One touchdown can mean so much to one player.
For Hassin Joseph, it represented an incredible comeback after a brutal injury, while also serving as an homage to a fallen friend.
Joseph is a senior at Universal Audenried Charter High School in South Philly who finally played his first varsity football game after a year of rehab following what’s known as the “unhappy triad” — tears to the anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament and meniscus.
“We were doing drills and someone just accidentally fell on my knee and I ended up tearing it,” the running back said. “I didn’t really know what happened, but after the MRI results, I was really hurting. I had put in so much work to get to that point.”
Nearly 14 months later, Joseph was able to rejoin the Rockets on the football field. And on Sept. 12, he scored his first varsity touchdown to help Audenried secure a 38-0 victory over Academy at Palumbo at the South Philly Supersite. The brace on his right knee serves as added protection as well as a reminder of all of the hard work he contributed to get back on the field.
“It made made me way stronger than I was before and made my mentality way different,” Joseph said of the long rehab. “I feel like I’m smarter, faster and stronger, both physically and mentally. I worked hard for this, for sure.”
Although he was injured, Joseph still served as a captain last season and he continued to attend Audenried’s practices and helped spur on the team to a 6-4 season while rehabbing.
“The team had voted him captain,” said Audenried coach Roy-Al Edwards. “He was there every day being a leader. It just speaks to the type of kid he is that he stayed around the program and I’m just happy that he’s out here having the success that he had today. We‘re very proud of him.”
Edwards serves as the Dean of Students at Audenried and formed a special bond with Joseph during school hours. It took a little time to get to know the real human inside the shoulder pads.
“In the beginning, he was a little rough around the edges,” Edwards said. “But he took in a lot of coaching. Just talking to him, he really started opening up. And once we gained that trust, he’s just like a son to me. He’s been through a lot of adversity in his life and he just keeps battling. The way he deals with adversity makes you want to love him.”
Unfortunately, adversity struck again leading up to Audenried’s last game. Joseph’s friend Richard Deshield, a football player at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne, was shot and killed. Joseph said Deshield had many friends at Audenried and the team played with heavy hearts.
“I wanted two (touchdowns) because I lost a friend this week,” Joseph said. “I wanted to get two for him, but I ended up with one and 100-plus yards, so I did my best.”
Joesph is a fighter at heart. Ranked nationally as a boxer prior to his knee injury, he trained at the Rock Ministries in Kensington. As a youth boxer, he was a 2018 National Silver Gloves Champion. And he was nationally ranked in the 13-14 intermediate division in 2023-24.
“I started boxing when I was 8, so it’s really my first sport,” Joseph said. “I actually didn’t start football until three years ago.”
He has the heart of a lion. Listed generously at 5-7 on the roster, Joseph said he’s closer to 5-4. But he doesn’t spend much time making comparisons with bigger players. He just bowls right through them.
“I don’t look at it any differently,” Joseph said. “I got a lot of heart. I don’t fear anyone. If you’re going to step right there, I’m going to go through.”
That’s Audenried’s mentality, too. The program scheduled a pair of tough non-league games against Cardinal O’Hara and Chichester that both ended up in shutout defeats. It toughened up the Rockets and placed them in a position of underdog mentality as they blasted into their Public League schedule.
“I try to schedule the hardest games in the beginning,” Edwards said. “Our (non-league) games are always going to be tough as long as I’m the head coach. That’s the philosophy. We’re not searching for wins, we’re searching to get better to be prepared for our league.” ••
