Martha Parker Hester
A member of the Class of 1985, Martha Parker Hester played basketball, volleyball, and softball while at Hammond. As a basketball player, she was a four-time MVP of her high school team, a two-time Street & Smith, Parade, and an Adidas All-American. She averaged 28.7 Points and 10 rebounds per game, scoring over 2500 points in her high school career. Martha led the Skyhawks to five State Championships. She lettered four years in volleyball and six years in softball. As a member of the volleyball team she was a three-time MVP and a two-time MVP for the softball team. She was also a High School Academic All American. Martha Parker Hester played her four-year college career at USC. At the University of South Carolina, she ranked 5th in all-time scoring with 1,728 points, and 2nd in all-time steals with 284, earned all-American honors from American Women’s Sports Federation, and was named twice All-American from the Women’s Basketball News Service. Martha Parker started 122 of 124 games as a Gamecock and was named to the GTE All-American Team her last two seasons. Martha was honored by the SEC in 2000 as the USC Female Entrepreneur of the Year. She was inducted into the University of South Carolina Hall of Fame in 2002 and the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016. Her basketball jersey is retired at Hammond.
