COLLEGE PARK - Realistically, Alfonso Gonnella knew he didn't have the money to send his son, Andrew, to play football at the University of Maryland without a scholarship.
It's not that the elder Gonnella is poor. He does OK with his small business selling swimming pool chemicals and supplies in Orange County, N.Y., about 45 miles north of New York City.
It's just that it was hard to get past the intimidating costs - more than $37,000 a year, including about $22,000 in out-of-state tuition - of enrolling Andrew, an offensive guard, at the school he aspired to play for as a walk-on beginning in the fall of 2007. "Being self-employed, people think you've got the world, but you don't," Alfonso said. "I'm first-generation. My parents were basically off the boat from Italy."
But Alfonso didn't have the heart to tell his son no. He pondered Andrew's life - how the boy endured the death of his mother from complications of juvenile diabetes when he was 4, how he had been pushed into kindergarten early because the family couldn't afford day care.
Alfonso decided to do whatever he needed to so Gonnella could play at Maryland and, it was hoped, prove he merited a scholarship. The school had been on the family's radar because Andrew's uncle, offensive lineman J.D. Maarleveld, had starred at College Park before playing two seasons in the NFL. The younger Gonnella had passed up academic scholarships at smaller schools.
Gonnella is one of two offensive linemen - redshirt junior Paul Pinegar is the other - who have defied the odds that walk-ons traditionally face and climbed their way to the top of the depth chart. Gonnella had been told by coaches early that he had a shot - but no guarantee - of getting a scholarship. That was enough for his father.
"To me, Andrew is as big as the world. I wanted this for him," Alfonso said. "I pretty much mortgaged the house. We basically took a home equity line of credit out and were able to have money available where we could write out checks."
Andrew, who weighed 270 in high school and is now 6 feet 6 and 305 pounds, redshirted his freshman year, then got into three plays last season at the end of the Wake Forest game. Coaches say he tries so hard on the field that he sometimes hyperventilates.
Last spring, with Maryland thin on the offensive line, Gonnella made his move.
