Bucknell University Athletics
Appearances Can Be Deceiving
11/1/2010 8:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 1, 2010
By Becky Hart, Bucknell Athletic Communications
Appearances can be deceiving. Things are not always what they seem. It might sound like a magic act, but it's not. It's Jason Vollmar's career. In the last several years, Bucknell's starting center has been proving people wrong, surprising others and himself with the path he has taken in both athletics and academics. Life doesn't always take the direction you expect, but Vollmar is proof that that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
One look at Vollmar and you wouldn't automatically put him on the offensive line. Listed at 5-11 and 265 pounds, Vollmar has spent most of his playing career trying to make up for a lack of size and almost as long trying to convince others not to write him off too easily because of it. Recruiting visits four years ago took on a similar theme as the Lansdale, Pa., native fought to make potential coaches think that he was bigger than he appeared. Few were fooled, but Vollmar was undeterred.
"I wanted to go Ivy League really bad, and every time I went there, they'd say, `You're too short,'" recalls Vollmar. "I'd go on a visit there and they'd like my film and my grades, and then I'd show up and they were like, `You're a little short. How tall are you?' I'd try to tell them I'm 6-0. I'm barely 5-9, probably. Coach (Bryan) Bossard says I'm 5-8 ½."
Despite the naysayers, Vollmar finally got his chance at Bucknell. Still, however, the opportunity to leave his mark on the team was slow in coming. As a freshman, he saw action in just one varsity game against Lafayette. Then, as a sophomore, a foot injury derailed his game-day plans before the season even took off.
"It was about a week-and-a-half before the first game in one of the intrasquad scrimmages in the summer. I think I was blocking back, and somebody fell on the back of my leg. My foot just kind of shifted out. At first I thought it was a mid-foot sprain, so I was trying to play on it and it was killing me."
The injury turned out to be worse than expected and eventually required surgery to put Vollmar on the path to full recovery. Unfortunately, it also took him off the path to being a regular contributor on Saturdays.
While the physical rehabilitation was tedious, the mental aspect of the process was perhaps even more difficult to bear. Vollmar had expected to make his way into the lineup that season but was instead saddled with the feeling that he was being left behind. Although still technically a member of the squad, he was unable to grind it out on the field with his teammates, a fact that became even more difficult to stomach when his roommates and closest friends took the field each weekend.
"It was tough because we were living in the mods. I was living with Tyler Anderson, (Kyle) Boline, (Rob) Gerlach and (Travis) Nissley, and they were all playing," says Vollmar. "I was going to play that year, so I was all excited. Then (after the injury) I go to just watching. On the weekends, they'd be away. I'd be in the mods by myself. It was bad. It just kind of gave me more drive to try and get back on the field, but it was still kind of tough."
As fall and winter passed by, Vollmar began to work his way back into football shape. By the time spring practices rolled around, he was ready for action, eager for his return to the sport he took up in middle school after seeing an older cousin play.
"I felt like a little kid again in spring ball, which is really weird to say. It was fun just going out and hitting people. It had been nine months since I hit somebody," Vollmar remembers. "It felt good. It was nice to get out there knowing that I can come back and play again."
When Vollmar did come back, he returned to his original spot on the field - tackle. Playing an unlikely position for someone of his size, Vollmar made the best of his situation, choosing to see the bright side of things. Sure, his opponents were bigger, but he had the advantage of leverage - "I have a lower pad level automatically," he jokingly points out - and the benefit of solid technique.
Having already been forced into adjusting his expectations in previous seasons, Vollmar saw yet another change heading into his senior campaign when he was moved to center on the offensive line. Despite earning limited time as a back-up at the position last year, the new role suits Vollmar just fine. That doesn't mean the transition has been completely smooth sailing, however.
"It's been a pretty big transition for me. At first I was having trouble with snaps, with shotgun snaps, and how to get used to it," says Vollmar. "It's a lot more fitting for the stature I am. My height is definitely a disadvantage when it comes to offensive line play. When I played tackle last year, I was going against guys who were 6-4, and I couldn't touch their shoulder pads. I tried my best to survive on the edge last year, and I think I did an all right job. But this year I have more of a chance. Kids aren't as tall and as quick, so I have more of a chance with them."
Off the field, Vollmar is not quite where he started either. When he began his studies at Bucknell, the senior was undecided on a major but was leaning toward psychology. After taking an introductory management course and investigating the management school, Vollmar found his calling in the business world.
"When I took that (Management 101), I was like, `This is really cool if this is what business is really about," says Vollmar, who is set to graduate with a degree in management this spring. "I talked to some of the older guys like Sam Nana-Sinkam. I remember him saying the management school is where you want to go. That's where you can get the best jobs."
Vollmar's interest in finance grew as a result of a conversation with another teammate. This time it was John von Paris and his investment misfortunes just prior to the market crash during the pair's sophomore year that set Vollmar on his current path.
"He (von Paris) ended up helping me set up an account on the internet for a brokerage. I actually got in at the perfect time in February or March right at the bottom, so when I got in, I made a ton of money right away. I was like, `That's pretty cool. You can just sit at your computer and watch your money go up.' That's unreal," says Vollmar. "So that's when I started getting my interest in stocks."
That interest has paid off for Vollmar in more ways than one, and his studies have led him to a number of opportunities in the world of finance. In addition to gaining acceptance to the Delta Mu Delta Honor International Society in Business and working with the Hersey Company through the Institute for Leadership in Technology and Management, the senior recently completed an internship with Goldman Sachs and is now a portfolio manager with the Student Managed Investment Fund at Bucknell.
Actually a capstone course for his degree, the Student Managed Investment Fund provides Bucknellians like Vollmar the opportunity to break into committees that research and manage investments for the university's endowment.
"It's very real-life. It's got a lot of real-life aspects to it," says Vollmar of the class in which students receive limited direction from professors. "Although they (the professors) say their comments under their breath of what we should do, it's hands off for them. We don't really get an opinion from them for how we should go.
"We have to vote. It's a two-thirds majority to buy a security, and they don't even get a vote in that," Vollmar continues. "But they want to do it so we can get the experience."
Vollmar built another key entry on his resume last summer working in Foreign Exchange Operations with Goldman Sachs. After meeting with an on-campus recruiter, Vollmar accepted the three-month internship that sent him to New York to help provide a trading platform for foreign exchange rates.
"For the first three weeks I just watched people and what they did," Vollmar explains of the experience. "I worked with asset managers from different companies that were our clients. They ended up giving me a list of 11 clients that I pretty much had on my own, which was pretty neat to have that much responsibility."
By the end of the summer, Vollmar had earned an offer to rejoin Goldman Sachs after completing his degree. He'll do that having come to a number of conclusions during his initial stay with the company. Among his discoveries, his co-workers didn't fit the stodgy image he had expected from a major financial institution.
"The people were all great. It just changed my entire impression of what Goldman is really about," he says.
Vollmar also found that he truly enjoyed the non-stop nature of the foreign exchange market. The work ethic that he had been developing throughout his first three years at Bucknell, balancing athletics and academics, proved an asset during his long days that began early in the morning and stretched into the night before his office could "hand it off to Tokyo." That work ethic, however, began with his parents, Paul and Rosalie, and his mother in particular.
"I think my mom and pop have definitely inspired me. My dad's a real hard-working dude, and my mom is too," says Vollmar. "My mom, ever since I was a little kid, always nagged on me to do my homework. I couldn't go out and play until I was done with all my work. In high school, she said she was worried about me, that I wouldn't have a work ethic in college because my senior year I started slacking off. But I came here and I did fine. I made the Dean's List. I've got a job already. I really do thank my mom for that. She helped install that work ethic in me."
Bucknell thanks her for that, too. With his career coming to an end, Vollmar has added his name to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll and has earned four selections to the Bucknell Dean's List. He has overcome doubters' concerns about his size and a season-ending injury to earn a starting role with the Bison and the title of team captain. Soon he'll have a diploma in hand and be heading to a job he loves. So even if four years ago Vollmar and the people around him wouldn't have predicted that this is where he'd be, at least now they'll agree that appearances can be deceiving. And in Vollmar's case, that's a good thing.
Note: This story appeared in the Oct. 30 Bucknell Football Gameday Program vs. Lafayette.
