Sad news in the University of Michigan family. Austin Hatch, who has committed to play basketball at the U of M in 2013, is in a medically induced coma after the plane his father was flying crashed into a residential garage. His father, Dr. Stephen Hatch and his stepmother, Kimberly Hatch were killed in the crash. Here’s a link to the story from indiananewscenter.com.
Austin and his father were in a plane crash before when his father clipped a power pole back in 2003 where he lost his mother, brother, sister and family dog.
They have set up a page for you to visit and I think you can donate on that page as well. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/AustinHatch
Michigan is working with the NCAA to figure out what all they can do to help without violating in NCAA rules. Michigan has done this with another student, actually a brother of a student athlete, Brock Mealer in the past. They helped him from being told he’d never walk again, to leading the team out on the field. Read the story here. I was at the UCONN/Michigan game where Brock walked out onto the field. I cried at the ovation he received.
These kinds of stories get lost with all the NCAA violations and players in trouble. I’m sure every school has them, these are a couple of Michigan’s. Keep Austin in your thoughts as he recovers from this tragedy, both physically, and mentally from losing all of his family.
This is ridiculously tragic and I can't believe that family suffered through two plane crashes. It's at least nice to see the outpouring of support from many people, including the school that recruited him (just like the way the football team supported the Mealers). I'm hoping it becomes possible soon to make donations to the kid to help him out during an enormously difficult time.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe either one would want to fly after the 1st one. I'm sure the school will do what they can, it's ridiculous that any kind of financial help would be considered NCAA violations. You would think there could be exceptions of some kind for a tragedy like this.
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