CLALLAM BAY — Hannah Olson is one busy high school senior.
A member of the Makah Tribe, she lives in Neah Bay and commutes to school each day in Clallam Bay. She has also been a star for years now in Bruins sports in volleyball, basketball and track and field. She also works part-time at the Breakwater Restaurant as a waitress.
And now she has signed to play basketball for Walla Walla University.
Olson doesn’t just play all these sports, she excels. She was a North Olympic League first-teamer in both volleyball and basketball this year. She has won a combined seven running and field events in track so far this season.
Last season in track, she won three events — the 100-meter hurdles, the 300-meter hurdles and the javelin at the North Olympic League championships while she and her teammates placed in the top 10 at the state 1B track meet in the 4×100 relay and the 4×200 relay. She also placed 15th at state in the javelin.
Olson said that while she plays a variety of sports, basketball is her favorite.
Walla Walla University is an NAIA school that plays in the Cascade Conference against schools such as The Evergreen State College and Northwest College.
Clallam Bay isn’t just a 1B school, it’s one of the tiniest 1B schools in the state and not many kids from Clallam Bay get the opportunity to sign to play sports at a college or university out of the area.
“It’s really special. It’s a amazing” to be able to go from Clallam Bay to a university sports program, Olson said. She said she was told she is one of the few Clallam Bay grads to go play sports anywhere other than Peninsula College.
“I thought I wouldn’t be able to get anything. I thought I would walk on or play intramurals somewhere,” she said.
Olson said she knew very quickly that Walla Walla was the school for her.
“I also like how welcoming they were. They just kind of clicked … like when you find a school and it just clicks,” she said. She also liked that it was a drug and alcohol-free school.
Walla Walla might seem like a long ways away from Neah Bay at the extreme southeastern tip of Washington (In fact, it is about 450 miles from Neah Bay), but Olson said there were schools from New York and Tennessee interested in her. She chose Walla Walla partly because it is still relatively close to home.
For now, Olson will continue doing track for the Bruins, likely headed back to the 1B state track and field meet. She moves to Walla Walla in September.
