Hemer shares win with brother
Ethan Hemer, Wisconsin's current starting defensive tackle, joined the Badgers as a walk-on before going on scholarship this past January at UW.
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His younger brother, Medford senior Benjamin Hemer, could very well follow in his path. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound defensive lineman made his second unofficial visit to Wisconsin on Saturday for the Badgers' win over Illinois.
"It's always a good time to be up there when they win the game and to see my brother play," Benjamin Hemer told BadgerBlitz.com. "It's great to see how the construction is moving along after seeing it a few months ago when I camped this summer.
"It's great to get down on the field and watch the team warm up, I always have fun doing that. It just seems like all the renovations are going well and the team in headed in the right direction now."
The eldest Hemer, who has now started 26 games for UW, turned down offers from Northern Iowa, South Dakota and Illinois State in order to walk-on at Wisconsin. Benjamin Hemer would love an opportunity to play alongside his brother during his final year in Madison.
"It's always fun to support him (Ethan) and it would be great to have him in the locker room for me if I were lucky enough to play for Wisconsin," Benjamin Hemer said. "He would be a senior that I would have there for me and it would be a big advantage.
"It would also be a lot of fun just to be out there every day with him and practicing alongside my brother. It would be a great opportunity."
Illinois State, Western Illinois, Minnesota and North Dakota State, according to Hemer, are also showing interest at this point. All schools in the picture appear to be in the initial recruiting stages.
"I've been chatting with coach (Charlie) Partridge and Ben Strickland has visited me at school," said Hemer, who does not have any other visits scheduled this fall. "We've been talking and I visited there twice so far. No offer or anything yet, just getting to know each other right now. We really haven't talked about a full offer or preferred walk-on offer just yet.
"As far as the other schools, I think it's just about the same as the talk with Wisconsin. We're not really talking about offers just yet."
Hemer said he likely projects as a defensive tackle at the next level.