Listed on basketball rosters at 5 feet and 3 inches, one might assume they can — literally — overlook a player like Hannah Bates.

That’s kind of what she’s counting on.

“I think a lot of people underestimate me,” says the Sequim High senior point guard.

“I like proving them wrong.”

Bates did plenty of proving last season, impressing opposing coaches to the tune of a first team all-Olympic League selection. The Wolves’ third-leading scorer (9.4 points) and fourth-leading rebounder (3.8 per game) in 2021-22, she showed a particular acuity for thievery (four steals per contest) and an eye for open teammates (3.3 assists), both stats topping the team.

Often matching up against players five and six inches taller, Bates makes the most of her presence on the court, despite the simple reality that the sport tends to favor taller players.

“That’s part of why I put in so much work,” Bates says.

It’s paid off, both individually and collectively and for the Wolves. As a complimentary piece to a Sequim lineup that in the past three seasons featured potent posts Hope Glasser, Jolene Vaara and sisters Jayla and Jelissa Julmist, sharpshooters Kalli Wiker, Jessica Dietzman and Hannah Wagner, and do-it-all guards Taryn Johnson and Melissa Porter, Bates and the Wolves posted a cumulative 47-14 record in three seasons, and earning a trip to the state’s regional round last season.

This season, the Wolves are off and running with an unblemished 4-0 league mark and 8-0 overall record heading into the league’s second half.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Michael Dashiell / Hannah Bates surveys the court in a December 2021 game against Central Kitsap.

Bates has once again been a steady hand, leading the team in assists (32 total, 4 per game) as she feeds league MVP candidates Vaara (18.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.6 steals per game) and Julmist (12.8 points, 6.8 rebounds per).

The Wolves’ point guard has emerged as the team’s top 3-point threat as well, hitting 19-of-49 (38.8 percent) from long range this season, including four to help spur a 63-51 road win at 3A Central Kitsap on Dec. 29.

Bates has proved durable, too, not missing one of the Wolves 61 games in those three campaigns or their eight contests this season.

“She’s a constant for us, a good communicator,” SHS coach Joclin Julmist said.

“It’s all that time and dedication to her craft.”

Dribble drills

It started early, Bates’ mom Betty notes. Around, say, kindergarten. That’s when she started dribbling with both hands.

About that time, Betty recalls, Sequim was hosting a youth camp for players in grades 2-8, but she talked the camp organizer into allowing Hannah to participate two years short of the minimum. Hannah could be found in the corner of the gym, following along with all the camp drills, before going back to her dribbling routine.

Her father Bill noticed a change a few years later, as Hannah began showing hardcourt skills beyond her peers on a combined third/fourth grade Sequim Youth Basketball team.

“I didn’t know what to expect; I thought she’s a good little player,” Bill remembers. Games at that level, he says, included final scores around 24-20 or 28-22.

Hannah averaged about 18 points per game on her own, he says.

“She just had a different gear,” Bill says. “She’d get a rebound, go down-court, go for a lay-in.”

“She would try to integrate whole team [and be] making passes. I think she could have scored more.”

Hannah joined a Port Angeles club team for a couple of years after that, an experience Bill says helped her both athletically and socially.

“It was a good way to branch out [and] not just compete with same people,” he says.

Looking up

Bloodlines may play a part in her hardcourt acumen. Both of her brothers — Dustin, eight years her senior, and Jared, four years older — played sports at Sequim High, and Hannah was drawn to the hardcourt when Dustin began his stint as point guard for the Wolves.

“She would warm up with the boys,” Betty recalls. “I would have to yell [at her] to get off the court: ‘The game’s about to start.’”

Sequim Gazette file photo by Michael Dashiell / Sequim guard Hannah Bates, center, muscles her way into the lane looking for a basket in the Wolves’ state regional playoff game against Lynden in February. Bates was named to the All-Olympic League first team.

That connection to Dustin lingers for Hannah; naming her favorite players, she lists some pros (Sue Bird first, then Steph Curry) but also former SHS standout Alex Barry and, emphatically, her brother.

Dustin had that point guard background, Betty says, and would offer tips for certain situations, but “a lot of [Hannah’s] work ethic is her own.”

Says Betty, “I think having older brothers, she’s not intimidated by anybody.”

Or, it could be simply her drive mixed with a healthy helping of competitiveness. Bill recalls playing some card games like Uno with his daughter and if they played, 10 times, he said, she’d win nine of those.

“She’s extremely competitive [and] always been highly motivated,” he said.

“I didn’t have to teach her anything, really; she’d figure it out on her own. She was always watching, listening … [and] dribbling the ball all the time.”

Hannah says she studies the game, not just the fundamentals and skills but also the physics, watching how players move, that helps her overall court awareness.

Ball-handling is key, too, she says.

“You can do it on your own; you don’t need anything but a ball,” she says.

No stranger to success off the court, Bates is a sparkplug for SHS’s fastpitch squad, too, earning all-Olympic League first team honors last spring as a junior.

She could have been a solid soccer player, too, Bill says, but that got in the way of basketball workouts.

Basketball remains her favorite sport by far.

“I feel like I have more control over how I play,” Hannah says. While softball is very structured, she says, in basketball “you just go with the flow.”

Bates is likely going to work on her associate’s degree next fall at Peninsula College and consider her next steps.

Hannah “seems to have her priorities in line,” her father Bill says, with strong grades and dedication to her athletics.

“People forget the scores or if you had good batting average [in high school],” he says. “They’ll remember if you were a good teammate. I feel she’s living up to that.”