{"id":13021,"date":"2019-04-04T17:00:36","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=13021"},"modified":"2019-05-02T18:42:31","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T00:42:31","slug":"win-it-for-wally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2019\/04\/04\/win-it-for-wally\/","title":{"rendered":"Win it for Wally"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On the morning of Feb. 8, Harding Women\u2019s Tennis Graduate Assistant Brandon Hogland texted his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood morning dad. Today is going to be a good day for me,\u201d Hogland said. \u201cMainly because I know that I am alive and healthy but also because I know I have a father who has surpassed all expectations and defied every doubter that said they couldn\u2019t do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Feb. 3, Wally Hogland, Brandon\u2019s father, suffered a massive heart attack while watching Harding\u2019s opening match in Plano, Texas. He was rushed from the match to the hospital where he was kept in a medically induced coma until Feb. 28, when according to Brandon, Wally passed away due to pneumonia complications.<\/p>\n

Wally was one of the Harding tennis teams\u2019 biggest supporters. He regularly attended matches and supported his son as a tennis player and continued his support even after<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Brandon\u2019s playing career ended.<\/p>\n

For many years, Wally had struggled with\u00a0numerous health issues including overcoming stage-four cancer and other strokes.<\/p>\n

As the team grieves the loss of Wally, they have continued to rally around Brandon. When Wally was alive, they dedicated their seasons in honor of him and since his death, they play in memory of him.<\/p>\n

Wally never stopped\u00a0cheering for the Bisons …We even got a banner that\u00a0said \u2018Win One For Wally.\u2019\u00a0\u2013 Erin Young,\u00a0junior tennis player<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Head Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Tennis Coach David Redding said he still sees Wally in his daily interactions with Brandon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWally has been very inspirational, and there\u2019s so much that I see in Brandon from a fighting<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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spirit and a \u2018never say die\u2019 attitude,\u201d Redding said. \u201cI see now where he got that from. He got that from his dad, and we\u2019re trying to instill that in the girls\u2019 and guys\u2019 teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior tennis player Erin Young said the team kept Wally updated on the score when he was in the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon waking up, Wally never stopped cheering for the Bisons,\u201d Young said. \u201cAfter every match, we would always keep Wally updated on the score, and we even got a banner that said \u2018Won One For Wally\u2019 that we would hold up after winning a match.\u201d<\/p>\n

He remains an inspiration to Brandon as well. In his final text to his father, Brandon thanked his dad for leading him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know I wouldn\u2019t be able to reach my goals growing up if I didn\u2019t have someone to look to,\u201d Brandon said in the text. \u201cYou were always there for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon plans to graduate this May and has been accepted into the University of Arkansas\u2019 doctoral program.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the morning of Feb. 8, Harding Women\u2019s Tennis Graduate Assistant Brandon Hogland texted his father. \u201cGood morning dad. Today is going to be a good day for me,\u201d Hogland…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15136,"featured_media":13022,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13024,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13021\/revisions\/13024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}