Photo by: Brian Westerholt/Sports On Film
Deacon Sports Xtra: Betfort’s Journey from Walk-On to NWSL
4/14/2021 12:32:00 PM | Women's Soccer, Les Johns
“It was just an amazing experience and Wake has certainly filled a significant chapter of my life, and I'm moving on to the next one now but reluctantly so.” - Hannah Betfort
Wake Forest wasn't looking for Hannah Betfort, and Betfort didn't know anything about Wake Forest.
But she impressed then assistant coach Jason Lowe, who is now the head coach for Boston College Women's Soccer, and she was eventually invited to an ID camp.
Betfort fell in love with what she saw on campus, the staff offered her a recruited walk-on spot, and she's turned out to be an All-ACC level player who is set to begin her professional career later this year after being drafted by the Portland Thorns FC in the National Women's Soccer League.
"Just the most random things occurred, but that's when you start to think, maybe the universe was telling me, yo, look at this place," Bedford said. "And I'm like, oh, this is perfect. So it was awesome. I definitely learned about Wake Forest shortly after that. I was like, what? I want to play in the ACC, I want to go here. This is amazing. So I moved out of the little Charleston pond and moved on to something bigger, and here I am."
Playing on an under-the-radar soccer club in Charleston, Betfort wasn't heavily recruited.
"She came to a camp and just blew us away with her athleticism and personality," Wake Forest women's soccer coach Tony da Luz said. "She was a walk-on her first year. Sometimes you find great players in the most random places, and you just get lucky. I'm happy she took a chance to come here as a recruited walk-on."
"She has the mentality and works her butt off in everything she does on and off the field. I'm proud of everything she's accomplished here."
As she got ready for draft day in mid-January, Betfort was mentally prepared for any outcome and any destination. She's only been out west once, on a trip to California, although her older brother lives just two hours away from her new home.
"I thought I was prepared for whatever happened," Betfort said. "I went in with the healthy understanding that I might not get drafted or I could go anywhere. So I thought I was prepared for if I did get drafted, but I definitely wasn't. It was just such a surreal thing that happened that it almost took me like a week to understand that."
"So it was just very overwhelming in all the right ways. It still kind of freaks me out a little bit, I still got to catch myself being like, wow. Yeah, that did happen and I'm going there very shortly. So it was very, very exciting."
Not only was Betfort unsure if she would get selected in the NWSL Draft, there was uncertainty on if the draft would even take place. With all that uncertainty, Betfort told da Luz that she was committed to staying with the Deacs through the rest of the 2020-21 season regardless of how the draft turned out.
"We weren't even sure there was going to be a draft, at least not in the normal time that they have the draft in mid-January," she said. "So we just didn't know what was going to happen until a week before it happened, basically."
"So with so much uncertainty and just the pandemic I didn't want to get stuck with nowhere to go, nowhere to train. But also I felt like I had some unfinished business here. I love this team and I felt like I owed it to everyone and to myself to finish what I started basically."
She will report to her team once she's done at Wake Forest this season, but doesn't know yet where she'll be tasked to play with the Thorns. She's shown tremendous versatility at Wake Forest, and that's a quality she believes will work to her benefit at the next level.
"If I go to the pro level and I'm not good enough at center back, okay cool," she said. "I have four other positions you can try me out in that I have collegiate, not only collegiate experience, but ACC collegiate experience in, so that's the closest you're going to get to being prepared."
"So I was like, okay, now I have three times more options than a lot of other players do. So my ability to fit into a team has therefore tripled because now they don't have to just see me at one position and force me in there. If I don't work they can try and be somewhere else, and my odds of staying with the team or my odds fitting in are much, much higher."
Now just weeks away from wrapping up her Wake Forest journey and starting her professional career, Betfort reluctantly looks back at her time wearing the Old Gold & Black fondly.
"I think I chose well," she said. "Tony, and Courtney (Owen), and Jason were just amazing coaches to me and good people and helped me through a lot of trials that go through a person's life. On and off the field they were just the most supportive human beings that you could have, so I think I chose well."
"It was just an amazing experience and Wake has certainly filled a significant chapter of my life, and I'm moving on to the next one now but reluctantly so."
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But she impressed then assistant coach Jason Lowe, who is now the head coach for Boston College Women's Soccer, and she was eventually invited to an ID camp.
Betfort fell in love with what she saw on campus, the staff offered her a recruited walk-on spot, and she's turned out to be an All-ACC level player who is set to begin her professional career later this year after being drafted by the Portland Thorns FC in the National Women's Soccer League.
"Just the most random things occurred, but that's when you start to think, maybe the universe was telling me, yo, look at this place," Bedford said. "And I'm like, oh, this is perfect. So it was awesome. I definitely learned about Wake Forest shortly after that. I was like, what? I want to play in the ACC, I want to go here. This is amazing. So I moved out of the little Charleston pond and moved on to something bigger, and here I am."
Playing on an under-the-radar soccer club in Charleston, Betfort wasn't heavily recruited.
"She came to a camp and just blew us away with her athleticism and personality," Wake Forest women's soccer coach Tony da Luz said. "She was a walk-on her first year. Sometimes you find great players in the most random places, and you just get lucky. I'm happy she took a chance to come here as a recruited walk-on."
"She has the mentality and works her butt off in everything she does on and off the field. I'm proud of everything she's accomplished here."
As she got ready for draft day in mid-January, Betfort was mentally prepared for any outcome and any destination. She's only been out west once, on a trip to California, although her older brother lives just two hours away from her new home.
"I thought I was prepared for whatever happened," Betfort said. "I went in with the healthy understanding that I might not get drafted or I could go anywhere. So I thought I was prepared for if I did get drafted, but I definitely wasn't. It was just such a surreal thing that happened that it almost took me like a week to understand that."
"So it was just very overwhelming in all the right ways. It still kind of freaks me out a little bit, I still got to catch myself being like, wow. Yeah, that did happen and I'm going there very shortly. So it was very, very exciting."
Not only was Betfort unsure if she would get selected in the NWSL Draft, there was uncertainty on if the draft would even take place. With all that uncertainty, Betfort told da Luz that she was committed to staying with the Deacs through the rest of the 2020-21 season regardless of how the draft turned out.
"We weren't even sure there was going to be a draft, at least not in the normal time that they have the draft in mid-January," she said. "So we just didn't know what was going to happen until a week before it happened, basically."
"So with so much uncertainty and just the pandemic I didn't want to get stuck with nowhere to go, nowhere to train. But also I felt like I had some unfinished business here. I love this team and I felt like I owed it to everyone and to myself to finish what I started basically."
She will report to her team once she's done at Wake Forest this season, but doesn't know yet where she'll be tasked to play with the Thorns. She's shown tremendous versatility at Wake Forest, and that's a quality she believes will work to her benefit at the next level.
"If I go to the pro level and I'm not good enough at center back, okay cool," she said. "I have four other positions you can try me out in that I have collegiate, not only collegiate experience, but ACC collegiate experience in, so that's the closest you're going to get to being prepared."
"So I was like, okay, now I have three times more options than a lot of other players do. So my ability to fit into a team has therefore tripled because now they don't have to just see me at one position and force me in there. If I don't work they can try and be somewhere else, and my odds of staying with the team or my odds fitting in are much, much higher."
Now just weeks away from wrapping up her Wake Forest journey and starting her professional career, Betfort reluctantly looks back at her time wearing the Old Gold & Black fondly.
"I think I chose well," she said. "Tony, and Courtney (Owen), and Jason were just amazing coaches to me and good people and helped me through a lot of trials that go through a person's life. On and off the field they were just the most supportive human beings that you could have, so I think I chose well."
"It was just an amazing experience and Wake has certainly filled a significant chapter of my life, and I'm moving on to the next one now but reluctantly so."
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