11/21/2008
Unselfish Leader
Marquette’s Ethan Post makes sacrifices to help the team be the best it can be
Reprinted with permission from The Herald Argus
By Nick Dettmann
For The Herald-Argus
MICHIGAN CITY - Last year, Ethan Post was the ultimate team player.
Prior to the sectional, Marquette coach Jason Hawkins was putting his roster together for the upcoming tournament. After he was done, he had left off a senior, mainly because of upcoming matchups.
Post, who made the postseason roster, found out about it.
Soon afterwards, he approached Hawkins and told him he wanted to sit the postseason out so the senior could get one last chance to play, knowing he had one more year himself.
"When I heard he wasn't going to be on the team, I kind of felt bad for him," Post said.
Right then and there, Hawkins made Post one of the captains for this season.
"I almost cried," Hawkins said. "For someone to be that unselfish, because I never would've been that unselfish. If I can play, I'm going to play.
"... For somebody to sacrifice for the team, that's the ultimate self-sacrifice."
Post said he doesn't see himself as a leader, but his coach undoubtedly does.
"Ethan stands out because people follow him," Hawkins said. "... They respect him."
In addition to his action prior to the sectional, Post is going through rough times off the court.
In the early morning hours of Oct. 4, his 19-year-old brother Nick was involved in a horrific car accident near the Purdue University-North Central campus. According to police, Post veered off the right side of U.S. 421, then crossed back across the highway, going off the left side of the road before crashing into a NIPSCO pole.
Post suffered some broken ribs and had some brain damage from the accident. He was taken to Memorial Hospital in South Bend where he was in intensive care for a period of time before being transported to Northwestern's Medical Center for rehabilitation.
Thankfully Post, a 2007 Marquette graduate, is improving by the day, and is back at home.
"Mentally, it kind of shook everything up," Ethan Post said about how the accident impacted him. "The areas of my life you don't even expect to get affected kind of went down hill."
Ethan is one of five boys in the Post family. He is the fourth oldest - Justin (27), Adam (23), Nick (19), Ethan (18) and Conner (15). But his relationship with Nick is one of the tightest because of the closeness of their ages.
"He's always been my best friend," Ethan Post said. "... We kind of grew up together. I've always looked up to him."
Post, who is a senior this year, has used those two experiences to help him appreciate this season and beyond.
"As a person, you can only grow stronger from tragedies like that," Post said. "... It's unsettling times because we obviously all constantly want to be by his bed side, but it's tough to navigate your own schedule and still have time for him."
Post said the best way he's been able to cope with it is to try not to focus on it.
"You've got to look past it and hope for the best," he said. "All I can do is hope and pray.
"... As he progresses, so do I, emotionally."
This year on the court will be an adjustment as well.
Last season, he scored just two points, played in just a handful of games, and when he did play, he played just a few minutes per game.
Post said he's looking forward to the chance.
More often than not, players who are the biggest contributors to a team are the captains. But it's because of Post's unselfishness and mental toughness which garnered him the honor, and Hawkins will transcend down to the rest of the team.
Post still carries a 3.99 GPA en light of the events, and that's another reason why Hawkins made Post a captain this season.
"I'm just really excited about him," Hawkins said.
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