Goal accomplished
Kevin Hatch had a pretty magical athletic career at Freeman High School.
The Scotties made the State 1A football playoffs and basketball tournament three times. The football team marched further every season, finishing second in 2005, and the basketball team earned trophies twice.
That success paled in comparison to the success in track. Behind Hatch, the Scotties were state champions his sophomore year, runner-up the next two and third when he was a freshman. He won three pole vault titles, two in the high jump and one each in the long and triple jumps, earning 11 medals overall.
When all was said and done, Hatch was offered a full-ride track scholarship to Eastern Washington, only to turn it down to be a walk-on for the Eagles football team.
“I love football,” he said. “I promised my parents out of high school I was going to get a scholarship. When it came down to it, I told them I got that track scholarship for them, but it wasn’t where I thought I wanted to head. We talked about it and came to a conclusion, hopefully a couple of years down the road, that I would work my way up to a football scholarship. We agreed to that and that’s where I’m trying to get to now.
“I’ve had a pretty good spring. I’m definitely looking forward to talking to the coaches.”
That won’t be necessary. Like everything else he has done, Hatch succeeded, although this is the first he and his family know about it.
With the conclusion of spring practice, highlighted by Saturday’s Red-White Game at Woodward Field at 2 p.m., Hatch, who will be a redshirt sophomore, is on scholarship.
“It was just time,” Eagles coach Paul Wulff said.
It wasn’t as if Wulff didn’t expect this, but the coaches had to know how much he wanted it.
“We knew he was a good athlete,” he said. “We felt if he ever used his athletic talents and focused on football he could help us.”
That was something he resisted – for obvious reasons – throughout high school.
“Everybody wanted him to dedicate to one sport,” said his mother Kristi, a teacher in the Freeman district. “As parents, we didn’t see the need for that.”
Kristi supported her son’s decision and never worried that her 5-foot-9, then-170-pound child would get beat up – for nothing.
“Ever since Kevin was 2 1/2, since he started doing flips off diving boards and trampolines, I learned not to be afraid,” she said. “I let Kevin be Kevin. You should see our house. We have every possible dangerous item imaginable. We just support him and teach him how to do them correctly.”
That daredevil child moved on to do jumps and flips with skateboards, motorcycles, skis and snowboards.
“I need to get that rush,” he said. “I love the rush you get jumping off big cliffs. It’s kind of the same feeling you get lighting somebody up (with a big tackle) on special teams.”
Hatch went back to pole vault and high jump after his redshirt season and placed sixth in pole vault at the Big Sky Conference indoor championships.
“After putting on 15 pounds for football, it was hard to do,” he said. “It didn’t seem as much fun. There wasn’t that team concept like football.”
He got back into the football mode and was a backup special teams player and cornerback last fall. An injury got him on the field for punt returns and, after adjusting to the speed of the college game, he played on other special teams with a few late-game snaps at cornerback.
This spring he has been moved to safety and is taking all the repetitions with the starters because senior Gregor Smith is sitting out with an injury.
“I played safety in high school and it feels more natural,” he said. “I like the action and I love to hit.”
He is the leading tackler through three scrimmages.
“We had a need,” defensive coordinator Jody Sears said. “It’s worked out pretty darn well. He’s athletic, he’s smart and he can take coaching. We expected a lot out of him. He made a lot of progress last fall. He needs some consistency tackling but when he’s on the field there is a level of confidence. We can win with him.”
Sounds like money in the bank.