Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 5, 2018 17 BY TODD D. BURLAGE C all it cocky and brash, or call it insightful and intui- tive, but it's hard to debate that a 15-year-old high school sophomore can't be called gutsy for standing up to his father — a cop outside of Pittsburgh for almost three decades — when the two debated on one of life's biggest decisions. In the summer of 2015, cur- rent Notre Dame sophomore Robert Hainsey was readying for his junior year at Gateway High School in Monroeville, Pa., when a relocation offer he refused to refuse came his way. IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., has become the launch point for pre- mier high school athletes into great college and professional careers. And Hainsey, today a standout Irish offensive lineman, believed at the time that spending his last two high school years almost 2,000 miles away from home was his best short-term move for a brighter long-term football future. "The difference between sticking at Gateway or learning at IMG was go- ing to be huge," Hainsey said upon his personal choice to move southward. "I want to play early and start in college, become an All-American and eventu- ally try to make it to the NFL." Following the theory that his son's idea was coming too fast and too soon, Ron Hainsey resisted his son's wishes. "I didn't think it was a good idea and I would've never sent him to IMG," explained Ron, a skeptic more of circumstance than the academy itself. "You're only like 15 years old and you're going to go to school across the country? How can I watch you play? Are you going to be safe? "I couldn't support that decision at the time." Ron Hainsey had no idea he had met his match on this fight. But he's proud that he did. Robert's counter- argument to his dad was two-layered. "I get why you don't want me to go, but I will be mad at you some- day about this," Robert told his father, "[and] if I'm as good as people tell me, then I need to be somewhere to play against the best so I can find out." So dad reconsidered, not without some skepticism, "and a couple of days later I'm driving 18 hours to Florida and dropping him off, and we never looked back," Ron said. Ron explained that the level of com- petition Robert was facing back home did little to improve or push his son. "There was nothing for him here," Ron said. "In Pennsylvania, the pro- grams were falling apart." Factor in, also, a stringent rule that prep athletes changing schools in Pennsylvania must sit out a year of competition, and this inevitable move to IMG became an opportunity Robert insists would've never hap- pened without his father's teachings, even without the immediate blessing. Ron, who became a team captain at Division II Edinboro University of Pennsylvania after walking on there as an offensive lineman, served as his son's coach from youth football to high school. "Lessons like thinking about how the guy across from you is doing his best to beat you, and if that doesn't fire you up then you're playing the wrong sport," Robert explained of his father's enduring message. "I always took that to heart and I still think about that." Perhaps that's the mindset Brian Kelly celebrated when the he was asked how Robert Hainsey became the latest in a short list of Irish offen- sive linemen to play in every game as a freshman, a position group that rou- tinely requires a redshirt season to in- crease strength, size and knowledge. "He's just a strong-willed, never- back-down kind of young man," explained Kelly, adding that coach- ing retention and lesson application are two other traits that separate Hainsey from other young linemen. "Nothing was going to get in his way of being successful." Robert Hainsey's journey from Pennsylvania to Florida to Notre Dame isn't shocking, but perhaps somewhat unexpected in hindsight. Rated as one of the best offensive linemen in the high school recruiting class of 2017, Hainsey held more than 30 scholarship offers, and his short list typically included only Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State. One visit to Notre Dame changed his course. "The opportunities this place has given me, I just realized I would be crazy not to come here," he said. Playing time came quickly for Hainsey, who situationally split time last season with sophomore Tommy Kraemer at right tackle. Bigger, stronger and a grade older, Kraemer was a more gifted run blocker while Hainsey's footwork and technique made him a better op- tion as a pass blocker. The two became best friends, per- fectly complemented each other and used the platoon system to help the Irish earn the Joe Moore Award as the best offensive line in the country. "You had two different guys play- ing in every series," Hainsey recalled, "but nothing ever seemed different." Hainsey is on his own now, a full- time starter at right tackle, but who knows what lies ahead? "We'll see how it plays out, I guess," Hainsey said with a laugh about a pending position switch next year, mainly because of his versatil- ity. "Wherever I'm needed is where I will do my best and play." And rest assured, there will be a starting spot for Robert Hainsey somewhere, with a proud father right alongside, thrilled he'll never have to say, "I told you so." ✦ STRONG-WILLED Robert Hainsey fought to make a short-term move that he thought would help his long-term football future "He's just a strong-willed, never-back-down kind of young man. Nothing was going to get in his way of being successful." HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY ON HAINSEY Hainsey became just the second true freshman offensive lineman to see extensive action under head coach Brian Kelly, playing in all 13 games with four starts last year. PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL