News

Fox13 Scholar Athlete of the Week: Hadley Horner

Congratulations Hadley!

View fullsize

There’s a desire to excel in the classroom. Then there’s the Hadley Horner type of intensity. 

“I tell her all the time she needs to relax a little because she studies too much sometimes,” Harding girls basketball coach Becky Starks said. “But makes her parents proud. Makes us proud. Great representative for Harding Academy.” Horner does admit she could relax a little more. 

“Cause I get really stressed out about grades,” she said. “So, I’ll be really stressed out during practice. She’ll be like hey what’s up? It’s just because I know I have a big test the next day or I have a research paper due. I just get really stressed out about it.” 

There’s a reason for this. The senior doesn’t want to fail. So, she puts in the work it takes to ensure success. 

“I don’t like failing and I don’t like having to know that I didn’t do as well as I could,” Horner said. “So, I try to just get everything done to know that I’ll get a good grade on it.”

Lady Lions coach Becky Starks sees the correlation between Horner’s desire to be great academically and athletically. 

“Oh, it’s definitely related,” Starks said. “Definitely related and I like to think that what they’ve done athletically helps them in ways in the classroom and vice versa. Their work habits. Their study habits. The way they prepare for the game. The way they prepare for tests. I believe it’s all related.”

It should come to no surprise that Horner has developed into a team leader. She’s a three-year starter and leads the team in scoring at 12 points a game. 

“The thing that I’m probably most proud of is how she’s developed the other parts of her game,” Starks said. “Defensively she’s become good for us and the things she’s doing rebounding the basketball. So, she’s a major contributor and we count on her every night. Her consistency is one of the things that makes her really special.”

With just two losses on the season, Horner and her fellow seniors are hoping for a special ending to the season. 

“I think it’s really helped knowing, especially this past year, like this is our last year,” Horner said. “So, we all want it and we all want it for each other. We’ve been together as a team for so long that we all just want it for each other.
By: Jonathan Marshall
Fox13 Memphis