COVENTRY, RI (WPRI) — This week’s Cardi’s Furniture & Mattresses Hometown Sports Hero is Hannah Hawley.
An All-State pick in each of her softball seasons with Coventry, Hawley’s two-run home run helped the Knotty Oakers clinch their second straight RIIL Division I softball title.
“She’s just a great leader, when she’s up, the teams up,” Coventry head coach Chris Daigneault said. “And that was my conversations with her sometimes, ‘Hey, you don’t have to get that bit hit, all you need to do for right now is catch, call good pitches and they will see your leadership carry through and you can take us to that promise land without getting that big hit.’ But she did get that big hit too, so that was a bonus. It was awesome to see her running around the bases with a smile on her face for that Home Run. It was great.”
The finals appearance was Coventry’s fourth straight, a legacy Hawley is proud to have been a part of.
“We’ve always been super competitive and since this team grew up together, I mean the last few years we’ve all grown up playing together, we’ve been around the same environment,” Hawley said. “I think that’s set in for us, being around each other and knowing how we play together has made everything so much easier. And it’s made the culture of the high school team and the middle school team, it’s just made it perfect.”
Hannah will challenge herself against the best next year when she heads to play at South Carolina. The Gamecocks have made seven NCAA appearances in the last nine seasons and the SEC will welcome defending National Champion, Oklahoma, and National Runner up, Texas, to the conference next spring.
“I know it’s definitely going to be a challenge; I mean I’ve already started my Summer conditioning and that’s been you know, a challenge, but I think it’s something I’m ready for,” Hawley said. “It’s obviously going to be hard; I’m playing the best competition. It really doesn’t get much better than the SEC. But I know I’m walking in with a lot of good girls to play with, a lot of good coaching. We just got a new hitting coach and I’m ready for that, ready to meet him and get going do I really don’t think I’m afraid. I’m more excited that anything to get going and experience it, because it’s not something a lot of people get to do.”
If you have a Hometown Sports Hero you’d like to nominate, email sports@wpri.com.