Hailey Van Lith gets hometown support at the cinema

one of uh Haley's old teachers at kmir Levi hyen and he's the men's head basketball coach and I uh reached out to the vanlith family and we asked if we could put a watch party together and then it was kind of organic from there we thought where can we have this where a lot of people can come the movie theater is the perfect place for that we're here at the Liberty Theater today in went downtown wache and so it was just one of those things that kind of snowballed into um this big free community event today she first came on my radar when she was probably around 12 years old my husband and I were watching a basketball game at um the actually the wachi high school and my husband pointed her out and was like that girl is going to be a star we've known Haley just through the basketball Network forever like I said my husband is a coach and then my father-in-law is a Hall of Fame uh basketball coach as well so basketball is kind of in our nature so that's how we first learned of Haley but then we've become really good friends with uh her parents actually built our house they live in our neighborhood they're wonderful people her aunts are here in town also they amazing so uh we've just known her family for quite some time and have kind of got to watch this incredible journey and just to be a part of it is um it's really humbling when Haley was in high school the women's team became sort of um the bigger show that people wanted to come watch and so locally we saw it rise and then nationally lately with Caitlyn Clark and the women's rugby team in the Olympics you've just seen this big celebration and really Haley was at the Forefront of that she's so Dynamic she she's got this confidence that's infectious and that's really what women's sports is about it's about competition it's about shining in our roles as females and she's been kind of leading that charge especially locally you know I don't have kids myself but my friends childrens that are that are local are are going to be here today and they are these little girls are so excited they line up for her autograph if you go to watch a college game of hers the stands are packed after a game just lined up for people to get her autograph so she's obviously making a big impact on uh girls and boys here locally and on a national level Haley represents hard work and perseverance she has really really worked hard to be in this position she's had this goal since she was a little girl and to watch her success and her achieve all of these goals that she set her mind to is just so inspiring