Catching Up With Annie Hawthorne '14

She, her staff, and their players were well aware that the Knights were quick, fast, and supremely talented and one of the top teams in Central Virginia, but they were nowhere near prepared for the 80-20 defeat they absorbed that night in Chester and the very long bus ride home that followed.

 

“The immediate response was surprise,” the 2014 Collegiate graduate said one day recently as she reflected on the painful moment. “That wasn’t what we expected. Then there was some anger. I couldn’t believe we were scheduled to play them.”

 

Hawthorne knew instinctively, though, that living in the past, even the immediate past, would not be in her team’s best interest.

 

“We watch a lot of film, and it’s really helpful, but we didn’t show the Thomas Dale film to the girls,” Hawthorne said. “There were obviously a lot of learning moments in that game, but they weren’t about X’s and O’s. They were about how you respond to difficult teams and to your own self-doubts.

 

“We told them we were proud of them. We told them we needed to move forward and come back stronger. Remember that game, remember the feeling, but don’t dwell on it.”

 

The Hawks quickly regained their equilibrium.

 

They’ve now won five straight games. They won the Change Bracket of the 804 Coaches for Change Community Classic. Their record stands at 8-4. A Class 4 signatory in the Virginia High School League, they’re poised to make a run deep into the playoffs.

 

“I know all coaches say this,” she said, “but we’re looking to move forward and improve. I think we’ve improved tremendously throughout the season. The way we responded to the Thomas Dale game was amazing. When we played against Matoaca and St. Catherine’s [in the Community Classic], we hit the ground running. We were fast. We were confident. People really got to see that Hanover is no joke. We have only 11 girls, so we’re looking to keep growing and stay healthy and stay positive and keep getting better.”

 

At Collegiate, Hawthorne played varsity basketball for five years and, with 1,562 points, is the leading scorer in program history. She ranks first in made 2-point shots (458) and free throws (430), third in steals (213), and 10th in rebounds (439). She was honored four times as All-League of Independent Schools and thrice as All-VISAA.

 

She earned a B.A. in sociology from the University of Virginia, then moved to Denver, where, during the next three-and-a-half years, she worked several jobs, the last of which was in a residential treatment facility.

 

It was there that she developed an interest in working with children with mental health issues. She then returned to Richmond and earned a MEd in counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University. This is her first year as a school counselor and coach at Hanover.

 

One day recently as she geared up for the stretch run of her season, she spoke of her journey.

 

 

 

 

 

I got the counseling job first. Then, I emailed the athletic director (Bob Bollander) and said, “My name’s Annie Hawthorne. I’m a new counselor. I want to coach anything that you have.” I didn’t even say I wanted to coach basketball. I told him I’d coach any sport, but my background was mostly basketball, but I’ve also coached some (Cub) volleyball (at Collegiate). He said, “We actually have a varsity basketball position open.”  I thought, That’s not what I meant, but OK. I interviewed, and here I am.

 

The relationships with the girls, for sure. My friends now joke that I’m stuck in high school. All you do is hang out with high schoolers. Well, that’s my job. I love it. There’s something fun about the high school age. Maybe going back to Mayme Donohue’s mentorship for me. She got to see me develop. She taught me a lot of good things that I know and implement in the game and in my everyday life.  If you have the smallest impact on one kid, it’s all worth it.

 

 

  

~Weldon Bradshaw