Volleyball, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Morgan Hentz
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning three conference championships in three years.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I followed a ball to the line and it hit my leg before it dropped out.
Music on playlist: Country music
Future plans: Nursing
Words to live by: “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.”
One goal before turning 30: I want to see the aurora borealis.
One thing people don’t know about me: I’ve watched the movie Bohemian Rhapsody at least 10 times.
By GORDON GLANTZ
If you want to judge Hatboro-Horsham senior Jessica Howard by what you see on the surface, you run the risk of not knowing the constant battle the Hatboro-Horsham volleyball standout wages within.
It is a battle not as much against opponents in the Suburban One League, where the libero (backrow defensive specialist) has helped lead the Hatters to three straight conference crowns, but against herself to be the best she can be.
“I’m a very competitive person,” said Howard. “I’m very passionate about the sports I play. The drive to compete and play well kind of led me through it all. A lot of people kind of saw me, and maybe saw natural talent and didn’t understand the hard work I put into all the sports that I played.”
Howard may seem like the ideal student-athlete who has everything naturally in her lap, but that is far from the case.
For example, she also starts for the basketball team and carries a 3.8 grade-point average with a course load that includes two AP classes last year and this year.
Howard is also active in almost too many clubs within the school to count.
While the scholastic highway is littered with athletic and academic underachievers, the fourth of Edward and Janet’s five student-athlete children did not want to be found in the middle lane getting passed by others.
“It’s definitely hard, with a lot of clubs and sports. I’ve taken a lot of hard classes -- four AP classes the last two years -- and all honors classes,” she said. “My parents and coaches always tell me that I’m the hardest person on myself. I expect a lot out of myself as a person, as a player and as a leader in clubs. I definitely put myself under a lot of pressure.”
Overcoming Adversity
Other than her family – namely older sister, Jennifer, who is an assistant volleyball coach at H-H -- no one knows about Howard’s inner drive better than Hatter head coach Jon Young, who coached her going back to when she first picked up the sport at age 12.
“I think something that separates Jess from a lot of players out there isn't all that obvious and requires a bit of vulnerability to come to terms with,” said Young. “People tend to see a player like Jess and think of confidence, competitiveness, talent, capability, and just overall competence. It's interesting as they tend to think these things came naturally or easy in some way.”
Having played a role in easing her transition as a sophomore, after transferring into H-H after one year at Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Young is well-aware that his two-year captain has as many moments of apprehension and pain – physical and otherwise – as anyone else.
Said Young: “She's experienced self-doubt, personal and team performance frustration, failure, disappointment, burnout, coaching and teammate confrontation, injuries, the demands and pressures of a winning program, balancing of academics/athletics, and so much more. Frankly the adversity she's had to overcome is hard to get a grasp on in its full breadth.”
Rising as a Leader
Despite coming to the school as a sophomore, and going to Catholic grade school prior to that, Howard fit in well and her natural leadership skills did not take long to show themselves.
“Simply stated, Jess is the type of student-athlete that despite your experience and all that you do to learn, prepare, and grow as a coach constantly makes you want to be a better coach and person for her,” said Young. “She embodies this both on and off the court constantly in her focus on academics and dedication to her roles in sports, Student Council, efforts in Partnership (An HH service club), Social Media Chair (class of 2021) and heavy involvement in both H-H Link Crew and Red & Black, both of which are substantial portions of the Hatboro-Horsham High School culture.”
Young added that he receives “countless unsolicited feedback” on her genuine character.
“To be frank, we're not all that surprised,” he said.
All Howard knows is that leading is not something she needs to force.
“I would say that my coaches have put that upon me, and I can accept that,” she said. “I love leading my teammates. I have been a captain for two years now, and that is super important to me. Younger players know they can look up to me and that I’m there when they need me.”
Howard also points to her parents for letting her think for herself from an early age, and make some big decision, for enhancing the wisdom she shares with teammates.
“My parents have been there for me through everything,” said Howard, who is also grateful to older brothers Thomas and Joseph and younger sister, Alyssa, for their support. “They have both pushed me so hard and have given me every opportunity I could want. They also made sure I made my own decisions, whether it was switching high schools or to play a sport a not.”
Strange Days
Adding to the pressure she places on herself, there is the outside world that remains out of her control.
Under the COVID-19 cloud, the Hatters have been relatively fortunate to get an early start and play nearly a full slate of games.
Still, it’s been rather different for such a vibrant presence within the school walls to spend her day learning remotely and then coming to school to practice with the team under strict guidelines.
“It’s definitely been harder,” said Howard. “We have had to adjust to a lot. Going to practice after school, after a long day, is definitely harder. You go from seeing nobody throughout the school day to seeing your team for three hours at night.”
Sense of Urgency
As intense as she has been about sports, particularly volleyball, Howard reached a difficult but mature decision about her future.
She has decided to sacrifice sports at the next level to focus on her chosen career goal of nursing.
“I’ve been told growing up that I’d make a great lawyer,” she said. “I became interested in nursing – specifically, pediatric nursing – because I have been going to a camp for the last five years and worked with kids who have cerebral palsy. That’s a 90-hour week of service, and that’s when I first became interested in working with kids.
“Also, my uncle got sick recently with a rare brain disease. The efforts that everyone has put into taking care of him definitely deepened my desire to become a nurse.”
While she could have likely found a smaller school with both a volleyball and nursing program, her priorities were in order.
“I thought about it for a while, because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play a sport in college,” said Howard. “When I decided I didn’t want to, I looked, specifically, for the best nursing schools that have hospitals on campus.”
At the top of that list is Boston College, but she hasn’t ruled out Virginia, Villanova, Clemson, South Carolina and North Carolina.
“My decision to not play sports was definitely hard,” added Howard, who was recruited to playing for the basketball team after being spotted holding her own in gym class playing with the boys, a path she chose in lieu of badminton with the girls. “I grew up playing sports my entire life, but I think it was the right decision. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve prepared myself to let go of certain things from high school.”
This means that she is confronting the end of her career with the same verve that she entered with as a converted soccer player at age 12.
Howard has high hopes that the Hatters can go far in what will be a truncated postseason.
“It’s definitely going to be different and more competitive for us,” she said. “The opportunity is still there, but it will be different.”
Howard points to the fact that the Hatters are one of the teams that have been playing since the start of the season, which may provide an advantage.
Recent history of a program on the upswing under Young’s coaching and her on-court leadership as a two-year captain suggests optimism.
“We didn’t win our conference for 12 years until three years ago,” she said. “Since then, for the last three years, we have won it. We made it to the second round of districts each year. This year, we are definitely preparing and planning to go as far as possible.”
As the avid country music fan closes the chapter on playing volleyball for keeps (there is always the net that the family has up in the backyard almost year-round to fall back on), any pressure she is putting on herself is having no regrets when the end comes.
Wanting to extend thanks to all the teammates she has had at H-H, from the time of her transfer from Mount through to when they drove an hour to cheer her on in a playoff basketball game, she said: “Definitely, with COVID this year, and thinking that each game could be my last, and the season could be called at any second – or we could lose and that could be it for me – that has driven me to take not take each day for granted. I want to be proud of what I left out on that court.”
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