By Tom Rohrer
Success in sports will always bring about great expectations.
Handling those expectations make a difficult sport even more challenging, as pressure adds weight not visible to the human eye. One way to handle expectations and hype? Ignore it.
This is the strategy of Ronnie Hamlin, a 2009 graduate of Timberline High School who is now entering his third season as a starting inside linebacker for Eastern Washington University. The Eagles compete in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
The redshirt senior, who led the Eagles with a 136 tackles in 2012, has seen an unprecedented run of success, during his time at Cheney.
In 2010, his second straight season at Eastern lost to a knee injury, Hamlin watched fellow Thurston County natives and Tumwater High School graduates Matt and Zach Johnson help lead the Eagles to the FCS national championship.
A year later, Hamlin started eight games at linebacker for a 6-5 Eagles team, and in 2012, the Eagles were named Co-Big Sky Champions and finished with an 11-3 record.
Heading into this season, EWU is ranked either third or fourth in most of the country’s pre-season polls. The talent is there for a run at the school’s second national championship.
Despite the media exposure and high expectations, Hamlin remains focused on two things: his work on the football field and in the classroom.
“I don’t listen to any of that stuff….I don’t want to get caught up in that,” said Hamlin, a two time selection to the Big Sky All-Academic Team. “I hear it, but I don’t take it to heart. All you can do is keep playing football, not think too much about it. (Teams) you think won’t be as good can end up winning the league. Anything can happen.”
What position did Hamlin, who was a fourth team All-American and a first team All-Conference member at linebacker last season, play in high school? Defensive back and a wide receiver naturally.
In his senior season at Timberline, Hamlin was named to The Associated Press 3A First Team All-State team as a defensive back and also caught eight touchdown passes as a receiver to go along with his ten interceptions on defense.
Early on in his recruiting, the Eagles coaching staff brought up their desire for Hamlin to move to the linebacker position. It was a transition he both accepted and excelled in, as his love for defense, and his experience and skills from the offensive side, brought him up to speed.
“I was up for it and it didn’t really matter to me where I played…I love defense,” said Hamlin. “You have to know a lot more (as a linebacker). You have to know what the defensive backs are doing, what the defensive line is doing, and you’re fighting their offensive line every play.”
“It gave me ball skills, hand eye coordination,” said Hamlin of playing receiver in high school. “It helped me out with what (the offense) is looking to do in certain situations of the game.”
Also key to his development was adding muscle to his once lengthy frame.
“When I was in high school, I was about 190-200 lbs.,” said Hamlin, the team’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2012. “When I came here I automatically looked to put on weight and get in the weight room. Eventually, I got to where I was comfortable at.”
In his first season, in 2009, Hamlin injured his knee and sat out of the rest of the year as a redshirt. In 2010, it was the knee again, and in the pre-season camp for 2011, a lingering hamstring injury came about. Then before the 2012 season, he had to fight through a hand injury for most of the pre-season. While the championship of 2010 was special for Hamlin, the knee injury that caused him to sit out has left a chip on his shoulder.
“Oh yeah, it was a bittersweet moment for me….I was happy we won the National Championship, but I was not so happy I wasn’t able to play,” said Hamlin, who studies construction management and mechanical engineering. “I definitely still have a chip on my shoulder just in terms of what I want to do and what the team wants to accomplish.”
Along with adding weight, strength and more quickness to his body, Hamlin credits his acquisition of “football knowledge,” as a vital part of his success.
“I was able to watch (J. C. Sherritt, the 2010 National Defensive Player of the Year) and Zach Johnson a lot when I was injured and just watching them on film in practice gave me a different side of football knowledge that I was then able to use,” said Hamlin, who is on the watch-list for the Buck Buchanan Award, the same award Sherritt won in 2010. “Those two years off I became a student of the game. I went over everything, how things are supposed to work and just became smart at football.”
While Hamlin has earned his accolades, he is quick to credit his teammates and coaching staff.
“I credit the defensive line for keeping those offensive line guys off me,” Hamlin said. “(EWU head coach Beau Baldwin) is a great coach and gives awesome speeches before the game that get us pumped up. He’s very inspirational and is an amazing dude. The assistant coaches around him, they all know the game so well and how to handle the different players.”
Hamlin still keeps in touch with his high school coach Nick Mullen, the longtime head-man at Timberline. “We still talk a lot,” said Hamlin. “I wish I could see him more. I’m not home very often, and when I am, I’m spending time with family. I wish I could check out a (Timberline) game, but football and school keep me busy.”
Time management between school and football is key, and it’s a skill Hamlin has nailed down.
“You don’t have a lot of time. It’s like a full time job playing football,” said Hamlin. “A big thing for me is getting my degree, and any younger guys that I talk to, I tell them to keep up on their studies – it’s something you have for life.”
Opponents of the Eagles are certainly doing their homework on Hamlin and the rest of the Eagles teams. Eastern usually travels to a Division I opponent to open the season, and the last two years, the Eagles have just missed out on upset opportunities at the University of Washington in 2011 and at Washington State University in 2012. This year, the Eagles travel to Corvallis, OR, to take on the nationally ranked Beavers of Oregon State University on Saturday, August 31.
“Every team, every game is different, it just football. Those games (against UW and WSU) were close but we still lost,” said Hamlin. “Oregon State is a tough battle, but nothing is going to change for us and we’ll be there with our heads up.”
As the leader of the Eagles defense, Hamlin’s head will be up from August to the winter months, and his approach to the game will remain unchanged.
“I just want to win and I don’t care if I have five tackles, or ten,” said Hamlin. “I just want to play hard and try to win the game.”
Photos courtesy Eastern Washington University Athletic Department
