Hanna Elizabeth Zavecz[2] was born on 21 August 1985[2][3] and is from Melbourne, Victoria.[2][4] Her parents are Peter and Marianne and she has two older brothers.[2] Zavecz is 183 centimetres (72in) tall.[3][5][6] Zavecz attended the University of Wyoming from 2004 to 2008, where she majored in human nutrition and food.[2][6] One of her biggest challenges moving from Melbourne to Wyoming in to attend university was the cold winter weather.[6]
Basketball
Jenna O'Hea and Hanna Zavecz at the Opals camp held at the Australian Institute of Sport.
Zavecz played representative basketball for Country Victoria at the under-16 and under-18 levels at the national championships.[2][9] In 2001, she was the captain of her side on the under-16 level.[2] She represented Victoria in the Australian national under-20 championships in 2003, where her team took home gold.[2] Prior to going to the United States, she played for Bulleen in the Victorian Basketball League where she was coached by Raquel Conel.[2]
University
Zavecz considered several United States universities including Idaho State, Georgia Tech and Memphis before choosing the University of Wyoming,[2] where was played forward from 2004 to 2008.[2] Her university coach had never seen her play before she came to play for the team. Zavecz's club coach convinced him to offer her a scholarship.[6]
In Zavecz's first Conference game as a freshman, playing BYU University, she scored 32 points and had 7 blocks setting two Freshman records for the conference. In her first year, she was a Second Team All-Mountain West Conference (MWC) selection.[2] In her second season with the team, they won 21 games. Nationally, they were ranked 18th.[6] In her third season with the team, they were 16–1 to start the season.[6] She was named by the Associated Press as an Honorable Mention All-American in 2008.[4] Over the course of her career there, she averaged 14 points per game, 6.1 rebounds per game, 3.6 assists per game, 48 total blocked shots and 47 total steals.[9] She was a three-time First-Team All-MWC player and two times Defensive Player of the Year for the Mountain West Conference.[4]
Zavec at Training Camp
Zavecz was one of seven international players to have played for Wyoming through the 2011–12 season.[10]
Zavecz played for the Uniqa Euroleasing Sopron, Hungary in 2012.[3][5][7][12] In the season, she played 11 games, averaging 8.2 points per game and 4.5 rebounds per game.[7]
WNBL
Zavecz has played in Australia's WNBL.[4][9][13] In 2002 and 2003, she had a scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport and played for the AIS WNBL team.[2][6][9][13][14] While at the AIS, they ingrained in her the need to eat healthy.[6] While on road trips with the WNBL AIS team, they were never allowed to eat fast food.[6] She signed with the Bendigo Spirit in 2008.[4][9] She played for the Bendigo Spirit in the 2008/2009 season in the forward position.[15] Going into the 17th round, she was averaging 6.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.[15] She missed six games in the first sixteen rounds because she was injury, most of them before the WNBL Christmas break.[15] She played for the Bulleen Boomers in 2010/2011, her first year with the team.[16] Early in the season, she missed the first two games which were Bulleen losses.[16]
National team
Zavecz earned her first call up to the Australia women's national basketball team in 2010[17] and participated in a tour of China, USA and Hungary in mid-2010.[18] In late July 2011, she played in a three-game test series against China played in Queensland.[19] In the first game against China, Australia won 73–67 with Zavec contributing in key moments in the fourth quarter.[20] She played in the 2012 Summer Olympic qualifying game against the New Zealand women's national basketball team.[8] She was named to the 2012 Australia women's national basketball team.[21]
1 2 Australian Institute of Sport; Basketball Australia (2011). AIS Basketball 2011. Canberra: Australian Sports Commission. p.60. This is a booklet published by the Australian Sport Commission, has a copyright notice on the page following the cover page.
