College Football: Bateman chooses Bruins
Since his days at Estancia High, Zach Bateman’s notable football career has been about paving the way for ballcarriers. But the Orange Coast College sophomore offensive tackle has encountered the most imposing obstacle to his own personal daylight off the field.
Bateman, however, has clearly managed to shine well enough to secure a football scholarship to UCLA, to which he made a verbal commitment on Sunday to continue his academic and athletic career beginning in January.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said the 6-foot-7, 315-pounder, who was an All-CIF Southern Section Southern Division performer, a two-time Newport-Mesa Dream Team honoree, and shared the Orange Coast League Lineman of the Year award as a junior in 2010.
But challenged by what he wished only to refer to as family issues, Bateman failed to qualify academically for a four-year scholarship and instead enrolled at Orange Coast College.
He said he was forced to become financially independent after graduating from Estancia, where he helped the Eagles win back-to-back league titles and advance to the Southern Division semifinals in 2011.
The necessity to work forced him to pass on playing football at OCC in 2012, but he started at left tackle as a freshman in 2013, when he began to again draw major attention from big-time college recruiters.
“I was heavily recruited out of Estancia, but things ended up not turning out the way I wanted them to,” Bateman said. “I got smacked by reality as soon as I turned 18 years old and I had to establish myself as a man in life before I could pursue my dreams of becoming a Division-I athlete. I needed a roof over my head and I needed to put food on my table.”
Soon after securing work with a moving company, Bateman rededicated himself to football and academics. His commitment to obtaining his associate arts degree (necessary to collect a football scholarship to a four-year school), involved taking heavy academic loads the last two semesters. His 23-unit schedule this fall prompted him to step aside from football after the fourth game, in order to concentrate on the classroom.
“Football is a full-time job and I was working on weekends, too,” Bateman said. “I love football and I wish I could have played the rest of the season. But it got to the point where I could either play JC football and flunk out and lose my scholarships, or buckle down and finish my units and pass every [class], so I could start my entire future [by transferring with an AA degree]. I needed to secure the opportunity to play Division I football, get my education, and pursue my dreams of playing in the NFL.”
Bateman, who said OCC offensive line coach Doug Smith, a former NFL Pro Bowl lineman with the Los Angeles Rams, became a father figure for him, chose UCLA from more than 20 scholarship offers. He said his final list also included Oklahoma State, Ohio State, Arizona State, Florida and Wisconsin.
Bateman is anxious to begin making his mark at UCLA, where he will major in communications.
“I’m going in there humble, but I have a chip on my shoulder,” Bateman said. “I want people to doubt me, just like they said in high school that I would never make it and go D-I. I want the doubts, because they will only add fuel to the fire. That’s all [doubters] have ever done for me.”