During week of thanks, Badgers express gratitude
November 26, 2024 | Football
Badger football players detail what makes Thanksgiving special
BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
Jake Chaney’s fondest memory of Thanksgiving was that time when he was a long way from home and strangers became family if only for a short time.
This was back in 2021 when Chaney was a freshman inside linebacker for the Wisconsin football team. The kid from Coral Gables, Fla., found himself hanging out with two freshman teammates, tight end Jack Pugh from Columbus, Ohio, and defensive end Mike Jarvis, from Medford, N.J.
When Thanksgiving Day came around, Pugh’s parents brought a holiday feast to Madison and Pugh invited Chaney and Jarvis to join him at his parents’ Airbnb.
“I thought that was pretty cool because I didn’t have anybody to have Thanksgiving with,’’ Chaney said. “That’s the kind of life you live as a (college) athlete. You’re not really home for Christmas. You’re not really home for Thanksgiving. You just have to figure out who you’re going to be with.
“I spent most of my time with those guys anyway, so they felt like family and their parents felt like family, so it felt like a normal Thanksgiving to me.’’
Pugh wound up retiring from football due to health circumstances, while Jarvis transferred to Liberty University. Chaney, meanwhile, is now a senior captain whose experiences with the Badgers – from coaching changes to injuries to on-field adversity – helped him craft a gracious definition of gratitude.
“It’s being thankful for everything or anything you’ve been blessed with, every type of situation you’ve been in good and bad and gratitude coming out of that,’’ Chaney said. “You can have gratitude for the good things, the blessings you’ve received in life. You can have gratitude for the bad things, learning from those situations.’’
Wisconsin players have a pivotal Big Ten Conference game with arch-rival Minnesota at Camp Randall Stadium on Friday morning at 11 a.m. – they need to win their regular-season finale to qualify for bowl eligibility – but that won’t prevent them from celebrating Thanksgiving with their teammates.
On Wednesday night, UW players will gather with their position coaches for the traditional Thanksgiving fare. On Thursday night, the team will return to their routine of staying at a campus hotel.
Through the years, Chaney’s teammates have been known to treat Thanksgiving with a mix of reverence, appreciation and, in some cases, awe.
Redshirt junior cornerback Ricardo Hallman said more than 100 people are involved with the celebration process back home in Miami, Fla.
“People think I’m joking when I say that,’’ he said. “But, yeah, 100.’’
Hallman said the get-together rotates from house to house, including his uncle’s and his grandfather’s.
“My whole family comes to one house with different meals,’’ he said. “We make three or four turkeys. It gets really, really big at our house.’’
Hallman recalled a time when his contribution to the cause fell short of expectations.
“I was in charge of a dessert dish one year and it went terribly wrong,’’ he said. “I tried to make some sweet potato pie and my family wasn’t giving me enough time – they were getting antsy – and it didn’t come out good.’’
Hallman laughed before offering his definition of gratitude and his overview of a challenging season.
“It’s happiness no matter the circumstances,’’ he said. “Just being happy that you’re able to be there in the moment no matter how your day is going, having extreme gratitude that it always gets better.
“The season hasn’t been what we’d hope for, but we’re still blessed to have the opportunity to play every day. The season might not have gone as we wanted to, but we have so much room for improvement and so much to look forward to. I’m just excited to finish the season strong with the guys.’’
Christian Alliegro, a sophomore inside linebacker from Darien, Conn., and junior kicker Nathanial Vakos, said their typical Thanksgiving fare included Italian and Greek dishes, respectively.
Vakos said a family tradition includes a prayer before each meal before then going around the room and everyone, from youngest to oldest, gets a chance to say what they’re grateful for.
Alliegro’s definition of gratitude focused on humility and selflessness.
“Just being unselfish, putting others before you, willing to give things to others and just being polite at all times even if it’s someone you don’t like that much,’’ he said.
Vakos offered a simple, but thoughtful notion of gratitude.
“It’s a feeling,’’ he said, “of joy and happiness.’’
Pauling, a redshirt junior wide receiver from Chicago, said his family of 18 to 20 was trying to find an Airbnb in the area to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday.
“It’s awesome,’’ he said. “It’s always good to see everybody because family’s everything to me.’’
Pauling has two Thanksgiving memories that he won’t soon forget. One involved a video, shot by his sister, of all the family members in various stages of a food coma.
“Seeing that video kind of made me a little bit sad, but made me laugh at the same time,’’ he said.
The other came when family members flew his grandmother, who is battling dementia, to a game at East Carolina when Pauling played at Cincinnati.
“It was an awesome moment and it just speaks to how much my family supports me, loves me and would do anything for me,’’ he said.
Pauling thought for a long moment before sharing his definition of gratitude.
“Gratefulness in all moments,’’ he said finally. “I have a lot of gratitude for Jesus Christ. He’s my foundation and the reason I have so much peace in this life and the reason I’m able to live every day and not have to worry about the outcome of things. He already has everything taken care of for me and as long as I continue to trust in him and put my faith in him, then everything’s going to be perfectly fine for me.’’
