The Graduate: Bills' DiGiorgio breaks out of the 'Pac'

OK, but we're not finished here. DiGiorgio -- who spent eight hours a day, five days a week and two months in the offseason on the job -- couldn't gain his degree until he worked the elementary-school circuit this year. He split his time between two Midland, Mich., schools, working with children who ranged from kindergarten to fifth grade.

It's not the life DiGiorgio envisions for himself when he moves on to his next profession, where he hopes to coach high-school football, but you never know. As he said, after this year's experience he would be receptive to teaching elementary-school children if the opportunity were there. "When I first got to the elementary-school setting," he said, "it was a lot different for me because it was something I wasn't used to: kids crying, kids telling on each other and that sort of thing. The first couple of weeks were a shock to me, but I started to get used to it.

"At first I thought I was a little hard on the students. If I didn't get some of the skills out of teaching I would get frustrated. But then I started to realize these kids are only kindergarten through fifth grade, and it's going to take time to get the skills. Not everybody is going to get it the first time.

"And for that I am grateful. They taught me patience. The first couple of weeks were hard because kids would cry if they didn't learn things right. And that was something I had to learn to deal with: These were kids, and it was going to take time."

Time is what DiGiorgio has now that he is finished with college. But he hasn't ruled out the possibility of returning to Michigan a year from now to serve as a substitute teacher. He plans to marry his fiancée, a school psychologist, this summer, and the two talked about returning to teaching in 2009.

Maybe it will be at a grammar school, where one of his fourth-grade students this year told a TV station her teacher looked more like a soccer player than a football player.

"I thought that was kinda funny," he said, "and it's something I will always remember."

Maybe it will be at Utica Stevenson again, where he had numerous students quiz him on collegiate and pro athletics and what it takes to get there.

"I tell them to listen to your coaches and to follow your dreams," said DiGiorgio. "That's one thing I've always done. I always had people tell me I'm too small, too slow, too short or too this and that. So I use that as motivation to get better.

"I always stayed focused on my goals, which were to graduate from college and to play football. Those are the two things I wanted to do. People told me I couldn't, but I did. I always look forward. I never look back."

Good for him, and good for his students. Here's hoping John DiGiorgio gets what he wants. On second thought, it sounds as if he has.