I’m very close with my brothers, we’ve always had a friendly competition among us,” Giacalone explains. “In high school Vincent played quarterback and I played tight end so he used to throw me touchdown passes which was pretty cool.”
Giacalone says the competition among his brothers was always friendly, but deep down each wanted to be the best athlete or the top student and that drove them to succeed in their endeavors. “Our parents never said you have to do this or do that, but rather they would tell us to not be nervous and do our best. If you think about it, that’s all you can really do in any situation.”
He continues, “My parents took the approach of letting us see how important our education was or why it was good to be active in sports and the competition was then naturally bred among my brothers and me.”
After helping to raise the reputation of his high school’s football program, Giacalone went looking for colleges. “I had no idea where I wanted to go,” he admits, “but I wanted a school where I could play football and also be challenged academically so it basically came down to schools in the Patriot and Ivy Leagues. My first official visit was scheduled at Lehigh and I stayed with Brendan Van Ackeren ’09 who was also an engineer and I really liked everything about the school. I knew it was a fit for me on the football side and with the academics.”
Giacalone came to Lehigh after playing tight end and defensive end at Princeton High School and was projected as an outside linebacker and defensive end in college. “My high school coach actually said to me he thought I could play offensive line because I was a good blocker.” It turns out Giacalone’s coach was right as the Lehigh coaches saw the same thing and decided to switch his position. “I wanted to play right away so it didn’t matter to me what position I was at,” says Giacalone who weighed only 215 pounds as a freshman but now carries 275 pounds on his 6’4” frame.
While Giacalone was getting acclimated to a new position on the field as a freshman, off the field he was being introduced to another new challenge. “I took a class called Engineering 5 which exposes you to each field of engineering. We made our own golf club heads in the class and I decided that Materials Science and Engineering is the direction I’d go.” Giacalone singles out Rick Vinci as one of his favorite professors at Lehigh for the type of teaching style he uses. “Professor Vinci is very interactive in class and does a great job of presenting the materials to us. He shows us why things are important and matter to us as college students and I thought that was not only interesting, but very helpful.”
“I’ve had Frank in two classes and he has always been willing to give things a try,” Vinci explains. In my lecture classes Frank was always willing to attempt to answer questions on difficult topics. We push our students pretty hard, and Frank has always risen to the challenge.”
Giacalone has blossomed as an engineering major, maintaining a 3.29 grade point average and appearing on the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll numerous times. He’s also become very active throughout Lehigh’s campus and is involved in the C.O.A.C.H. program (community outreach), Alpha Sigma Mu (Materials Science and Engineering Honor Society), Delta Upsilon Fraternity for which he serves as the Rush Chairman and Recruitment Coordinator and he is the elected leader of a cross disciplinary team in Integrated Product Development (IPD).
“I wasn’t actively seeking to be in a frat,” he explains. “One of my former teammates was in Delta Upsilon and would take me there after practice to eat dinner. I became friends with a lot of the kids in the fraternity, many of whom were football players, and after some time decided I’d like to join. It’s really a place where people are trying to mold men.” He continues, “As the Rush Chair it was my job to get the name of the fraternity out there and let people know what we do and what we’re about; I’ve really enjoyed the entire experience.”
Giacalone was recently rewarded for his work on and off the field as he was named a semifinalist for the 2009 William V. Campbell Trophy, which is the academic Heisman Trophy for collegiate football players and is awarded by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.
With his final year at Lehigh now in full swing Giacalone is weighing his options for what challenge to take on next. “I might go to graduate school here (at Lehigh) but I’m also searching for jobs and going through that process. I’m narrowing down my decision and will weigh my options. I’ve had an internship which I really enjoyed and I also did some research work so I’ve been exposed to both sides, the job side, and the school side and can honestly say I liked them both.”
“I have no doubt that Frank will be successful,” explains Vinci. “He has been a strong performer in his engineering classes, and combines his academic strengths with a true curiosity about engineering. Early in his career at Lehigh he spent the summer learning lab skills. Part of the time he helped the graduate students with our summer MatCamp, an engineering day camp for high school students. I’m not sure who was more enthusiastic – the high school students or Frank!” He concluded, “Someone who is technically strong, likes what he does, and is easy to get along with (as Frank is) is sure to succeed.”
Asked to describe how he’s grown during his time at Lehigh Giacalone says he has become a man and learned to deal with different situations on his own. “When you’re a high school senior you think you have a lot of responsibility. But then you come to college and everything you do is on your own; there isn’t someone to push you to get your homework done or go to practice but you still have to do it. Our coaches are constantly telling us ‘If you want to be treated like a man, act like one,’ but I wasn’t ready to be a man as a freshman. I think I’ve grown slowly but can honestly say that I am very prepared to handle almost any situation that comes at me and can take care of myself and the people I care about. I’ve learned to set goals and also how to attain those goals.”
