High school sports 20 for 20: Herriman’s Aubree Hogan has dealt with softball uncertainty twice her senior year

After transferring from Bingham, Hogan wasn’t sure if the UHSAA would let her play her senior season, and now the season is in jeopardy again because of COVID-19

Editor’s Note: For 20 days in April, the Deseret News will profile 20 elite high school athletes from the 2020 graduating class and how they’re coping with the premature end of senior life on and off the field.

HERRIMAN — When the UHSAA announced the suspension of high school sports last month, you’d have been hard pressed to find a more heartbroken senior than Herriman’s Aubree Hogan.

She’d already lived through months of uncertainty last summer and fall wondering if she’d ever get to play high school softball again after transferring from Bingham, and to endure that again has been crushing.

“It is honestly depressing. I miss being on the field everyday with my friends and my family. That’s who I am as a person, I grew up on a ballfield, I haven’t been away from a ballfield for this long in a while,” said Hogan.

“It is honestly depressing. I miss being on the field everyday with my friends and my family.” — Herriman’s Aubree Hogan

When Herriman’s coaches informed the players the season was being suspended back on March 12 for two weeks — and possibly longer — Hogan thought it had to be an early April Fool’s prank. The past four weeks of school and softball isolation has been crueler than any prank though.

Big things were expected of Hogan this year after she batted .551 with 15 doubles, nine home runs and 36 RBI a year ago at Bingham and was named a Deseret News first team all-stater.

She’d got off to a bit of a slow start in Herriman’s seven games before high school sports were suspended on March 16, batting just .214 with two home runs and six RBI in 18 plate appearances. It was only a matter of time until the slugger figured things out and started terrorizing pitchers for the defending 6A state champs.

Herriman coach Heidi McKissick said she hated trying to get Hogan out at Bingham during her back-to-back first team all-state seasons at Bingham in 2018 and 2019.

Little did McKissick know at the time, but Hogan had started to feel uncomfortable with her circumstances at Bingham a year ago. After the season, she felt she needed a fresh start, and believed a transfer to Herriman High School where some teammates on her travel softball team played would be a good landing spot.

She knew her hardship transfer request might not be approved by the UHSAA, which would’ve effectively ended her high school athletics. She transferred anyway in the summer.

The fact she already had a softball scholarship offer on the table from UVU helped ease any uncertainty she had about the transfer at the time.

Courtesy Roger Bailey

Herriman slugger Aubree Hogan bats against Westlake in a preseason game earlier this year.

Hogan officially signed with UVU last November, and then two weeks later following a panel hearing at the UHSAA her hardship waiver request was granted so she could begin playing basketball. She only ended up scoring 11 points all season, but more importantly, the waiver request meant she was cleared to play softball in the spring with her new teammates.

Not in a million years could she have predicted a pandemic would deny her the dream, comfortable senior season she was hoping for.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to play because of my transfer, not because of the coronavirus, so when I found at it got postponed I was super sad and missed my team,” said Hogan.

She was especially looking forward to her two region rematches with Bingham, but now everything is on hold until May 1 when decisions will be made about whether the entire season is canceled.

Even if no more games are played, McKissick has tried to reassure Hogan that’s she’s in a better mental state this year because of the transfer.

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