Hakeem Hines has the statistics. He has the accolades as an All-State running back.
He even has college recruiting letters from Atlantic Coast Conference and Big East school stuffed in a shoebox in his bedroom.
But the Havre de Grace senior has his sights set on someone else: two-time defending Class 1A champion Dunbar and stellar senior running back Tavon Austin, one of the region’s most sought-after recruits.
“I want to see what he’s got and I want to show him what I’ve got,” Hines said. “But I’m not going to lie: I’ve seen him play. He’s a real good ball player. I think I’m a good ball player, too.”
Right now, statistics suggest Hines is among the best in the area, as he rushed for 953 yards and 10 touchdowns on 99 carries in five games for the Warriors (5-0). Austin, however, is the greatest running back the state’s ever produced — at least statistically — as he’s rushed for a state-record 6,002 yards and 104 touchdowns during his illustrious career.
Hines’ goals this season are simple: Rush for at least 2,000 yards and lead the Warriors to their first state title since 1986.
“[Hakeem’s] my aide, so we’ve talked about a 2,000-yard season,” Havre de Grace coach Johnny Brooks said. “We mapped out how many yards he would need a game or a quarter. I try to keep him as motivated as possible. He’s on track. I told him you need at least 1,000 before the fifth game.”
The 5-foot-9, 180-pounder likely would have reached that mark if he hadn’t been on the sidelines late in last week’s game against Elkton Christian. Hines had 190 yards in the first half, but finished with 231 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries because the Warriors didn’t try to run up the score in a 32-0 victory.
The only time Hines, who entered Friday’s game at Aberdeen having accounted for 1,028 of the team’s 1,502 yards of total offense, has been held to under 160 yards rushing was in a a 7-0 victory over rival Joppatowne last month.
“I’ve coached against him probably four times, and he just gets better and better,” said Joppatowne coach Bill Waibel, whose team held Hines to 38 yards on 12 yards on a rainy, muddy night. “He’s a tough kid. He’s durable. I’ve never known him to be injured.”
Hines began playing at the age of 6, with the Edgewood Steelers. It was then when Hines’ father, Roger Hines — a former Havre de Grace running back who graduated in 1989 — realized his son’s talent.
“He was working with me at running back. I started taking it serious and everything,” Hines said. “My dad was out there in the backyard doing handoff drills with me.”
And Hines certainly has taken the ball and run with it. He recently ran 40 yards in 4.47 seconds — a time that is among the fastest in the state — but claims his biggest strength is his mentality of refusing “to get tackled by one person.”
But defenders aren’t the only ones chasing him — just look it the shoebox in his bedroom.
He has dozens of letters from football coaches at Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Duke, Richmond, Southern Mississippi, Boston College and Georgia Tech who became interested in his after he rushed for 1,636 yards and 15 touchdowns last season.
“He’s getting a lot of different looks. His size might keep some of the bigger schools off,” Brooks said “We’re just trying to go where we can get him on the field, get an education.”
Still, for a kid from tiny Havre de Grace High — the state’s 16th smallest public high school with an enrollment of 565 — just being recruited by several major Division I schools is impressive.
“If I do make it big, and God allows me to make it big, I’m going to come back and try to do something,” Hines said. This is the school that really took the time, looked at me and gave me a chance. It’d be real big to do something like that.”
HINES’ WAR PATH
Opponent Score Yards TDs Carries
Fallston 26-20 272 2 27
Joppatowne 7-0 38 0 12
C. Milton Wright 40-21 163 3 17
Bohemia Manor 21-13 249 3 28
Elkton Christian 32-0 231 2 15
