She may not have had the flashiest numbers, but Hunter Hernandez earns our nod for CCS Freshman of the Year. On just about any other team in the nation, the 5’9” guard would easily have easily notched double digits in scoring. But as a Monarch, she played alongside our Player of the Year Haley Jones, our Senior of the Year Karisma Ortiz, and another Division I talent, senior Nicole Blakes. When Blakes went down with an injury at the end of the regular season, Hernandez stepped up with three big playoffs games, scoring 18 points and nabbing seven boards in the NorCal finals and netting 14 points in the CCS Open Division Finals (both against Pinewood), and also tallying 14 points in the NorCal semifinals against Salesian.

“She is a physical and aggressive player that has an A+ mentality,” Mitty coach Sue Phillips stated. “She has a level of mental toughness that far exceeds her playing years.”

Phillips especially admired the freshman “fearlessly attacking the rim” in the NorCal semis against “a team with great shot-blocking presence.”

Hernandez received a scholarship offer from Santa Clara University, and Phillips predicts more will get on board after this summer’s NCAA evaluation period. Her 4.0 GPA will also attract attention.

Hernandez has athletics in her genes: dad Sam played for the San Jose Sabercats and was elected to the Arena Football Hall of Fame following a standout college career at Sonoma State. He coaches AAU basketball and Hunter is a big sister to twin girls currently in seventh grade.

Perhaps most notable is how Hunter fits into Mitty history. She started all of her frosh games for the South Bay powerhouse; the last three players to do that were Haley Jones (our CCS Player of the Year), Danielle Robinson (a WNBA starter), and Kerri Walsh (Olympic beach volleyball player with three gold medals). She also happens to be a 4.0 student.

Other players considered for this award include Silver Creek’s Aniyah Augmon, Menlo’s Avery Lee, Pinewood's Courtni Thompson, and Palo Alto’s Annika Shah.

NOTE: We would like to thank our media partners, coaches, parents, players and fans for contributing photos for our all-section features. We salute all of the players that have made this a wonderful season of CCS basketball.