By Joe Vozzelli Jr., The News-Gazette
jvozzelli@news-gazette.com
Read on News-Gazette.com
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Satchel Hudson shares the namesake of a Hall of Fame baseball player.
His parents, Don and Brittany, decided to name their son after Satchel Paige, a standout right-handed pitcher who played parts of four decades in professional baseball.
Hudson, like many other kids, played T-ball at an early age. He even had a collection of Paige baseball cards as a youngster. But the East Dundee native ultimately chose a different path for his athletic pursuits: gymnastics.
"That's my one and only love," Hudson said when asked to come up with a favorite sport beside the one he competed in at Illinois.
Two years ago, however, Hudson wondered if his gymnastics career was over.
Hudson, then a junior on the Illinois-Chicago men's gymnastics team, learned the Flames were disbanding their men's and women's programs at the end of the 2018-19 school year.
"That was out of nowhere," Hudson remembers of the news that broke in August 2018. "It was a complete blindside."
Hudson had two choices: Compete for one more season at UIC and be without gymnastics as a senior or go elsewhere. Hudson had been a consistent performer for the Flames and was selected as the co-captain for what would have been his junior season.
Hudson decided to move on from UIC, rekindling a connection he had from back in high school.
Illinois was Hudson's top choice during his high school recruitment, after all, but "things just didn't work out that way."
The two-time IHSA state champion from Dundee-Crown High School said the door was left open, though, based on establishing ties with Illinois coach Justin Spring when Hudson was still in high school.
"I remember having that conversation (in 2016) with Justin and him asking me if I had any other options," Hudson said. "I told him, 'Yeah, I'm going to UIC.' He responded, 'Well, maybe you'll end up transferring one day, who knows?' I remember saying, 'Probably not. I'm going to build this relationship with the (UIC) team.'
"Then, all the sudden, (UIC) pulled the rug out from under us and I had to make that decision. I ended up calling him a couple years later and said, 'Hey you got a spot open for a rings guy?' He's like, 'You know what, we just might.'"
Spring said Hudson's growth in two-plus seasons at UIC was a big reason the Illinois coach found a place for him on the Illini's roster.
"I didn't want to close that door," Spring said of "planting the seed" in Hudson's head that joining the Illini might be a possibility one day. "I knew he was going to be a strong rings guy. I was hoping he would get some refinement. That's exactly what happened. He got insanely strong. That was the big missing piece in him getting here.
"He came in and exceeded our expectations, largely because of the character and personality piece he brought to the team."
It wasn't an easy transition, at least from a gymnastics perspective.
"They whopped me into shape," Hudson said with a laugh of his adjustment from UIC to Illinois. "That's for sure."
Hudson arrived on the Illinois campus for the spring semester at the beginning of 2019 and made his Illini debut on March 24 of that year in a meet at Ohio State.
Hudson would see action in three other meets last season on still rings for Illinois, including both the NCAA qualifiers and NCAA finals, with a season-best score of 13.700 on rings.
He became a regular in the Illini's still rings lineup this season, with seven appearances, led by a career-best score of 13.850 on rings in the Windy City Invitational on Jan. 18 in Chicago.
About two months later, Hudson's Illinois career was done.
With Illinois in Puerto Rico at the time ahead of a March 15 meet at the U.S. territory, the news came down on March 12 that the Big Ten and NCAA were both canceling all athletic competitions for the rest of the academic year - including winter and spring sports - due to the global health threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hudson and his teammates were at the top of a mountain waiting to zipline when Spring, who was also there, informed his team that the rest of the season had been canceled.
"It kind of floored us all for a little bit," Hudson said. "I remember asking, 'What do you mean (the season) is canceled?' I looked over at Sebastian Quinoa, a fellow senior, and was like, 'We're done. Bro, we're done with gymnastics.' That was when it really hit me. You sit down and it's like, 'What the heck, man?' It didn't feel real. It still doesn't feel real."
Illinois' season, after all, was supposed to have another month left in it, with the Big Ten championships and NCAA championships both on the horizon in April.
Instead, the Illini held an impromptu team banquet at the hotel in Puerto Rico, a few hours after the season was canceled on March 12 with each gymnast "saying their peace," according to Hudson. They enjoyed a day at the beach that Friday. Illinois would return from Puerto Rico shortly thereafter before most of athletes went back home after UI officials shifted the university to online classes for the rest of the spring semester.
Now, Hudson turns his attention to the next chapter in his life. He'll finish up his spring classes from his home in East Dundee and take a few summer classes with the plan to earn his bachelor's degree in communications by August.
After that, the Chicagoland native has a job lined up at Gentleman's Cooperative, a men's clothing store in downtown Chicago. He'll be an event coordinator for the store's corporate events, among other items.
While his college journey is almost over - and his gymnastics one is complete - the Illinois senior couldn't help but feeling thankful despite the adversity he endured in switching schools and going through a "deja vu moment" in watching both his UIC and UI gymnastics tenures end quicker than expected.
"The effect that a change in environment can have on an athlete," Hudson said of what stood out from his time at Illinois. "The switch from UIC to UI was a big one. It only changed me for the better, both in the gym and away from it. I have a greater appreciation for my education and for my athletic opportunities. You know when you lose something, like I lost at UIC, and you are given another chance, you appreciate it that much harder.
"Before every practice (at Illinois), we would walk into the gym and there's a block 'I' on the wall. Every time we walk in there, we would bow to it. It's kind of a ritual we all had. It kind of symbolizes committing all your time and your energy to what you have with the brotherhood that you've made at this program."
