University of Massachusets Athletics
Jason Hatchell's Spring Football Blog: Entry No. 6
May 03, 2007 | Football
May 3, 2007
Jason Hatchell writes about the upcoming spring game and his thoughts on some of his former teammates' signing professional contracts. He also talks about walking in the upcoming graduation ceremony.
Our focus in the past week has been on the Spring Game. Everyone, including me, is real excited for it. It is our last time on the field for the spring and will be a huge test for the players to see how everyone, especially the new guys, is playing. The game is at Noon and hopefully we'll get a nice crowd for it. It'll be cool to see what everyone has to show on the field.
Practice last week has been going real well. We are on our 13th or 14th practice now and it's been real fun watching all the guys, including myself, step up and progress through spring ball. We're learning new concepts that have been put in.
I paid close attention to the NFL Draft this past weekend and I'm real happy for Alex Miller, David Thompson, Brandon London, James Ihedigbo and Steve Baylark because they're all getting their shot now at the NFL. I was hoping one of them would have been taken in the later rounds, but it is still a great opportunity for them to live out their dreams. I know that they will all capitalize on the chance and I wish them well.
Our scrimmage last Saturday went real well. It was the first time we had officials on the field for our scrimmage. We got to seem some calls and got to argue with them a little bit. Overall it went real well. We were full-out live-hitting which is always good. We got to seem some big hits.
This time of year has been hectic for me because I'm finishing up my major. I'll still have credits to complete next year and I'm going to do an internship but I get to walk at the graduation ceremony on May 26, which is pretty exciting for any college student. It's been a real challenging four years but I'm proud to be graduating with my sport management degree, which is a real prestigious major here at UMass. But it's been tough recently. We've had football meetings on top of studying for exams and working on papers. For instance, Wednesday night I was up until Midnight studying, then took a mid-term exam this morning and have practice later. It's definitely tough to balance, but it's part of being an athlete.
It's off to practice for me now, but next week I'll be sure to give an update on the Spring Game. If you have some free time, come down to McGuirk Stadium at Noon on Saturday to watch the game. Hope to see you there!
