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- Thread starter ScriptOhio
- Start date
Nice story - good move by Weis.
Not let's return to hating ND and hoping they get thrashed by Purdue.
Not let's return to hating ND and hoping they get thrashed by Purdue.
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SanAntonioBuck
RIP Our Friend and Hero
I agree BB73. I hope purdon't beats the hell out of the domers!
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scooter1369
HTTR Forever.
Great story. What a class act. I'm not sure I would have had the nads to run that play. A promise is a promise.
I'm now a Charlie Weis fan. Still hate Notre Dame, but I dig Weis.
I'm now a Charlie Weis fan. Still hate Notre Dame, but I dig Weis.
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Chicago Trib
4/23
[SIZE=+2]He's trading football for a fuller life[/SIZE]
<!-- BEGIN RELATED CONTENT RAIL --><!-- END RELATED CONTENT RAIL --> April 22, 2006
In the sports brand-name pyramid, Notre Dame football is near the top, jostling for head space with the New York Yankees, Duke basketball and a few others.
So if you're a Notre Dame football player, you're not only a big man on campus in South Bend, Ind., you're a big man wherever you go.
<table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tbody><tr><td><!-- Ad Space: html.ng/tag=std&site=chicagosports&color=loc&edition=sports&content=sports&channel=columnists&adtype=cube&adsize=300x250 --> <!-- img ad style -->
<!-- /Ad Space: html.ng/tag=std&site=chicagosports&color=loc&edition=sports&content=sports&channel=columnists&adtype=cube&adsize=300x250 --></td></tr></tbody></table>
Joey Hiben chose to downsize. He chose to walk away from football to concentrate on his education. You don't do that in our sports-crazed culture. A letter sweater always trumps a letter grade, right?
But Hiben, one of the most highly recruited tight ends in the country as a high school senior, chose school over football two months ago. While the Irish played their spring game Saturday, he planned to be immersed in his architecture studies on Notre Dame's campus, partly out of a sense of duty but also out of a sense of self-preservation. He knew if he watched his former teammates, it would hurt.
"I miss football," Hiben said. "It was a part of my life for so long. I dream about it a lot. But you have to convince yourself it was the right decision. I know I would have had to give up architecture. I wish I could have been great at both architecture and football, had a great career.
"But I can't look back at 'what if' because at this level you just can't go through two things and do them with half your efforts. I decided I didn't want to be mediocre, at best, at two things. It was time for me to concentrate on what I would be doing 40 years from now."
Hiben played in seven games last season for the Irish, mostly when the outcome was decided. But with '05 starter Anthony Fasano moving on to the NFL, he was in the mix for next season, and the tight end has a prominent role in coach Charlie Weis' offense.
There was promise. Hiben is 6 feet 4 inches, 248 pounds, and he's athletic—athletic enough to have won a Minnesota high school state title in the shot put and to have finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles.
But there also was promise as an architect. By the time he was 12, he already was interested in designing homes. This was a kid who would check out landscape architecture books from the library in his hometown of Chaska, Minn. His mother is a photographer, one of his sisters a painter. Art is part of his life.
By the time he enrolled as a freshman at Notre Dame last August, he already might have been considered a house divided. Then he saw the huge demands that both football and architecture would place on him.
"Sometimes we're asked to keep track of how many hours we spend on each project in our architecture classes," he said. "Lots of times it's 30 hours of studio time a week. That's not uncommon at all. That's very comparable with the time you put in for football. So it's two full-time jobs plus being a student [in other classes].
"First semester was just an introductory architecture class. Because of football, I was probably able to spend one hour for every six hours every other student spent. I was kind of jealous that I would never be able to get this time to spend on my work and really develop as an architect."
He said he was getting four to five hours of sleep a night on weekdays during the football season just to keep a 3.2 grade-point average.
He wanted more. The problem, he said, is there wasn't room for more. In February, after back-and-forth discussions with Weis, he decided to quit the team.
Hiben said he had been under the impression he could pursue both his loves. He said that impression came from Weis, who had jumped from the New England Patriots to Notre Dame, his alma mater, in December 2004.
"Coach Weis thought he had all the answers for me," Hiben said. "It was just basically, 'Don't worry, we'll be able to get you through architecture.' The reality of it was, you just can't make the time for architecture go away. I didn't like that.
"Maybe I should have thought about it more. Coming from the NFL, he didn't have to worry about that. Obviously, he was a student in the '70s. Things are very different in architecture and football from when he was a student.
"You can't just forget and switch majors. Some students really care about what they're majoring in."
Weis insists he did his homework, that he made it a priority to learn as much as he could about the academic demands of each major when he arrived on campus.
"I wish Joey Hiben luck, personally and professionally," he said. "But let me make it clear in no uncertain terms for the next person who comes along who wants to major in architecture and play football at Notre Dame: The marriage is one that can very safely and easily coexist. We've done a lot of research on this. Academically and athletically, an architecture major and a football player can be one and the same."
n the end, even though Weis said he was fully informed about the five-year architecture program, it's up to the athlete to do his own research about the rigors of a particular major. Hiben understands that now.
And in the end, Hiben said, it was his choice to leave the program. Nobody's else's. The only pressure to decide between football and architecture came from him. It was the right decision, a good decision, a noble decision.
<table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tbody><tr><td><!-- Ad Space: html.ng/tag=std&site=chicagosports&color=loc&edition=sports&content=sports&channel=columnists&adtype=cube&adsize=300x250 --> <!-- img ad style -->
<!-- /Ad Space: html.ng/tag=std&site=chicagosports&color=loc&edition=sports&content=sports&channel=columnists&adtype=cube&adsize=300x250 --></td></tr></tbody></table>
It took guts to make that decision.
He was worried about the reaction from his parents, who knew he loved football. His full scholarship would disappear once the decision was made. Tuition and room and board at Notre Dame is now about $40,000 a year. How would you like to make that phone call home?
His parents understood.
"He hasn't let me down," said his father, Bob, who is chief financial officer for a golf-equipment retailer. "I've always said, 'As you go through life, choose what you want to do and give it everything.'"
"If anything, I've inspired people because I've done what I truly need to do for the right reasons, for my well-being," Joey Hiben said. "I don't feel selfish for making this decision. I don't feel like I let anybody down. I'm the one who has to live this life."
He hopes to join Notre Dame's track team next season. The time demands on a shot-putter are much less than on a football player. He will spend his third year studying in Rome, as all Notre Dame architecture majors do. He will be a normal college kid.
He encounters his former teammates on Notre Dame's campus and they seem happy for him, he said. But it's tough because he knows where they're going, and he can't go there with them.
Players come and go in college football. They graduate. They transfer. They get hurt. They flunk out. Few of them quit. Fewer of them quit Notre Dame's football team. This one did.
"All the time and sacrifice you go through for football is so much, but it's so worth it," Hiben said. "I experienced that through being able to run through the tunnel. It was such a great thing, but it's not worth getting in the way of your plans as a person. I think the reason you go to college is to get a degree, not just to play football."
[email protected]
4/23
[SIZE=+2]He's trading football for a fuller life[/SIZE]
<!-- BEGIN RELATED CONTENT RAIL --><!-- END RELATED CONTENT RAIL --> April 22, 2006
In the sports brand-name pyramid, Notre Dame football is near the top, jostling for head space with the New York Yankees, Duke basketball and a few others.
So if you're a Notre Dame football player, you're not only a big man on campus in South Bend, Ind., you're a big man wherever you go.
<table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tbody><tr><td><!-- Ad Space: html.ng/tag=std&site=chicagosports&color=loc&edition=sports&content=sports&channel=columnists&adtype=cube&adsize=300x250 --> <!-- img ad style -->
Joey Hiben chose to downsize. He chose to walk away from football to concentrate on his education. You don't do that in our sports-crazed culture. A letter sweater always trumps a letter grade, right?
But Hiben, one of the most highly recruited tight ends in the country as a high school senior, chose school over football two months ago. While the Irish played their spring game Saturday, he planned to be immersed in his architecture studies on Notre Dame's campus, partly out of a sense of duty but also out of a sense of self-preservation. He knew if he watched his former teammates, it would hurt.
"I miss football," Hiben said. "It was a part of my life for so long. I dream about it a lot. But you have to convince yourself it was the right decision. I know I would have had to give up architecture. I wish I could have been great at both architecture and football, had a great career.
"But I can't look back at 'what if' because at this level you just can't go through two things and do them with half your efforts. I decided I didn't want to be mediocre, at best, at two things. It was time for me to concentrate on what I would be doing 40 years from now."
Hiben played in seven games last season for the Irish, mostly when the outcome was decided. But with '05 starter Anthony Fasano moving on to the NFL, he was in the mix for next season, and the tight end has a prominent role in coach Charlie Weis' offense.
There was promise. Hiben is 6 feet 4 inches, 248 pounds, and he's athletic—athletic enough to have won a Minnesota high school state title in the shot put and to have finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles.
But there also was promise as an architect. By the time he was 12, he already was interested in designing homes. This was a kid who would check out landscape architecture books from the library in his hometown of Chaska, Minn. His mother is a photographer, one of his sisters a painter. Art is part of his life.
By the time he enrolled as a freshman at Notre Dame last August, he already might have been considered a house divided. Then he saw the huge demands that both football and architecture would place on him.
"Sometimes we're asked to keep track of how many hours we spend on each project in our architecture classes," he said. "Lots of times it's 30 hours of studio time a week. That's not uncommon at all. That's very comparable with the time you put in for football. So it's two full-time jobs plus being a student [in other classes].
"First semester was just an introductory architecture class. Because of football, I was probably able to spend one hour for every six hours every other student spent. I was kind of jealous that I would never be able to get this time to spend on my work and really develop as an architect."
He said he was getting four to five hours of sleep a night on weekdays during the football season just to keep a 3.2 grade-point average.
He wanted more. The problem, he said, is there wasn't room for more. In February, after back-and-forth discussions with Weis, he decided to quit the team.
Hiben said he had been under the impression he could pursue both his loves. He said that impression came from Weis, who had jumped from the New England Patriots to Notre Dame, his alma mater, in December 2004.
"Coach Weis thought he had all the answers for me," Hiben said. "It was just basically, 'Don't worry, we'll be able to get you through architecture.' The reality of it was, you just can't make the time for architecture go away. I didn't like that.
"Maybe I should have thought about it more. Coming from the NFL, he didn't have to worry about that. Obviously, he was a student in the '70s. Things are very different in architecture and football from when he was a student.
"You can't just forget and switch majors. Some students really care about what they're majoring in."
Weis insists he did his homework, that he made it a priority to learn as much as he could about the academic demands of each major when he arrived on campus.
"I wish Joey Hiben luck, personally and professionally," he said. "But let me make it clear in no uncertain terms for the next person who comes along who wants to major in architecture and play football at Notre Dame: The marriage is one that can very safely and easily coexist. We've done a lot of research on this. Academically and athletically, an architecture major and a football player can be one and the same."
n the end, even though Weis said he was fully informed about the five-year architecture program, it's up to the athlete to do his own research about the rigors of a particular major. Hiben understands that now.
And in the end, Hiben said, it was his choice to leave the program. Nobody's else's. The only pressure to decide between football and architecture came from him. It was the right decision, a good decision, a noble decision.
<table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tbody><tr><td><!-- Ad Space: html.ng/tag=std&site=chicagosports&color=loc&edition=sports&content=sports&channel=columnists&adtype=cube&adsize=300x250 --> <!-- img ad style -->
It took guts to make that decision.
He was worried about the reaction from his parents, who knew he loved football. His full scholarship would disappear once the decision was made. Tuition and room and board at Notre Dame is now about $40,000 a year. How would you like to make that phone call home?
His parents understood.
"He hasn't let me down," said his father, Bob, who is chief financial officer for a golf-equipment retailer. "I've always said, 'As you go through life, choose what you want to do and give it everything.'"
"If anything, I've inspired people because I've done what I truly need to do for the right reasons, for my well-being," Joey Hiben said. "I don't feel selfish for making this decision. I don't feel like I let anybody down. I'm the one who has to live this life."
He hopes to join Notre Dame's track team next season. The time demands on a shot-putter are much less than on a football player. He will spend his third year studying in Rome, as all Notre Dame architecture majors do. He will be a normal college kid.
He encounters his former teammates on Notre Dame's campus and they seem happy for him, he said. But it's tough because he knows where they're going, and he can't go there with them.
Players come and go in college football. They graduate. They transfer. They get hurt. They flunk out. Few of them quit. Fewer of them quit Notre Dame's football team. This one did.
"All the time and sacrifice you go through for football is so much, but it's so worth it," Hiben said. "I experienced that through being able to run through the tunnel. It was such a great thing, but it's not worth getting in the way of your plans as a person. I think the reason you go to college is to get a degree, not just to play football."
[email protected]
Upvote
0
LightningRod
Legend
Vern Mangold posted a few months ago how Nick had to make a similar decision after Nick's freshman year. As Vern told teh story, Nick very much wanted to be what they term an "Archie", but the demands of that major are too great for an athlete. The lab assignments take up too much time and leave little time for much else. Vern recalled how the architecture profs at OSU warned Nick that it would be almost impossible to do both. I don't knwo what Weis researched, but it certainly wasn't the demands of the Archie students.
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I actually like ND but don't like Weiss. Just not a fan of his demeanour. However, this is a great story and shows he has a lighter side.
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Yeah, architecture was so much easier 30 years ago when everything was made out of logs and we could do calculations on slide rules rather than these slow, inaccurate computers...so was football, seeing as it was well before the complexities of the forward pass and padded helmets.
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sandgk
Watson, Crick & A Twist
Yeah, architecture was so much easier 30 years ago when everything was made out of logs and we could do calculations on slide rules rather than these slow, inaccurate computers...so was football, seeing as it was well before the complexities of the forward pass and padded helmets.
Having seen my brother-in-law slog through all his Architectural courses - back in the '76 - 80 period I concur. The human side was hard as well. Have a cat knock a cup of coffee onto the drafting board, equals start from scratch. I'm sure computers make that easier to day, saving your work in progress in AutoCAD, but I bet there is still a great deal of course-work. Archie's were one-third Engineering, one-third Art and History, and one-third you had to actually be creative. All in all, a tall order - and then you have to get your way toward certification.
I applaud Hiben for making the best decision for himself and his future. Kudos to his father for standing by his son's wishes (and obviously filling that gap financially).
Did I forget anyone else, yes - though that might be deliberate.
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CleveBucks
Serenity now
So, did the school just decide to neglect telling the kid that when he was considering doing both football and architecture? If all ND architecture students spend their 3rd year in Rome, obviously football and architecture aren't going to peacefully coexist. Or is the Weis plan to redshirt any architecture majors in their 3rd year?
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