Choice of basketball over tennis takes Hattie Sloyan to 2024 East-West All-Star game (2024)

Hattie Sloyan had been playing basketball since fifth grade but took a break from the sport because of the COVID-19 pandemic. At that point, while she didn’t give up on the sport, she felt drawn to tennis, which she had played since age four.

While the recent Page graduate maintained a passion for tennis, playing through her senior year, basketball became her favorite last summer after doing workouts she thought she would hate for the Greensboro Gaters AAU team with coach Reggie Dillard.

“It was honestly sort of recently,” Sloyan said. “I feel like I keep bringing up the summer before senior year I would say. I was just putting the actual work in. Most summers, I would just play basketball every day and stuff, but I really wouldn’t enjoy it. But doing the workouts and then just being on a team surrounded by good people who also want to do the same things I want to do and have the same goals, I think that was really good and it was also nice to know you have something that separates you.”

Sloyan said that Dillard, a former boys hoops star at Greensboro Day, was often hard on the team, including having them run 22s, 33s and 44s, which meant two down and backs in 22 seconds then three in 33, etc. But instead of driving her away, doing the difficult 6 a.m. workouts, coming back multiple times a day and competing with several all-area-level players brought bonding through the challenge and a feeling of affirmation as the coach gave recognition for hard work.

“I would say he was definitely super hard on us, but I just think he also inspired me to be a better player, especially the competition from Gaters,” Sloyan said. “A lot of the girls were really good, so I just wanted to be better or as good as them, so I enjoyed that.”

On Monday, Sloyan, a 5-foot-10 forward, will participate in the East-West All-Star Women’s Basketball Game. The game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Novant Health Fieldhouse at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex. She becomes the first Page product to play in the game since Ashley Shipp in 1997 after leading the Lady Pirates with 15.3, six rebounds, three steals and just under one block per game as a senior.

“I want to represent Page well,” said Sloyan, who will play for Division III Emmanuel College in Boston. “I just want to see what the competition is like because all of those girls are playing in college and at the next level like I am, so I’m excited to experience that. There are also a lot of Charlotte-area girls and even a lot in Greensboro, so I’m excited to compete against challenging players and hopefully I do well.”

Page girls basketball has experienced ups and downs during Sloyan’s time with the program, going 38-48 in four years of her being a varsity starter. For her, the all-star game means taking extra pride in providing a good showing for a school that she loves.

Entering 2023-24, Page came off a 12-12 season, with senior forwards Sloyan and Sutton Sherrill being the only returning starters. On top of that, Candice Williams, the 2022-23 Metro 4A Conference MVP, transferred to Greensboro Day.

The departures had Sloyan taking it upon herself to fill a leadership role with a growing confidence formed through offseason AAU sessions. The returning captain tried to instill principles of hard work, serving as an “older sister” for younger teammates, while demonstrating her desire by calling early morning workouts and in games being aggressive on defense and in getting rebounds, in addition to being known for diving for loose balls.

“I kind of just took it for what it was,” said Sloyan on emerging as a leader. “I knew, of course, it wasn’t going to be the best season ever. I kind of had a feeling, but of course, I was going to make the most out of it. When you don’t have those thoughts — of course, you want to win and that is your drive — but those thoughts of ‘What if I can’t do it? What if I just mess up?’ I didn’t have those thoughts this year and I had those thoughts a lot the past years. I think the one thing that shifted was just my confidence. Literally, just doing everything so many times every single day, doing the extra stuff, just helped me realize I could do this and I could lead a team and I could be that much better of a player.”

Sloyan’s scoring average improved by 6.6 points from her junior year to her senior season, with six 20-plus-point games after twice having a season-high 19 points the year prior. For her, the fondest memory in the team’s 9-16 campaign came in the Lady Pirates’ 63-56 senior night victory over Southeast Guilford during which she had 22 points and 14 rebounds.

“Both teams played really well and then I think everyone just tried their best and nobody was overthinking what they were doing because in high-intensity games, everyone gets really nervous and stuff,” Sloyan said. “I feel like I did, too, especially with it being senior night, so I feel like I did good in helping us secure the win and just doing the last point plays to make the difference.”