Hastings continues to conquer obstacles

I have the words Joe Hastings needs to hear. Joe, you're not going to make the San Francisco 49ers. You're wasting your time in camp with them. You're a kid from Wichita, remember. You played at Washburn. You can't do this, Joe

Now listen, I'm not the first person to say these things to Hastings. He's been hearing from naysayers all his life, from the time he reported to football practice as a 100-pound freshman at Bishop Carroll.

When he went to Washburn, having jumped all the way to 150 pounds, there wasn't a coach on the Ichabods' staff who thought he had a chance of making the team, let alone eventually becoming the school's greatest single-season receiver.

Hastings thrives on the skepticism of others. It's the coal that fuels his fire and it's the reason he's in Santa Clara, Calif., trying once again to beat the odds that now cower in his presence because he's thrashed them so many times.

"You're talking about a kid who entered high school at about 100 pounds,'' Carroll coach Alan Schuckman said. "And even when he was a senior, Joe was about our second or third option at receiver. But he always had that vision.''

Instead of accepting a scholarship offer at Friends, Hastings wanted more. He decided to take his best shot as a walk-on at Washburn, asking a cousin who went to school there to take some game film to give to the Ichabods' coaches. While in Topeka, though, Hastings had trouble staying on the field. He suffered injuries to both knees, missing the final nine games of the 2006 and 2009 seasons after ACL surgeries. He also sat out the 2005 season as a redshirt and likely as an afterthought.

In five years at Washburn going into the 2010 season, Hastings managed 32 catches for 487 yards and two touchdowns.

Then came a breakthrough 2011 season. As a main cog in the Ichabods' offense as a Z-back, Hastings caught 87 passes for 1,546 yards and 15 touchdowns, shattering all the school's receiving records. He finally had the kind of football season he always imagined he could have. Healthy, he was able to establish himself.

Everybody who ever told Hastings he couldn't do it had to eat crow.

He played well in a post-season all-star game in Texas. He trained during the offseason with some players from the Kansas City Chiefs, including quarterback Matt Cassel. He thought he might get drafted in the later rounds, but the draft came and went without a phone call. Hastings considered playing in the United Football League, which would have been an unbelievable accomplishment itself.

But the UFL hasn't been his dream since he was old enough to play football. The NFL has.

Then, shortly after the players and owners reached a contractual agreement to end the lockout last week, Hastings received a call from the 49ers. They wanted him in camp. He flew to the west coast, literally and figuratively.

"I was on a plane the very next day at 10 a.m. out of Wichita,'' Hastings said. "I started camp here last Wednesday and we're going from 5:30 in the morning until 10 at night. It's crazy — go, go, go. But it's been my dream to be here.''

He's not patting himself on the back for being signed as a rookie free agent. He's in camp to make the team, as outlandish as that sounds. So far, Hastings thinks he's made an impression. Some of the more established 49ers receivers are missing time with injuries, allowing Hastings more reps.

He recognizes first-year San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh has a blank slate. The system is new, the playbook is new.

"Yeah, that playbook,'' Hastings said. "You get a workout just carrying it out to the field, it's so big. But I'm not complaining about that at all. This is an awesome opportunity. And you can't beat the temperatures here — 65 to 70 degrees.''

Hastings doesn't have burning speed and at 6-foot, 185 pounds he's not going to bowl anyone over. But he is fast enough (4.42 40 time at his pro day at Kansas State) and finally big enough to give a little jolt back to those trying to tackle him.

"Joe was poised to have a season like he did last year,'' Washburn offensive coordinator Rob Robinson said. "We lost two really good receivers from the year before and he and our quarterback (Dane Simoneau) just threw together all summer. They just knew what one another was going to do.''

Hastings was brilliant. He had worked so hard to return from both of his knee surgeries, but especially the second. It would have been so easy just to say he was finished, that he had had enough. But Hastings had something to prove, mostly to himself.

"You don't come back from those kinds of injuries unless you're really driven,'' Robinson said. "A lot of guys check it in after one surgery. Two? Especially being your senior year and your friends are graduating. But Joe stuck with it.''

The dream first appeared when Hastings was in the second grade. He knew then he wanted to play in the NFL and that he would do anything he could to get there.

"Ask anyone I went to grade school with,'' he said. "In my eighth-grade yearbook, some people wrote in there that I would get to the NFL as the water boy for the Chiefs. They were joking, but I've always been like, 'I'm going to play, I'm going to make it.' "

It probably wouldn't be wise to bet against him.

"Joe was always a tough kid,'' Schuckman said. "And he worked hard. Those kind of kids always have a chance just because they're going to work hard to prove people wrong. He's one of the most competitive kids I've ever coached.''

What does Hastings' former high school coach think of his chances with San Francisco?

"I don't count him out one lick of making the 49ers. I think the more people who tell him he can't do it, the better chance he has of making it. It's kind of eerie.''

Hastings said he's treating every day in 49ers camp like it might be his last. He's thrilled to have the opportunity, but not overwhelmed to be where he is.

"I'm here to make the 49ers,'' he said. "I'm sitting here right now watching Michael Crabtree ride the stationary bike. I see Vernon Davis. I'm looking around and seeing all these guys I've watched play. And I'm knocking on wood. We'll see. I'm taking it one day at a time.''

This story was originally published August 4, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Hastings continues to conquer obstacles."