The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/106890
where are they now? It took a lottery win — literally — to change their fortunes. The Meskos took a chance when the United States Government held a green card drawing in 1997, and they won one of only 55,000 visas awarded from millions of applicants. They started modestly in a small apartment in New York before moving to Euclid, Ohio, and then finally to Twinsburg, Ohio, where Mesko blossomed as an athlete, earning — and accepting — a scholarship offer to Michigan. His parents never settled, eventually becoming engineers and teaching their son a lesson in hard work that helped him become one of Michigan's more decorated student-athletes of his decade. The tutoring continued under U-M head coach Lloyd Carr, helping shape who Mesko is today — one of the NFL's top young punters and a multiple community service award winner for his work as a philanthropist. "He was a huge part of it," Mesko said of Carr. "He always talked about if you're ever in the dumps, go to the children's hospital and that will put life into perspective for you. There's no greater feeling than going into the room of a sick kid and being able to brighten their day up, or their week — sometimes a month, sometimes even a year. The magic they have in their eyes for you is something you lose in adulthood. "The aura of something greater than yourself or part of a successful football team, piggybacking on the Michigan Wolverine brand and image, and now with the New England Patriots — it's kind of priceless. No one else can give you that celebrity status you feel in their eyes." And make no mistake, there are others who otherwise might. Mesko was invited to the premier of Academy Award-winning actor Mark Wahlberg's "Broken City" recently, but he opted instead to skip it in preparation for the Jan. 20 AFC championship game against Baltimore. He recalled meeting Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) in the locker room following the Patriots' 41-28 divisional playoff win over Houston. "We kind of know each other," Mesko marveled. "It's cool going up to him and saying, 'Congratulations on your recent nomination as Secretary of State.' "It's pretty cool what you get to do — and I'm a punter. It's so funny." Unless he was, say, Tom Brady, however, the kids couldn't care less if Mesko were the holder (which he also happens to be). Mesko and Tim North, his former Michigan teammate, along with his girlfriend and a few others, have done more than their share to help them, starting last June by hosting a karaoke event ("Zolioake") that helped raise upwards of $30,000 for the Boston Children's Hospital. What started as spreading smiles room to room at Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor with his sense of humor and selfproclaimed "goofballishness" has evolved into a passion, and might even have changed the course of his life. A finance and marketing major and