For a guy who doesn't like attention, Tom Pace sure has a way of finding it. There are many ways to avoid the spotlight, but playing professional football and singing in a rock band are not two of them.
"He's just uncomfortable with being in the spotlight," says his brother Ryan. "He was like that in high school. He'd hide from the media and run to the locker room after games."
All that attention is his fault. He didn't exactly keep a low profile by playing high school baseball so well that the Montreal Expos drafted him, or that he told them no, thanks, when they informed him that he couldn't serve a mission for his church if he signed a contract.
If he was trying to lie low, it probably wasn't a good idea to set a weight-class/age-group junior Olympic power-lifting record as a senior in high school, with a clean and jerk of 345 pounds.
And getting elected high school homecoming king in a school of 3,500 students definitely blew his low profile.
If he didn't want attention, he probably shouldn't have become a two-year starter at running back for Arizona State or returned a kickoff a school record-tying 100 yards against UCLA or set a career record for yards per kickoff attempt.
He shouldn't have forged a professional career in the Arena Football League, where, after three seasons in Arizona, he is now one of the Utah Blaze's star players.
He sure shouldn't have formed a band with Ryan or cut a CD or played a gig at the Hard Rock Cafe.
He probably shouldn't accept his recent selection as an inductee in the Mesa, Ariz., Sports Hall of Fame, where his current coach, Danny White, is already enshrined.
Pace plays receiver and linebacker for the Utah Blaze, ranking fifth on the team in tackles, third in scoring, third in receiving and second in all-purpose yards. He's scored 14 touchdowns, which is another bad idea if you're trying to avoid attention.
"I'm not really a guy who likes the attention," he says. "It makes me uncomfortable. I don't know what to say sometimes. I'm easily embarrassed by things like that."
Yet somehow he doesn't mind standing on a stage in front of a crowd playing his guitar and singing his own songs. Tom and Ryan are part of a four-man band that plays songs written by the Pace brothers (the group was called Point Blank, but then they were informed that another group has that name, so they're shopping for a new name). Ryan describes their music as "pop-punk, a mixture of Blink 182 with a little Green Day."
"It's upbeat and fun," says Ryan. "Our lyrics are clean. We aren't cussing up there. We have enough songs of our own to fill two CDs. Tom is a good writer. He's really talented."
They played the club and bar scene in Arizona, including the Hard Rock Cafe following a Rattler game. In the past few months Tom and Ryan have moved to Utah — Tom to play football for the Blaze and Ryan to attend dental lab school — while the other two band members — Lehi natives Johnny Bingham and Justin Harris — remain in Arizona. Tom and Ryan record vocals and guitar parts and send the recording to their band mates to add their parts. They have released a five-song demo that is playing on Arizona radio stations. They are in the process of recording another half-dozen original songs to complete their first CD. Last fall Tom sold the rights to one of his songs to ESPN to use for a deep-sea fishing special.
"It's a hobby," says Ryan. "We've always wanted to go big, but we realize that not many make it."
The Pace brothers have been recording songs since they began singing into a karaoke machine they received as a Christmas present as boys. Their older brother Cory had a singing group that recorded their songs on cassette tapes and sold them. They sang '50s pop as a barber shop quartet. Tom formed a similar six-man singing group that recorded a CD, which was sold at Deseret Book. Then Ryan formed a group in high school that produced and sold its own CD.
After Tom and Ryan returned from church missions to Brazil a few years ago, they teamed with Cory and recorded a CD of church music, which they performed at firesides and church events. Eventually, Ryan formed a pop band and turned to Tom for a guitarist/vocalist, and they began writing their own music. They've been doing it ever since.
"There are no songs about football," he says. "Usually they're about girls, some good, some bad, or about people and the way they are."
The Paces have had to manage their music interests around careers, school and sports. They can trace their football prowess to their grandfather, Tom Pace, a three-year football letterman at the University of Utah from 1937-39 who later played running back for the Chicago Bears. His son Allen played guard for Skyline High and Southern Utah, and Allen's sons, Ryan and Tom, also played college football (Ryan played for Mesa Community College).
Tom, 28, devotes six months a year to the Blaze; during the offseason he dabbles in real estate development and music in Arizona.
"I like (performing)," he says. "I'm nervous at first, but I get past that. I can let loose a little bit."
So much for the low profile.
E-mail: drob@desnews.com