Travis Hitchcock, in his days at Scarborough High School, may best be remembered as one of the many important catalysts that transformed a football program, then in its infancy, to one that by the end of his term, had a claimed its first championship. I have got to know Travis well, not only as a leader and fellow co-captain in that magical championship year, but a person too. He is a dedicated player, a consummate teammate, and has a work ethic that would make a pack mule blush. It requires little imagination to see why he is our lone representative in Division-I football. Now he enters his third season at UMO, an up and coming program itself, where he competes for a spot at linebacker. Recently I had the pleasure of talking with Travis about his trip to Nebraska to play the Cornhuskers.

ND: What was it like being on the sidelines, in Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium in front of 77,469 rabid Husker fans?

TH: Well, when you walked out [of the locker room] all you saw were red shirts, and there were more people then you have ever seen in one place before. They were loud; you couldn’t hear the guy talking next to you. They’re crazy fans and know everything about there players. Even when we pulled up to the stadium 3 hours before playing there was more people outside tailgating than I had ever seen from an NFL game. Their fans were real friendly; they always clapped and cheered for us, even when we went into the locker room for halftime.

ND: So you guys didn’t have any problems with hecklers like there would be at a Patriots or Dolphins game?

TH: Well of course there were the random few who would yell something to intimidate you, but overall they were not nearly as intimidating as we thought they would be. The only time they booed us was at the end of the game when we took all of our time outs [laughing].

ND: How would you compare it to the State Championship game we played at Fitzpatrick?

TH: Well I can definitely say that I liked having fans on our side when we made a big play in the state championship game. When you’re there in Nebraska, and we made a big play, there were only us [players] on the sidelines and maybe 150 fans 30 rows up to make any noise. Plus the game in Fitzpatrick meant more to me because I had a big impact on that game.

ND: Understandable. Were you aware the game was televised on Fox Sports Net Pay-Per-View?

TH: Yeah, we all knew about that because one of our media people, here at school, told us it was one of the games they chose to televise that week. It felt great to know that anyone in the country could be watching you on TV. It something I had never experienced before, especially when it involves playing football, which was something I had always dreamed of doing.

ND: Did your parents watch the game on Pay-per-view?

TH: My parents were actually at the game. My dad is crazy about football and wanted to be there because it was the first game I had made the travel squad.

ND: Awesome, was he amazed at it all too?

TH: Yea he was. He couldn’t believe the people outside the stadium. I talked to him when we left the hotel in Omaha, while we were heading to Lincoln, and he was at a tailgating party with the Maine fans and he kept saying “It’s getting rowdy over here.” [Travis laughs].

ND: I have one last question to ask about the actual game itself. What is the major difference between Division-1 football and what you faced in high school?

TH: The speed of the game … it took me a few months to get my body under control at playing so fast … I was over running tackles a lot because you had to run hard to get to the running backs. I wasn’t like high school, where you could get to them and still be under control enough to bring them down. I’m use to it now and wish I had learned how to play the way I do now back in high school.

ND: Well thanks Travis, it was good to talk to you.

TH: Yeah no problem.

There you have it. From a high school champion, to, in three years, on the sidelines of a nationally televised game – I think we should all be so lucky.

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