Habakkuk Baldonado fights off homesickness for his native Italy by embracing family at Pitt

With arms and legs that look like logs and a 6-foot-5, 260-pound frame, Habakkuk Baldonado fits his role as a ferocious hunter of quarterbacks.

But Pitt’s junior defensive end is 7,322 kilometers from his native Rome, Italy, and he is only human.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that he admits to a bit of homesickness “from time to time” that, actually, goes away almost as quickly as it emerges.

Whether it’s Thanksgiving dinner at a teammate’s home, the annual kickball game in Charlie Partridge’s backyard or just throwing his arm around a younger player and helping him cope, Baldonado has found a home on the Pitt football team.

After All-American defensive ends Patrick Jones II and Rashad Weaver moved on to the NFL, Baldonado has climbed atop Pitt’s depth chart in terms of production and leadership. While he misses his mom and brother back in Rome, he is too busy and too focused to worry about anything other than the UMass offensive tackle who will line up across from him in Pitt’s opener at 4 p.m. Saturday at Heinz Field.

He said he follows the advice of Partridge, his position coach, who tells him to “focus on staying focused on what matters.”

Baldonado has been away from home since 2017, when he moved to the U.S. to attend Clearwater (Fla.) Academy and prepare for college.

Encouraged by his mother, Paola Franceschelli, to pursue new experiences, he wasn’t apprehensive about leaving home.

“Rather than worry, I would say excited. I did not know what was going to come,” he said. “The plan at the beginning with my Mom was to go six months and see what happened.”

That plan didn’t last long.

“I just dove right in, went 100%,” he said, “and left everything that I had behind, went full immersed in this new experience.”

The homesickness is natural, considering he came to Clearwater and Pittsburgh without knowing anyone in those cities. But that changed quickly.

“Now, I have a family here. Pitt became my family. I just call my people, and it goes right away. Older Pittsburgh guys are really welcoming,” he said, noting he has made friends with Pitt junior defensive linemen and Thomas Jefferson graduates Devin Danielson and Noah Palmer and their families.

“Every Thanksgiving. Every birthday. They just bring us food or bring us inside their homes.”

On the field, he recorded four sacks as a backup end in 2019, but injuries curtailed his progress last year when he missed all but four games. He said Wednesday after practice that he is fully recovered.

“I’m really proud of the way he’s recovered physically, and I think he’s doing a great job taking care of his body,” Partridge said. “He’s approaching the game like a veteran should.

“He’s doing a great job preparing mentally every day, doing everything he can to do everything he can to steal a play and playing with some great technique.”

He also is developing into a leader.

“The credit goes to Haba,” Partridge said, “not only in his ability to teach, but his empathy when he sees a young player is down on himself. Haba has the ability to feel human emotions and go over and help make them better. That style of leadership is going to carry him a long way in football and in life.”

Added Baldonado: “When I see myself in them, I remember how it felt when I first got here, not knowing, not speaking a lot and leaning toward the older guys.

“I try to lead the defensive linemen the right way, teaching the younger guys the standard and upholding it.”