Paul VI’s Hannah Hidalgo does it all, and she’s just a freshman

Hannah Hidalgo remembers cuts on her eyes and bloody noses — the end to her earliest memories in basketball.

There’s a half-court in Hidalgo’s backyard. And battles with her four brothers on that court — three of them older, and the younger already 6-foot-1 — were some of the first tests of her uncommon will to win.

“It gets rough out there,” says Hidalgo, the star point guard for the Paul VI girls’ basketball team. “But growing up in a house with all boys, I always had this mentality that even though they were boys, I never wanted them to be better than me. I always wanted to be better. Even though they were older, bigger, stronger, I never stopped pushing myself to be better than them.”

After Paul VI notched double-digit wins over Cherokee and Moorestown Friends, Hidalgo enters the postseason as a leader — averaging 17 points per game — for the undisputed top team in South Jersey.

Hidalgo, who was invited to tryout for the under-16 USA Basketball team last spring, is the total package: She has poise, grit, a high basketball IQ, and smooth ball-handling skills. She can score from anywhere.

She’s hasn’t flinched in any number of big moments this season.

And, yet, she’s just a freshman.

The biggest question is: How? How was she able to step so seamlessly into a starring role on the area’s best team?

To hear her tell it, she’s been working for these types of moments her whole life, starting in her backyard.

“I just love competing,” Hidalgo said Friday. “Being on the court and being able to showcase my talent — it’s just something I’ve always loved to do.”

Paul VI coach Lisa Steele became aware of Hidalgo as a fourth grader.

Even then, Hidalgo was turning heads, and it felt as though she was playing on a grander stage than those around her.

It didn’t take Steele long to confirm what she had heard about the budding star.

“She was really smooth with the ball at that young age, yes, but what really stood out was that competitiveness," Steele said. "She’s just got that killer edge. In light of recent events, when we talk about that whole [Kobe Bryant] Mamba mentality, she’s got that.

“It can [upset] her opponents, sometimes it can even [upset] her teammates, but it’s competing. She wants to win. Not many players have that edge the way she does.”

When she wasn’t battling her brothers, Hidalgo was being trained by her father, Orlando, who coaches basketball. Orlando Hidalgo has had stints at several high-level AAU programs and as the head coach for the Life Center Academy boys.

Hidalgo credits her father’s support as a big reason she entered high school poised for any challenge.

She works out with him and talks hoops every day.

From those workouts, Hidalgo really started to see results, culminating in last year’s invitation to try out for USA basketball at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado.

Despite being just a 5-foot-6 eighth-grader, Hidalgo took the court with 6-4 guards.

“You get kind of nervous being an eighth grader there,” Hidalgo said. “But once you step on the court, the nerves just leave you, and you just play and get in the flow of it.

“It was an amazing experience — and it did help make me a better player.”

When it’s all added up, it’s not hard to see why Hidalgo blossomed — and why college coaches are flocking to see her — so early in her high school career.

Hidalgo also credits her Paul VI teammates.

She said the chemistry she’s developed with them has helped her shine.

She and senior Abby Babore have been a lethal backcourt combo all season for the 24-2 Eagles. It’s why Paul VI is an interesting contender in the upcoming Non-Public South A playoffs — which looks more like a Tournament of Champions bracket than a sectional bracket.

Non-Public South A features Shore powers such as Red Bank Catholic and St. John Vianney.

Few are picking Paul VI to win — but that’s a spot the Eagles are used to.

Hidalgo is approaching the playoffs the way she’s approached every game this season, and with that same mindset she has every time she picks up a basketball, whether on a varsity court or a backyard pickup game.

“It just feels good that we’re able to have such a good record this year,” Hidalgo said. “So, now we’re starting to get recognition throughout the whole school — and we’re starting to get a nice crowd at our home games, and we want to keep building that.

“Our crowd is not like how the boys’ gym is yet — like against Camden Catholic — but it’s a nice crowd, and I know we’ll get there.”