Flame on the Hot Seat: Hannah Longley
Photo courtesy of Lee Flames
Flame on the Hot Seat is a new series highlighting our Lee Flames.
The first Flame on the Hot Seat is junior volleyball player Hannah Longley. A Cleveland native, Hannah began her volleyball career at Cleveland High School before joining the Lady Flames in 2018 as a defensive specialist/libero.
Hannah is one of the few student-athletes at Lee studying in the school’s top-ranked nursing program. When she is not learning to save lives in the classroom or crushing the competition on the court, Hannah can be found spending time with her family and her Australian Shepherd, Penny.
How did you get into volleyball?
“I grew up playing basketball, but when I was old enough to play volleyball in middle school, I tried out because I thought it would be fun. I ended up quitting basketball after that.”
What brought you to Lee?
“I’m from [Cleveland] so I knew how good Lee’s nursing program and volleyball team is. I knew that I didn’t want to go away for college so this would be the best place for me.”
What are the difficulties of being an athlete and a nursing major?
“The workload as a nursing major is extremely intense, so having an intense major on top of being a college athlete, you don’t really have a lot of time for yourself. It’s a lot of stress and time management, but it’s worth it.”
Photo courtesy of Hannah Longley
What is your best memory from your time playing for Lee Volleyball?
“My favorite memories are the Volley for a Cure games. The whole community comes out and watches us so there is always a packed stadium. It’s all about breast cancer, and we give away a scholarship to the family of a breast cancer survivor.”
What is the worst part of playing volleyball?
“I’m torn between the conditioning days and the lengthy traveling when we get home from a game at 1 a.m. and then have to be at class at 7:30.”
What is your favorite part of the day?
“From 6-9 p.m. because I get to finally shower and eat dinner, and then do homework without having to be anywhere at a certain time. It’s my alone time too so that’s nice.”
If you could sit down with anyone, dead or alive, and have a conversation with them, who would it be and why?
“Elvis Presley because he is the king of rock ‘n’ roll and my grandmother was a huge fan of his. I used to grow up watching documentaries and movies about him.”
If you could choose one song to play every time you walked into a room for the rest of your life, what song would you choose and why?
“‘All I Want for Christmas’ is You by Mariah Carey because I love that song.”
What’s the funniest thing that happened to you in the last three months?
“My dog chewed through my pants, and I accidentally wore them out in public.”
You get a basketball and 25 shots from half-court, if you make one you get 25 million dollars, if you miss them all you go to jail for 25 years. Are you taking the shots?
“Absolutely, I grew up playing basketball so why not.”
