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Lyco's Hennigar playing for his
brother
Guy
Cipriano Sun-Gazette Staff
The escape for Sean
Hennigar is this team.
Every weekday for
three hours, Hennigar spends his time at David Person Field
practicing football and hanging around his Lycoming
teammates.
The team represents the one
solace in Hennigar’s life.
The rigors of
school demand Hennigar, a senior tight end, to focus on more than
football. But there are times, too numerous to count, when Hennigar
can’t stop thinking about Greg Hennigar, a younger brother killed in
a car accident this past summer.
“My
teammates mean everything to me,” Sean said as he sat on a table
inside Lycoming’s locker room earlier this week. “This is the only
time when I’m not thinking about him. It’s hard in class. I tend to
get bored and I have a tough time. With football, I kind of lose
myself in the game.”
Sean’s father
agreed.
“I know Sean — I know him like a
book — and it really has meant everything to him,” Doug Hennigar
said. “We have had a lot of problems the past year, and the ball
field is where he can have some
fun.”
ooooo
Sean
lost more than a brother on May 31 when Greg’s Toyota Camry hit a
parked tractor-trailer in northeast Philadelphia. Sean lost a
co-worker, comedian and a summer training partner.
Greg spent last season as a walk-on
quarterback at Penn State. He earned praise from Joe Paterno after
completing 3 of 11 passes during the annual Blue-White scrimmage
this past April. Sean attended the game and stared in amazement as
his 18-year-old brother, a redshirt freshman, signed autographs for
children.
“That was awesome,” Sean said.
“Just being there before the game and watching him sign pictures was
great.”
Sean knew he was lucky. How many
Division III receivers could perform timing routes with a family
member? How many Division III receivers could perform timing routes
with a strong-armed, accurate passer who lived in the same
house?
It also helped having Ricky
Lannetti, Lycoming’s best receiver and a neighbor, participate in
the summer drills. The trio would toss more than 100 passes a
day.
“Greg was an unbelievable
quarterback,” Lannetti said. “He was so good and really smart. To
have somebody to workout with like that every day over the summer
really helps a lot.”
Greg’s arm helped
the Lycoming football team. Entering Saturday’s game against
Susquehanna, Sean and Lannetti lead the Warriors (7-1) in receiving.
Lannetti has caught 59 passes for 774 yards. Sean has caught 44
passes for 467 yards. All four numbers are career highs.
Sean’s numbers are impressive,
considering he limps off the field after every game because of a
right ankle injury. After the Warriors loss to Delaware Valley last
month, Sean needed crutches to hobble off the field. He then caught
six passes for 52 yards the following week against
Moravian.
“Put Sean Hennigar’s name
beside the word competitor,” Lycoming coach Frank Girardi said.
“Sean was hurt in camp, and he’s hurt in every single game, but he’s
a kid that’s tough to get out of practice. He lays it on the line
every single week for us. I know not only the coaches, but the
entire team, has appreciated what the kid has done for us this
year.”
ooooo
Sean
developed his toughness growing up as one of four brothers in the
Holmesburg section of northeast Philadelphia. Sean’s older brothers,
Chris, 27, and Keith, 25, also played football. Chris, Sean and Greg
all played for Father Judge High School. Keith would have played for
the Philadelphia Catholic League school had he not sustained a back
injury when he was hit by a car before enrolling in high
school.
“Sean and Greg were the most
determined kids that we had,” Doug said. “Sean was the most
bull-headed kid that we had. He has been a tough kid his whole life
and when he wanted something he went for
it.”
Sean entered the season with a large
wish list. He wanted the Warriors to win a MAC championship and earn
an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs, something
Lycoming had not accomplished since 1999. If the Warriors defeat
Susquehanna, they earn an outright conference championship and an
automatic playoff berth.
“He wants this
championship like all of us do,” said senior linebacker Brian
Connors, Sean and Lannetti’s roommate. “We have never been part of a
MAC championship and we need this to close our careers. That is real
important.”
Sean also wanted to do
something to honor the memory of his brother. Before every game and
after big plays, he pounds the area above his heart three times.
Before the season, he switched his uniform number from 3 to 12,
Greg’s number at Father Judge.
His
locker includes a picture of his brother and a short story which
appeared in a Penn State alumni newsletter earlier this season. He
also gave Doug a navy and gold Lycoming hat with No. 12 embroidered
on the side.
Doug came close to having
two children play football at the same college. After completing 79
of 141 passes for 1,014 yards despite missing five games as a senior
at Father Judge, Greg selected Penn State over a number of schools,
including Lycoming.
“He had a rocket
arm,” Girardi said. “We wanted him bad.”
Greg did not receive any scholarship money to attend Penn State, but
he made the team as an invited walk-on. He would have began the 2003
season as the Nittany Lions’ fourth-string quarterback.
“Obviously Sean wanted him to go here
and the coaches wanted him to go here, but when you have a chance to
go to Penn State you can’t turn that down,” Lannetti said. “Sean
understood that and so did
we.”
ooooo
Sean
took advantage of Greg attending school an hour away. Doug bought
his youngest sons cell phones, making communication between the two
easier. Sean attended two Penn State games last season, including
the Nittany Lions’ victory over Nebraska. Greg attended Lycoming
games when Penn State played on the
road.
The bond between Sean and Greg
strengthened during the summer when the duo worked with Lannetti for
an uncle’s landscaping business. The trio rose early on weekdays to
perform demanding tasks. Sean served as the foreman on job sites,
while Greg, a comedian who could impersonate Paterno better than
anybody on Penn State’s roster, provided the entertainment.
“We just had a lot of fun,” Lannetti
said. “A job like that isn’t supposed to be fun, but Greg made it
fun. It’s a hard job and you don’t want to do it, but when you were
around Greg he really made it fun.”
When
the workday ended, the trio lifted, ran and threw. Sean took an
extended break from his conditioning program after Greg’s death.
“After it happened, for a month and a
half, I didn’t do anything,” Sean said. “He was my lifting and
running partner and after that I just stopped lifting. I’m sure
that’s hurting me now.”
Sean eased
himself back into football shape beginning in July when a flag
football tournament was held in his brother’s honor. The tournament
included 16, 15-player teams. Two teams were filled with current and
former Lycoming players. Sean’s team advanced to the third round.
The flag football tournament, as well as
a golf tournament, will become annual events held in Greg’s honor.
Sean will likely begin a long stint playing in his brother’s
football tournament once his college careers ends. But nobody is
ready to see Sean play his last college game.
“I would love to see them beat Mount
Union in the Stagg Bowl,” Doug said. “That would end the season on
the ultimate happy note for all of us. Can it get any better than
that before Sean gets into the real
world?” |
| Section:
Sports Date Posted:
11/14/2003 |
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As appearing in Friday - November 14, 2003 edition of
The Sun-Gazette
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