Hanley reflects on her time in Alberton

ALBERTON - Delani Hanley proved that through hard work anything is possible.

Hanley’s high school track career came to an end May 31 at state competition in Great Falls. Although it was her last, the 2014 graduate won her first ever discus event earning the gold medal.

“At state it’s intense and professional,” Hanley said. “I liked it a lot. You meet new people, I love state.”

Hanley’s athletic career started in Butte around second grade where she was involved in YMCA basketball and T-Ball.

Sports have been in Hanley’s family for a long time. She acquired her track talents from her dad, who was a well-known sprinter in the Butte school system.

“I was basically growing up in a gym,” Hanley said. “Nobody really pushed me to do sports. I wanted to do it.”

Hanley said she thinks school sports are good for kids as the activity teaches hard work and dedication. Without sports she wouldn’t be as outgoing today.

Shortly after second grade she came to Alberton. Her first athletic experience there was playing in the Little Dribblers Basketball Program. Kids that participate play for a few minutes in between varsity games. Little Dribblers was also her senior project.

She brought back the program after a nine-year absence at Alberton. She felt the program was important for younger kids who aren’t normally involved in sports.

Typically there is no cost to the school, just a need for a dedicated high school volunteer to run it every year.

“I’m hoping one of the juniors will take it over if I pass it down to them,” Hanley said.  

As she got older, Hanley evolved into other sports like volleyball and track. She has played track since fifth grade and was coached under Kent Haab and Chris Clevenger. She has only ever competed in discus and shot put events.

Clevenger’s wife, Rachael is now the high school track coach and has been around Hanley for most of her career.

Before high school, the closest Hanley ever got to a state competition was in middle school when she went to the Junior Olympics in seventh and eighth grade in Billings. She won shot put and discus both years.

She practiced discus at a young age so she got really good, and her mentor Tyler Gilman also worked with her as she continued to get better over the years.

Hanley said that without Gilman’s help, she never would have won the high school state meet.

Once she got to high school, she started weight lifting and training hard in her spare time. Sadly, she suffered a setback tearing both anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) in her knees within months of each other. She also broke her funny bone playing volleyball.

The injuries prevented her from playing both volleyball and basketball through most of her high school career, although junior year she was relatively healthy.  

“I was always able to compete in track because my recovery was always complete by the time the track season came around,” Hanley said.  

Hanley will be attending the University of Montana in the fall. She  doesn’t have any definite plans as of yet to continue her track career, but could walk on to the team if she wanted to participate.

She picked UM because it is close to home.

She is looking forward to a new experience coming from a small school. Hanley plans to take up Speech Language Pathology or Occupational Pathology while at UM.

“I just want to help people,” Hanley said.  “I was taught from a young age to take care of my grandma who has Parkinson’s disease.”

As Hanley looks back on this track season, she believes it was an overwhelming success. She finished her senior season with three discus invite wins, a district win, first place at divisional, and to cap it off a first place win at state.

In addition to her accomplishments, she broke a 1989 district record. Her distance of 118-11 was enough to bust Seeley-Swan’s Sandy Delo’s 116-9 record, which caught her by surprise.

“I didn’t know it at first until it was announced over the intercom,” Hanley said.

To her, winning state was still better than the record.

“It was a good note to end my high school career on, considering all the injuries and obstacles I had,” Hanley said.

Since being a freshman, she felt her game has improved, mainly because she had to learn how to keep her composure during track meets by relaxing and calming down.

Although four of the top seniors on the team graduated, she feels Alberton Track will be in good hands going forward because of incoming young talent.

This summer she is going to Alaska to be a nanny for a woman who is a set-net fisherman, watching a seven-year-old girl. This is her second year doing so - an experience she calls different because Alaska is so remote.

Hanley will miss hanging out with her friends one more summer in Alberton, but is excited to earn some money for college.

“I (appreciate) the teachers, community and everyone who has ever supported me throughout my high school career at Alberton,” Hanley said.

“I owe my success to you guys and my family. The end.”