Zach Abey said this week that he grew up in Pasadena dreaming of playing football for Navy and one day running out of the tunnel for the annual game against archrival Army. That dream will come true for the Archbishop Spalding product on Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium.
Andy Michalowicz was a Pasadena resident who harbored the same hopes. Michalowicz, who prepped at Mount St. Joseph, never got to realize the second half of that equation as he spent for years serving as a scout team quarterback at Navy.
On Sunday, when Abey awoke to the enormity of making his first career start in the Army-Navy game, he received a reassuring phone call from an academy graduate who followed a very similar path.