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WVU v. Iowa State: Pronounced opportunity

2015-11-28 09.49.42

You are looking live at something especially relevant to today’s game, a sign Nick Kwiatkoski’s uncle John created years back to alleviate any and all confusion, though to virtually no avail. It was only during this season that WVU fixed things within its publications in print and online.

To be clear:

My last name being what it is, I’m sensitive to brutal mispronunciations. If you know me or if it’s your business to know me — and this goes not just for me but for anyone with a slippery surname — messing it up is no different than calling me Mark and not Mike.

Now, there are exceptions. If I’m flying standby and the gate agent calls my name and butchers it, that’s OK. If my wife and I are waiting on our reservation at a restaurant, and some version of my last name pages us, we’re OK. But if I led the team in tackles for going on three years now, it’s not OK. If I’m not two or three games away from 300 career tackles, just the 18th player in school history to get there and the first since 2004, we’re not OK.

For so many reasons, it’s a good thing I’m not Nick Kwiatkoski. But imagine being him — an all-conference player in a major conference — and hearing his name rattle around storied stadiums or national broadcasts incorrectly and uncured. Imagine being his mom. Poor Pam!

“It’s almost to the point I don’t know if I’m even pronouncing it correctly,” Pam said. “We’ve just learned to live with it. It doesn’t bother me. It can be disappointing, but I think it bothers a lot of my family members more than it does me.”

Nick Kwiatkoski — and for the record, it’s Quit-COW-ski — plays his final home game at noon today on Fox Sports 1 against Iowa State (3-8, 2-6 Big 12). Pam and Frank will accompany him out of the tunnel and onto the field for Senior Day festivities before the game, and the public address announcer at Mountaineer Field will get their name right when it matters most.

But Kwiatkoski’s provided plenty of practice. With two games left in the regular season and a bowl game to follow, he’s likely to lead the Mountaineers (6-4, 3-4) in tackles for a third straight season. He’s 18 tackles shy of 300 for his career. Only 17 others in school history have reached that level, the last in 2004.

He’s followed a preseason first-team all-Big 12 honor with a team-high 65 tackles, eight tackles for a loss, two sacks, two interceptions, two pass break-ups, one forced fumble and a fumble recovery. If there was a name for television, radio and stadium announcers on the road or at home to get to know through the years, it’s Kwiatkoski’s.

“What gets me is when the same person pronounces it two or three different times in one game,” he said. “But it’s probably my fault for not correcting people. It’s something I’m so used to that it doesn’t even faze me now.”

He’s been playing sports since early in his elementary school days, and Kwiatkoski was usually one of his team’s better players, whether it was football, basketball or baseball. Every time his name followed a tackle, basket or base hit, he and his parents learned to live with the speaker’s rendition.

But the rest of the family wasn’t as understanding.

“For our immediate family, it’s become kind of a joke,” Pam said. “I have relatives in different states who get to see him play on TV now and they’ll write in, which embarrasses me. Nick hates it. But they send messages to the announcers to clear it up.”

(Source: This is 100-percent true.) This day is not about Kwiatkoski, but he is a senior and he is one of many seniors who have persevered through changes both personal and institutional the past four or five years. I don’t (yet) know what the legacy of this senior class is, but through injuries and coaching changes and conference switches and up-and-down seasons, I think resilient is an apt adjective. But 20 players have a pen in their hands and three more paragraphs to pen in this final chapter.

Skinny post. Let’s go deep. A winning season is nigh.