Kicker has belief Virginia Tech will overcome tragedy

Lee Rasizer, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 25, 2007 at midnight

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ENGLEWOOD - He had been at Lane Stadium on campus plenty of times in his five years at Virginia Tech.

Never like this.

They had screamed for Brandon Pace to kick the winning field goal or nail another extra point for their beloved Hokies in Blacksburg, Va.

But on April 17, Pace, now with the Broncos, entered his home stadium to the sound of something more distinct than that of 65,000 football-crazy fans in fever pitch: hushed, peaceful quiet.

A convocation in remembrance of 32 people killed by a gunman on campus proved too large a gathering for the school's 10,000-seat basketball arena, so an overflow crowd at least double that sat in metal bleachers, united in grief, overlooking an empty field and watching the ceremony on the scoreboard's replay board.

Pace was one of the onlookers fixed on the JumboTron's images.

"That was pretty much the first time I had been in the stands," said Pace, who signed with the Broncos as an undrafted free agent May 7 and just finished his first two-week camp with the team Thursday. "That place is known for being so loud and crazy. There was just dead silence. You could hear a pin drop. And, of course, there were people hugging each other and crying."

The next weekend, Pace headed to his parents' house in Virginia Beach to unwind, a departure after five years of college life he previously had planned.

Yet his mostly enjoyable time in Blacksburg forever would be altered by his last few days there.

He frequently would walked by Norris Hall, where most of the carnage occurred, even under it in a tunnel that adjoined some of the campus buildings. He would hang out at the nearby student center.

"I'm fortunate not to have any of my friends killed or not knowing any of the teachers," Pace said. "But you sit and think about that, and it would have hit home even more."

Regardless, no one around Virginia Tech was entirely immune to one of the biggest mass murders in U.S. history.

Many students knew somebody involved on the periphery, including Pace.

Hanging out at his house about a mile off campus on the day of the slayings, Pace first received news something was amiss when his brother called to tell him about an incident at West Ambler Johnston, a coed residence hall in which two people were killed.

"I didn't think anything of it," said Pace, who was finishing his master's degree in health education and preparing for the draft at the time of the April 16 incident.

Pace's sister-in-law called shortly thereafter, informing him the death toll had risen to 22 after the killer reloaded and headed elsewhere on campus.

The kicker asked some questions about the events, then flipped on the news. The channel, like Pace himself, didn't focus on much else the rest of the day as images and information kept coming in and authorities prevented anyone from going near the campus.

One disturbing piece of news filtered in from inside the room, with another ring of the phone.

Kelly Brown, the girlfriend of Jesse Allen, one of Pace's two roommates, was on her way to a class at the scene of the deadliest carnage at Norris Hall when shots first rang out. Perhaps she was only a half-hour from being part of the story herself.

"Sometimes if she has tests, she'll be there about the time it happened," Pace said.

The group later discovered one of Brown's former teammates on the Virginia Tech softball team, Theresa Walsh, was in a second- floor classroom when Seung-Hui Cho began his classroom rampage.

"A bunch of the guys in the class took a desk and put it in front of the door. They held the bottom of the legs against the door," Pace said. "And I guess (Cho) thought they were leaned up against it because he was just firing through the door. She was pretty shook up about it."

Pace said it seemed like he received about "a million" phone calls checking on his own well-being as that fateful day progressed.

"People I haven't talked to forever got my number from my parents and wanted to make sure everything was OK," he said.

And he was; still is, too, even though the lingering effect is his alma mater will, for the foreseeable future, be tied to the tragedy.

"The campus is only going to be stronger. Really, the community there and the students really came together," he said. "It was amazing to see how everyone had each other's back. It's a great school, great football program, and even if I was a freshman going back there next year, I'd be back in a heartbeat."

But Pace isn't going back. Instead, he's in the somewhat unenviable position of being a kicker on the same roster as Jason Elam, one of the NFL's most consistent ever.

That latter distinction affords Pace little hope of making the roster. But he isn't without his own credentials, and some strange things have happened in the NFL.

"The kid's the most accurate kicker coming out of college football this year," Broncos special- teams coach Scott O'Brien said, referring to Pace's 18-for-19 senior season on field goals and going 37-for-39 on extra points.

"He had a great career at Virginia Tech. The thing that stood out when I met him (at the combine) in Indianapolis is his mental makeup. At that position, you need someone who doesn't get distracted or lose focus. I was really impressed with that."

Even Pace admitted his odds are long and there's a real chance he's putting himself on tape for another team, particularly if he doesn't make the Broncos' practice squad.

Regardless, he views the chance to learn from Elam, someone he long has admired, as a plus.

"You can't go wrong learning from a guy like that," he said.

And as passing camp concluded, taking the field and competing amid relative silence doesn't seem so foreign, either, which is all right with him.

rasizerl@RockyMountainNews.com

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