{"id":46986,"date":"2023-12-07T14:51:19","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T14:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=46986"},"modified":"2023-12-07T14:51:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T14:51:19","slug":"adversity-is-no-stranger-for-student-athlete-hannah-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2023\/12\/07\/adversity-is-no-stranger-for-student-athlete-hannah-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Adversity is no stranger for student-athlete Hannah Best"},"content":{"rendered":"
By John Orrell<\/em>
\nLandmark Correspondent<\/em><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 To witness and fully comprehend the spirited play that Wachusett Regional High senior Hannah Best delivers when on the volleyball or basketball court is nothing short of astounding, considering the adversity and hardships she has had to overcome. It\u2019s been a painful and traumatic experience, as she related to The Landmark in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was playing basketball, and I tore my ACL. It was a week before volleyball tryouts last year. I missed my entire junior year for both sports,\u201d Best recalled. \u201cI had surgery at the end of September and was cleared in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you tear your ACL, you think of people rolling on the ground screaming, but for me, it was the opposite. I came to a jump stop and I felt a tweak, and I kind of just walked it off. I finished the tryout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve rolled my ankle so many times, and I didn\u2019t think anything of it. The next morning I woke up, and it felt kind of stiff. My mom took me to the doctor and I got an MRI, and that\u2019s when they told me that it was fully torn and the only way to fix that was surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a brace that went from my hip to my foot and then there were crutches. It was a lot of physical therapy. I felt like I was there every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHannah is a competitor,\u201d volleyball varsity head coach Jennifer Burton said. \u201cShe has worked hard at her position and has become one of the best blockers in the league. She doesn\u2019t get rattled, which helps her teammates to settle down in competitive situations. She is well-liked by her teammates and has a calming influence on the court. She is direct with her teammates but supports them in a good-natured way during practice and games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHannah\u2019s very no-nonsense. She’s out there for one reason and that’s to play her best, and to help her team get the win. She’s a quick learner who works hard and is very coachable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best, who hails from Holden, was first introduced to what would be her chosen sports by her father, who himself was an accomplished athlete. His influence led to achievements that resulted from hard work and commitment to team.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad is a huge basketball guy. He played at Holy Name, Assumption and then professional,\u201d Best said. \u201cHe signed me up for recreational leagues in first and second grade, and I\u2019ve been playing basketball since then. I played AAU, and my dad convinced me that I should try volleyball. Freshman year I decided to sign up. I did, and I loved it. This is my fourth year playing volleyball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played for AAU Bay State Jaguars, and we traveled across country. I also did the same thing for volleyball. I played club and tried to get to as many clinics as I could.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people I\u2019ve met through sports have become some of my best friends. The friends I made in fourth-grade tryouts have made me so close to my teammates. I\u2019ve built relationships that I\u2019ll have forever. Seeing them every day at practice is one of my main motivations. We became very close last year, and it won\u2019t be like we\u2019re controlling the team; rather, we\u2019ll make it fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best will experience a new phenomenon in the oncoming basketball season, which will begin shortly. She will be a captain on the 2024 squad and is more than ready to show her leadership skills, which will be counted on heavily by WRHS basketball coach Jim Oxford.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a captain, we have to look out for everybody and make sure they\u2019re doing their job. Growing up, I always did the camps and school, and I always looked up to the counselors,\u201d Best said. \u201cNow I feel it\u2019s like me being looked up to, and I really have to make sure we\u2019re strong and are what the younger kids would want us to be like.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sophomore and junior years in basketball, we made it to the final four in the Division 1 State Tournament. This year, we\u2019re looking to do that again or go even farther. We have a super-strong team this year, with seven seniors out of 12 (players). Playoffs are the time we look forward to, and I\u2019m really excited for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been someone who gets kind of nervous even though I\u2019ve been playing forever, but I feel like when I start, all the nerves go away. It can be intimidating when there\u2019s a big crowd. We warm up, and I get more excited than nervous, which is good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best not only takes pride in her sports endeavors but also her academic success. She is a member of the National Honor Society and has earned high honors in all quarters of her time at Wachusett. Combining sports and academics, and doing it well, has been something she has mastered, which is not always the case with student-athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving to balance sports and schoolwork has been tough, but I feel like I\u2019ve been able to do it over the years. My grades have been really good over timen, and I feel like it motivates me to do better in school, which motivates me to do better in sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe missed Hannah last season. She definitely would have helped us when we faced Andover in the state semifinals,\u201d said Oxford. \u201cHannah is a pleasure to coach. She works hard, strives to be a good teammate, and wants to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to push Hannah out more on the offensive end. She has become a much better shooter, and we want her to be consistent shooting threes. Hannah makes everyone on the floor better. She’s positive, mentally tough and understands the game well. I think Hannah will do a great job as a captain. She’ll lead by example. She can also be straightforward with her teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best is aware that the expression \u2018Mountaineer pride\u2019 carries significance throughout the school and community, and she carries that pride with her whenever suiting up in a Wachusett uniform.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s just a jersey, but the word Wachusett represents so much more than that. Wachusett represents everyone I\u2019ve known over the years, the school in general, the coaches and what it means to be a Mountaineer. It\u2019s a privilege that I get to wear that jersey because we have a lot of pride when it comes to this school.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Orrell Landmark Correspondent HOLDEN \u2014 To witness and fully comprehend the spirited play that Wachusett Regional High senior Hannah Best delivers when on the volleyball or basketball court is nothing short of astounding, considering the adversity and hardships she has had to overcome. It\u2019s been a painful and traumatic experience, as she related […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}