“Know from the start, you not guardin’ Haille Hart!”
The fan holds up the sign, displaying the words and cheering loudly along with the crowd. 19-year old Haille Hart runs to the basketball court as her name rings over the loudspeaker, each syllable vibrating around the stadium and igniting the support in the spectators.
For years, Haille would continue to grace many stadiums playing the position as a center or forward and bringing major support to her team. She scores points, gains rebounds, and appears in each game ready to help her team solidify a win. Haille has been playing basketball since middle school and now as a college sophomore, she plays basketball maintaining the same drive and positive work ethic she’s had throughout her life.
“Basketball really is my life right now. I played it when I was younger. I play now in college. Even my papers are around basketball like it’s really my life,” she says.
The exposure and support of Haille’s environment provide her influences her desire to play basketball. Both her mother and father have played basketball during their high school years. In addition to playing in high school, her father also played professionally overseas in other countries in the world. Furthermore, Haille’s teachers would encourage Haille to play as well.
“My teachers in elementary school would say to me all the time that I should play ball. Having these people and my parents around me supporting me, pushing for me to play helped motivate me to start and keep playing.”
Some of Haille’s biggest accomplishments throughout her student-athlete career is committing to a college and receiving a scholarship to play there. Being a student-athlete makes her more confident and determined to work hard in everything that she does. She also receives opportunities as a student-athlete to network and meets with other players, coaches, and even young aspiring basketball players. These opportunities help her make a strong positive impact on her.
Haille uses these experiences to help her inspire others. She says, “I want to motivate others using my experience. I want to show people that you have to be confident and be willing to work hard for the goals you want in your life.”
As a young woman of color, Haille notices the negativity that surrounds the black community, mainly through social media. She notes that the way some black influencers and individuals carry themselves on social media isn’t appropriate and doesn’t help with the image of all people of color. “People really do make themselves look bad and everyone is going to notice that. People notice the bad before the good, and that bad doesn’t help combat negativity for black people,” she says.
Haille believes a possible solution for this would be to promote more of the good surrounding people of color, particularly using social media. “We shouldn’t be liking and sharing the beef between people or the negative images that others may put on their pages. There are still good things happening. We need to use social media as a platform to share more of that.”
In life, Haille works hard and shows personal grit toward achieving the goal of success and that positive image for people to continuously see. She uses her faith in God and her consistent supporters to help her take the right steps to get her to her success. Haille hopes to use her experience, both on and off the court, to build her community. She wants to graduate school and work in sports management where she can become a mentor for other athletes. She also wants to give back to everyone throughout her life who has invested in her.
As she journeys through her life, Haille wants to be remembered as hardworking and consistently never giving up. She wants to leave people inspired to follow their dreams and to keep working for what they believe in.
“You can’t give up. You have to keep pushing. You have to keep working.”
To follow more about Haille, check her out on Instagram at @haille_hart!
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