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When Lisa Steele took over as Paul VI’s women’s basketball head coach in 2014, she called her basketball friends in South Jersey to learn about the talent in the area.

Steele didn’t expect local coach Don Polk to recommend a 9-year-old. Polk worked with kids in Camden, where he met a young girl who played in his rec leagues against boys and held her own. Polk thought he might seem crazy, but he even called her “the one,” Steele said.

A couple of weeks later, Steele introduced herself to Hannah Hidalgo and invited her to Paul VI’s summer basketball camp. Steele saw Hidalgo’s dribbling skills and abilities on the court and stayed in touch with her over the next five years. Hidalgo ultimately opted to be with Steele and chose to attend Paul VI.

Hidalgo spent her early years playing middle school basketball as a fourth-grader before becoming a four-year starter at Paul VI. The point guard developed into one of the best high school players in the country, earning McDonald’s All-American honors. Now, in her first season with Notre Dame, Hidalgo is the only Power Five player besides Iowa’s Caitlin Clark to average at least 20 points, five assists and five rebounds per game. She scored a career-high 32 points in an 86-81 loss to Syracuse on Dec. 31, 2023, facing the Orange again Thursday in South Bend, Indiana.

“Dynamic is the best word for her,” Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey told ESPN. “She can score at all three levels and has great body control. She reads defenses and finishes so well. Defensively, she’s been able to absorb our concepts and philosophy. Sometimes it takes players a few years to truly understand rotations and team defense. She picked it up so fast.”

Hidalgo attended Life Center Middle School, where her father, Orlando, coached the boys’ basketball team and set the foundation for Hidalgo’s career.

When 11-year-old Hidalgo passed up a wide-open lane to the basket, Orlando told her he’d bench her if she did that again. Later in the half, Hidalgo passed another opportunity in transition.

She didn’t play the rest of the half but came back in the second and led her team to victory as its leading scorer. Orlando vividly remembers his daughter having a wide-open lane.

“I don’t know if I pissed her off, but she went off in that game,” Orlando said. “From that point on, she never looked back. She just started to play with that aggressiveness and didn’t fear whoever she was playing against.”

Orlando also coached Team Final, a local AAU powerhouse in the Philadelphia area where Hidalgo often attended practice when she was in middle school. At the time, Hidalgo said she was unaware of who she was working out with, but it wasn’t a big deal to her.

“It was just like, ‘Oh, another opportunity for me to get in the gym and work out with my dad’s players,’” Hidalgo said.

Orlando’s team consisted of Trevon Duval (Duke), Izaiah Brockington (St. Bonaventure, Penn State and Iowa State) and Quade Green (Kentucky and Washington) along with future NBA players Cam Reddish and Lonnie Walker IV.

Hidalgo went through drills with the team, participating in 2-on-2 and 4-on-4 drills, occasionally hopping into full scrimmages. Hidalgo explained that there was a “level of respect” from the team and they saw her as “more than just the coach’s daughter.”

“You’re never away from the gym in our family… That’s what she loved about it,” said El Khana, one of Hidalgo’s brothers. “Even if she didn’t get access to a gym, you can always go outside and the basket is right there.”

Along with her older brothers El Khana and Zach, Hidalgo utilized a shot machine to perfect shooting mechanics while working on in-game scenarios. They wanted to challenge each other, El Khana said, specifically Hidalgo.

If she lost a pickup game, she forced her brothers to stay outside with her until she beat them.

“It’s so important to have that because if they didn’t make me better in that way or didn’t cover me in that way like that, where would I be today? But because of how they were with me it’s one of the reasons I am as physical as I am today,” Hidalgo said.

Once she reached high school, Hidalgo was Paul VI’s point guard from day one. Under Steele, Hidalgo described herself as a pass-first point guard but still averaged 17 points her freshman season, helping Paul VI to a 24-3 record before falling in the NJSIAA Non-Public A sectional quarterfinals. Hidalgo had some Division I interest, yet felt she was underlooked due to her slight frame.

“That’s inevitable,” Hidalgo said. “I think society most likely is just going to doubt smaller guards, they see someone as small and they don’t think that they can make it in this profession.”

In 2021, Steele left Paul VI and Orlando took over as head coach. Paul VI graduated a number of players from the year before and Orlando needed Hidalgo to have a score-first mentality. SharIah Baynes — now a Monmouth commit — was a capable point guard, so Hidalgo moved to the two-guard position.

Orlando implemented a “14 high offense,” which utilized plenty of Iverson Cuts to get Hidalgo the ball. Hidalgo continued to lead Paul VI in every statistical category while she dramatically increased her scoring to 28 points per game.

El Khana described Hidalgo as “reaching another level” throughout high school, explaining her jumpshot reached new heights — especially on the pick-and-roll. In the past, opposing players went under screens, conceding to let Hidalgo shoot. As her game evolved, Hidalgo made them pay with her 3-point shooting.

But what impressed El Khana the most was her confidence and her ability to take over in big moments down the stretch of games.

She tallied a career-high 48-point outburst against the Westtown School in her senior season. Facing two of the best prospects in the country, Jordyn Palmer and Jessie Moses, Paul VI trailed by six with 1:25 remaining in overtime. Hidalgo scored five straight points, cutting Westtown’s lead down to one. She then found Baynes in the corner, who buried a go-ahead 3-pointer as Paul VI notched a comeback 72-69 victory.

“I just knew that whatever was going to happen, Hannah was going to turn that game around. I knew that she was not going to let us lose that game,” Orlando said.

Hidalgo committed to the Fighting Irish on Nov. 15, 2022, explaining she liked how Notre Dame head coach Ivey likes to push the pace and the opportunity to play alongside point guard Olivia Miles.

Miles has yet to see the floor this season due to offseason knee surgery, increasing Hidalgo’s usage. A 31-point performance in her first collegiate basketball game put the country on notice.

“I was not one bit surprised at all, I knew that she was going to be able to perform,” Orlando said. “When she was going to Notre Dame the expectation was to play your way always to start. We always say no matter what you do, whoever you come up against, play, and prove to people that you deserve to start.”

Published on January 24, 2024 at 11:44 pm

Contact Zak: [email protected] | @ZakWolf22