Following Tradition at Army, After Detour at Air Force
Jared Hassin wanted to play for Army since he was 5. But somehow he ended up at Air Force before experiencing an epiphany in the woods with a rifle during basic training. He had gone to the wrong academy. But now the uniform fits in more ways than one. Hassin is happy and having a breakout season as a sophomore fullback. And he is ready to face Air Force on Saturday for the first time since leaving.....
...The Army has become a Hassin family tradition. Don Hassin Sr. landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day as a second lieutenant with the 29th Infantry. Don Jr. was an Army Airborne Ranger and a captain who served in Vietnam before becoming a colonel in the Army National Guard and a trial judge in Wisconsin. His daughter, Kelsey, graduated from West Point in May.
Jared grew up in Delafield, Wis., and gave an oral commitment to play at Army in the spring of 2007, during his junior year at Kettle Moraine High School, where he also excelled in wrestling and track and field. His father brought him up on Black Knights football. They would watch or listen to the games together.
But Hassin became apprehensive over Army’s coaching change from Bobby Ross to Stan Brock after the 2006 season. Air Force Coach Troy Calhoun continued to recruit him, and he held Calhoun in high regard. After an official visit, Hassin backed out on Army in January 2008.
All of those Army football thoughts, all of that family history, and he goes to Air Force.
“I went out there and really liked the place,” Hassin said of the Air Force Academy. “I thought for the first time in my life I could do something where I could be just as successful but do something a little bit different than the rest of my family.”
His father obviously was disappointed.
“Was there a personal disappointment because of my background? Sure,” Don said. “But I understood. I did my best and hopefully I did a decent job of supporting him in his decision to go there.”
The stay lasted only about two months. One day that summer, about midway through basic training, Hassin was out in Jacks Valley, on the Air Force Academy grounds.
“We were doing the Army’s equivalent of a patrolling exercise,” he said. “We were out in the woods and laying in the mud and carrying around a big old M-16. I felt it then. I felt this was what I want to do, not necessarily in the literal term, but the idea itself, just boots on the ground, that kind of thing.”
After practicing with the team and two and a half weeks of classes, he left Air Force. That day, he called Tucker Waugh, the Army assistant who had recruited him. His spot was soon secure in West Point’s class of 2013. So he took classes at Wisconsin-Waukesha and coached at his high school before reporting for basic training in the summer of 2009.
The N.C.A.A. denied Army’s bid for Hassin to play last season, citing transfer regulations, so he practiced with the scout team, repeatedly catching Ellerson’s eye.
