Hawkeyes’ Trinca-Pasat: Three sacks with an edge

IOWA CITY - For four years, Northwestern has marketed itself as 'Chicago's Big Ten Team.”

That doesn't ring true in one Chicago home of Romanian immigrants, especially an Iowa defensive tackle from that home who might have been a Wildcat had Northwestern pursued him.

Amid a roster-full of fine Hawkeye performances in Iowa's 48-7 domination of Northwestern Saturday at Kinnick Stadium, defensive tackle Louis Trinca-Pasat was at the peak of his collegiate powers. He had three sacks of Wildcat quarterback Trevor Siemian for a total of 29 lost yards, thoroughly messing up three of Northwestern's first-half drives.

'When I was being recruited in high school they never offered me,” Trinca-Pasat said. 'They said they would, depending on my ACT (score). I took my ACT and they never gave me an offer. Since then it's kind of added a little motivation to play against them, added fuel to the fire.

'I definitely use that as an edge.”

Last October, Trinca-Pasat sacked Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter on the final play of Iowa's 17-10 overtime win. It was his only career sack entering this season. He now has 6.5 of them, and four have come against the ‘Cats.

Trinca-Pasat's GPA at Lane Tech High in Chicago was 4.20. He is a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree at Iowa, an Iowa graduate, and is in the UI's Educational Leadership graduate program in the College of Education.

Hey, every program in the nation has recruiting misses. But a kid from your own backyard who can shoulder academics and a role as a Big Ten starting defensive lineman? A kid who had offers from Wisconsin, Michigan State and Stanford? Whoops.

'There was interest,” Trinca-Pasat said, speaking about himself. 'Obviously there wasn't interest back from them. It's a little motivation.”

But this is a motivated man no matter what. Almost all college athletes use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Trinca-Pasat has this page on LinkedIn, the business-oriented social networking site. There, he touts more of his academic achievements than those he's had in football.

This player has made 33 consecutive starts and has become one of the most vital players on his team. What he also is, without any hyperbole attached, is a part of a family story that pretty much epitomizes what we like to think of as the American dream.

Vasile Trinca-Pasat was willing and able to work in his Romania homeland, but his son Louis said 'Even for hard-workers, the opportunities weren't really there.”

So Vasile moved to Chicago in 1988 because the city has a strong connection to Romania. His wife, Estera, and their four children, joined him there on Dec. 14, 1989, a day before the Romanian Revolution began. They got a lot of support from people in the Philadelphia Romanian Church of God in Chicago. In 1991, Louis was born.

'I got a job for four dollars and 50 cents an hour,” Vasile said from the grandstands in Kinnick as the last seconds of Saturday's game ticked off.

He took a six-month class to learn English. He spent three years attending a technical school. Eighteen years ago, he became a certified building engineer. He is the chief engineer for a condominium association in Chicago's tony Lincoln Park neighborhood. Estera is the head cook in the cafeteria of an elementary school in suburban Wilmette.

They came to America, Estera said, for 'a new life, a better dream.” Nothing was handed to them, and they taught their children to earn what they get in life.

'That's how I was grown and raised,” Trinca-Pasat said. 'Nothing came easy. My parents worked hard.

'My dad made us wake up on Saturdays to go with him, to do anything we can to earn a living. We would take care of buildings. Painting, construction, cleaning, whatever he had to do. As much as we didn't want to go, we had no choice. I think at the end of the day the hard work translated to my siblings and me.”

His two sisters are nurses. One brother manages a company in Texas. The other followed his father's example and became a building engineer. Then there is baby boy Louis, who never was even allowed to play football until ninth-grade. Now he has parents in the stands for almost every Hawkeye game, loving a sport they knew nothing of when they lived in Romania.

Trinca-Pasat fully admits he wants to play pro football. Vasile said 'He can play in the NFL and then I can go retire (and be with) my grandchildren.”

'My husband's a good joker,” Estera said.

But it isn't NFL or bust for Trinca-Pasat. He had to miss some spring football practices because of his classes.

'My mom always emphasized school,” he said. 'Football's such a short window in life. I'm here, I might as well put in all that work. (The NFL) is my goal, but Plan B is to go into coaching and Plan C is athletic directing.”

Trinca-Pasat didn't rejoin his team on the sideline for the second half until late in the third quarter. He had an undisclosed injury late in the first half. But he did play in the fourth quarter, and barely missed a fourth sack when he leveled backup Wildcat quarterback Zack Oliver just as Oliver released a pass.

Later, Trinca-Pasat shrugged off whatever was wrong with him as merely a cramp.

'He's a tough cookie,” Estera said. As if her son wouldn't go back to work with his parents and a sister sitting in the stands so close to Iowa's sideline.

'There's respect and love with everyone in our family,” said his mother. 'Louis proves that for us. God is good.”

One of Trinca-Pasat's sisters, also named Estera, works for a Chicagoland physician who was a former Northwestern football player. He jokingly told her to ask her brother to take it easy on his Wildcats today.

Take it easy? Not this player. Not from this family.

Comments: mike.hlas@thegazette.com. Twitter: @Hlas

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