It isn’t uncommon for a player to leave a football program with eligibility remaining. Maybe they decide to go pro. Maybe they decide to graduate and transfer to another program, perhaps in search of more playing time. Maybe they decide to retire altogether, to go to graduate school, or focus on coaching.
Georgia Tech’s punter is leaving the program to go to seminary
That’s a new one!
Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images
Georgia Tech is about to lose a player for a less common reason. He’s enrolling in seminary.
Yellow Jacket punter Grant Aasen, the most experienced punter on the roster, will be leaving to enroll at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. Aasen, a former walk-on, appeared in one game last season, punting for 42 yards in Tech’s 35-10 win over Mercer.
Aasen spoke to Ramblinwreck.com about his decision, saying:
”It was the hardest decision I’ve made in my life...the thing I’m going to miss the most is just being around the guys, being around the sport. Just Georgia Tech football. It definitely didn’t make it easier in terms of having a good spring and having a good Spring Game (five punts for 41.0 yards per)....it definitely made it harder, especially knowing, this is what I’ve worked for ever since I was in second grade, the chance to be `the guy.‘ I tried out three times for the team and I’ve been fighting ever since I got here. Next year would be the year that it would kind of been my shot. To kind of put that on the back-burner and to say, `I’m not going take advantage of that,’ was definitely uncharacteristic and it was hard. But, for me, I knew what I needed to do....This is where I’m supposed to go.”
Aasen also added that Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson was “very positive,” which helped his decision-making.
Aasen will graduate from Georgia Tech with a degree industrial engineering, so whether he formally enters the Roman Catholic priesthood or another advocation, nobody will be able to accuse him of not being intellectually prepared.
Deciding when to end a football career is difficult for many student athletes. But it looks like Georgia Tech’s loss could be the big gain of a parish down the road.
See More:
