He walks into the room unassumingly, practice pads still on and helmet in hand, but he’s not just any football player. His quiet voice and relaxed demeanor make you wonder if Gharun Hester is the same guy that brought Butler’s defense to its knees just two weeks ago (and has NFL scouts finding their way to the Hilltop for the first few times in recent memory) and hit the game winning shot for Georgetown in last year’s NIT victory over Virginia.

But he is the same guy, and that’s only a small portion of his athletic resume.

Coming to the Hilltop from Friendly High School in nearby Prince George’s County, Hester has rewritten Georgetown’s football record books, and come winter, he suits up on the court as a walk-on member of the basketball team after seeing greatly increased playing time in last year’s Big East and NIT tournaments.

Coming to the Hilltop

“Gharun is the only I-A scholarship player playing I-AA non-scholarship football. He is undoubtedly one of the reasons Georgetown is moving on to the Patriot League,” Head Football Coach Bob Benson said about his star wideout. “He is a classy individual, a wonderful human being.”

But Hester almost never became a college football player, let alone a Hoya.

“I didn’t play basketball or baseball my senior year [of high school]. I tried to focus on football, because that was the only sport that I was getting any type of letters from other colleges on,” Hester said. “At the same time, I thought maybe sports in college isn’t something that’s going to be in the future for me, so I started to put a little more effort into my schoolwork.”

“Not a lot of the schools that were coming to see me were scholarship schools. It was flattering because they were showing some interest, but you couldn’t get really excited, because they weren’t calling your house and visiting all the time,” Hester said about his disappointment in the recruiting process.

In fact, it was only through a coincidence that Georgetown even heard about Hester. A former Georgetown assistant, Michael Johnson, had coached Friendly’s football coach, Kim Anderson, and Friendly’s quarterback came up in a conversation between the two friends.

That quarterback was Hester, and one “cheesy highlight tape” later, Johnson and Benson were sold on their newest recruit, and their biggest future star, although they didn’t know that yet.

“For a while, I wasn’t thinking I was going to play college football. I was thinking of just going to Old Dominion or aryland, just hanging out and being a regular student,” Hester said. “The game began to drift from my mind more and more. Then came Coach Johnson, and he and the other coaches here gave me an opportunity.”

“I had never heard of Georgetown football, to be honest. But in the back of my mind, I knew I was a basketball player, and I thought maybe I could see how good Georgetown guys really are and even walk on,” Hester said.

“But the main thing for me was to get the best education out of it, and Georgetown was the best school for me. It was pretty frustrating not having anybody too interested in me, but everything worked out for a reason.”

Quarterback To Starting Wideout

Upon arriving at Georgetown in the fall of 1997, Hester didn’t have two-sport stardom written all over him. Scout team quarterback was more like it, and it would be that way all season long.

“I was way down on the quarterback depth chart, a left-handed quarterback who couldn’t really get the rhythm. I had a lot of things to learn, and I wasn’t learning fast enough,” Hester said about his early days in a Hoya uniform.

After three months of imitating opponent’s offenses in practice, Hester was ready for a break from football.

“Freshman year, once football was over, I relaxed way too much. I let things just flow by,” he said.

Two more years as a backup behind J.J. Mont (MSB ’00) was not in the card for Hester, however.

“The coaches did see some of the athleticism that I had, and they basically said `If you want to play, move over to receiver.’ I figured with J.J. around, I didn’t want to wait three years for my chance,” Hester said.

A change of positions at the college level is never easy, especially when it’s necessitated by a lack of playing time. It means learning all the plays all over again, returning to the bottom of the depth charts and learning new skills and techniques.

“There were a lot of really good receivers ahead of me, natural receivers I was just trying to fit in with – a host of guys who were nice people and really talented,” Hester said of the receivers he has played alongside for three seasons. “I just watched them and tried to imitate what they did. [Wide receivers coach] Sgarlata helped me a lot with technique, learning how to read defenses and adjusting to the position.”

The move to wideout proved to be the best move for Hester, who responded with a solid sophomore campaign in his first year at the position. By the end of the season, he had pulled in 57 passes for 921 yards and 12 touchdowns, leading the Hoyas in all three receiving categories.

Capping off the season, which saw the Hoyas finish 9-2 and tied for first in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Hester was named a Non-Scholarship I-AA All-America Honorable Mention.

Hardwood Comes Calling

Hester looked forward to preparing for spring practice and enjoying a little respite from the grind as football entered the offseason.

While Hester was looking forward to his time as “just another student,” Georgetown’s basketball team was struggling early in the 1998-1999 season. A rash of injuries had torn through the depth of the squad and Head Coach John Thompson was forced to go looking for additional players to fill out the practice team.

Thompson turned to the football team for help, and Benson was more than happy to oblige. “I totally support two-sport athletes,” Benson said “It’s great for the football program.”

“I got a call from Coach [Craig] Esherick. He said that Coach Thompson had contacted Coach Benson about someone tall who could practice with the team, and he mentioned me. I went to work out with the team on just a day-to-day basis for a while,” Hester explained. “I had a lot of nervous energy when I first got the call. I went straight to Yates and worked out to make sure I could at least shoot the ball somewhere near the rim.”

“They called me back after the first day and then the following day, and after a while I began to become part of the team. I knew some of the players from off the courts, which made it easier, and when the coaches started to feel like I was part of the team, I really felt like I belonged.”

Adjusting with the team wasn’t the only problem, however. Playing basketball is a major time commitment, and it meant balancing even more things than during football.

“Classes are always number one. Basketball practices happen to coincide with football practices, so they fit into my class schedule well,” Hester said. “It means studying, meeting with your professors, doing group work, getting help from friends: whatever it takes to get things done. It means a lot of late nights. A lot of work late nights, not like the late nights most students have.”

Hester managed to adjust to the team and the travel schedule, going on to see action in five games during Georgetown’s up-and-down season that concluded with a first-round NIT loss to Princeton.

Big Man on Campus

The fall of 1999 arrived with weighty expectations for both Hester and the Georgetown football team. Now as the class of the AAC, nothing less than victory was expected for the Hoyas on any given Saturday, and success depended in large part on the ont-to-Hester hookup.

Neither Hester nor the team disappointed: Georgetown finished 9-2 with their third consecutive first-place MAAC finish, while Hester managed to improve on the impressive numbers he put up his sophomore year. The star wideout pulled down 48 catches for 1,073 yards, an impressive 22.4 average per reception, and 13 touchdowns. His yardage total set a Georgetown single-season record while his touchdown mark tied Chris Murphy’s (COL ’93) single-season mark.

In the offseason, there was big news for Georgetown football that Benson partly attributed to Hester. The football program was moving up to the Patriot League after dominating the MAAC for three seasons, and Benson said “Gharun played a key role in our victories, and it was our success in the MAAC that enabled us to move up to the Patriot.”

After starring on the gridiron in the fall and being named the I-AA Non-Scholarship Receiver of the Year for his efforts, Hester couldn’t have expected to reach greater heights of fame on the basketball court.

Last season, Georgetown was returning the majority of its starters from the prior year and featured a group of talented newcomers that relegated Hester to deep within the bowels of the depth charts.

And for most of the season he remained there, seeing time here and there but primarily filling the role of practice player.

But when Big East tournament rolled around in March, Hester started to see major playing time in the Hoyas’ mini-run thought the tournament at Madison Square Garden. He contributed valuable minutes in Georgetown victories over West Virginia and Syracuse, his most time on the court in the Hoyas’ most important games of the season.

“At any moment you might play, so you have to be ready. If someone gets hurt, it might be your turn. Ready or not, you have to play, so you have to prepare for that and just give it your best,” he said. “As the season goes on, you get more comfortable. You relax a little bit more, and the shots finally start to fall and you can contribute.”

Hester had yet to see his biggest moment, however. Georgetown’s run in the Big East failed to get them into the NCAA tournament but gave them a first-round date with Virginia in the NIT.

And what a game it was. The triple overtime, 115-111 Georgetown victory exposed the Hoyas’ biggest weakness – depth – as a pair of players watched from behind the bench due to injuries and three Hoyas fouled out. This meant Hester had to play, and he had to play a lot.

He ended up seeing 32 minutes of action, scoring nine points and pulling down 10 rebounds. But it was his last three points that etched Hester into Georgetown basketball history. With the shot clock running down and the Hoyas needing a score, a momentary defensive lapse by Virginia left Hester open in the right corner and sealed the deal for Georgetown’s heroic victory.

Junior point guard Kevin Braswell will always be remembered for the 40 points he poured in, and the images of Lee Scruggs courtside being iced down and massaged are memorable, but it was a football playing walk-on that turned out to be the hero.

But just a walk-on no longer, Hester became an instant name overnight for those who hadn’t heard of his exploits on the gridiron.

“After Virginia, a lot of those people you sort of recognize would come up and say, `That was a great shot’ and a lot of the football guys congratulated me, which made me feel good,” said Hester, downplaying his success and admiration.

The Legend Grows

Hester is now a grizzled Hilltop veteran whom teammates look to for leadership on the gridiron whether he wants it or not.

“He has as much respect as anyone I’ve been associated with on this team,” Benson said. “He doesn’t speak often, but when he does, people listen. His words carry a lot of clout.”

But Hester is more of the lead-by-example type. “I focused a lot more on football this summer: Lifting weights, meeting with the coaches. That’s what you have to do as a leader to get ready for a much tougher schedule,” he said.

And with the loss of two-year starting quarterback Mont, his leadership is extra important.

“There was a definite chemistry with J.J. But there’s a lot of time to practice, and we’re definitely comfortable now,” Hester said of sophomore starting quarterback Dave Paulus.

If Butler didn’t know that before, they found out homecoming weekend. Paulus and Hester were on their games, with Paulus passing for six touchdowns and almost 400 yards. But Hester really stole the show. Nine receptions netted him 271 yards and five touchdowns, each single-game Georgetown receiving records.

As the records continue to pile up for Hester, the soft-spoken star keeps his talent and accolades in perspective. “Success just means setting goals that you can reach so you don’t get too frustrated, but knowing you have to put a lot of work into it,” he said.

As he continues to lead the football team through a transitional year as they prepare to enter the Patriot League, Hester is staying focused on practicing and keeping his mind in the present.

“We play tougher teams now, so the practices have to be that much more upbeat, intense and focused,” Hester said. “At times they put two guys on you and you have to work that much harder to get open and give the quarterback a lane to throw in and sometimes you just sacrifice yourself for the other parts of the offense.”

His attitude remains the same about the upcoming season on the hardwood.

“There are a lot of expectations for basketball, because we have a good team. Once football is over and I can play basketball, I hope I can contribute in some form or fashion,” he said. “I just want to be along for the ride and see what happens.”

It’s about time Gharun Hester is just along for the ride, because he’s taken Georgetown for quite a ride the past two years.

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