Born: November 14, 1995
Place of Birth: Philadelphia, PA
Zodiac Sign: Scorpio
Da'Shawn Hand is an American defensive end for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Alabama.
Hand was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, fathered by Sharif Hand, a junior in high school when Da'Shawn was born. Hand's uncle, Damone Boone, was a Parade All-American running back at West Springfield in Virginia in the mid-1990s.
After moving to Woodbridge, Virginia, Hand attended Woodbridge High School, where he was a three-sport athlete in football, wrestling, and track. In football, he was an All-State defensive lineman. In his junior year, Hand recorded 110 tackles, 16 sacks, 40 tackles for loss, two pass deflections, four forced fumbles, and three fumble recoveries. Woodbridge finished the season 6–5, losing 0–17 to Haymarket Battlefield in the first round of the VHSL playoffs. After his junior year, Hand was named Rivals.com Junior of the Year, an honor that comes with being rated the No. 1 prospect of one's class entering the senior season. Media attention steadily increased, and The Washington Post made Hand the subject of a documentary series named First and 17, which followed him both on and off the field, "giving an inside look at the challenges facing a top recruit juggling school, football, and his senior year."
In addition to playing football, Hand also excelled in wrestling and track. He was a regional champion in Virginia wrestling. In track & field, he competed primarily as a thrower but also spent some time as a sprinter during his final year in 2014. At the Runner Store City-County Championships, he earned a second-place finish in the shot put event, recording a career-best throw of 15.81 meters (51 ft, 9 in). He placed 11th in the discus at the Gojekian Twilight Classic, notching a top throw of 35.66 meters (116 ft, 9 in). He clocked a 12.24-second 100-meter dash time in sprints at the 2014 Garfield Meet, where he took 7th. He ran a 4.7-second 40-yard dash and had a 33-inch vertical jump.
Hand was considered the nation's best recruit in the 2014 class by Rivals.com. 2012, he was the Rivals High School Football Junior of the Year. With over 90 scholarship offers, Hand narrowed down his choice of college destination to three—Alabama, Florida, and Michigan—before the start of his senior season. On November 14, 2013, his eighteenth birthday, he committed to attend the University of Alabama. Eyeing a civil engineering major, Hand cited Alabama's civil engineering program as one of the key reasons he chose the Crimson Tide.
Hand attended Alabama from 2014 to 2017 under head coach Nick Saban. In his freshman year at Alabama, Hand was a regular in the Crimson Tide defensive line rotation and played nine games at defensive end. He started his college career with one solo tackle against West Virginia. Hand finished with seven tackles, including four solo stops and two sacks (−10 yards). Hand started nine of the 11 games he played in 2017, missing time with a minor knee injury. He had 27 tackles, 3.5 for loss, and three sacks in the season.