Sports
Cal football player from Fresno helping hometown during coronavirus pandemic
The church was down to the last few bags of groceries of the day.
But several cars still were waiting in line.
For the second straight Saturday, the weekly food drive at University Presbyterian Church in northeast Fresno was about to end earlier than scheduled and some families would leave empty handed.
Volunteers helping distribute food bags looked at each other and asked the question that many people might be trying to figure out themselves during this coronavirus pandemic: What do we do now?
“These are tough times,” volunteer Zach Angelillo said. “You hate to see people go through this. Who knows how much the pandemic is affecting them.”
Back in January when Angelillo first heard about the coronavirus and COVID-19, the Cal football player and former San Joaquin Memorial High star really had only one concern.
Please don’t let it disrupt the upcoming spring football camp.
That was going to be Angelillo’s time to prove he could handle his position switch from linebacker to fullback and take on a bigger role with the Bears. Coaches had taken notice.
“I know he’d been working hard and was eager to show he could help the team more,” Cal running backs coach Aristole Thompson said. “He was looking good; looked comfortable out there as a fullback.”
But as more cases of the coronavirus popped up in the United States and then the NBA suddenly shut down in mid-March after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, sports were soon after placed on pause.
Living in a pandemic as a student-athlete
For many student-athletes, the COVID-19 pandemic canceled spring seasons or team workouts.
In Angelillo’s case, Cal’s football camp was called off after four practices.
With the Berkeley campus closed, Angelillo returned home to Fresno to resume training on his own, conscious about maintaining the power and speed he had gained during offseason weight training.
But working out from home was so different than what Angelillo had become accustom to — even if Cal’s strength and conditioning coaches provided tips for players to train on their own.
“Can’t replace the luxury of a multi-million dollar facility,” said Angelillo, who has been in the Bears program for two years. “Or sweating and working hard next to your brothers on the football field.
“I never thought I’d say this, but I miss 6 a.m. workouts with my teammates.”
Online class was quite different for Angelillo, too, reliant on video programs on his laptop to attend live lectures and meetings.
“It’s kind of distracting when you see your professor’s dog walking back and forth in the background,” Angelillo said with a laugh. “Or when your classmate is under their covers and still in bed, just waking up. And it’s like 3 in the afternoon!
“But we’re all adjusting and trying to make the best of the situation.”
Back home from Cal
Elon Paige, an old acquaintance and Fresno-area personal trainer, invited Angelillo to join his group of athletes and train at their gym, Legion Training Camp, in Old Town Clovis.
Paige, the son of former NFL and Fresno State star Stephone Paige, works with various high school athletes and provides training and mentoring to help them become better athletes and people.
And Angelillo was a great example of what Paige’s young athletes could aspire to become, the trainer thought.
“Zach is a great, young man and brings great leadership,” said Paige, who played football at Clovis West and Sacramento State during the mid-2000s before spending four years in the AFL. “He’s worked hard to get where he’s at.”
Before Cal, Angelillo served as captain for the 2017 Memorial team that won the school’s first Central Section title in 14 years. He had multiple offers to play college football elsewhere, including Air Force, Cal Poly and Fresno State.
In the end, Angelillo decided he wanted to compete at the Power 5 level of college football. So he walked on at Cal, betting on himself that he could earn a scholarship.
He shared his story of self-belief, sacrifice and risk with Paige’s athletes after a workout.
Angelillo enjoyed being around them. They were a great substitute for the Cal teammates Angelillo sorely missed.
It also reminded Angelillo of high school when he did community service work at Boys & Girls clubs.
“Zach just knows how to interact with young guys and connect with them,” Paige said. “He has their attention. I think they notice that he has this great quality in him to help others.”
The workouts, however, were short-lived.
Gov. Gavin Newsom soon after issued a stay-at-home directive that included gym closures and prohibited large gatherings.
Volunteering during coronavirus
Though the workouts were over, Paige thought it’d be nice to have Angelillo around his athletes some more while they volunteered at the church food bank.
“I’d love to help,” Angelillo said.
Not only did volunteering give him a legitimate reason to get out of his house and be around goal-driven people, Angelilllo liked the idea of helping others.
He saw it as his role in the community to contribute even in the smallest of ways, a mindset Angelillo developed long ago from playing football. As a student at Memorial, Angelillo organized a fundraiser to help out the family of longtime, popular high school assistant Tony Perry, who died abruptly in 2017 while coaching at Edison.
“It’s the nature of who Zach is,” Memorial coach Anthony Goston said. “It’s not always about what’s best for me. It’s about what’s best for everyone. What I can do to help the team? What can I do to help others?
“That’s how Zach thinks.”
Among others who also volunteered alongside Angelillo at University Presbyterian Church was his best friend and former Memorial teammate Austin Yniguez, as well as two of Paige’s friends, former NFL player Ricky Manning Jr. and ex-Fresno State football player Paris Gaines.
The possibility of coming into contact with someone who has the coronavirus has been a concern for the volunteers. Angelillo and others wear gloves and masks, and follow strict guidelines that limits their physical interaction with those picking up the groceries.
“I’m just very proud of him,” said Thompson, Angelillo’s position coach at Cal. “At the same time, I’m not surprised. Zach’s such a selfless teammate within our program. It makes sense he’s like that with the Fresno community.
“We all have a responsibility to help how we can, when we can, in these times.”
For Angelillo, it was volunteering to help others.
“I look forward to it every week,” Angelillo said. “When people are being valued and know they’re being cared for, they feel good. And it feels good to help them.”
Uncertainty during pandemic
There’s so much uncertainty now. Angelillo doesn’t know when Cal football practices will resume or how much longer he’ll continue to help with the food drive.
But he will keep doing what he can for as long as he can as a way to better himself, and help his team and his community.
“You’re not going to catch me getting fat and lazy,” Angelillo said. “That wouldn’t be helpful to my team or myself.
“And having an opportunity to give back to my community is big and something I take seriously.”
And when problems arise like when the food bank ran out of food, Angelillo said he’s been inspired by how people have responded to such adversity.
“We had one car one time that waited a long time and didn’t get a bag,” Angelillo said. “They looked physically distressed. It’s sad to see. You wish you could do more to help. We were brainstorming other ways to help.
“They politely thanked us anyway, and told us they’d figure things out.”
It’s something many people are trying to do — figuring out how to get through this coronavirus pandemic.
Or for people like Angelillo, it’s trying to figure out how to help others get through these times.
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