Alumni: Hager Completes Hobart Sports Career
At Salamanca High School, he was a three-sport star; he played football and lacrosse in addition to wrestling. He was a four-time letterman in wrestling and a three-time letterman in football and lacrosse. Named 2004 first-team Class C All-State and Big 30 Defensive Player of the Year in football. He also rushed for nearly 1,000 yards as a senior and was named first-team All State, Big 30 Defensive Player of the Year and team MVP as a senior.
He will be graduating this month from Hobart. His future plans are to go to England for a year (starting in the summer) to teach and coach lacrosse.
Tom Roof of the Olean Times Herald wrote his column Saturday, May 9, about Hager and his recent accomplishments and awards. As follows:
He may have just finished another strong lacrosse season, but for Hobart College senior and Salamanca Central School graduate Justin Hager, the football awards keep pouring in.
Hager, a former Big 30 Defensive Player of the Year while playing for Rich Morton at Salamanca, was the co-recipient of Hobart's Bob Toner Defensive MVP Award at the Statesmen's annual Athletic Association Awards dinner held last week.
A two-sport star at Hobart, Hager enjoyed an exceptional senior year, being named to the D3football.com All-American Team, the first-team All-Liberty Team, first-team D3football.com All-East and ECAC Northwest All-Star team.
A 6-0, 205-pound linebacker, Hager set a program record for tackles in a season with a league-best 134 (67 solos) this past year as the Statesmen went 9-2. He also holds the Hobart record for tackles in a game (21) and is the only Statesmen to notch 20-or-more stops in one game - piling up 20 tackles (5 solo) in Hobart's second round NCAA playoff loss to Mount Union.
Hager closed out his career with 288 tackles, ranking him second on Hobart's all-time list. In 38 career games, he had eight pass break-ups, four forced fumbles, two interceptions and two blocked punts.
Hager also excelled in lacrosse, where as a close defender he helped the Statesmen to a 7-7 record this spring. Their season ended with a tough 8-7 loss to No. 6 ranked Cornell, which boasts the leading offense in Division I with 13.17 goals per game.
Hager's season was highlighted by a pair of triumphs over Top 20 teams, a 7-2 victory over then No. 20 Bucknell and a 15-8 defeat of then No. 11 Georgetown.
http://www.salamancapress.com/sports/hager-completes-hobart-sports-career/article_fd757638-a510-5028-8cd8-6f003896a995.html
