Hard work pays off for TC West QB

TRAVERSE CITY -- J.T. Hogan's determination, character and loyalty haven't gone unnoticed.

Hogan, a senior quarterback who helped Traverse City West reach the Division 1 football playoffs last fall, will receive financial assistance for college from two area service groups. The aid pledges came after the Record-Eagle published a story on Hogan last fall.

"We went out to lunch and they told me what they wanted to do. I was ecstatic," Hogan, 17, said after he learned that the Traverse City Twilight Rotary Club and the Traverse City Elks Club plan to help him out. "I've gotten a lot of good responses from the article. I can't go anywhere without someone saying something about it.

Hogan's story appeared in the Record-Eagle on Oct. 19 as his team prepared to play crosstown rival Traverse City Central in the 2007 regular-season finale.

Hogan has helped raise his two younger sisters, Katie and Molly, since their father died of cancer when J.T. was 12. Hogan said his alcoholic mother left the family several years before that.

The three Hogan siblings eventually moved in with their grandmother, Darla Hogan, across the street from TC Central High School. But loyalty to his friends and teammates prompted J.T. to open-enroll at TC West, and he rode a bus across town to school every day -- after first getting his sisters ready for school.

"From Day 1, the day he was born, I think, J.T.'s been a responsible kid," Darla Hogan said. "He's always understanding and kind, extremely devoted to his sisters. His dad used to call him 'A fine young man,' and that's exactly what he is."

Jim Zickel, director of membership for the Twilight Rotary Club and also on the scholarship committee at the Elks Club, said Hogan's story caught his attention.

"I follow the football teams, so I knew his name, but I had no idea of his story until then," said Zickel, who has been a Rotarian since 1970. "I was impressed by pretty much everything that I read about him.

"He has his head on his shoulders, he's been a strong father figure to his sisters and a help to his grandmother. He travels across town to stay with the guys at West when he could just walk across the street.

"Then I met him and he's quiet and modest, too. He doesn't take a lot of credit for what he's done. I was impressed.

"Service groups are in the business of helping serve the community, and I thought we should do as much as we could to help this young man."

Hogan, who also runs track at West, has narrowed his college choices to Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Ferris State and Northwood. He plans to major in business.

Photos

J.T. Hogan, 17, works on calculus homework during a day off from school Friday morning at his residence in Traverse City. Record-Eagle