Atlanta player wins gold with USA Women’s U16 team, has eyes set on state championships next

ATLANTA — The state of Georgia is filled with lots of talented athletes and Hailee Swain is another one to add to your watch list.

Swain is a point guard that’s going into her junior year at Holy Innocents Episcopal School and spoke to Channel 2′s Alison Mastrangelo about her big goals this season and beyond.

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She’s been around the game of basketball for pretty much her entire life. A big part of that has to do with her father Robert who played in college, six years in Europe and now trains athletes at Swain Basketball Academy.

“As a dad, I want her to be the best in the world. I want to win a national championship. In college. I want to win state championships in high school. I want to be the best cheerleader she could possibly be,” Robert Swain says.

“It’s really fun working with him, he always pushes me and he always believed in me. And he just, really just helped me build my confidence up,” Hailee Swain says.

This year, her confidence continued to grow by the USA U-16 team and achieving something not many kids her age get to do.

“I got to represent my country, which is really huge. Like, I’ve like, that’s like, that’s the biggest milestone I’ve ever hit in my life,” Hailee told Mastrangelo. “We went to Merida, Mexico, and we played about like six games, and then we ended up winning gold. So that whole experience was just amazing.”

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In a few years, Hailee will take her talents to Stanford. She committed to the Cardinals during her freshman year and looks forward to playing for Stanford’s legendary coach Tara vanDerveer.

“Stanford is my dream school. And I realized that they cared about me, not just as an athlete, but as a person. And I just see myself growing at Stanford and to a young woman. And I see myself being set up for life after basketball, because at some point, the ball is going to stop dribbling and like having a degree from Stanford would really set me up.”

But don’t worry: Hailee isn’t looking too far ahead to college just yet. She still has things she wants to accomplish in high school.

“Bring home two state championships back-to-back this year and my senior year.”

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