Anderson wins Athena award for excellence in athletics

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Photo courtesy of Hannah Anderson.

“I definitely looked up to my brother when I was a little kid, because he taught me a lot and we would skate on our pond or shoot pucks in the basement. I learned a lot from him and he was pretty competitive like me,” Anderson said.

The Athena award is an award given to a female student that accels in athletics at their school. 43 schools participate in the event in Minnesota. This year senior Hannah Anderson has won the award for Stillwater. Anderson is a three sports athlete, she plays soccer in the fall, hockey in the winter and runs track in the fall.

The award began in 1972, behind the Greek goddess Athena. Athena is the goddess of wisdom and skills. She also posses the gifts of dignity, power and youth. Past recipients for Stillwater are class of 2015 Megan Weaver and class of 2010 Olympian Jessie Diggins.

Anderson said, “It was truly an honor to receive this award because only one senior girl from each of the 43 high schools in the St.Paul area is a recipient for this award. The award is based on athletic achievement and I’m honored to be the recipient from Stillwater Area High School.”

Playing sports year round there is never much of an off season to train for the next sport. Anderson uses the sport she is in at the time and also lifts to get better. During the summer she attends various camps to improve her game for her sports.

Anderson said, “Throughout the summers I have done multiple camps for both soccer and hockey. Regarding track, I joined a track club last summer called Minnesota Track Elite in which we would practice Monday-Thursday in the summer and participate in meets almost every weekend.”

Being a captain for the soccer team and the track team is also a high honor Anderson has earned throughout her high school career. Anderson has ran varsity track since eighth grade and played varsity hockey and soccer since tenth grade. With a couple years under her belt on the varsity level for her sports, makes her very valuable to the team.

Junior Ava Yokanovich who participates in Hockey and Track with Anderson said, “Hannah is encouraging and inspiring to say the least. She does what she has to do and always works her hardest. She is very [valuable] as she gets our team lots of points at true team meets.”

Anderson is not only a strong leader on the teams, but she brings her work ethic to practice as she strives to be the best. People are born with athletic talent, but few put the work in to succeed. This is not the case for Anderson.

Junior Emma Anderson, who has played soccer with her for three years, said, “She has an incredible work ethic and she is just an all around exceptional athlete which is why she experiences so much success.”

Anderson’s high school sports career may be coming to a close at SAHS, but she is on to the next chapter. Next year, Anderson will be running track at the University of North Dakota.

High school sports will always be a memory for her as she said, “There’s something so special about high school sports and the memories and friendships that come along the way.”