Encarnación Hernández Ruiz (23 January 1917 – 19 December 2022) was a Spanish pioneer of women's basketball as a professional player and coach. Early life Encarna Hernández was born in the Region of Murcia town of Lorca in 1917. At the age of 10, she arrived in Barcelona together with her parents and ten siblings, as her father was working at the Universal Exposition of 1929. Hernández began playing basketball at the age of 13 with the boys and girls in her neighborhood on a field built by Emilio Planelles, who would later become her husband. She not only played basketball but also was involved in other sports such as cycling and skating. For her, the most important thing was playing sports. At tall, Hernández was known as "the girl with the hook shot" for her ability to use this resource. Basketball career In 1931, Hernández participated in the founding of the Atlas Club, to which her husband also belonged. Aurora Jordà and Hernández were among the most outstanding players on the women's team, with Hernández being the top scorer of the club, even above the men. In 1932, the Atlas Club was dissolved and its players became part of Laietà. There she was trained by Fernando Muscat and would cross paths with players from the Club Femení i d'Esports such as Maria "Mary" Morros or Carmen Sugrañes, on a team in which they won the first Catalan Women's Championship held in the 1935/36 season, winning all of their matches. Hernández was selected to participate in athletics events of the People's Olympiad, but this was not held as a result of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. During the Civil War, she continued to play in basketball games despite the difficulties of the war itself, these games being more exhibitions than official competitions. At the end of the Civil War, she was a basketball instructor appointed by the Falange's Sección Femenina to make "strong and healthy women for the country." Although she became a popular figure in the local sports press, it was only when she played for the Falange that she was paid a modest amount of money, so she had to work hard off the court and combine her work hours with training. After the Civil War, apart from the Sección Femenina team, Hernández played for Laietà, Cottet and Moix Llambés, teams in which her sister Maruja