William Jewell College inducts NHS Athletic Wall of Famer
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hillary Adams Anwander had an entire year to write her speech after William Jewell College named her one of the newest inductees into its athletic hall of fame.
Too bad she found out only minutes before the ceremony that she was expected to give one.
“I think it went really well. I didn’t have much time to stress or worry about it, so I was able to thank the people I wanted to thank and show my gratitude,” said Anwander, the Nevada High School class of 2005 graduate and four-time NAIA All-American basketball player who was selected into William Jewell’s Hall back in April 2020 but was not officially inducted until last week, when she and four other individuals plus three teams were forever enshrined. “It’s not something every athlete has the opportunity to have, so I’m forever grateful for the honor and the support I had from coaches, teammates, and many other people to get there.”
Once Anwander found out she was expected to give a speech at the enshrinement banquet, she quickly used a voice-to-text app on her phone to dictate her thoughts.
But anyone who watched her play inside Wynn Gymnasium from 2001-2005 knows what kind of clutch performer Anwander (known then by her maiden name, Adams) is.
The sharp-shooting guard dished out more assists than any player in program history (628) and left as its second most prolific scorer (1,640 points). She was all-conference each season that she played and all-district for three, plus was a McDonald’s All-American nominee her senior year.
After a brief stint at Truman State University, Anwander found her home at William Jewell, where she finished second on that program’s all-time scoring list and seventh in assists. She was an NAIA All-American each season she played there and helped lead the Cardinals to the national tournament all four years between 2006-2010. Having won two conference titles, she was a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
“It’s a huge honor, and I’m extremely humbled. It’s a stamp on a really hard-working career that I had,” said Anwander, who reconnected with alumni at the event and brought several members of her family, including her husband and their two children, her brother and parents (who moved from Nevada after Anwander graduated) and grandfather Ron Smith (who still lives in Nevada). “Obviously, there are people from Nevada that I would have thanked who definitely helped me accomplish what I did at Jewell. It all started at Nevada. There are people there who mean a lot to me.”
These days, Anwander, after teaching for the past decade, is now in administration at two elementary schools in Blue Springs. Though she still checks in on how the Cardinals are playing (she’s still good friends with long-time women’s basketball coach Jill Slominksi) and keeps up on NHS sports through social media, Anwander says surgeries to both her knees have prevented her from getting as much time as the court as she used to — though she noted her jump shot is still locked in.
Anwander briefly coached high school and eighth-grade basketball, before deciding to start a family. Her children, a four-year-old boy named Benson and a two-year-old girl named Brielle, are into soccer and tee-ball right now, but Anwander said she plans on enrolling them in hoops in the winter.
“It’s pretty cool to say I’m forever enshrined into a hall of fame, but I’m most proud that I can go back to my college and see the plaque on there with my picture and be able to share that with my kiddos when they’re old enough to understand,” she said. “I can’t wait to do that one day.”