The smile on Dan Chervanick's face tells his story this year.
The fifth-year senior was a defensive lineman until last spring, when Irish coach Charlie Weis moved him to the offensive side of the ball to help compensate for Notre Dame's thin depth chart. After playing two seasons and recording just two tackles in his first four years at Notre Dame, the transition lifted his place on the depth chart, but his work ethic rewarded him in another way.
The valedictorian of Holy Name High School in Reading, Pa., Chervanick was both dedicated and important to the team with the offensive line situation in question. And he had some experience on offense. Along with winning all-league academic honors in Berks County, Pa., Chervanick was an all-league offensive tackle and defensive interior lineman.
With Chervanick's mother helping move in his sister Marie, a junior at Notre Dame, in late August, Weis awarded Chervanick a scholarship for his dedication.
"My mom was crying," Chervanick said. "And I called my dad, and told him, 'You know those loans [for my post-graduate year]? Don't worry abut them.'"
Chervanick said his father had just come home from a long day at work and warned him that the good news better not turn out to be a joke.
It wasn't.
Every time Chervanick talks about one part of his five years, his feelings almost invariably boil down to four words.
"It's just been great," he said time after time.
Like many of his fellow seniors, Chervanick, whose brother Mike walked on to Pittsburgh's football team, said the mid-week work and optional lifting sessions are the toughest part of the season - but also the place where he has forged the strongest bonds with teammates.
"The friends I've made - it's been wonderful," Chervanick said. "I wouldn't give it up for anything."
The tireless work that led Chervanick to a 3.596 four-year GPA at Notre Dame - and a 3.75 average his final undergraduate semester -impressed his coach, who likes to treat football as a business. But such a relationship should probably be expected, with Chervanick earning a degree in accounting as well as history.
And he already knows exactly what he'll be doing with the business degree and the Master of Science in Accounting that he will have earned by May.
Chevanick interned with Citigroup this summer and, after interviews with New York financial powerhouses Merrill Lynch, Cantor Fitzgerald and others, he accepted a position at UBS next fall as an analyst in the company's fixed-income sales and trading program.
He said the competitive nature of Wall Street, where he just wants "to get a shot," correlates perfectly with his background in football.
And Chervanick said he already knows of a few Notre Dame graduates in New York working their way up corporate ladders. Chervanick said the demands for perfection and teamwork at Notre Dame give him a solid foundation for a lower-Manhattan business mentality.
But as the Army game approaches, Chervanick has a second chance to soak up the memories from practices and team meetings, until the final lap around Notre Dame Stadium.
