Thriving in Difficult Times: Stories of Wolverines De Col, Pairone and Welschof
4/9/2020 4:00:00 PM | Football, General, Men's Basketball, Men's Golf, Women's Tennis, Features
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Their families are in Europe, located an ocean and parts of two continents away from them here at the University of Michigan.
Wolverine men's golfer Pier Francesco De Col and women's tennis player Giulia Pairone are from Turin, which is called Torino in their native Italy. Football defensive lineman Julius Welschof hails from Miesbach, a town in Bavaria, Germany.
They grew up on opposite sides of the Alps mountain ranges before coming abroad to compete and study as student-athletes. And they now find themselves temporarily separated from their loved ones because of traveling restrictions and difficulties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though, they are making the best of matters and finding ways to thrive in difficult times. They are taking online classes and doing their best to stay in top physical condition.
One of them finds himself dogsitting for a teammate who returned to Florida. Another has started a book club that now includes 18 Wolverine student-athletes, and another is sinking 40-foot putts into a drinking glass down the longest hallway in his dorm.
Here are their stories:
Pairone: "This Can Be a Good Time to Grow."
Pairone is staying in Oklahoma in a lakefront home near Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a friend and her family. They met when Pairone was playing at the University of Arkansas before transferring to Michigan.
"I haven't seen a single person (outside of the family of seven) since I got here," Pairone said. "So, it is the perfect place to be in quarantine. I'm so fortunate to be here."
Her father, Alberto, mother, Nunzia and brothers Stefano, 22, and Davide, 14, remain quarantined in her hometown with nearly 900,000 inhabitants.
"They're all safe and healthy," said Pairone. "Nobody in my family has been infected. But they are located about one hour away from a spot where there were a lot of cases. We FaceTime pretty frequently. During the first few days of the quarantine, people were singing from their balconies to support each other. But now, so many have died, that I think they stopped out of respect for people who lost their relatives. It was a great response from our culture, which doesn't show our pride in being Italians as much as Americans. Even though I am not there, it's like I'm there in spirit.
"I'm actually writing a paper about the whole situation for one of my English classes -- emergent memoir and journalism. It's been really hard to keep myself motivated in school, to be honest. I'm a good student, but with all this happening, sometimes my mind is just not there."
"I'm doing good, though, and the NCAA has said that seniors are going to get the year back. I'm trying to figure it out and I'm not sure if I'll be able to play again at Michigan. But we'll see. We're so unsure of everything right now. I was so sad about how our season ended and my college career was over, right? "
The NCAA is granting another shot at senior seasons for spring-sport student-athletes who had just begun play. However, Pairone, All-Big Ten as a junior and playing No. 1 singles this year, is now applying to graduate from Michigan this summer, and said she is unsure of where she will attend graduate school.
"I'm also an international student and have to keep a visa," she continued, "and a lot of things need to happen for me to stay. One of the reasons I didn't go home is my visa had expired this spring. If I go back home, I cannot come back. So I was scared that I wasn't going to be able to come back to the (United) States."
She is exploring returning to the Wolverines but is unsure whether or not she can.
Pairone has stayed in touch with women's tennis head coach Ronni Bernstein and her teammates, and runs regularly along the trails near the lake in Oklahoma.
"I'm also going kayaking with my friend and learning how to play the guitar," said Pairone. "I'm reading a lot and leading a book club I created for student-athletes, 'Wolverine Readers and Best.' I want to show leadership and promote personal development. I read a lot and like to get others inspired. We have 18 athletes from other teams, too.
"We just read 'Educated,' by Tara Westover. It's a memoir about a girl who went through a very difficult upbringing, and got a Ph.D. from Cambridge after not even having the ability to go to school when she was younger. It was impressive, her resilience through some tough times. It's been great, and incredible to see how everyone is connecting and supporting each other on a Zoom call and group chat.
"I'm proud of the athletes and how they've used what they've read in that book to get through difficult times. I'm enjoying the quarantine and trying to make the best out of it. This can be a good time to grow. Finally, we have time to do the things we say we don't have time to do. Everything happens for a reason."
De Col Enjoys Daily Virtual Meal with Family
Del Col is staying in the West Quad, one of the few remaining in the usually hustling-and-bustling dormitory rooms located a short walk from the main athletic campus. "Some on my floor are from China and can't go home either," he said. "Everyone from the United States left."
De Col's father, Paolo, and sister, Eleonora, are quarantined at their home. "But they have a garden and are fine," he said. His grandfather, Piero, and grandmother, Mirty, headed for the mountains "to see the least amount of people possible" and hunker down in the same area where the 2006 Winter Olympics were held.
The freshman gets up early and picks up bagels to eat in his room or elsewhere, making a FaceTime connection with Dad and Eleonora while he eats breakfast and they have lunch. "That way we can eat together a meal," De Col said. Then he takes online courses, picks up box meals later in the day, does some stretching to stay loose, and takes a break in the early afternoon.
"I do a little putting," said De Col, whose 74.92 strokes per 18 holes ranked third on the team, "and I swing (an iron) in my room, too. I put a glass on the floor and putt to it. The floor is actually good for putting. I have a line. I can go as far as 40 feet away, and no one is going to bother me."
Does he feel he is improving his putting?
"Yeah," said De Col, who smiled and chuckled during our Google Hangouts meeting.
How did he celebrate his 20th birthday on April 1?
"I had a phone call with other friends who are at Michigan, too," said De Col. "It was like five of us talking, and I was fine."
The isolation has not been a problem for him, and he is following the advice of family members.
"They advise me not to see anybody and avoid all contact," said De Col. "But I like being home, and so that's quite nice. Finding a daily routine has been very important."
He practiced social distancing in having a meal recently with Wolverine men's golf coach Zach Barlow and teammates, "and that was nice," adding, "we didn't shake hands or anything and I washed my hands three times during dinner."
How did he come to Michigan from Europe?
"I was looking for a great athletic program with great academic programs," said De Col, who is enrolled in the Ross School of Business. "The online courses we're taking now are fine, but I definitely don't prefer it. I like learning in a classroom.
"Michigan, though, was by far the best choice in the U.S. that could combine both, and everything I do is really close. So, it's been perfect for me here."
Pairone said of De Col: "Before he came, I was the only Italian athlete and feeling lonely. We got together a few times and were talking Italian." They've texted several times in recent weeks.
De Col, whose family is 20 minutes away from Pairone's back in Turin, misses being with loved ones but looks forward to their daily conversations over a virtual meal together.
"I could've gone back," he said, "but I was going to have to take two or three flights to go back home. I would've spent an entire day in airports and been around a whole lot of people. And besides that, the situation in Italy is really bad. You can't leave your house, and there are police walking in the streets making sure everybody stays in their houses. So, it wouldn't have made a lot of sense. And I was afraid that if I went home, I couldn't get back here."
His new home, even with the current restrictions, has become comfortable in less than one year of living in Ann Arbor.
Being able to take joy in putting into a drinking glass defines adaptability, doesn't it?
Welschof is Walking the Dog, Finding a Way
Wolverine football players were working out in the days before the scheduled start of spring practice when all athletic operations shut down. Welschof, who will be a redshirt sophomore in the coming season, immediately had an important decision to make.
"Europeans were not being allowed to come back to the U.S. until April 30," said Welschof. "So, I was kind of scared that they might extend that. What happens if I go home and they start a lot of team activities, and Europeans aren't allowed in yet? Then everybody would be starting practice, and I can't come back because I'm not allowed to. So, that was one thing.
"The other thing was that, back home, everyone was quarantined. So, it's not like I'm going to see my parents, and everybody's going to stay home. So, it didn't really make any difference for me. There weren't a lot of 'pros' to go home. It was just easier to stay here, and hopefully it will all be normal again in a couple weeks."
His father, Karl, mother, Heike, and younger sister, Anna, have been together in their home in a town of about 100,000 people with a view of the Bavarian Alps.
"They are doing good," said Welschof, adding that his father sometimes goes to his office to work, while practicing social distancing.
Welschof moved out of the dormitory into tight end teammate Luke Buckman's room in a house near campus after Buckman returned home to Holland, Michigan, and will move into an apartment in one month that he will share with fellow defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson and others.
"I have exams going on," said Welschof, "and so I study. I'm working out. I'm cooking a lot now. One of my teammates has a dog and went home. And so right now, I'm taking care of the dog."
Wolverine tight end Nick Eubanks returned to Plantation, Florida, not expecting to be more than a few weeks, and left his German shepherd, Nyla, with Welschof.
"But I don't mind," said Welschof. "I go for walks in the morning and evening with it, and sometimes for a jog."
His 23rd birthday, March 12, was the day the Big Ten men's basketball tournament was canceled while his friend and fellow German, Franz Wagner, and his teammates were minutes away from a scheduled tipoff against Rutgers in Indianapolis. Hours later, the NCAA called off everything scheduled through the spring sport championships in June.
"We had our last drills that day," said Welschof, "and then we got the news on everything stopping. Spring practice was supposed to start the next week, and I was looking forward to it."
Welschof, a 6-foot-6, 278-pound prospect who played for the Munich Cowboys club team, had strength and size (he has put on 25 pounds) to add as well as learning a more refined version of the American game he played in Germany, where he also was a youth champion moguls skier.
"I'm very excited about Julius," head coach Jim Harbaugh said when Welschof signed in December 2017. "He's got the frame, the tools ... Yeah, raw talent and motivated. I have a great vision for him, and believe we will be able to mold him and coach him into a tremendous football player."
Welschof redshirted in 2018 and played in the win over Notre Dame in 2019.
"I was in for only one play against Notre Dame," said Welschof, "and I was really nervous. I was rushing the quarterback, but he threw before I could get to him. And I was making good strides in practice. Then the week after the Notre Dame game, I got hurt. So, it was unfortunate.
"This was going to be the first time I would really be back since the injury, and it would've been a good opportunity to get back to football. I'm healed, but unfortunately, that didn't happen."
Welschof said he texted a member of the Wolverine Academic Success Program to set up tutoring and everything connected to academics in an online venture.
What has been his biggest challenge?
"Football is set up with a very structured day," said Welschof, "and you have classes, too, and then study at night. So, now I use a checklist to make sure I'm doing everything I have to do. I had to learn to manage my own time.
"My parents always call and ask me, 'What's new? What's happening?' But I'm telling them, 'Really, every day is the same.'"
While there is a "Groundhog Day" effect to our current lives, it also has provided Welschof, De Col and Pairone opportunities to reflect, learn and grow in environments they never could have imagined.
Players Mentioned
