HALL OF FAME FEATURE: Hannah Shields Contreras '18

Years before she even knew it, Hannah Shields Contreras’ ties to Averett University would end up shaping her life in so many ways. From an All-American collegiate career playing women’s volleyball and academic success, to meeting her husband, to now joining her father Bobby Shields in the Averett Athletics Hall of Fame in the same induction class as her husband James, it seems almost like a fairytale ending given all its intricately woven parts.

“Averett obviously brought me my husband, so that was a huge part of shaping my future,” Contreras said. “But it also taught me a lot of life lessons and qualities that I’ve been able to take into my job as a teacher and my role as a mother and wife. I am probably most thankful for going to my hometown university and being able to spend four extra years right next to my family.”

Contreras grew up in the Danville area and was no stranger to the Averett campus as her dad — an Averett alumnus — coached with the Cougars’ tennis programs on and off during her childhood. Yet, tennis wouldn’t be path for her. Instead, she wanted to play volleyball

“Of course Hannah would choose a sport I’d know nothing about,” joked Shields, who was a member of the 2015 Averett Athletics Hall of Fame class. 

Shields, however, knew who to call —then-longtime Averett women’s volleyball coach Danny Miller, who was in the midst of his 27-year Hall of Fame career at the helm of the Cougars’ program.

“I remember calling up Miller and saying, ‘Miller, my daughter’s decided she wants to be a volleyball player,’” Shields recalled. “’I need you to give me every video and every book you have on volleyball and I’m going to come by and get it.’ He put a stack of stuff in a paper bag and stuck it outside his door and I went over and picked the bag up and locked myself in the basement for a couple of weekends and picked up everything I could try to find to help Hannah.”

The two quickly got in the gym and began learning the sport from scratch, building a powerful bond in the process.

“We spent many hours in a gym,” Shields recalled. “I remember putting tape on the floor for where her feet were supposed to be on her approach. Obviously being a coach, technique is everything … and we were striving to make her technique as good as it could be.

“Some of the best times of my life have been Hannah and I in the gym hitting balls,” Shields said.

Through club ball and playing at Dan River High School, Contreras became an elite player who was getting recruiting interest from Division I and Division II schools. 

“Hannah was what I would call a generational type player,” Miller said. “She’s kind of the player that you don’t expect to get. I taught her how to play from the beginning when she first started in seventh grade and came to my camp. Obviously, she had her family ties to Averett and Danville with her dad, but I knew when I was recruiting her it would be a longshot to get her to begin with. We were really the only Division III school she was looking at.”

Much to Miller’s surprise — and to his delight — Contreras committed to Averett.

“I never even considered coming to Averett,” Contreras said. “My dad never pushed Averett on me. It was just always here and always in Danville. I’d seen it so much with my dad coaching there, it was never an option in my brain. I don’t know why I never considered coming there but I just didn’t. It wasn’t until really my senior year of high school when I thought, ‘Well, maybe Averett could be an option for me.’ It ended up being one of the best decisions that I will have ever made.”

Contreras was part of a large incoming freshman class — which also featured fellow 2023 Hall of Famer Sarah Smoot — in 2014 to help the Cougars reload after losing a bulk of its starters to graduation the previous year during a championship season. Contreras became an immediate impact player as an outside hitter, averaging a conference-best 4.65 kills along with 2.68 digs per set. The accolades followed. She was named the USA South Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year, the Virginia Sports Information Directors Rookie of the Year, the American Volleyball Coaches Association Region Freshman of the Year and earned AVCA All-America Honorable Mention honors while being selected to the all-conference and all-state first team.

After an amazing start to her career, Contreras wasn’t about to be content with her early success. She wanted to continue to get better.

“It’s a double-edged sword because you have this success as a freshman and you feel that pressure to keep it going,” she said. “To me, it would be somewhat like letting myself down if I didn’t. When you are a freshman, you can get rookie of the year and stay within that class of freshmen. Once you get out of that, you’re competing with sophomores, juniors and seniors — all these other girls from across the conference where it’s a whole different pool of competition. I definitely felt pressure to continue to push myself but my dad was really the one that was my biggest encourager.”

That meant more time in the gym with dad, something she still treasures to this day.

So how does one follow up that kind of amazing freshman season? With an even better one.

As a sophomore, Contreras earned AVCA All-America Honorable Mention status for the second consecutive season with a nation-best 712 kills while averaging 5.16 kills and 2.68 digs per set. She was named the USA South Player of the Year while making the AVCA All-South Region Team, the USA South First Team and the VaSID All-State First Team. She also received Academic All-District honors among the other honors she collected in 2015.

“As a coach, I knew there would be learning curves and growing pains as part of the process,” said Miller of Contreras’ early playing time in her career. “Hannah was a great player but she was facing bigger blocks and a faster game. It gave her an opportunity to go through that and grow and see the results. Being able to start there and knowing what it took to win after coming up just short her freshman year, I think it lit the fire where each year she wanted to get better and better. She wasn’t content to just be the same player. I think you saw that in the progression of how she played and how she was a great leader that brought the team along.”

Contreras’ success continued as a junior, averaging a conference-best 4.93 kills per set for a conference-high 656 kills. She also averaged 3.09 digs while garnering 2016 AVCA All-America Second Team honors along with her second consecutive USA South Player of the Year award. Contreras was named the VaSID Player of the Year while earning all-conference and all-state first team recognition. By the time her senior year finished, Contreras was Averett’s first four-time AVCA All-American after earning Third Team honors in 2017. She also became only the third player in program history to earn USA South Player of the Year three times in her career. She again led the conference with 4.28 kills per set for 531 kills with a career-high 3.65 digs per set on her way to a second consecutive VaSID Player of the Year nod. In addition, she was named to the Academic All-America Second Team in addition to other academic honors throughout her career. As for the Averett and USA South record books? She etched her name in them both after finishing with 2,542 career kills and 4.77 kills per set—both program and conference records. She also holds both records in attack attempts for a game, season and career.

“The growth was exponential from her freshman year to her senior year,” Miller said. “I think the biggest thing about here was her dedication, commitment and competitiveness. Most people see her as nice and kind — and she is, don’t get me wrong — but she was a killer on the court. She wanted to succeed and do well. That was the part that people don’t always see. You don’t get good with just athleticism. It takes work and time, and she did all that to make herself into the player that she was. She rewrote a lot of record books and had an amazing career.”

In three of her four seasons, Averett won a regular season conference title. Like most, now that she’s had some time to reflect since her playing career ended, Contreras can appreciate what she accomplished statistically during her time at Averett.

“It means more to me now than it did when I got them,” she said of her records and honors. “I’m really proud of myself. A lot of people ask if I miss playing volleyball and if I miss being in college. I do miss it but I feel like when I look back it, I look back at it like I happily closed that chapter because I am proud of what I was able to accomplish and the people I was able to meet through volleyball and the lessons that volleyball taught me on and off the court. I can take some of those things with me now when I was teaching and now in motherhood. It has been a very big help.”

Some of Contreras’ favorite memories were going with the team to Costa Rica for an international trip, the bus rides and a huge comeback win over William Peace University on a neutral court at Methodist during her junior season.

Along the way, while she was dominating on the volleyball court, Contreras began dating her now-husband James, who was a standout on the Averett men’s basketball team, was the 2017-18 USA South Player of the Year and is also a member of the 2023 Averett Athletics Hall of Fame class.

The Contreras and Shields families will make history during Saturday’s Hall of Fame induction. Hannah and Bobby will be the first father-daughter inductees into the Averett Athletics Hall of Fame, and Hannah and James will be the first husband-wife combo to be enshrined. 

“I feel fortunate to be going into the Hall of Fame where my dad did,” Contreras said. “It’s really special to merge my Averett family with my real family. James played a big part in my college career once we started dating later in our sophomore year. We really pushed each other in our athletics side of school, too. It’s really cool to get the call to go in with him and not go in separate.

“We’ve been able to conquer a few big moments in our life together lately with graduating from college, getting married and having a baby,” she added. “This is just something else that we get to add to our big moments together.”

After graduating in spring 2018, Contreras taught physical education in the Danville area before she and James got married and moved to North Carolina as he began a career in the United States Marine Corps. She taught kindergarten for a few years before the couple moved to the Washington, D.C., area and had their daughter, Everleigh. Since then, she’s taken a break from teaching to be a stay-at-home mom for the moment.

“That has been the most fulfilling job that I’ve ever had,” she said. “It’s such a joy just to get to see her grow and be with her every day.”

Contreras is so thankful she chose to go to Averett so that she could spend that additional time with her family while also playing volleyball.

“That’s even more special to me now because I never imagined that I would marry someone that goes into the military, where we’ll move every 3-4 years. Who knows where we go next, so being able to be next to my family for four years in college and go to dinner with them when I wanted to or go home for a homecooked meal when I wanted to or take my laundry there — looking back on all that was super special to me.”

For Bobby, getting to see his daughter and son-in-law join him in the Hall of Fame is an emotional thought. 

“Very special,” Shields said with a pause. “… It’s a very proud, special moment for our family. Obviously it was a very emotional day a few years back when I was inducted. … I’m very proud of her and James. To be there and be a part of that, it’s something we’re all looking forward to celebrating. As an Averett graduate and an Averett coach, being a Hall of Fame member, watching your daughter go there and get her education there and having a successful athletic career and now capping it off with this, it’s hard to put into words.”