Hayley Frank has burst onto the scene at Strafford High, but the success is no accident.
She has put in the work.
Frank’s freshman season was built in empty gyms over the summer, where she shot.
And shot.
And shot.
Fifty-thousand times.
“She’s put in an incredible amount of hours, an incredible amount of time in the offseason,” said her coach and dad, Steve Frank. “We have a 10,000 shot club in the offseason. I think she got right at 50,000 in the offseason this year.”
Frank grew up around the game. She had a basketball in her hands “about the time I could walk,” she says.
“I just love the game,” Frank said. “[I have] made so many great friends through this game.”
She says she wouldn’t change anything about having a coach for a dad, either.
“It’s been great,” she said. “Me and him are really close, so we just kind of understand each other. It’s almost like, I kind of know what he’s thinking.”
“I think we have a special bond,” Steve said. “I don’t have to push her. She pushes herself. She’s usually pushing me and saying, ‘Dad let’s go to the gym,’ or let’s go do this and do that.”
It’s the drive that led to those astounding 50,000 shots.
“There’s a lot of nights when I get ready to go to bed, and you go check, and she’s not in her room,” Steve said. “You look outside, she’s got the lights turned on and she’s out there working hard.”
The offseason work happened around a grueling summer ball schedule.
“I kind of set that as my goal,” Hayley said. “I would just try to shoot about 1,000 shots a day.”
She wants to double that this offseason.
Yes, double.
To 100,000.
She was asked if she thought she could get there.
“Planning on it,” was the response.
That work ethic and drive is what makes Hayley Frank our Arby’s High School Athlete of the Week.
