Through the Lens: Hanna Giddens in Capturing the Balance of Coaching and Photography

By Reese Watson

When you first walk into this particular classroom, you are immediately met with the kind of energy that is rarely found within the walls of a Freshman Academy. Surveying the room, her desk was huddled in the right, bottom corner. The lights were off, only leaving the delicate glow of a multi-colored desk lamp. Around her personal area lay what you would normally find on a school teacher's desk, but what stands out the most is not what was on the desk, but what was on the walls surrounding it. There were several senior graduation announcement cards from players and students, as well as past girls basketball senior posters—the most recent, decorated with hand-written personal notes from each player under their pictures—almost as if displaying with it signs of relationship and community.

Sports are everywhere we look. Whether it be on a local news channel, ESPN, or while you're mindlessly scrolling through social media, it’s hard to escape the impact that athletics have had on our society. Sports have shaped lives, and for financial literacy teacher and ninth grade girls basketball coach Hanna Giddens, sports have become an outlet for pursuing a passion for photography and media.

Before discovering photography, Giddens had always been surrounded by sports.

“I always played everything. Growing up I had cousins who were boys and they all played basketball, baseball, like everything; so if they were out there playing, so was I,” said Giddens. “I always stuck around, if there was a sport I could play I was involved in it—I loved it.”

However, basketball has always had a sweet spot in her heart.

“My dad was a coach, so I was always on the bench when I was a kid. He actually had inbounds plays named after me because I was at the games so much when I was younger,” said Giddens. “I’ve always been in the gym, basketball was kind of my first sport I ever did—I could do my follow through at three years old, and I’d show it off to everybody.”

Jenks Lady Trojans Basketball player, Taryn Whitten. Photo Credit: Hanna Giddens

After moving to a small school in the Broken Arrow area around the sixth grade, Giddens was able to play any kind of sport offered. Whether it be softball, basketball, soccer, or volleyball, the opportunities were endless. That is until a knee injury during her sophomore year of highschool.

“It happened in a soccer game, and ended up having to have two knee surgeries to correct it,” said Giddens. “Then as a junior I came back, but it was just never the same. Continuing to play in college was just kinda out of the window at that point.”

After high school Giddens struggled with knowing what to do with her future.

“I honestly didn’t know what else to do, and that sounds really bad, but everybody tells you you gotta pick what you want to do—who you want to be—and I just had no idea,” said Giddens. “All I knew was that I liked sports and I liked kids. A lot of my family were educators, so I thought ‘I can teach and coach.’ So, I picked that in college, and I’ve honestly never looked back.”

Photo of Jenks Softball players. Photo Credit: Hanna Giddens

The coaching itself didn’t happen immediately, in fact it didn’t come till two years later when Giddens felt ready to add another thing to her plate.

“I’m the type of person that I don’t like to jump into things, I like to feel it out, and kind of see how it's gonna work out before I do it,” said Giddens. “But Coaching was absolutely scary. My first squad that I coached, I watched them in the gym and I was like every single one of these girls are better than me—and they were, they were a really good group that year.”

Hanna Giddens coaching her ninth-grade girls basketball team.

Giddens energy is infectious on the court. If you were to sit on the bench at one of her games you would see fervent passion for her players, through endless high-fives, words of encouragement, and loud cheers. She doesn’t stay in one place, instead using the full length of her bench to walk back and forth, as if studying the ball throughout the entire game. She never stays silent, instead vying to cheer, coach, and correct her player. During timeouts she huddles her girls close, and after the game she gives her girl shoutouts while packed in the varsity girls locker room—the locker room she's preparing her girls for in the near future.

Since a high school photography class, Giddens has always had an interest in cameras. However, the pictures she’s currently taking didn’t come till she was settled into her coaching career. And originally it started as a ploy for support.

“About two years ago I decided I was gonna bring my camera around, and I knew girls basketball specifically, but didn't get enough attention,” said Giddens. “Like, we didn’t have anybody in our corner, we didn’t have anyone coming to take pictures of us—but kids want that, whether you’re winning or losing—they want that kind of stuff.”

And these photos she was taking were gaining popularity amongst the high schoolers playing these sports.

“So, I took my camera to a girls game, then I did it every single home game,” said Giddens. “I just started to stay, then the girls wanted pictures, and the girls liked what I was doing, then the boys saw what I was doing and wanted that too. So, It kind of built on top of itself once it started.”

A collage of multiple Jenks Trojan Basketball players. Photo Credit: Hanna Giddens

Giddens had a small audience to back up her photography, but she wanted to expand her passion to more forms of media.

“I’ve always liked pictures. I’ve always had a camera. It was something I knew, then I started to see it get popular on social media—people micing people up, people making hype videos for certain kids, and I thought ‘I can do this, this is something I can very much do.’”

She expanded by posting her pictures on an Instagram account, while also starting a girls basketball TikTok where she posted edited videos of all kinds. But she also knew she needed a way to differentiate herself from those around her, while also taking aspects from what’s popular in the media.

“There’s a million accounts I follow and watch, trying to find inspiration because the goal that I’ve learned is that if you want to stand out you have to be different,” said Giddens. “You can’t go be someone else, you can take advice from someone else, but you’ve got to find a way to be different if you want people to notice.”

Mic up video with Addi Dodder: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8PrBRRp/ Video Credit: jlt_basketball (Hanna Giddens)

And people did notice, including the Jenks Basketball program.

“Last season Jenks Basketball started to really notice what I was doing because I made a TikTok for the girls account, and it got really popular pretty fast,” said Giddens. “Now I’m pretty sure that account has over 1,000 followers now, so it’s a really big deal, and all the little things I was putting out were getting a lot of good, positive attention. It was just stuff like micing up players, posting about home games and generating support—making videos, getting a nicer camera that helped with that success.”

Edited video of the Jenks Girls Basketball team: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8PrhckS/ Video Credit: jlt_basketball (Hanna Giddens)

If you saw Giddens talking photos you would see someone actively moving around for the best possible angles, while still cheering on the players around her. During media days she sets up a giant white sheet in the girls locker room, which has an ever changing, colored background from her personal projector. Every photo is focused around the players whether it be a portrait or an action shot, and every photo the players receive leaves them with a smile.

The future is bright for Giddens as she looks forward to what she’ll be able to accomplish. Outside of the sports world, she now takes senior pictures, family portraits, and even does things like maternity shoots. As she expands her personal photography and media pages, she also wants to see Jenks do this as well.

Family portrait. Photo Credit: Hanna Giddens

“I would love to see Jenks eventually have a social media position open one day just for athletics, because a lot of other schools around here are doing that for their sports,” said Giddens. “If one day that opportunity does work out then great, and if it doesn’t then it wasn’t meant to be.”

Jenks Lady Trojans Basketball player, Mandy Simpson. Photo Credit: Hanna Giddens

Balancing both an exciting full time job and a part time passion is both rewarding and exciting, but it’s all worth it in the end. Photos last forever, and as the years pass her former players will still have those photos she took, whether it be in a phone or on a wall—they will never forget someone who took time out of their day, not to highlight themselves, but to highlight the amazing kids around them the most.

“If I could get paid just to have a camera in my hand all day long I would 100%. That’s what they tell you when you’re a kid, ‘find something that feels like you’re never working a day in your life,’” said Giddens. “When I’m creating stuff—yes, it’s work, yes, I’m always teaching myself—but it feels like something I could do every single day.”

To learn more about Hanna Giddens and her photography follow @hanna_giddens_photos on Instagram!