BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — The gift of perspective is not something you unwrap and put away for safe keeping.
It's meant to be used over and over again.
It's intended to be shared as much as possible.
It's designed to adapt to any circumstance.
So it goes for Rafael Gaglianone, the junior kicker for the Wisconsin football team whose gift arrived amid tragedy and whose sense of perspective has since been redefined.
On the night of July 23, Gaglianone lost two close friends when Nebraska punter Sam Foltz and former Michigan State punter Mike Sadler were killed in a one-car accident in Waukesha County.
Gaglianone and Foltz became fast friends after meeting on the camp circuit.
The three were serving as student instructors at a kicking camp in Wales, Wisconsin. Foltz, who would be a senior, and Sadler, who graduated in 2015, were driving to the home of former UW punter Drew Meyer in nearby Hartland when Sadler lost control of the car on a rain-slicked road and struck a tree.
The episode will be revisited Saturday night when UW hosts seventh-ranked Nebraska in a pivotal Big Ten Conference game at Camp Randall Stadium.
It will be the first time Gaglianone and his fellow veteran UW specialists — senior kicker Andrew Endicott, senior long snapper Connor Udelhoven, sophomore punter P.J. Rosowski and redshirt freshman holder Connor Allen — will see Foltz's family and friends since the summer.
Gaglianone, Meyer and Udelhoven attended the funeral and remain in touch with Foltz's teammates and parents.
"The kicking world — kickers, punters and long snappers — we're a close-bonded group," Gaglianone said. "We're friends of everybody. "It's definitely a very emotional game, everything about it. It hits close to home because he's not going to be here.
"We're going to try to do our best, as tough as it is, to make this game a celebration of his life more than anything else. That's the way he would have wanted it to be."
Gaglianone will bring a unique overview to the moment.
Shortly after the accident, he changed his number from 10 to 27 to honor his friend, then connected on seven of his first eight field-goal attempts.
But Gaglianone underwent surgery Sept. 29 to repair a herniated disk in his back and will miss the rest of the season.
Make no mistake, Gaglianone would like to be in uniform, contributing to a club preparing to face its fifth top-10 opponent of the season.
"I wish I was playing Nebraska," he said. "I wish things were different circumstances."
Here's where the gift of perspective retains its enduring value. A temporary health issue is nothing compared to losing a cherished friend at the tender age of 22.
"It's changed my point of view on football and given me a perspective on life and the little issues," Gaglianone said. "Just the mentality of seeing another day. I still get to go home and talk to my family and talk to my friends.
"You have to be thankful for the things we have and not be dwelling on the things we don't.
"I'm blessed to be part of another day and still be a part of this great university and still be able to play."
The bond between specialists was evident just before Foltz's tragic passing when players, including Wisconsin's Gaglianone, Allen and Udelhoven, posed for a photo.
That perspective is shared by Endicott, who's 5-for-7 on field goals since taking over for Gaglianone.
Both misses came last Saturday during a 17-9 win over Iowa. The 11th-ranked Badgers (5-2 overall, 2-2 in the Big Ten) prevailed despite a series of struggles on special teams, including poor decisions by returners, substandard punting and a 77-yard kickoff return allowed to the Hawkeyes. "Losing a friend like that puts everything in perspective," Endicott said of Foltz.
"You miss two field goals in a game and you're feeling really low and it's like, 'Oh, how could this be worse?'
"Well, there's a lot more to life than a football game, so that's definitely kept things in perspective for me and (Rafael), too.
"At times football can consume your life and if football's going well, then life's going well. So when a tragedy like this happens, everything is put in a new perspective. You wake up every morning being a lot more thankful for what you have."
There were times before and after back surgery that Gaglianone fretted about not being able to kick again. Those fears have been dispelled.
"It gives me a kind of peace of mind that this situation is not as bad," he said. "I'm hungry to come back and help my team."
Those who knew Foltz speak of him in reverent tones.
"You meet him one time and he's like that old friend from middle school," Endicott said. "Just an awesome guy like that.
"It speaks for who Sam was as a person that he had such an impact on so many people."
Udelhoven fondly recalled hanging out with Foltz and others at Meyer's house during summer kicking camps.
"He treated you the same way if you'd been best friends his whole life or just met him for the first time," Udelhoven said.
The last time Udelhoven said he saw Foltz was at a kicking camp in Whitewater prior to the one in Wales. Their farewell focused on their Big Ten game slated for Halloween weekend.
"I said, 'We'll see you when we're both undefeated,'" Udelhoven said.
The Cornhuskers (7-0, 4-0) are off to their best start in 15 years. Udelhoven smiled at the notion that Foltz has a hand in that.
"He's had a great seat at every single game," he said.
Gaglianone said he and Meyer intend to visit the Nebraska specialists at the visiting team's hotel on Friday. Gaglianone also plans to spend time with the Foltz family before and after the game.
"They're such great people," he said. "That's why Sam was who he was. It's truly going to be special having them here."
When Gaglianone kicked a 46-yard field goal with four seconds left to hand the Cornhuskers a 23-21 setback last season, one of the first to congratulate him afterward was Foltz.
Now it's Endicott playing that role on the big stage.
"He was the kind of guy who'd root for you no matter what team you were on," he said of Foltz.
Gaglianone said seeing the Nebraska specialists — kicker Drew Brown and backup Spencer Lindsay were particularly close to Foltz — will be emotional.
That will give way to a pregame gesture to honor Foltz, with Gaglianone joining the Huskers' specialists in carrying a No. 27 Foltz jersey onto the field at Camp Randall Stadium.
"It's special to come together in a matchup like this," Gaglianone said. "It's all about celebrating Sam."
