Some photo-shoot requests are bigger than others. It was a lot to ask the family of star ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky ’17 (BGS) to set aside an entire late-summer morning for our UConn magazine team of photographer Peter Morenus, designer Andrew Janavey ’15 (SFA), and me to take pictures for the cover and the feature story.

But that was only the beginning.

We asked what games they might typically play together in their backyard and, despite the drippingly humid day, would they mind leaping on the trampoline, soaring on the swings, and playing some seriously intense soccer for our cameras?
They would not. And all the while their natural and obvious delight in, and support of, one another kept things fun. Their competing competitiveness — yellow lab Berks the singular exception there — kept it tumultuous.

At times it felt more like a day at summer camp than a serious photo shoot. Still, when the time came for me to approach Dan with the really big ask — Do you have a suit you wouldn’t mind jumping into the pool in? — I figured my odds of getting a yes were 50-50 at best.

As our cover attests, Orlovsky was the ultimate good sport, suiting up and making repeated exuberant backward flops into the pool. Morenus stepped up, too — literally — getting the ideal angle by standing on a metal ladder placed atop a grilling table. Those are his shoes in the picture above — it’s the only angle I was able to get while simultaneously keeping his perch steady.

At the end of the day we had only one final ask: Can we all be part of this family?