Boys’ basketball: Austin Hatch shows his determination
There was so much interest in Austin Hatch’s news conference on Wednesday in a lecture hall at Los Angeles Loyola that a TV station from Indiana went live with some of his comments.
Hatch, the 6-foot-6 senior who moved to Los Angeles from Fort Wayne, Ind., to help his recovery from a 2011 brain injury suffered in a plane crash that killed his father and stepmother, is still not fully recovered to suit up for the Cubs.
“My time is coming soon,” Hatch said.
Hatch was able to handle a nearly 30-minute question and answer session with confidence and poise and displayed unreal determination for a 19-year-old who has been through so much.
There simply is no one quite like him. He has survived two plane crashes. He was in a coma for eight weeks. He’s practicing again, trying to regain some of the instincts and skills that caused Michigan to offer him a scholarship when he was attending Canterbury High School and averaging 23.3 points and 9.3 rebounds his sophomore year.
He signed with Michigan last week. Loyola Coach Jamal Adams remembers his first conversation with Michigan Coach John Beilein last summer when he found out Hatch was headed to Loyola. “He asked me if I wanted to participate in a miracle,” Adams said.
Hatch said he moved to Los Angeles to live with an uncle and take advantage of the additional resources available for his recovery.
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