Jehric Hackney

Jehric Jordan Hackney, jersey number 35, is a graduate student who is obtaining his MS in Leadership at Norwich University Online. He completed his undergraduate studies in 2024 at Norwich as a Communications Major with a Minor in Sports Management. He is a two-year team captain with a passion for athletics and aspires to find a role in Athletic Communications after completing his graduate degree.

When you were selecting a college, why did you pick Norwich?
I took a different route than a lot of my peers in high school. I was really involved in athletics, but I was unsure of where I wanted to go. After high school, I was looking at colleges and the head coach at Norwich came and talked with me. I was stuck between the mindset of being a Vermont resident, staying close to home, and wanting the experience of going beyond state lines. I ended up going to a prep school for half a year in Massachusetts.

The Norwich head coach at the time, coach Murnyack, stayed in contact with me while I was in prep school. He showed me what Norwich was about. The culture, the standards to which they hold their student athletes, and everything that he was telling me fit all my checkmarks. I hadn’t realized what Norwich stood for while doing my own research about the school.

When I started the recruiting process with Norwich and I met all the coaches, I felt like we immediately had a great bond. The coach told me how I could be one of “those players”, a success from Vermont. It really fit. Looking back at it now, Norwich really fit what I was looking for. It's close to home, so I'm well known in this community, and it was also a very, very huge fit for me financially.

I came here (Norwich) to pursue both my athletic career and academics. There’s an attitude of striving for excellence by all students, not just the corps of cadets. Having these attributes around campus really shaped me as an individual, made me think of discipline, and helped me hold myself accountable to do what I need to do to the best of my ability. It's just a great environment here.

You're doing something that most athletes don't, and that's taking online classes while participating in football. Why should a student athlete consider following in your footsteps?
I think what's appealing about being an online student athlete is that I have full control of how I want my work and my schedule to revolve around athletics. When you're in class, it's hard to keep to a consistent schedule. I say this because Mondays look different than Tuesdays, Tuesdays look different than Wednesdays and so on. With online, I've noticed that I could have a fixed schedule and that has allowed me to hold a good balance between getting my schoolwork done and being a student athlete and team captain.  I've been able to be more involved with my team and my coaches because of it.

I've had a lot of time to invest in both aspects.  I mainly like that sense of having full control and the way that they've implemented the online schooling system here is very engaged. We all have busy schedules, and each experience is unique. We tailor it to what we need. I really do enjoy being an online student athlete.

Norwich is not known for being easy. How do you balance the academic challenges alongside the challenge of excelling athletically?
I’ve been involved in athletics for so long now and I see athletics and academics always going hand in hand. I use my motivation on the football field to help me pursue my academics and vice versa. It's rigorous. Again, it goes back to that environment of being here and everyone's in that same position, same boat, of having very demanding academic schedules. There's a lot of other athletes here going through the same situation. I think that being here and integrating that culture of needing to push myself to be the best that I can has really helped me to navigate through my academic challenges.  I want to be great in my academics because of football. The culture of the football team has been pushing for that standard ever since day one.

Norwich is a very demanding school. You know they're going to push you and expect you to demonstrate excellence and to be a leader because everyone here is a leader in their own way.

Have you ever had one of your coaches help you out with an academic situation?
I have been leaning on one of my former coaches these past four years here. He's not only helped me on the football field, but also in pursuing my academic career. He helped me secure an internship last semester and I really excelled from that. It was an amazing experience and involved being close to athletic programs here that I'll never forget. It’s an example of how great networking is at Norwich. I mean, he was an amazing coach on the football field and then he helped me to get involved in play-by-play broadcasting, collect hockey stats, and recording stats for softball games.  That internship was a requirement for my sports management and communications major to graduate last year so that was a really big help.

What was your undergraduate degree in?
I minored in athletic sports management and majored in communications.

Which graduate program did you select and how did you choose it?
I’m in the leadership program. One of the coaches on the football team, who was also a former teammate, told me about it. He's in the second or third semester of the same program now. He introduced it to me, told me the route, and showed me how it would be manageable for me. Knowing what kind of person I was, he said I could definitely succeed. I was happy to get that information from a former teammate and I trusted him.

Would you recommend the leadership program to others? What kind of person would thrive in it?
I would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand leadership from the grand scheme of things, but also diving deep in on a personal level of who you are, what your leadership attributes are, and how they can contribute to society. I've been a captain and a leader for the football team for two years here and back in high school I was a three-year captain, so I've always had a leadership role in athletics. The deep dive was very important to me, and I can always strive to be a better leader, better Captain, and better individual every day. So, I would say anyone who's looking to continue to push themselves is who I would suggest this program to.

How would you describe Norwich or talk about Norwich to someone that's never heard of Norwich? You’re in your 5th year, you like it, you know it. 
I definitely know Norwich, 100%. I would explain that we are in a very secluded area. We're not known for big cities or anything like that, but you come here, and you see a wide variety of people from all over the world who are truly dedicated to pursuing careers and developing themselves as students and people in this world.

I would say we have a lot of grit. There there's not many too many things to get distracted by. Every day there's always an example of excellence. You walk through campus, and you see the corps of cadets lined up and then you see students from foreign countries just excelling in all types of departments. Even students that are local are so surprised that there's so many people from all over the world around here that work very hard, are dedicated, and very driven in what they do.

The idea of just surrounding yourself with these kinds of people pushes me and motivates me to look deeper and know what I want to do when I leave here and where I'm going.

I would say we're a very gritty school that likes to get work done.

You're going to graduate at some point. You've got a stellar education, you've developed the grit, and you'll have a strong leadership background. What are you going to do with it?
I've always been involved in athletics, and I want to continue to go through that route. I had that communications internship last semester, and I really love the game of football. I would love to try and get involved with coaching or something close to athletics like athletic director.

One of my bigger goals is to get up to that level. I've had some connections close by with my high school and they're looking for people to add to the Athletic communications department and to also coach, so that’s a win-win.

The impact athletics has had on my life motivates me to stay in that field. 

You've been at Norwich for quite a few years and know the area well. If someone comes to tour Norwich, and they're only there for a day, where is some place that they must eat and what should they get?
They have to go to Good Measure. The restaurant is probably… not probably, it is the most popular restaurant in town. They've augmented themselves with campus and even have a food truck that comes around. They are very close friends with a lot of the Norwich faculty and coaches here. My favorite thing there is the street tacos… although the buffalo mac is a close second.