Spring Break Spotlight: Hannah is cool, calm, and collected

The Priest River baseball team won its second game of the season on Thursday, March 31, against Newport High School.

With that win, the Spartans have already improved from last year, when they finished 1-19.

A big part of that success has come from senior ace pitcher Everett Hannah.

Hannah has racked up over 20 strikeouts in Priest River’s first seven games.

“I think we’re off to a great start,” Hannah said. “We have a smart and young team. We all just want to be on the field together.”

Hannah had a difficult time losing 19 games a year ago, but admits he had a blast on the field with his teammates.

“I’m always happy to be playing baseball,” Hannah said. “It was difficult seeing all of our seniors go away, but it was going to be a fun season no matter what.”

Hannah has been playing baseball year-round since about eighth grade.

He got his start doing summer baseball in Spokane, playing for the Hitting Zone Extreme. After one year with the Spokane program, Hannah went on to play for Sandpoint’s Legion team, the North Idaho Lakers, where he was thrust into the spotlight immediately.

“After tryouts when I was 16, they invited me to play for their 19U team,” Hannah said. “It was kind of surreal at first going up against guys who were three years older than me. They were throwing harder and hitting the ball harder.”

Hannah enjoyed his experience with the 19U team, but wanted more reps, so he went to the coaches and asked to move back to the 17U team.

“I wanted to get some reps because I was having a difficult time,” Hannah said. “I was still playing, but I was all over the place, really. It came down to getting reps.”

Prior to high school, Hannah called the outfield home. But, once he arrived at Priest River High School, he met Spartans’ pitching coach Lou Musso.

“I didn’t really start pitching until later on,” Hannah said. “We’re always short-staffed for pitchers at Priest River and he (Musso) coached me up and said we needed pitchers, so he taught me how to pitch and taught me well.”

Hannah didn’t recall the first time he stepped on the mound for Priest River High School, but he remembered the first time he pitched with major implications.

Hannah was called on to close a game against Bonners Ferry his freshman year, which would send the Spartans to the 3A Idaho state baseball tournament.

The Spartans had complete control of the game against the Badgers and, according to Hannah, were close to ending the game based on the 10-run rule.

But a costly error in the sixth inning caused a chain reaction that led to Bonners Ferry coming back.

A young Hannah was playing in the outfield when head coach Mark Schultz waved him in to take over on the mound.

“Coach (Schultz) said he put me in because I wasn’t going to be affected mentally by the stakes,” Hannah said. “I knew what needed to be done and I got it done. It was a surreal moment.”

Schultz and Hannah have built a strong relationship throughout his time at Priest River High School. The two even prepped the field together before practice.

“He is 100 percent for the team,” Hannah said. “He wants to be at Priest River because he wants to build the program and he sure did. He spends countless hours on the field getting it prepped.”

“He’s done everything for us. You can give him a call at any time and he’ll be there in a heartbeat. Having a coach like him is instrumental to a team’s success.”

Between Hannah’s success on the mound and Schultz’s dedication to the program, optimism has risen for Priest River’s baseball team.

“I feel really confident about the season,” Hannah said. “We have some great talent and dedication and that’s what we needed.”

Hannah has been involved in sports his whole life to go along with baseball, he’s played football and soccer.

During his two years (freshman, junior year) playing football for the Spartans, Hannah was under center as the quarterback..

He faced a lot of adversity while being a part of the Priest River football program. He recalled the offense not being able to score a touchdown his junior year.

After dealing with football’s hardships along with the one-win baseball season, Hannah has dealt with a lot of adversity in his sports career.

“I just shut off the outside noise and played ball,” Hannah said. “You have to keep doing what your heart desires and remain positive.”

Hannah is just as effective in the classroom as he is on the mound, being a valedictorian for his senior class.

He’s very involved in his academic career spending most of his free time working on school work and his senior project.

For his senior project, he mentored aircraft mechanic Scott Olsen.

“He’s a great guy and he’s done it for many years,” Hannah said. “We took apart the plane’s engines and saw all the paperwork he had to do. It was fun.”

Hannah had considered airplane mechanics as a possible career path. His father has a pilot's license and he’s grown up around planes. However, he fears that if he makes his hobby a job, he might lose love for it.

“It really was something I was considering,” Hannah said. “I just don’t want to make it my job and have it become less fun. I think my decision will be to build experimental planes on the side, but it definitely was a serious thought to work on planes and I’m still considering it.”

As a military kid, he’s also considered going into the military.

“Both of my parents were in the Navy, so that’s where I'd go,” Hannah said. “I was seriously debating it, but other priorities came in so I fell back from it, but that’s an option in the next four years.”

As of right now, Hannah is planning on going to Spokane Community College to study computer science or engineering.