Hiben lands another Big Ten offer

Chaska, (Minn.) tight end prospect Joey Hiben (6-foot-5, 235 pounds) from Waconia High School made two spring visits last weekend, to Northwestern University and the University of Notre Dame. Hiben returned from his trip with an offer from the Wildcats.

"I had a really good weekend on my visits," Joey Hiben said. "I made trips to both Northwestern and to Notre Dame, and Northwestern offered me a scholarship."

Hiben talked about his visit to Evanston. "I liked it at Northwestern. Besides the strong academics, Northwestern has nice facilities and I also enjoyed the campus at Northwestern. I was able to talk to head coach Randy Walker for about 45 minutes, and we had a really good discussion. He's a really funny guy and I like his personality a lot. I also talked to the tight end coach Jack Glowik, and he's also a very personable guy and we got along well. Overall it was a good visit to Northwestern."

Hiben also made a visit last Friday to the University of Notre Dame. "Notre Dame was one of my highlights so far. It is an awesome place, and I really liked what I saw at Notre Dame. I was able to meet with assistant coach Greg Mattison, who's my recruiting coach. We had a really good visit, and I also was able to get a full tour of the campus and the facilities. Coach Mattison has a copy of my highlight tape and he said that the coaches liked my tape. I also was able to talk to Coach Willingham before the team went out to practice. Coach Willingham is a great person, he's just a very honest and moral type of person. I was able to watch the team practice, and it was a great experience."

Hiben, who currently has scholarship offers from Purdue, Stanford, Missouri and Northwestern, added that, "the coaches at Notre Dame seem genuinely interested, and they want me to camp at Notre Dame this summer. I'm planning to do a one-day camp at Notre Dame."

So does Hiben have any additional spring or summer plans set? "Next weekend I'm planning on making a trip to California, and I'm going to make stops at Stanford as well as to Cal. Camp-wise I'm not too sure yet on where I might camp besides Notre Dame, I'm probably going to wait until the end of May before I decide on any camps."