Bucknell University Athletics
A Man of Few Words
10/12/2010 8:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 12, 2010
By Becky Hart, Bucknell Athletic Communications
Writers love a talkative subject who gives one outrageous anecdote after another about themselves. Quiet subjects make for the toughest interviews, but what they don't say about themselves can be just as revealing as what they do say. They're short on words, see their accomplishments as no big deal and would rather led others tell the story. John von Paris fits the bill.
"I'm probably the worst person for this thing," he says. "I don't have any talents. I'm a boring guy."
But that's just John being John.
Despite his denial of talent, others clearly saw the possibilities and von Paris began earning major recognition for his athletic skill at John Carroll High School in his home state. Although known around Bucknell primarily for his standing in the football program, the Upper Falls, Md., native's prowess extended far beyond the gridiron, too.
"I grew up playing sports. I grew up playing football, lacrosse, baseball. Then I got to high school and continued playing football there," says von Paris. "I got into wrestling. Coach actually asked me to do it, so I got into wrestling for that. It was a lot of fun. I played lacrosse and rugby there."
A member of the Patriots' rugby team as a senior, von Paris led the squad to the national high school championship. Along the way, he recorded 18 tries - rugby's equivalent of the touchdown - setting a school record that still stands today.
Senior year at John Carroll also included the Maryland state heavyweight title and a perfect 48-0 record in wrestling for von Paris. The trip to the state finals was his second after having finished runner-up in his weight class as a junior as well. At the end of two years of varsity wrestling, von Paris had amassed 86 total victories and earned all-state honors in a second sport in addition to football.
Von Paris doesn't seem to have a secret to his success, a fact that emphasizes his tendency to downplay that achievement.
"Going into my sophomore year, I just worked a lot, did a lot of offseason training, a lot of camps and everything," he says. "I just worked with my coach and did pretty well. My junior year I placed second. My senior year, I pretty much did the same thing and came back and won it."
The list of high school accomplishments, which also includes first-team all-county accolades in football and wrestling, All-America honors on the mats and a selection to the National Football Foundation All-Academic Team, is all the more impressive considering that von Paris was held out of action for nearly his entire sophomore year in high school. Playing in just his third varsity football game of the season, someone fell awkwardly on von Paris, breaking his back. Although he finished out the game, von Paris was eventually sidelined by the injury in all sports for the remainder of the year.
Now, seven years later, von Paris is dealing with another, yet unrelated, back injury. Although obviously not serious enough to keep him off the field at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, the after-effects of a training misstep last summer continue to plague the Bison senior. But that's not something that von Paris would complain about or want to draw any attention to, however.
"It's something that's a nagging pain, but it's something you have to deal with," says von Paris. "You have to deal with the pain and just work through it."
While working through that pain, von Paris has earned a spot as key reserve on the Bison defensive line. Through his first four games, he has totaled seven tackles to go along with an interception he snagged in Bucknell's season-opening contest at Duquesne. A year ago, after breaking into the starting lineup at the end of the season for the first time in his career, von Paris led the Bison in tackles for loss with 11. Even with that success, he would rather redirect the spotlight to his teammates.
"We have a great, great group of guys on the D-line - Josh Eden, Kyle Boline, Robby De La Rosa, Tracey Smith. They're doing really well, and as a unit we're doing really well," says von Paris in the closest thing to a boastful comment all morning. "We're being productive, and hopefully we can increase our productivity and be more consistent and help us win."
Even the way von Paris sees his own role on the line revolves around others.
"I'm backing up Josh and a little bit of Kyle at anchor position. Really just whenever coach tells me to go in, I go in," he explains. "The thing about D-line is you need a little rotation going in because if you go out there the whole time, you get worn down and tired a little bit. But the rotation lets you be fresh. It lets you be ready to go at all times."
Despite being one of the team's veterans, von Paris still refers back to his fellow seniors when it comes to meeting the squad's leadership needs. For him, preparing the up-and-coming Bison is a group effort that he's happy to be a part of.
"I think that the upperclassmen as a whole, and the D-line does a really good job of it, we look out for each other. We help each other out. If we have questions about assignments, we talk about it," says von Paris. "As a whole, I think we help the younger guys out really well. We've all been there before. We've all been freshmen and kind of lost."
Von Paris is far removed from his days of being an overwhelmed freshman, but he will soon have to take on a new role again, this time as spectator. When Saturdays come around next fall, von Paris will be watching his younger brother, Sammy, who recently spent his freshman campaign with Johns Hopkins football, take the field for Navy.
It doesn't take much effort to see that athletic accomplishment runs in the von Paris family. Sammy was also a standout in football and wrestling at the same high school where his older brother and father attended and played sports. Friendly competition between the brothers, who are separated by just two years, was ever present when the two were growing up, and that rivalry continues today.
"We still are competitive," says the older von Paris, adding that the battles between siblings included anything and everything as kids. "It was running to the school bus, it was running home. Everything was about competing."
It would be a mistake to think that sports are the only thing on von Paris' mind, however, as the family affair extends past just sports. During the summer, von Paris has worked with the family business, Von Paris Moving and Storage, which was founded by his great-great-grandfather in 1892 and is still owned by his father and namesake four generations later. That experience has afforded von Paris the opportunity to learn first-hand several aspects of the business, including the somewhat unenviable task of loading and unloading trucks of equipment at training camp for the Baltimore Ravens and witnessing up-close the workings of a century-old company.
Von Paris has other career aspirations for his post-Bucknell days, however. An accounting major, he has a handful of ideas about where he would eventually like to end up in his professional life. After some thought, von Paris decided his dream job might be as a financial planner, but his immediate plan calls for something slightly different.
"I want to try to get into finance or accounting, those fields," he says. "Then hopefully sit for the CPA exam, then possibly go to law school afterwards."
Even his interest in the law stems from family, and his academic work at Bucknell has added to the appeal.
"I've always been interested in law. I have an uncle who's a lawyer. He's really interesting and somebody I've always enjoyed talking to," says von Paris. "I've taken a lot of courses, I've taken business law, I've taken tax accounting and that's something I kind of want to get into, the securities and tax side of it. It's something I've always been interested in."
Von Paris' goals of working in the unglamorous field of tax law is further proof of his humble character. Not one to brag about his actions on or off the gridiron, his fondest memories of his time at Bucknell include team accomplishments and friendships.
"For the last three years, the last game of every season we've always done really well. We've always beaten teams we shouldn't have beaten, and that's been fun," said von Paris, whose role in Bucknell's surprising victory over Holy Cross in the 2009 season finale included a seven-yard rush on a fake punt to give his team a first down.
"Something I've really enjoyed is all the friends I've made. I'm not sure how many seniors we have, but we all came in together and we've gone through different head coaches, different coordinators. I just really enjoyed being friends with the guys I came in with, hanging out with them," he adds. "I think I've lived with the same guys for all four years, so that was a really fun thing."
Even the memories he hopes other Bucknellians have of him are modest. After he leaves campus for the last time as a student-athlete, von Paris would like his teammates to remember him simply as a good guy.
"Somebody they could always come to talk to. A nice guy, someone who's going to look out for them. I guess a guy who tried to do the right thing."
You'd think that at the end of your college career, you might have more to say about the university that got nearly every one of your waking minutes over the last four years. You might have more to say about your athletic and academic accomplishments with a Division I program. Or you might be more comfortable letting someone else tell that story. Because after all, that's just John being John.
Note: This story appeared in the Oct. 9 Bucknell Football Gameday Program vs. Penn.
