John Hawes remembers when his daughter, Abby, started playing soccer in second grade. It was a small-sided game with temporary goals. But Abby "was running into the scrums at full speed."
Though the skill and competition level has certainly changed, Abby Hawes' competitive nature has not. The Mountain Lakes senior reached 1,000 career points in basketball on a first-quarter free throw in a 43-34 home victory against Morris Knolls on Saturday.
Hawes only needed one point coming into the game, after asking to be pulled out of the Lakers' last regular-season match so she could reach the milestone in front of her grandparents, Sue and John Hawes.
It's a significant accomplishment in what Hawes herself considers her third sport, after lacrosse and soccer. Hawes signed a National Letter of Intent to continue as a lacrosse defender at Ohio State. She's been part of four sectional and three NJSIAA titles with the Lakers soccer team.
Hawes is the eighth Mountain Lakes girl to reach the milestone, the first since 2012.
"I never thought I'd be able to do this," said Hawes, who had 22 points, five steals, seven rebounds, a block and two assists on Saturday.
"So many people who have done this before are such intense basketball players, and played basketball at such a high level. ... I never expected I would do it, due to me focusing more on lacrosse, rather than basketball."
Hawes has balanced three sports for much of her life.
She recalled sitting on her father's shoulders to shoot a basketball long before she could reach the hoop by herself. She started lacrosse in third grade, joining a club team a year later. By middle school, Hawes was bouncing between club lacrosse and soccer and AAU basketball practices, sometimes in the same day.
Mountain Lakes has won four sectional soccer finals in a row, and three straight NJSIAA Group 1 titles. In lacrosse, the Lakers are three-time defending Group 1 North champions.
Mountain Lakes reached the NJSIAA North 1, Group 1 basketball final last winter for the first time in more than a decade.
"I would watch the (high school) lacrosse team winning stuff, and I wanted to be part of that so bad," Hawes said. "It feels surreal that I've been able to make such an impact. Especially for soccer, winning three titles back to back to back, it seems impossible."
Hawes earned more minutes as a freshman, and, during her sophomore year, became a key part of the Lakers' defense. Lacrosse defense and basketball are very similar, which helped Hawes figure out positioning and footwork.
She started becoming the focus of Mountain Lakes' offense during her junior season, expanding her range. Hawes and the other seniors have spent lots of time using the Lakers' shooting machine after practice.
That's when Lakers coach Joanne Smith started thinking about Hawes finding her way onto the 1,000-point banner in the gym.
"She's just a kid who wants to be the best at whatever sport she's playing and wants to win," Smith said. "She creates that atmosphere for the rest of our team. She's like, 'Give me the ball and I'll win you the game,' no matter how she has to do it."