Hannah Runyon is setting an early pace for Norwich that may be impossible to maintain. Then again, those who understand her dedication to basketball, may believe that anything is possible for the junior guard.
Runyon, a co-captain on the Tornado’s girls’ varsity basketball team, led her club to its first Norwich Pennysaver tournament title since the 2006 season, and was the unquestioned most valuable player.
She just missed a triple-double in an opening-round victory over Sidney scoring 20 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and dishing out nine assists. In the championship win over Oxford, she hit key baskets down the stretch that assisted in pulling away for the win.
Oxford head coach Chris Palmer said after the game that she was a deserving MVP, Norwich first-year coach, Josh Bennett, believes Runyon deserves everything she achieves because of a second-to-none work ethic, and she is a deserving recipient of our Evening Sun/Smith Ford LLC Athlete of the Week honor.
“I went to four or five Norwich (girls) games last year,” Bennett said, who worked as an assistant coach in the Norwich boys’ basketball program in 2008-2009. “I knew her to be a great character kid and a hard worker. I knew she would do the right things in and out of basketball, she would be at practice to work hard, and she would push her teammates.”
Runyon scored just under 10 points a game last year in receiving an All-County nod, and she was especially effective the second half of the season as she adjusted to her first year of varsity play. Now in her second varsity season, Runyon has picked up where she left off last winter, and taken her play to an entirely new level.
“We have a team of kids who all work very hard on their games, and at the least, nobody works any harder than Hannah at making themselves a better player,” Bennett said. “She expects excellence and perfection out of herself. If she doesn’t get there, she’ll work hard until she does.”
While not perfect, Runyon is at the top of almost every significant Norwich statistic through three games. She leads in scoring per game (14.0), assists (6.3), rebounds (7.7), steals (3.3), offensive rebounds, and three-point shooting percentage (33 percent). And she is perfect in one area, free throw shooting. Coming off a team-best 73.5 percent free throw shooting percentage last year, Runyon is a dead-on 10-for-10. She is the only player in the county – boy or girl – with that many free throw attempts and a perfect success rate.
Runyon has rounded out her game, and is at the point where she is now fine-tuning all of the nuances.
“What makes Hannah tough is that her game is so complete,” Bennett said. “There is not a part of her game that is weak. She can handle the ball, she can shoot, she can get to the rim, and is absolutely a great passer who finds the open man.
“Defensively, she’s also tough. She could guard the other team’s best offensive player if we needed her to. That says something.”
Perhaps Runyon’s most significant attribute – and her teammates’ – is a competitive drive. Norwich won two Section IV titles in this decade, the last in 2006. The Tornado girls have consistently produced one of the more respected basketball programs over the past 15 to 20 years, yet back-to-back losing campaigns yielded just 10 total wins. It’s a good bet, though, that 10-win total will be eclipsed this season.
“Hannah is extremely competitive, and so are her teammates,” Bennett said. “I find it hard to believe that this group of kids will not have a winning season. They’re so hard working and competitive, they’re not going to let the other team beat us. And Hannah doesn’t want to get beat at all.”