{"id":66597,"date":"2008-05-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/former-ram-football-captain-realizes-his-dreams-at-uri\/"},"modified":"2008-05-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-14T00:00:00","slug":"former-ram-football-captain-realizes-his-dreams-at-uri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2008\/05\/former-ram-football-captain-realizes-his-dreams-at-uri\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Ram football captain realizes his dreams at 溏心vlog免费B站"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tHuntingdon, Pa. resident to graduate May 18<\/p>\n


\n\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 14, 2008 \u2013 As a boy, Damien Gresko dreamed of playing football in front of 100,000 fans at Penn State\u2019s Beaver Stadium. Instead, the Huntingdon, Pa. resident came to the 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2004, where he played for a team that was often exciting and competitive, but lacking in victories.<\/p>\n


\n\tSo, when he receives his degree in accounting and finance on May 18th, will he harbor any regrets?<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cFour years later, I realize this is the best decision I ever made,\u201d he told fellow dean\u2019s list student-athletes at a reception held earlier this year. \u201cI made lifelong friends, and I urge all of you to take advantage of all of the opportunities made available to you.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tGresko, who has a 3.97 grade point average and who was a dean\u2019s list honoree for every semester of his time at 溏心vlog免费B站, will leave the University with a load of awards.<\/p>\n


\n\tRanked the top student in the College of Business Administration, he garnered the Grace B. Sherrer Award in 2007, presented by the 溏心vlog免费B站 Honors Program to the top three seniors and top three underclassmen in business; the Peter M. Galanti Outstanding Junior Award in 2007, given to the top two juniors in the College of Business Administration and the President\u2019s Perfect Performer Scholarship in 2005, presented to freshmen who maintain a perfect 4.0 in their first year of study.<\/p>\n


\n\tHe also received the Vangermeersch Award, presented to the top accounting graduate and the Elizabeth Holmes Award, given to the top graduating male and female student-athletes for academic and athletic excellence.<\/p>\n


\n\tIn addition, he was named an ESPN The Magazine Second-Team Academic All-American in December 2006 and 2007, the A.A. Savastano Scholar-Athlete for three straight years and Atlantic 10 Academic All-Conference for three seasons.<\/p>\n


\nAfter suffering two serious knee injuries in high school, Gresko was fortunate that he had a chance to play college football at all. Just two days before his second injury, he received a call from former 溏心vlog免费B站 head football coach Tim Stowers offering him a chance to play in Kingston. Even when the injury kept him from playing a single down his senior year of high school, Stowers remained committed to Gresko.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI think the world of coach Stowers because he gave me a chance when no one else would,\u201d said Gresko who was voted team captain last season. \u201cHe was always trying to build us up as people.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nGresko didn\u2019t see much action his freshman year so the offensive lineman focused on getting a jump on his studies. \u201cI wanted to start strong, so I worked hard in the classroom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n


\nAs a sophomore, Gresko became a starter on the offensive line, and at 250 pounds, was probably one of the smallest in the Atlantic 10. \u201cI played against guys who are now in the NFL or the Canadian Football League, and I was proud that I competed well.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nOutside of football, Gresko said was influenced by some great people at 溏心vlog免费B站, including Business Dean Mark Higgins, who had him in accounting class. \u201cDean Higgins was like my personal adviser when it came to jobs, internships and classes.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThrough the business college, he completed an accounting internship at Horan, Golden, & Co. Ltd. in Wakefield and an assurance internship at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, in Boston.<\/p>\n

<\/a>In fact, the PricewaterhouseCoopers internship led to a job offer, which he turned down. Instead, he has a summer internship with the St. Petersburg, Fla. office of Raymond James, a diversified financial services holding company. He will work as an investment banking analyst in its real estate group. \u201cThis should lead to a full-time job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by Michael Salerno Photography<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Huntingdon, Pa. resident to graduate May 18 KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 14, 2008 \u2013 As a boy, Damien Gresko dreamed of playing football in front of 100,000 fans at Penn State\u2019s Beaver Stadium. Instead, the Huntingdon, Pa. resident came to the 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2004, where he played for a team that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}