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Bogalusa High School’s Mary Ladner

Bogalusa High School’s Mary Ladner is a basketball player, runs track/field and is on the dance team.
Ladner, who is a junior, plays several positions in basketball. In track/field, Ladner runs the 4×100 and 4×200 relays and she triple jumps.
Ladner is also the captain of Bogalusa’s dance team, the Paper Dolls.
Ladner has been as far as the regionals for track/field.
“Mary is a junior on the team,” Bogalusa girls’ basketball coach Frank Gambino said. “This will be her third year (on the team). She’s also involved in track. She’s the captain of our dance team. Mary is a great person. She works hard in and out of the classroom. Very very good defensive player, as a matter of fact, probably would be our top rebounder if she had a little more height to her. She’s a very good player and asset to our team.”

What do you enjoy most about playing your sports?
Playing sports, it’s exercising your mind, so I feel like I’m out of my body when I do it. I don’t think about a lot of stuff when I’m doing certain things. If I’m playing basketball, it’s something you can do for fun, but I do it because I escape a lot of things when I play basketball, when I run track or when I dance, I escape a lot of problems and stuff.

What do you like best about being a student athlete?
I like being around my teammates. I don’t like being around a lot of people, but if we share the same hobbies, I like being around that and I like how it encourages me to do better and I like competition.

Who has been the most influential person in your school sports career? Why?
My dad (Jason Ladner) influences me a lot. He pushes me to be better to do better. Even if I think I did good, he’d be like, ‘no, you’ve got to work harder or something like that.’ He tells me I do good, but it’s like, ‘you did good, but you could’ve did better.’

Who is your favorite athlete? Why?
Houston Rockets guard James Harden. I just like the way he shoots. I like when he’s in the game, it’s like he makes basketball look fun.

Favorite team?
Los Angeles Lakers.

Best thing about living in Washington Parish?
Everybody is a competition. It’s not like, ‘oh you’re the best, so you don’t have to work that hard.’ Everybody is a competition to me. In Washington Parish, like how we’re a 3A school, everybody in 3A is so competitive. You have to work hard no matter what and you never lay down.