This is what sport is all about. This is the real beauty of it.
Austin Hatch would’ve been forgiven for packing it in. For giving up. The 20-year-old has been through more than most will go through in a lifetime.
At the age of just nine, a plane crash took his mother’s life along with two siblings but he managed to survive. Then, in 2011, he was involved in a second plane crash that left him in a coma for two months with life-threatening injuries. When he awoke, he learned of his father and stepmother’s deaths in that same accident.
And yet Austin persevered.
Through all the personal and emotional trauma, all the physical difficulties he had to endure, the American just kept fighting, refusing to bow his head. Refusing to give up.
And, last night, Austin Hatch made an inspiring comeback. Coming in for the closing minutes of Michigan’s win over Coppin State, he landed a free-throw that sparked scenes of sheer joy and emotion as he was surrounded by his team mates and embraced his coach. Hatch left to a standing ovation by the moved crowd.
“I told Austin earlier, ‘Just shoot it. The Lord will take care of the rest,'” Michigan coach John Beilein said after a touching night came to a close.
