2026 DB/WR Charlie Hanafin High On UMass
2026 Massachusetts athlete Charlie Hanafin is impressed with the new UMass staff.
Charlie Hanafin already has some tremendous college options and more are sure to come his way, but one option the 2026 Massachusetts athlete knows he’ll be taking a hard look at is UMass.
The Dexter Southfield star picked up an offer from the new Minutemen staff last month and made his way to Amherst for the January Junior Day as well.
“It was great,” the 6-foot-2, 184-pounder told Minuteman Command. “It's a brand new coaching staff.
“It was great to meet all the coaches and see what it's all about and it seems like they're heading in the right direction. It was great.”
Hanafin visited Amherst last summer and could sense the change under new head coach Joe Harasymiak.
“You could feel there was an energy that was different,” he said. “You could feel an energy. All the coaches had it. You could feel it in the room. There was an excitement about what they were bringing to the program and what they're looking to change there and build. The energy there was noticeable.”
Hanafin also has offers from schools like Boston College, Yale, Brown, Penn and New Hampshire.
He could play defensive back or receiver in college and isn’t really worried about what position he plays.
“I see myself as a football player, first and foremost,” he said. “I see myself as a football player and as an athlete. I pride myself on just being athletic wherever I am.
“In my meeting with Coach H, he said he saw my athleticism in my film and could see me as a safety there or receiver. He picked that out in the film and saw me on both sides of the ball.”
Harasymiak made a major impression on Hanafin.
“He was great,” Hanafin said of the coach. “He was the one who kickstarted that energy that I saw in the room. When he talked, everything he had to say was similar to things that I've been taught at home, similar to things I've been hearing from my parents, from my brothers and from coaches I've grown up with and heard talk at the highest level. He brought in all of those aspects.”
Hanafin is looking forward to getting back to Amherst in the coming months.
“We're in the midst of working through how to get there for some spring practices and ironing out what we're doing for that,” he said. “But I'm definitely going to be getting up there as soon as I can.
“I'm really looking forward to going to see practice and see the team, see the guys and see what the environment is like there with the team.”
Hanafin has an idea of what will matter most when he’s making his decision.
“First, the people that I'm around,” he said. “Division-I football is a full-time job and I want to be around the people who are going to be best-suited to make me a better man, a better person, a better football player and go through life. Also have great academics and a great culture there.”
One of Hanafin’s older brothers, Shane, is a quarterback at Boston College, and another, Ronan, is a safety at Clemson. Hanafin had a front row seat for both of their recruitments.
“Going into it, I kind of didn't know what to expect for myself,” he said. “I know that everybody's recruiting process is different in a lot of ways, a lot of respects. I knew that it was going to be different for me than it was for Ronan and Shane.
“I was able to watch from a distance and kind of pick up on some things, looking at especially Ronan's recruitment as it was kind of closer to when I was getting recruited and take the things he did right, the things he did wrong and kind of build off of what he had. Obviously, he's in a great spot.”
One major takeaway for Hanafin was to do his best to not let his list get too wide; to let the schools he’s interested in know and let the schools he’s not interested know too.
The Minutemen certainly fall in the former category.
“UMass is in the mix. Yes, absolutely.”