Tonka Hemingway ready to help South Carolina however he can
Doing it all is nothing new for Tonka Hemingway. If someone asks him to do something, he’s going to do it the best he can.
It started for him at a young age. He didn’t have a lot of downtime in his life. He was always playing one sport and then moving onto the next one.
“I played baseball, basketball, football. And I was always doing things like that, doing multiple things,” Hemingway said at SEC Media Days. “My parents told me, ‘You don’t want to be good at one thing, you want to be good at multiple things.'”
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Hemingway was an exceptional athlete at Conway (S.C.) High School, where he did play all three sports. He earned first-team all-state honors in basketball after averaging 20 points per game. But it was his talents on the football field that have taken him the farthest.
Now at South Carolina, Hemingway has turned himself into a force on the defensive line. He started nine of 12 games and recorded 33 tackles and a team-high four sacks last season. And he’s arguably gotten more out of his college career than he bargained for.
“Because of depth, he had to play defensive end in the (Gator) bowl game for us,” Shane Beamer said. Played every play, never came off the field. Great player for us, some special teams as well.”
And it’s not just sliding over to another spot on the line that he’s done. Hemingway has also been a fixture on special teams and sometimes even in the offensive huddle.
Some might think it could be tiring for one guy to play on both sides of the ball, especially at the college level where it rarely happens. But Hemingway seems to enjoy any chance he gets to do so.
“Growing up, even though you’re on defense, you want to make a big play, big cat, you want to score a touchdown,” he said. “But you know, it’s been good. You just want to help the team out. Anything for the team. And if I can help us win, I’m going to do it.”
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In a way, Hemingway is at an advantage by doing more than just playing defensive tackle. With the possibility of leaving for the NFL Draft after this season, teams could take an interest in someone that can be multi-faceted.
Hemingway missed spring recovering from an offseason procedure but said he’s back running with the team and should be ready to go for preseason camp.
“They’re going to get all of me. I’m going to give it my all. I’m going to work hard because it’s a job at the end of the day. And I want to keep my job,” Hemingway said.
So looking to this season, Hemingway’s goals for himself and the Gamecocks are simple: be the best.
“As a team, our goal is to improve on everything. We want to make big strides. We want to work hard for ourselves and achieve the goals that we talked about among ourselves,” Hemingway said.
“And for myself, I just want to be the best teammate that I can be for this season and do big things.”
