Winter Park volleyball player gets recruited in first round

For the first time on record a boys volleyball player from Florida was recruited to the No. 1 collegiate volleyball program in the nation — and he was pulled right off Winter Park’s home court.

Towering above his classmates at Winter Park High School, the 6-foot 8-inch Baron Hahn has accepted a spot at Loyola University Chicago. Just days ago on May 9, Loyola took home the national volleyball championship title.

As a top player in the nation, the nearly ever-smiling Hahn was sought after by many of the top volleyball programs in the nation, but he found his place at Loyola not because of the athletic program they offered, but because of the attitude of their staff and their understanding that athletics are not the end-all-be-all.

“I didn’t even think of the competitiveness,” Hahn said. “I was lucky because they’re the top school in the nation, but that was never my main focus.”

Other than the coaching staff and its attitude, Hahn said the campus and the academics were a large factor in his decision. At Loyola, Hahn will be doing a five-year BA to MBA program in international business.

There’s no argument that to be recruited by such a school takes tremendous athletic skill, but for Hahn, the road to such success and ability was paved with difficulty and hard work.

On the court, you’ll see him eye the ball almost menacingly. He’s often asked if he’s angry, frustrated or upset. In actuality, he’s just hyper concentrated on what’s going on right in front of him.

When he’s serving, he bounces the ball thrice before tossing it up in the air, flaring his arms back, launching his giant frame into the air and sending the ball screaming across the court.

But that simple serve is the product of hours upon hours of concentration, hard work and practice.

None of that was foreign to Hahn, even from when he was a toddler. A speech and comprehension disability left a young Hahn not only unable to communicate save for slurred words, but unable to sit, stand and walk like a normal child. His adenoids and tonsils were enlarged when he was younger, impacting his brain’s growth and ability to create pathways and connections for his motor and communicative skills.

His mother, Inevett, describes the difference as, “Other people’s brains work A, B, C, D. Baron’s works A, D, C, B.”

To combat this, his parents put him in speech and physical therapy sessions until his middle school years. He was in special education classes until kindergarten, but his parents wanted him to carry himself, not ride on the back of therapies and specialized education.

Despite his challenges, Hahn was an athlete from a young age, playing basketball until his sophomore year of high school. Though he’s a top volleyball player now, his career didn’t begin until seventh grade when a coach, noticing his above-average height, asked him to play volleyball as well.

Over the next few years, Hahn juggled the two sports, eventually making the freshman basketball team at WPHS while also playing club volleyball. If that wasn’t enough, he was also in the rigorously advanced International Baccalaureate academic program, though he eventually left and pursued Advanced Placement and honors classes.

Once he started his sophomore year, it dawned on him that his true passion lied with volleyball, not basketball, and he decided to go full force toward the broad net.

But that doesn’t mean it came easily. To overcome the challenges of his disabilities, he said he had to study, practice and work much harder than the average player just to keep up.

“In practice, I have to practice a little bit more to just get the repetition, because you know they say repetition is everything,” Hahn said. “But I have to go beyond that to make sure that in a game, I can remember what to do.”

That dedication and hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed locally as well. Hahn’s coach at WPHS Pedro Davila specifically mentioned Hahn’s dedication as a factor in his success.

“He did everything he needed to do to be an impact player at the college and high school level. His focus set him apart,” Davila said. “He’s committed and disciplined in all angles, in academics, personally as well.”

Despite his disabilities, Hahn understands that he has tremendous opportunity where he is and where he’s going. Taking that to heart, in the last year, he co-founded a nonprofit, 3 TO 5 DAYS, with his sister to provide clean, usable water solutions to third-world countries.

Right now, they do work in La Montagne, Haiti, with much of the work going into repairing water wells, providing transportation to the wells that are sometimes miles away, and combating water contamination. He has hopes of taking it across the globe one day.

“This is an 18-year-old [man] that really understands that when you overcome incredible challenges you don’t become resentful and bitter,” Hahn’s mother said. “You become useful and proactive and give back.”

Coupled with Hahn’s desire to give back is also his desire to succeed and to gain fame. To accomplish this, if he’s not busy starting his own marketing firm, Hahn dreams of being an Olympic volleyball player and traveling the world.

“Right now [volleyball is] keeping me active and I’m doing something fun, and I would love one day to play pro,” Hahn said. “Traveling the world and playing with a team and being recognized on an international team is always something I’ve wanted to do. Live and be well known for it.”