Arizona Wildcats lineman Zach Hemmila remembered for fun, games

TEMPE — Arizona was supposed to hold its first practice in pads Tuesday.

Then it rained — and then it poured. Practice was delayed, and then canceled.

UA linebacker Cody Ippolito has a theory.

“When it was raining, I’m just thinking … Zach’s probably just trying to cancel practice,” he said.

Zach Hemmila, a fifth-year offensive lineman, was found dead Monday after he failed to report to practice. Hemmila died in his sleep sometime Sunday night or Monday morning, though a cause of death won’t be known for weeks.

The Wildcats practiced Wednesday for the first time since Hemmila’s passing, and the sun shined. The team was in Tempe following the Arizona Cardinals’ offer of their practice facilities.

The Star spoke with UA coach Rich Rodriguez and Hemmila’s UA teammates both before and after the Wildcats practiced at the Cardinals’ facility. Here’s what they said.

“He was always smiling”

Jacob Alsadek, junior offensive lineman: “He always used to smile. Especially toward the end, he would always smile. When I’m at practice, I’m very serious. I’m really into everything. I’m really hard on myself. He would always look at me and tell me to smile. That’s something I will never forget from him. … I think that helped me as a player this year especially. Just having him next to me, telling me to smile every day.”

Cody Ippolito, senior linebacker: “He did that for everyone. I could walk past him just having not that good of day, and he’d be like ‘Yo, what’s wrong?’ I was walking into a meeting (recently), he was walking out, and he’s like ‘Cody, what’s wrong with you?’ I was like, ‘Nothing.’ … He said, ‘Bro, put a little smile on your face.’ ”

Paul Magloire, senior linebacker: “Yeah, he was always smiling, always laughing, always joking with you, always saying something to somebody.”

Parker Zellers, junior defensive lineman: “There was just this attitude to him, the way he carries himself, that was just kind of funny. He was a great kid, and we definitely miss him.”

“A big teddy bear”

Josh Kern, senior tight end: “It sounds cliché to say it, but he really was kind of a big teddy bear.”

Ippolito: “Of course. I’m not gonna lie, I cuddled with him a couple times freshman year. He was great, he was a great friend.”

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Luca Bruno, junior defensive lineman: “Big teddy bear. He’s a big dude. Great hugs, man.”

“He would say — let’s play some video games?”

Alsadek: “After every game we would come home … we were both really tired. We would play FIFA (soccer) together. … When we were living together, we’d come home and play each other at least one, two games a day. He liked Real Madrid a lot. I think he was a big Ronaldo fan.”

DaVonte’ Neal, senior cornerback: “Zach and I, we played Xbox together all the time. From our sophomore to our junior year, we maybe missed an Xbox day one or two days. We played Xbox nonstop. On your Xbox, you have your favorites. He’s one of my favorites.”

Zellers: “He beat me like 5-0 (in FIFA). I heard DaVonte’ talking about it. I was sitting there laughing about it. He used to bring the Xbox to (Westin) La Paloma the night before games. He was definitely a gamer. I just tried to observe, because he’d kick my butt.”

Neal: “I would never play him in FIFA. Zach was too good. Way too good. He would say — let’s play some video games? I said, I’ll play video games with you, but I will not pop in FIFA, because I know you play that all day. That was his game. Anybody who knows Zach knows that. He would do some stuff where I’d be like, I didn’t know you could do that in the game.”

“That dude loved to eat”

Alsadek: “He always used to hide chips in his room. I don’t know if that’s funny. He wasn’t supposed to eat chips.”

Bruno: “He was my roommate (last year). That dude loved to eat with me, to go eat dinner. We went to a sorority donut thing one night, that was a good memory. It was supposed to be all you can eat, but it was only four (donuts). But we knew some people there, our girlfriends were in it, and, yeah, we got a lot more donuts than that.”

Kern: “I was texting (former Arizona offensive lineman) T.D. Gross a couple days ago, and we were kind of sharing funny memories of Zach. (Gross) said he was the only kid he knew that had to leave a class for talking when the teacher was deaf, because it was sign language.”

“He always workED hard”

Zellers: “As we’d come to the middle before practice, we’d look at each other. We’d give each other a nod, a little handshake and say, ‘Let’s go to work. Let’s make each other better.’ It’s definitely different not having him out here.”

Magloire: “He was the starting center, so I used to talk to him all the time, I’d always see him and we’d always talk trash.”

Rodriguez: “There were a couple times I wasn’t happy with him and questioning whether he would stay with the program. The last 2½ years, it’s been remarkable how he’s grown as a person, as a player.”

Alsadek: “He always worked hard. He always wanted to work hard. He always wanted to do his best. Toward the end, when he was at practice, that was the happiest I’ve ever seen him in my whole life that I’ve known him.”