Former Michigan basketball player Austin Hatch, who survived two deadly plane crashes, was honored along with the seniors on the Wolverines’ roster before Sunday’s Big Ten game against Ohio State.
Hatch played in five games as a Michigan freshman and took a medical hardship scholarship at the end of the 2015 season. He has served as a student assistant to coach John Beilein since.
Hatch was placed into a medically induced coma after a June 2011 crash just days after he committed to play for Michigan. His father and stepmother died in the plane crash.
Eight years earlier, Hatch’s mother and his siblings died in a crash that he survived when his father threw him from the wreckage.
Hatch suited up, went through warm-ups and was introduced during the senior day ceremony as an honorary captain before Sunday’s game.
A very special Senior Day for @umichbball’s Austin Hatch. pic.twitter.com/bQlJvY79QP
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) February 18, 2018
“I just love what he’s brought to this team,” Beilein said in a video during the ceremony. “Hopefully in some way we’ve brought a similar substance to him — a sense of belonging.”
Hatch told the Detroit Free Press that he valued his time at the Ann Arbor, Mich., school.
https://twitter.com/Max_Marcovitch/status/965319756969598977
“I don’t think it’s an accident I ended up at a place like Michigan. I don’t think there was any better place I could’ve been in the country given the circumstances,” Hatch said Friday. “I don’t think there’s a better man that I could have played for. He’s taught me more about life and that’s the ultimate measure of a coach.”
Hatch is scheduled to graduate at the end of the spring semester.
