Spring Break
Paccione's game, more than one hustle
J. David McSwane
Issue date: 2/28/07 Section: News
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Kefalas proposed a one-on-one showdown with Paccione - on the basketball court.
"You let her know that I'm ready anytime," Kefalas told the Collegian. "I'm ready anytime she's up for the challenge."
But Kefalas, who stands at 5 feet and 3 inches, would be wise to know what he is getting himself into. Paccione played in the pros, and she's got more than one game plan.
A class act
Last fall, Paccione gave Republican incumbent Marilyn Musgrave quite a scare after catapulting her campaign into "a dead heat" over the historically conservative 4th Congressional District. But the former professional basketball player lost the match in the final seconds by only 3 percent of the vote.
Running a political campaign is no easy task, Paccione says, and losing one is even harder. But the former CSU student and assistant professor is no benchwarmer when it comes to adversity.
Growing up in a poor New York City neighborhood with a black single mother prepared her for anything, she told the Collegian Thursday.
"Living in what we call the working poor of the south Bronx, I didn't know my father. I grew up in a real disadvantaged environment," she said.
Determined to escape that environment, Paccione sweated enough in school and on the court to win a full-ride athletic scholarship to attend Stanford University in California.
But the affluent beach community of Palo Alto, seemed a world away for an aspiring young basketball player from the Bronx. But with a lot of determination and a little fast-food grease, Paccione packed quite a game.
"When I went to Stanford, it was a real culture shock because I was coming out of a completely different environment than most of the people who were attending Stanford," she said. "The first year or two was really hard for me to make that adjustment."
"My classmates were driving BMWs and Mercedes," she added. "I didn't even have a bike."
To make up for what her scholarship couldn't afford her, Paccione worked the graveyard shift at a local Jack in the Box restaurant in the off season while still attending classes.
"I'd clean the milkshake machine and the fry machine, and I worked with people who were not going to Stanford," she said. "I worked with community people… and being exposed to the people who really work for a living always kept me grounded."
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