While most collegiate football players will be hard at off-season conditioning in June, Morehead State kicker Pat DiSalvio will be undergoing the ultimate preparation for next season.
DiSalvio is part of Team USA, which will compete June 1-11 in the second World University Championship at Monterrey, Mexico.
"You can do as much practicing as you want on a field by yourself with no pads, no rush, no snap," DiSalvio said. "But there's nothing you can compare to game reps. Game reps are the only thing that can prepare you for a game. When you have people running after you. When the clock is on and you know that the kick matters."
DiSalvio, an honorable-mention all-Pioneer Football League choice as a junior last season – and first-team all-PFL Academic – is one of three kickers on Team USA. (The others are Matthew Davis of UNC-Pembroke and Ryan Gralish of Lafayette.) He is the only one of the three listed solely as a punter.
All three kickers, though, must be able to do everything – punt, place-kick and hold – as the team could be playing five games over 12 days.
Team USA was selected by and is sponsored by Athletes In Action, which says on its website that it has been "using sports as a platform to help people answer questions of faith and to point them to Jesus" since 1966.
DiSalvio was selected for Team USA after Eagles head coach Rob Tenyer and receivers coach Jameson Stephens made contact at a coaching convention with AIA Football's Tyler Warner, a former Marshall kicker.
DiSalvio punted 69 times last season with a gross average of 39.9 yards, third-best in the PFL. He placed 21 kicks inside the 20-yard line.
Team USA will report for training camp May 26 at Xenia, Ohio, and leave for Monterrey on May 31.
The roster is composed primarily of players from the NAIA and NCAA Divisions II and III.
With AIA's faith-based focus, application forms to play for Team USA included questions about faith, how that faith started, how it grew and so forth. Applicants were required to provide three references – from a coach, a teammate and a religious official. DiSalvio's religious reference came from Father Noel Zamora of Jesus Our Savior Catholic Church in Morehead.
In order to participate, DiSalvio must raise $4,500 for AIA to help cover air fare, lodging, meals, equipment, etc. DiSalvio says he has been overwhelmed by the support he already has received, but he's still nearly $1,000 shy of the goal. All money raised goes directly to AIA, not DiSalvio, and is tax deductible.
Although playing will be hectic on basically an every-other-day schedule, Team USA also plans to help at an orphanage.
"So it's not just a football trip," DiSalvio said. "It's also a mission trip and we're emphasizing the faith aspect of it."
As for the on-field competition, DiSalvio thinks Mexico will be Team USA's biggest challenge. Mexico beat Japan in the finals of the first World University Championship in 2014. The U.S. did not participate in that tournament.
Japan also returns for this event, joined by China and India. None of those countries has the passion for football that the U.S. can claim.
Advantage America, says DiSalvio, who is entering his ninth year of playing the game. He has his sites set on a gold medal in Mexico.
Whatever happens, though, DiSalvio is certain he'll be better for the experience.
"I think it's a great opportunity for me to get more game reps going into my senior year," he said. "I was honorable mention all-conference last year. I want to be better than that. I want to achieve higher.
"And I think this is going to help me get to that level that I want to be at in my last season here at Morehead. So I think this is a great opportunity. I think God opened this door for me and I had to take it."
