How is Austin Hatch doing?

Submitted by StephenRKass on

I, like many of the readers here, was touched by the story of everything surrounding Austin Hatch. His recruitment, plane crash, then working himself back into shape, and joining the team. And finally, giving up his roster spot and taking a medical scholarship at Michigan. There was a post in October from a student with the username UMClassof2018 highlighting John Beilein talking to the Maize Rage which mentioned Hatch.

LINK:  Men's Basketball Updates.

The pertinent section:

He [Beilein] also talked about Austin Hatch and how important he is to the team. He said he works out with the team 2-3 times a week to keep his body in shape, and his role is now doing some things that players/coaches don't have as much time to do (i.e. visits to Mott). He also said he views Austin as another son of his, which was pretty cool.

I would love to hear any updates on Austin . . . how school is going, if he is still working out with the team, and in what capacity he helps out the team. He always seemed like such a class act, who dealt with a horrible tragedy as graciously as possible. This disaster also highlighted John Beilein and his character.

 

Jpnets54

January 19th, 2016 at 7:01 PM ^

Joining the WBB team a month into their season, she' could see some minutes backing up Hallie Thome.  It'll be interesting to see how quickly she can make the transition/how much rust she has after not playing competitive basketball for quite a while.

FauxMo

January 19th, 2016 at 5:33 PM ^

The young man experienced and SURVIVED two plane crashes, losing several relatives (father, mother, siblings) in the process. If he can manage to keep himself together through that, I have a feeling he will be incredibly successful in whatever he does in life.

Michigan Eaglet

January 19th, 2016 at 5:39 PM ^

I worked fo the athletic department this past summer and actually had the chance to talk to Austin on several occasions. I don't want to give too many details out of respect for Austin's privacy, but you could tell he is still recovering to some degree from what happened. Not physically, but more so mentally and psychologically. Obviously it's near impossible for anyone to imagine going through what he did and I didn't push for details, so this was mostly from observations during prolonged conversations (usually lasting over 30 minutes). He is doing well though and his teammates still love hanging out with him and don't treat him any differently than they would any other teammate. From what I observed, I'm not surprised at all by the decision to medical him from what I noticed and his ability to play college basketball at a level he and his coaches would want him to at Michigan unfortunately just doesn't seem to be there any more. (again more so mentally than physically). He is absolutely an awesome guy though and is really down to earth. I'll always root for him no matter what he goes on to do.

Boner Stabone

January 19th, 2016 at 8:45 PM ^

I would echo what Eaglet said.  I had the opportunity to take my 7 year old daughter and 7 year old nephew to the UM/Northwestern football game this fall.  While my brother in law was tailgating and partying it up (Im not much of a party person especially with my young daughter around)  I took my daughter and nephew into the Davidson Complex to walk around and kill some time.

While we were walking around and I was showing my daughter and nephew all of the cool trophies and pictures, out of one of the hallways walks Austin.  I immediately was a bit star struck and was watching him walk past us, when he stopped and introduced himself to us and I introduced myself and my daughter to him.  He was the most polite and down to earth person I have ever met and was genuinely pleased to meet us and wanted to know where we were from.  My 7 year old daughter was grinning ear to ear and my nephew had a huge smile on his face.  

He looked like he just got finished working out and poked his head into an office and said to someone that the Sandman needs to see you.  I guess he was referring to Jon Sanderson.  After that he came back past us and said very nice to meet you and went back to his workout.

 I know he made my day that day by meeting him. (even though it got even better a few hours later when UM won 38-0).  My daughter still says where is Austin?, when we watch the games on tv and we usually can find him on the bench with his shirt and tie on.  I saw all the specials on him on tv and was impressed with him, but he was even better in person.

Artie

January 19th, 2016 at 6:53 PM ^

For a brief moment, I thought this thread was concerning the whereabouts of onetime UM RB/CMU RB/Jackson State Penitentiary RB, Austin White. I'd rather hear about Austin Hatch.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad