By MIKE CAPUTO
"We need to fix this," Ohrnberger, then a junior, told his coach.
He urged teammates to join him in the weight room during the winter months. During that offseason, the players concentrated on improving their strength and speed in preparation for the fall of 2003.
Ohrnberger was tall but undersized - even at 220 pounds - for an offensive lineman, especially one who had potential to play in college. Through sheer hard work, he began gaining weight and increasing strength. "The lunch ladies would save all the leftovers from the bag," Rich's mother, Patricia, recalled. "At night he would eat peanut butter sandwiches and several helpings at dinner."
After a few months of 10-meal days and intense weight training, Ohrnberger had beefed up to 275 pounds, and his team was ready to turn its fortunes around.
The Jets went 7-1 in the 2003 regular season, and made the playoffs for the first time in seven years. Ohrnberger had the rare distinction of earning both the Thorpe Award, for best overall player in Nassau County, and the Martone Award, given to the county's top lineman. East Meadow went on to make the playoffs in four of the next five seasons, and won the Nassau Conference I championship in 2006.
"I always tell him, 'You were the one who started it,'" Mascia said. "He led and made sure those guys were going to get on board and follow him."
Ohrnberger, now a senior at Penn State, is preparing for a very special New Year's Day. Five years after leading the Jets to the playoffs, the starting left guard for the Big Ten champion Nittany Lions is now preparing to play in a highly anticipated Rose Bowl matchup with USC in Pasadena, Calif.
This will be only the third Rose Bowl appearance for Penn State, which joined the Big Ten in 1993. The game pits the champion of the Big Ten against the champion of the Pacific-10.
Ohrnberger and his Penn State teammates had national championship aspirations until their 10th game, when Iowa handed them their first defeat, a 24-23 upset. The game was a particularly tough one for Ohrnberger, who was temporarily shifted from left guard to right guard and struggled against the eventual Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year, Mitch King.
The loss was only the beginning of what turned into a very dark weekend for Ohrnberger. The following morning, his mother informed him that his father had suffered a heart attack. Rich borrowed a friend's car and made the five-hour trip home to East Meadow to see his father, Rick, at the Nassau University Medical Center.
Rick Ohrnberger is now recovering, and despite missing his son's last two regular-season games as a Penn State player, he is hoping to be in the stands at the Rose Bowl come New Year's Day. "I plan on boarding that plane to Pasadena," Rick said on Monday, shortly before heading to the hospital for an angiogram.
Mascia plans to join Rich's parents in Pasadena. The East Meadow coach has made it to at least two Nittany Lions home games a year in Happy Valley, Pa. He remains friends with his former player, and speaks with him weekly on the phone.
"I really couldn't have a better supporting staff," Ohrnberger said. "Those guys at the high school were incredible."
Mascia was there to see Ohrnberger hoist the Big Ten championship trophy when Penn State beat Michigan State in its final regular-season game on Nov. 22. Mascia even made it to the Nittany Lions' senior football banquet last Sunday, where, at the lectern, Ohrnberger expressed his appreciation to his parents, his siblings, Nick and Meryl, and his high school coaches.
"I tell him, 'Rich you don't have to do that anymore,'" Mascia said of Ohrnberger's comments about the East Meadow staff. "He doesn't forget - he always finds the time to say it."
Ohrnberger described his initial experience with legendary Penn State coach Joe Paterno as "bumpy," but he has turned it into a valuable learning process, he said. "Playing for him has been good for me, because it has helped me mature," Ohrnberger said of Paterno. "He's very critical of young men that he coaches because he wants to see that maturity process. I've grown a lot since I started playing for him."
Ohrnberger was named to the All-Big Ten offensive first team, and is considered a potential NFL prospect. He has already played in three bowl games for Penn State - the Orange, in Miami, the Outback, in Tampa, Fla., and the Alamo, in San Antonio - but none compares to where he will be on New Year's Night.
"It's a great honor to be playing in the Rose Bowl," he said. "As a senior, I couldn't think of a better way to end a career at Penn State."
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