PROVING HIS WORTH
Since coming to coming to campus with no guarantees, junior DT Ethan Hemer has come into his own — both as a player and a leader.
BY MIKE LUCAS • UWBADGERS.COM A
s a true freshman, Wisconsin defen- sive tackle Ethan Hemer was try-
ing to balance the known with the unknown. He knew that he could play. Or, at least, he thought that he could play in the Big Ten if given the chance. But he really didn't know what it would take to get to that point, especially since he was a walk-on.
"When I first got here, I was very nervous — I guess I was a little scared just because of the nature of
everything and being a walk-on I didn't know what to expect,'' said Hemer, who took
one look at the competition and realized, "there were guys who were much bigger than me and
very impressive football players.'' Hemer turned down the promise of schol- arship money from small colleges because he looked at playing for the Badgers as an once-in- a-lifetime opportunity. Jeff and Kathy Hemer encouraged their son to do whatever it took to realize his dream because they would have his back financially as a non-scholarship player. They wanted him to "live for the moment'' even though there were no guarantees that Hemer could make the leap from Medford High School of the Great Northern League. Medford is a small community of about 5,000 located 60 miles from Eau Claire, 135 miles from St. Paul, Min. and a long way from the Big Ten. "Kids are always saying that going from high school to college is a big jump,'' Hemer said. "But going from a small high school to a very big college and a great football program is an even bigger jump. But once you get to know the guys and get into the system, I felt it didn't matter whether I was on scholarship.'' Three years later, Hemer can finally say that he is on scholarship. UW coach Bret Bielema
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