Soccer, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Caitlin Clark
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating New Hope away in a very close game. It was where I noticed there was something different about this season and about this team.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Throwing the ball against the backboard during an inbounds play with less than 10 seconds on the clock.
Music on my playlist: SZA and Drake.
Future plans: Attend college to study biomedical engineering.
One goal before turning 30: Travel to at least 10 different countries.
One thing people don’t know about me: My mom also attended Springfield, and when she was a senior, they qualified for districts as well.
By GORDON GLANTZ
Springfield girls’ basketball coach David Giordano, currently the acting athletic director at Springfield, doesn’t need any sheet music to sing the praises of senior forward Hannah Brandon.
A team captain, Brandon is a first-year starter who earned her way up the ladder from junior varsity as a sophomore to rotational player as a junior to full-time starter and team leader.
But there is more to her than that.
“She is not a superstar, but she is a super person,” said Giordano. “Hannah is four-year girls’ basketball and four-year soccer player. She is a straight-A, 4-point who-knows-what student.”
What strikes Giordano, among other traits, is Brandon’s team-first attitude.
“Her character is impeccable,” he said. “The key thing with her from since she was a freshman to now as a senior captain is, ‘What can I do for our team? What can I do for my teammates?’ It’s always about someone else. It’s never about her. She doesn’t want the limelight. She just wants to be successful as a team. She is inclusive with the other kids in both basketball and soccer.”
Brandon missed her senior soccer season with anemia but takes iron daily to keep herself on the hardwood.
“She didn’t play her senior year with soccer, but she never missed a practice or a game,” said Gioradano. “For basketball, she has been a stellar scholar-athlete.”
Making a Difference
Brandon doesn’t plan to be a student-athlete at the collegiate level. She is currently looking at colleges, primarily south of the Mason-Dixon Line (South Carolina, Clemson) with a plan to major in biomedical engineering.
“I’ve always really liked science and math,” she said. “My grandfather was in science. I always knew that if I went that way, I would have a lot of support from my family because he’s very passionate about that.”
Brandon also developed the passion for science and research because two of her grandparents have struggled with the unforgiving ravages of Alzheimer’s disease.
“All the colleges I’ve applied to - in terms of research - have labs going for the disease, but it’s so complex,” she said. “It’s so incurable right now. It’s very scary to think about.
“It’s really been something that has affected my life. I think if I was able to stick with that major and get into that field, it would be really rewarding for me to be in a career where I can say, ‘I’m doing research on this. I know what it has done to my life.’
“If I can be part of anything that would make that disease a little bit less horrible for other people, it would make me feel satisfied with what I’m doing.”
At a small school like Springfield, Brandon has learned to redefine what it means to win, seeing it as a microcosm for life.
That will serve her well when digging in against Alzheimer’s for which there is no current cure nor real treatment for what is the seventh leading cause of death and the most common cause of dementia.
“You’re not going to win every game, but you can have the smaller victories,” she said. “There are still good things to take away.”
Family Roots
Brandon’s mother, Amanda (formerly Cartier), was a member of the Springfield Class of 1992 and also played basketball.
Her teammate back then was Katie Coll, who scored 1,000 points and is now a physical education teacher. The Spartans were a district qualifier, meaning Brandon’s mom got to play in the postseason.
“She wasn’t super serious about basketball, but she played all four years while she was in high school,” said Brandon, who thanked both her parents, including her dad, Mark, for their love and support. “She went to Springfield, and I grew up here. They won their league and went to districts. We play in the same gym. They’ve done some
renovations, but it’s still the same.”
The sense of history serves as an inspiration, but Brandon says there was no real pressure on her to play.
“Both of my parents are tall,” she said. “Growing up, I just started playing, maybe around third grade. They never really pushed me or anything. It was just more like, ‘This is fun, I’ll keep doing it.’”
She added that soccer was always more social that serious.
“I played since I was kid,” she said. “I have a lot of friends playing it, so I kept with it throughout high school.
“I’ve always liked basketball. I like having a smaller team better than a bigger team. It’s better for motivation, I guess. I’m good at motivating myself. With basketball, I know I can make more of a difference, so I pushed myself harder.”
Brandon, like most seniors, only got a few JV games under her belt as a freshman during the COVID-shortened season, and it may have impeded her development a bit.
“That was kind of rough,” she said. “Junior year was really my first year on varsity. I really put a lot of work in. I wanted to set myself up for having a good senior year. Being named as captain was a really nice reward for showing up and putting a lot of work in during my junior year.”
As for being a captain, it is a role she takes seriously – and not just during games and practices.
“I just have a natural outgoing and social personality,” she said. “It came naturally to be vocal on and off the court. I think that leading by example is something that I do that’s important because I focus a lot on schoolwork, too. I think that is a nice example for my teammates, to show a balance between being a student and an athlete. Being a leader, I also try to keep my composure on the court.”
On a Role
Although the 5-9 Brandon is more of a role player who is relied upon for her inbounds passing prowess and playing well in transition, she has great admiration for Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who just broke the NCAA scoring record.
Said Brandon: “I think she is a great example of a confident player, and I think her recent accomplishment is inspiring the female athletes everywhere.”
As for being a role model herself, Brandon believes it begins at home. Younger sister Keara is moving through the ranks of the Springfield program.
Keara is a sophomore.
“It has been really great having her with me,” she said. “It has motivated me a lot to be an extra layer of a role model, just knowing that she is my sister.
“She wasn’t really sure about playing in high school, but I think that me being on the team was a big force for her to play. She really likes it.”
Rarified Air
As for being a student, Brandon’s success is unmatched. She currently ranks second in the class with a 4.7 GPA on an almost unattainable 5.0 scale.
She will likely be the class salutatorian.
“It means a lot,” said Brandon. “I do try. Being second person to the first, I don’t know - you get so close and you’re still second. At the same time, I like to factor in a lot of the time that I’ve spent doing extracurricular activities. Being second is still impressive, considering all of the other things I do.
“I wouldn’t say school is everything, but I do spend a lot of time with school.”
Brandon is the vice president of the Community Service Club, she is in the Decca Club and the National Honor Society.
Somewhere in there, she finds time to eat and sleep.
“I have a pretty good time management schedule,” she said. “We have a pretty regular practice schedule, and I have a pretty good routine of setting time aside before and after practice.”
Brandon, who hopes to travel to 10 countries by the age of 30 and has already been to three (with two more coming this summer) also finds time to do some waitressing at a local restaurant on Sundays, which is an ideal fit for her social personality.
“I like it,” she said. “I have had a lot of nice conversations with people through it. It’s nice to just talk to people sometimes.
“I like to keep myself busy. I don’t slack off.”
