As Paris Junior College athletic director and women’s basketball coach Sean LeBeauf looks on, Lady Dragons 5-9 sophomore guard Bianca Hanna signs to continue her basketball career at Texas A&M-Commerce. (PJC Photo)
By CHARLES RICHARDS
eParisExtra.com
Bianca Hanna, one of the leaders of a Lady Dragons basketball team that achieved the most victories ever for the program, has signed a letter-of-intent with Texas A&M-Commerce.
Sean LeBeauf, PJC’s athletic director and women’s basketball coach, said A&M-Commerce is getting “a diamond in the rough.”
“Bianca is low maintenance and big in heart. They’re getting a special kid,” LeBeauf said. He called Hanna “the player we as coaches all love to have.”
The 5-9 sophomore from Tallevast, Fla., was one of the nation’s leading scorers in high school. She averaged nine points and four rebounds a game for the Lady Dragons and made 75 percent of her free throws.
PJC finished third in Region 14 and was ranked as high as No. 11 in the nation during the season.
“My time at PJC has been good,” Hanna said. “I met a lot of nice people in Paris, lots of nice teachers and it’s been a very good experience with Coach Sean and his coaching. The coaches are very nice at Commerce; it’s a nice facility and they’re all about helping you succeed, not just all about basketball. I’m looking forward to playing for their team and good things are coming, hopefully.”
Charles Richards Charles Richards moved to Paris in 2004 after retiring from a 40-year career in journalism – the last 26 years as a news writer and sports writer with The Associated Press in Dallas and Washington, D.C. In mid-2004, The Paris News coaxed him out of retirement, and he began covering the police, court and regional beat for The Paris News. Then in early 2005, he was switched to coverage of a sharply divided Paris City Council. He was appointed by the City Council in 2006 to the 12-member City Charter Review Commission, which extensively rewrote the outmoded document. His writing awards include two first-place awards in statewide competition for feature writing. The most recent was his 2005 story on a Paris doctor’s startling use of leeches in a successful attempt to re-attach a man’s severed ear. Over his career, Richards’ interview subjects include Alabama Gov. George Wallace, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, David Koresh, Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali and numerous other political and sports figures. He is an alumnus of Texas Tech, where he was editor of the school newspaper. He lives in Paris with his wife, Barbara, who is retired after 30 years as a teacher and high school counselor.
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