WILL LOU ANARUMO GET HEAD COACHING JOB?<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cIt would mean a lot, man,\u201d Hines Jr. told the Advance\/SILive.com when asked how finding his way onto an NFL roster would make him feel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe journey that I took \u2014 being at B.C. for four years, not really playing that much until my senior year of college, then coming to Wagner, getting hurt my first year here, missing the first five games, and having the breakout season I had \u2014 just means a lot. It shows that I persevered through it all, and not everybody\u2019s story is the same; everybody has their own journey,” he continued.<\/p>\n
Hines\u2019 first experience with football began well before high school, cultivating a love for the game through his participation with the Staten Island Hurricanes, a local youth football program he credits with cementing his passion for the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great travel football organization that competes all the way in Florida, playing against the best of the best. Getting your name out there as a kid helps with high school recruitment, which in turn can lead to college opportunities. Establishing myself within the football community \u2014 not just on Staten Island, but across the five boroughs \u2014 and competing in Florida is what helped me get to where I am today.”<\/p>\n
He then began his high school career at St. Peter\u2019s before transferring to E-Hall, where Hines built a name for himself as a power back to be reckoned with, refining his hard-nosed style through fierce PSAL competition \u2014 a stage he believes allowed him to play against some of the most well-rounded talents in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying in the PSAL, you play the top guys. But what really helped was being on that Erasmus Hall team \u2014 you\u2019ve got Division I guys all over the place, and it\u2019s gritty. That helped me become the competitor I am today, getting it out of the mud, traveling from Staten Island to Brooklyn every day. It meant something different for me. It had to mean more for me if I wanted to take it as far as I wanted.”<\/p>\n
Although he may not have seen much of the ball at Boston College after his E-Hall days, Hines\u2019 homecoming proved to be a major success, as the borough\u2019s own finished top five in the NEC in rushing yards in 2025 (809) while helping to lead the Seahawks to their best record in nearly a decade \u2014 a season that he said \u201chelped me propel myself into a big stage. I know what I\u2019m capable of doing and know that I could take it even farther.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hines also viewed his tenure at the Grymes Hill school as a \u201cfull-circle moment,\u201d sharing that \u201cmaking the decision to play for Wagner after hitting the transfer portal wasn\u2019t hard at all because everything just felt like family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason why Wagner became a big thing was because of Quincy Barnes, who used to play on the Staten Island Hurricanes, coached at Wagner, alongside coach Jim Munson who I had always admired. Also being from Park Hill, which isn\u2019t too far away from Wagner, it meant so much to me to try to be a hometown hero,\u201d he went on.<\/p>\n
As for what Hines hopes NFL teams will see in him, he said he models his running style after two all-time great backs, adding that his presence off the field is just as important.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a great locker room guy,\u201d Hines said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I can connect with everyone, building relationships with the janitor to the head coach \u2014 everybody knows me and knows I\u2019m a great guy. As for my play style, I\u2019m the next big back. I like to compare myself as a mix of Derrick Henry and Eric Dickerson \u2014 there aren\u2019t many like us in the league, and no one can match my size and speed,” he went on.<\/p>\n
Hines also noted that in preparation for pursuing his dreams, he has spoken with NFL talents from the borough, like Los Angeles Chargers RB and Tottenville alum Gus Edwards, hoping that one day he can mentor young Islanders playing locally with the same aspirations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would tell them like I\u2019ve been telling all the kids on recruiting visits that you\u2019re capable of making your own story,\u201d Hines shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t go to a bigger school and get lost, become just another name on the depth chart. You can come here, grind, and make a name for yourself because you\u2019re from Staten Island. It feels good to have the next generation look up to you, and that\u2019s something I\u2019ve enjoyed helping with at Wagner,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
With the draft set for April 23\u201325 next year, making an NFL roster would be the ultimate accomplishment and another step in a storybook career for Hines. Either way, the local product has made his hometown proud, serving as a model for young players to look up to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 As the college football season begins winding down, many of the nation\u2019s premier gridiron…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-61815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}