Notre Dame Basketball Signee Hannah Hidalgo A Gatorade Player Of The Year Finalist

The 2023 Fighting Irish signee is the latest state Gatorade Player of the Year winner

When Niele Ivey became Notre Dame women’s basketball coach three years ago, the first thing she did was begin to stack talent on the Fighting Irish roster. Within weeks of taking the helm Ivey received commitments from Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron and she has continued to recruit elite talent with each passing season.

One Ivey’s latest incoming elite recruits, Hannah Hidalgo, is the latest in a line of state Gatorade Player of the Year honorees. Hidalgo is not only the New Jersey Girls Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year, but also one of three finalists for the Gatorade National Player of the Year Award, which will be announced later this month.

The 5-foot-7 senior point guard averaged 28.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 7.3 steals per game this past season for Paul VI High School in Haddonfield, NJ. She helped the Eagles to a runner-up finish in the South Jersey Non-Public A Tournament.

Hidalgo is the first player from Paul VI High to win the award. The school is also the alma mater of Karen (Robinson) Keyes, who left Notre Dame as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,590 career points. She and her husband, Kevin Keyes, endow the women’s basketball head coaching position.

Hidalgo will be a freshman at Notre Dame next season. She joins the ranks of current Irish players who won Gatorade Player of the Year in their state.

Sophomore guard Sonia Citron won the 2020 and 2021 New York Gatorade Player of the Year award, and current Irish freshman KK Bransford was the 2021 Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year, a year after current junior Maddy Westbeld won it in the same state in 2020. Jenna Brown, who transferred to Notre Dame this season after four injury-riddled seasons at Stanford, was the Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year in 2018 and graduate student Dara Mabrey won it in New Jersey in 2017 and 2018.

Hidalgo maintained a 3.32 GPA in the classroom. She has also volunteered in association with local churches to raise funds for the needy. She has also donated her time by helping to feed the homeless and founded Operation Warm with a goal of donating up to 100 coats to underserved youth.

The last Notre Dame signee to win Gatorade Player of the Year honors was Brianna Turner, who won the award in 2014. Skylar Diggins won the honor in 2009.

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