SAN ANTONIO – Playing the point guard position her entire life, Ereauna Hardaway has always had to be the ultimate communicator. It’s a role in which she has thrived.
But her ability to communicate has not been as easy for Hardaway as many may believe. Throughout her countless successes on the basketball court over the course of a highly decorated athletic career, Hardaway has had to overcome a significant obstacle.
Born with full aural capabilities, Hardaway lost most of her hearing when she was in the first grade, for reasons doctors have never fully been able to identify.
“It’s been a big challenge,” Hardaway said. “Most people don’t know I can’t hear until I tell them and then they really recognize it.”
Hardaway, a 5-foot-8 native of Jonesboro, Ark., transferred to UTSA from North Texas in advance of the 2025-26 season to fill huge footsteps vacated by Nina De Leon Negron.
Hearing aids provide significant help to Hardaway, but they’re a tool that she hasn’t embraced until recently. Concerned that she would be ridiculed throughout her youth, Hardaway often opted not to wear the hearing aids, which her mother, Taneisha, allowed if Hardaway was performing well academically.
“It was kind of a confidence thing for me when I was younger because you don’t see many kids wearing hearing aids,” Hardaway said. “I made it my mission to pass my classes so I didn’t have to wear them. School-wise, I’ve always been able to hear my teachers because I sit in the front of the class.”
Hardaway taught herself other ways to adjust to her hearing challenges.
“I read lips very well, so if you’re talking to me and I don’t hear you, but I’m looking at you, I’m probably reading your lips,” she said. “I think it just became a learned trait for me. You’ve got to find new ways to adapt when you can’t hear.”
In the fourth grade, Hardaway began playing basketball. The opportunity to be part of a team provided both a welcoming environment and a sense of normalcy.
“Basketball made me feel like I was normal,” she said. “I don’t like to say that because I still am normal, but it made me feel like I was just like everyone else and I could do everything they could do. I’ve been a born leader and I already knew what I could do in that role. My parents don’t make it hard for me, they tell me to embrace it. My mom tells me to use it as something to help others.”
Hardaway first began to understand her mother’s advice when she attended a PGC (Point Guard College) Camp growing up. For the first time, she met another basketball player with whom she could relate.
“I saw a girl there who played for Texas Tech and I saw her with a hearing aid,” Hardaway said. “I thought, ‘Oh, that’s so cool.’ I never gave myself a chance to wear them because I was too ashamed to wear them. She gave me a little bit more confidence to put them on.”
Hardaway was the state of Arkansas’ Class 5A Most Valuable Player in 2021, leading her Jonesboro High School team to the state title that year. The Jonesboro Sun named her the Best Under the Sun Player of the Year.
Out of high school, she attended North Texas, playing three seasons for the Mean Green, her last two as the team’s starting point guard. In 2023-24, she led her team to a Co-American Conference regular-season championship. Last year, she started 34 games, averaging 10.0 points per game, 3.6 rebounds per game and 3.5 assists per game.
Among the reasons she chose to transfer to UTSA was the opportunity to play for the Roadrunners’ fifth-year head coach Karen Aston, one of collegiate basketball’s most respected leaders. Aston, who is widely known for the strong relationships she builds with her players, has been committed – along with the UTSA Sports Medicine staff - to helping Hardaway find the best option to assist with her hearing challenges.
“Coach Karen has put in a lot of effort for me to get hearing aids,” Hardaway said. “I did have hearing aids, but they were broken. Coach was like, ‘Let’s see what we can do.’ She put in the work to help me get new ones which I’ve actually ended up liking because they’re really cool. I’m trying to gain my confidence wearing them.
“They’re kind of like air pods,” Hardaway explained. “They come in a case, and they look like air pods. I can listen to music and everything with them on. There’s also a little tool that comes with them. If I need to hear somebody a little better, I can point it at them and their voice will pick up better. I’m just now gaining confidence and actually wearing them.”
When the season begins, Hardaway expects to have a pair of custom hearing aids that have been molded to her ears – ones that will stay in during games. While she says it will take a while to adjust to all the new sounds she’ll be exposed to, she’s excited to finally be able to hear her teammates and her coaches while on the court.
As she’s become more comfortable and confident under Aston’s leadership, Hardaway hopes she can inspire others to embrace their own unique sets of circumstances and the tools that exist to assist them.
“Find somebody that you feel like can help or that you look up to,” she said. “Don’t care what anybody else says. Be yourself. If it helps you, do it.”