There have been some accomplished basketball players on the Central Coast.
So many so, in fact, that sometimes tremendous players who put together historic careers get overlooked.
Is Hannah Walls one of those players?Â
Well, she certainly put together an impressive career during her days at Valley Christian. Though, not all agree that she was overlooked.
Walls won a CIF Southern Section championship with the Lions as a sophomore. She was a contributor on that squad and a starter, but didn't carry the team. That role went to Simone Swain, who was named league and CIF divisional MVP during that 2013-14 season.
Walls, though, blossomed at VCA. She was named the Coast Valley League during her final season there.Â
Randy Stanford, the head coach at VCA, speaks highly of the former Lion.
"She was one of the hardest working and most versatile kids that I've ever coached," Stanford says of Walls.
Just how versatile was Walls? Well Stanford says she went from playing inside for the first half of her career at VCA before completely changing roles and becoming a perimeter standout in the second half of her career.
"She played in the post her first two years," Stanford says. "We didn't have a point guard her junior year and she worked on her ball-handling all summer.
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"She did an amazing job playing the point. In her senior year, she was our tallest starter and she played point on offense and post on defense."
Walls' stats at VCA show her versatility and development. She averaged 6.0, 6.8 and 5.4 points per game in her first three seasons, respectively. She bumped that up to 13 points during her senior year.
She averaged 0.9 assists per game in her freshman season and 1.4 in her sophomore. She bumped that up to 6.0 during her junior season.Â
As a senior, the 5-foot-9 Walls averaged 13 points, 10.4 rebounds, six assists and 3.9 blocked shots a game. She scored 541 points, grabbed 492 rebounds, dished out 246 assists, made 227 steals and blocked 120 shots in 72 career games with the Lions.
After her prep days were done, Walls become a reliable player for Cary Nereli at Hancock College. She then transferred and played a season at Eastern Nazarene University.
In her final season at Hancock, Walls played in 20 games, averaging 6.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.
She played in 15 games at Eastern Nazarene, located in Quincy, Massachusetts, near Boston.
Walls' career at VCA is being highlighted as part of "The Other Girls" series, which aims to feature standout players who narrowly missed out on a Player of the Decade nomination or were overlooked during their prep careers. Submissions for athletes to be featured as part of the series can be sent to the author.Â
