Heather Hennessy (born 1982) is an American former

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...

broadcaster, author, and media personality. She was an 800-meter national high school champion and aspiring Olympic athlete before a spine injury forced her off the track.

Athletic career

Hennessy was a

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

athlete at

Archbishop Mitty High School Archbishop Mitty High School (commonly known as Mitty) is a private, Roman Catholic high school located in San Jose, California, United States. The school is named for the late John Joseph Mitty, the fourth Archbishop of San Francisco. It was the ...

in San Jose, and subsequently

Los Gatos High School Los Gatos High School (LGHS) is a high school in Los Gatos, California. It was founded in 1908 and is part of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District, which in 2021 was ranked the best high school district in Caliifornia The sch ...

Los Gatos, California Los Gatos (, ; ) is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of the ...

. In 2000, at age 17, she was America's fastest female 800-meter runner, winning the national championship with a record-setting time of 2:08.84. She finished the 800-meter race with a time of 2:07:73, finishing in second place behind

Neisha Bernard-Thomas Neisha Bernard-Thomas (born 21 January 1981) is a Grenadian middle-distance runner who specializes in the 800 metres. She also ran collegiately at Louisiana State University (LSU). Her personal best is 2:00.09 minutes, achieved at the 2008 Summ ...

, an exchange student from

Grenada Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...

. The only girl to win a national championship in Los Gatos track and field history, she was inducted into the Los Gatos Hall of Fame in 2014. She was top-seeded at the Foot Locker Outdoor Championship in North Carolina in 2000. Hennessy won an athletic scholarship to the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. While on the Los Gatos High School cross country team's annual training trip in Lake Tahoe in 2000, Hennessy jumped off a 50-foot cliff into the water as part of the team's traditional celebratory antics. The impact shattered her spine. She was airlifted to a hospital and diagnosed with compression fractures in her neck and back. She spent four months in a body cast. USC honored her scholarship, despite her injury. In 2014, Hennessy returned to running, completing the Los Angeles Half Marathon to raise awareness of

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

. Supporting Run for Hope, she ran for two Southern California shelters.

Fox Sports broadcasting career

Hennessy was a reporter on

, including national programs ''

Fox Major League Baseball ''MLB on Fox'' (also known as ''Fox MLB'') is an American presentation of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by Fox Sports, the sports division of the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox), since June 1, 1996. The broadcaster has aired the Worl ...

'', ''College BCS Ratings'', and ''Final Score Extra''. Notable interviews included Francisco Rodriguez and

Chipper Jones Larry Wayne "Chipper" Jones Jr. (born April 24, 1972) is an American former professional baseball third baseman who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves from 1993 to 2012. The Braves chose Jones with the first overall p ...

Author

In 2011, under her married name, Heather Hennessy-Howell, she wrote ''The Adventures of Dangles'', a children's book with an anti-bullying theme.

Media personality

Hennessy is featured in Tom Cronin and Jacqui Fifer's documentary ''The Portal'', about how meditation can change the world. It showcased at the

Dances With Films Dances With Films is an annual independent film festival located in Los Angeles, California and was founded by Leslee Scallon and Michael Trent. Lineup Taking place every year since 1998, the festival is dedicated to representing true independent ...

festival in Los Angeles in June 2019.

Personal life

In 2009, Hennessy married

J.P. Howell James Phillip Howell (born April 25, 1983) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Toronto Blue Jays. Career A ...

, an American professional baseball pitcher who played for the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home venu ...

, and

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

. The two met as freshmen at the University of Southern California. The two trained one off-season with Olympic skater

Peggy Fleming Peggy Gale Fleming (born July 27, 1948) is an American former figure skater and the only American in the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France to bring home a Gold Medal. She is the 1968 Olympic Champion in Ladies' singles and a three-time W ...

, whom Hennessy had met as a teenager in Los Gatos. Together they founded the nonprofit Discover Your Path Foundation to help kids. Hennessy filed for divorce on August 8, 2016, citing irreconcilable differences. In 2021, Hennessy sued both Archbishop Mitty and Los Gatos High Schools for failing to protect her against a coach who is under investigation for sexually assaulting students.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hennessy, Heather American female middle-distance runners Fox Sports announcers University of Southern California alumni American women children's writers American children's writers Living people 1982 births 21st-century American women Archbishop Mitty High School alumni People from Los Gatos, California Sportspeople from Santa Clara County, California