Kari Lombardi misses her son’s voice.
Not that Rocky Lombardi doesn’t have time to call his mother, he even spent a few unforeseen months at home this summer, when she stopped the coronavirus, which she appreciated.
No, it misses the blonde teenager’s step in the choir, with enough songs to get him alone as a top student.
“Rocky will never admit it, however, he has a very clever voice to make a song, but he never literally chased it.
No way. Not when he returns to his home state as a quarterback for the state of Michigan.
[Mail bag: what to do with Matt Allen, Elijah Collins in the future]
Lombardi’s long wait to play against the Hawkeyes arrives on Saturday, the Spartans’ first stopover at Kinnick Stadium since 2013, a game that the young red blouse has changed in his non-public calendar since he was at the top school with 3 sports athletes at West Des Moines Valley High.
“It will be great for her to come to the game, and my sisters can come and watch me play. It doesn’t really happen often,” the 22-year-old said Monday. “It will be touching to me. Yes, it’s a genuine house for me.
And that comes at a time when Lombardi only took the Spartans’ starting position, but entered the national highlight and discovered his voice as his team leader.
The rewards flew for Lombardi, 6 feet 4 inches and 225 pounds, after his consecutive 300-yard functionality, the third of his career, and a 27-24 win in Michigan. a personal record of 323 yards in lossless, no-catch functionality earned Him Thursday’s QB Manning Award on Thursday and placed him in the post of National Quarterback Davey O’Brien.
For the season, Lombardi is 48-for-75 (64%) for 642 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions. He also threw for 319 yards in a season-opener loss to Rutgers while completing 70. 5% of his throws, a signal that he and his coaches felt the offense was moving in the right direction.
“To Rocky, he’s excited,” Coach Mel Tucker said. ” He’s in a meeting position, he’s in a position to train. He loves football. But I heard him tell our team that he knew this game would be a physical game. “game and what we’re going to have to do this week in training. He verbalized it to our football team, and that’s what leaders do.
[How MSU’s offensive line can use good fortune against Michigan opposed to Iowa]
Athletics is deeply rooted in Lombardi’s family.
He was born in 1998 at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor of Kari, a former Minnesota State-Mankato volleyball player, and Tony, a former Arizona football player. At the time, Tony an assistant coach and defensive coordinator in East Michigan, while Kari is a volleyball coach at Brighton High.
And Lombardi is no stranger to sports life at an early age.
“His father was a school football coach at the time and I did not have a circle of relatives there; we had just moved there,” Kari said. “Then I began to take him with me. I’d rent a nanny or he’d just sit in his little inflatable seat or “give” or whatever while the bullets flew around him.
After leaving Michigan, the family circle moved to suburban Chicago earlier, even though everything moved to Iowa, and moved from Cedar Rapids to the city of Clive and West Des Moines schools just before Lombardi’s first senior school year.
Lombardi’s brothers are also athletes; his younger brother, Beau, is a 20-year-old offensive lineman for the Army after following his brother as a quarterback at Valley High; and the 3 Lombardi women: Payton (18), Olivia (16) ) and Gabby (14), all play volleyball and football, while Gabby is looking for basketball this winter, Kari said.
[MSU will never see the day Ricky White and Rocky Lombardi killed Michigan]
All of this has reduced the family’s ability to escape East Lansing for Saturday games, especially due to women’s volleyball engagements on weekends, but as The Valley High season ended Monday in the quarter-finals, they will all go to Kinnick to see the Spartans. .
“I’ve changed this game since I committed (with MSU) Array. . . “, Lombardi said. “But it’s just a game. ” I have to prepare as I do for all the other games and play as productively as I can.
Lombardi spent much of spring and summer in lockdown before returning to campus in mid-June, like his brother, who did not arrive at West Point in his first year until the end of June. young people at home at the same time unexpectedly.
He enjoyed seeing the time they spent joining each other, which included a multitude of festivals and circles of family basketball games that were not perfect, despite Lombardi’s last party with the hoops – he told Tucker on his radio screen Thursday night that he had joined the valley basketball team as an education player at the end of his wrestling season.
“I mean, it’s amazing, coming from a mother, ” said Kari. “They were filming it and they were making bug videos, because none of us are basketball players. It’s pretty fun. For a while they had the sand. Volleyball court ready for us to be there to play. Sand volleyball 3v3. We play a lot of games.
On Saturday, Lombardi and the Spartans will take the game home. Although there may not be many enthusiasts in the stands of Kinnick Stadium, Lombardi’s cheering segment will probably be the loudest chorus making a song out of its praise – and those at MSU.
Get in touch with Chris Solari: csolari@freepress. com. Follow him on Twitter . Learn about Michigan Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.