By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

(This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Haley Hanes’ name.)

As a senior, Hannah Hanes has more than proven herself in the classroom and on the field for the West Forsyth girls soccer team.  

Hanes, who has a 4.54 GPA and is starting for a perennially good girls soccer team, was on the girls track-and-field team her freshman season. But like many high-school athletes now, Hanes elected to focus on just one sport – soccer. However, she wishes it didn’t have to be that way. 

“It has to be a balance, like one sport would (take over) more (than) half the time,” she said. “If I were still to do track, I’d still have to be at soccer, and I wouldn’t be able to be at track as often.” 

Competing on the girls indoor track-and-field team as a freshman, Hanes ran the 300-meter run as well as the 500, an event in which she qualified for the NCHSAA Class 4-A state championship at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem. After the indoor track season Hanes made a decision. 

“I ran a little bit in outdoor, a 4x(400-meter relay), but that was (during the) high school soccer season,” Hanes said. “So, I would just miss a lot of practice, a lot of the meets due to soccer games. And then, I just didn’t feel like I had the time.  

“Track was fun for me. It was a fun little thing to like to test out. I just didn’t want to continue it.” 

But soccer wasn’t something new for Hanes.  

“(I had been playing) basically my whole life,” she said. “I started at the YMCA when I was 3 or 4.” 

Hanes, said her elder sister Haley, who graduated from West Forsyth in 2023 and was on the West Forsyth track-and-field team, was an inspiration. 

“My older sister was in it and my dad played growing up, so he was like, ‘Oh, we’ll try soccer,” Hannah Hanes said. “He threw us in a bunch of sports. We were in gymnastics, basketball, soccer, basically testing out what we’d like.” 

The Hanes sisters played soccer at the YMCA, and Hannah said she went to play for Fusion, her club team, when she was 7.

In her first two seasons with the Titans, then coached by Scott Bilton, the team was 15-6-1 overall and 12-0 in the conference Hanes’ freshman season, and they were 19-4-1 overall and 13-1 in the conference her sophomore season.  

“It was different, the team,” Hanes said of playing soccer at West Forsyth her freshman season. “High school soccer was different than club soccer for sure. But it was so much fun.” 

As a center back her freshman season, Hanes had the chance to play on the varsity team with fellow freshman Aislynn Maguire, who has signed to play at Wake Forest in the fall, along with some veteran players at West Forsyth. Their friendship dates to when they were 7 or 8 years old playing for Fusion. 

“It was so much fun,” Hanes said. “We got to do it together and (Aislynn’s) one of my best friends. It was awesome to be with her all four years.” 

That experience playing on the varsity team as a freshman with the Titans was beneficial. 

“It gave me confidence going into my sophomore year,” Hanes said. “I was more comfortable on the field. It felt like I could be more vocal and communicate more because I was more comfortable with the girls. I was used to playing center back. And when you run out there you definitely have to talk and communicate.” 

Hanes and the rest of the West Forsyth team had a successful season when she was a sophomore, but the team lost to South Mecklenburg in the second round of the 4-A tournament.

Shortly after the season, Bilton announced his resignation. In stepped Jeffrey Williams to coach West Forsyth, starting Hanes’ junior season.   

“That was definitely a surprise, but I feel like he was a great coach and Coach Williams is also a great coach,” Hanes said. “I’ve been lucky enough to have both great coaches at West. And they both carried on the West culture very well.” 

Williams helped guide the TItans to a 17-4-1 overall record and 13-1 in the conference during his first season with the girls team. 

Williams said he knew of Hanes when he accepted the job as the girls soccer coach. 

“I knew most of the team. Obviously, I wasn’t coaching at the time. And obviously Bilton and I talked daily about all sorts of things,” Williams said. “So, I probably knew the players better than they knew me.

“When I saw her play her freshman year, obviously, she’s a great talent and just a great personality, and just successful in the classroom and on the soccer field,” Williams said of Hanes. 

Hanes’ position has evolved this season.  

“Last year she played more a center back,” Williams said. “And this year with some changes and different things we were able to get her in the midfield, get her on the ball more.” 

Not only has her position on the field evolved, but it has also changed off the field.  

“She took more of a leadership role last year, you know as a junior,” Williams said. “But yeah, it was nice to see her continuing that transition. And now, she’s one of two seniors (with Maguire) and one of two captains.” 

Hanes and Maguire’s bond has aided the younger players this season. 

“They’ve been a staple of West Forsyth soccer for a long time now,” Williams said. “And they’re trustworthy and they’re committed. And it was the easiest captains’ choice ever.” 

That choice came after the team won the conference last season. It was undefeated in the conference until the final game of the regular season, but East Forsyth defeated West Forsyth 2-1 in Kernersville. 

“Very disappointing,” Hanes said of the loss. “And it was our last game. Obviously we wanted to be undefeated. It was disappointing to lose to them for sure.” 

In the Class 4-A playoffs, West Forsyth knocked off conference-foe Davie County 2-1 in the first round and defeated Cuthbertson 2-1 in overtime in the second round. However, in the third round, Marvin Ridge upended West Forsyth 4-2, ending the season. Hanes finished last season with eight goals and nine assists, according to MaxPreps. 

“It was definitely disappointing,” Hanes said of the loss to East Forsyth. “We definitely got down on ourselves, but we had a great coaching staff, and they were like, ‘This is how it feels to lose. We’re not going to do this in states.’ It was definitely a good lesson for us.” 

That loss to Marvin Ridge stung and Hanes had to let that bad taste sit with her until practice started last month for this season, her senior season.  

“It was really exciting because I love high school soccer,” Hanes said. “So, it was fun to get ready (for this season). And we have a lot of freshmen this year, which is awesome. It’s always great to have a lot of girls who are interested (in playing).” 

So far this season, West Forsyth has had a roller-coaster ride through a difficult nonconference stretch. As of Monday, West Forsyth is 2-2-1 and finished a two-game trip to the coast last weekend with games against Wilmington’s Hoggard and Hampstead’s Topsail.  

The team stayed together at a beach house at North Topsail Beach, along with playing the two soccer games. West Forsyth lost to Hoggard 2-1 last Thursday, but it rebounded the next day, defeating Topsail 2-0. 

“I think maybe first and overall is just for the team to have an experience to be together and not have to worry about school and going home or any of that,” Williams said. “So, just bond as a team because we know that people that work not with each other, but for each other, are way more successful than anything else.  

“I think they have a lot of strong bonds on the team and hopefully some more strong bonds will develop. And secondly, we want to improve and play well.”  

The team is off this week, and it opens conference play on March 19 at home against Parkland. West Forsyth should compete for the conference championship again.

“I have won the conference my past three years,” Hanes said. “It’s almost kind of expected. But we’re going to work hard for it. It’s not going to be easy.” 

The regular season is expected to conclude May 7 at Mount Tabor, and if West Forysth makes the playoffs, Hanes wants to take the next step.  

“Going farther than the third round would be great,” she said. “I definitely think that’s all of our goals, too. I think it’s going to have to be the focus and really be locked in at the end of the season.”

Regardless of how the season ends, Hanes’ career as a soccer player is coming to an end. She likely won’t play in college. 

“I’m just trying to kind of live in the moment and appreciate the game now, the time with the team and not focus on the end,” she said.  

Hanes’ next big step is choosing whether to go to college at North Carolina State or UNC-Chapel Hill for college in the fall.

“I’m definitely leaning more towards N.C. State, so I should be deciding pretty soon so we can get enrolled and housing and everything,” she said.

As for her major, Hanes knows that she wants to be in the medical field. One thing aiding her decision is that her mother is a pediatric pulmonologist, and her father is an engineer.

“I want to major in genetics at N.C. State,” Hanes said. “Or biology, but I think genetics.”