Marly’s Almost Wonderful Season!
When I first saw Marly Walls, she was just a skinny middle school basketball player on the Nelson County Girls Basketball team getting cleanup time during a Holiday Tournament up in Louisville back in December of 2013. She was talented, but very raw and there was no question that if she could stay healthy that she would be something to watch as her age caught up with inexperience.
Now, lets fast forward to April 2018 and a track and field event called the Border War at Nelson County football field on a cool dreary evening on what was to be “Senior Night.” While the senior athletes from all teams involved were to be honored from all the competing schools there on the artificial turf, I was given the opportunity to meet Walls before her turn (since the W’s were last) and told her that she was to be honored also as the Sporting Times regional Winter female athlete. So after taking a photo of her and both her parents during the event, she told me that we could do the interview portion now since her turn was quite a ways off on center field.
During our video interview that took nearly seven minutes, I couldn’t get over how quickly she had grown from a shy middle school three sport athlete to a grown woman now about to become a college student (and athlete) not far from joining the workforce.
Four years went by fast for Walls, who enjoyed a great career playing soccer, basketball and track and field for the Nelson County Lady Cardinals. Soccer, which was the sport that she played mostly during your younger years there with her older sister Lakin (who currently stars in Women’s Soccer at Campbellsville). It was a fun time for Marly, who admitted that sometimes it got real competitive with her sister on the field. Unfortunately, her soccer career kept coming to a thundering end when she twice broke her collarbone near the end of the season during her freshman and sophomore year’s thus shortening her conditioning for basketball.
Track and Field was also a nice diversion from the rigors of basketball and Walls was quite good at all the events she participated in including the 100 and 300 -meter hurdles and the high Jump and Triple Jump.
Basketball is where she will earn her scholarship in college and the last two seasons were storybook especially her junior season when the team came together and got the Lady Cardinals their first Region Championship in recent seasons and a trip to the KHSAA State Tournament. It was the Holy Grail for Marly and the she and the team full of seniors and experienced players really drank up the moment.
Which is where we are now as Miss Wonderful nearly was able to duplicate that feat the following season (her senior season) with a new head coach and a slightly different team in a time when no one really gave them a chance. Walls had a terrific season using her slashing cutting style scoring 779-points (compared to 636 the previous Region Champion season). She was just as dangerous on the court and suddenly getting recognized (A Miss Kentucky Basketball Candidate) for it. Marly Walls was no longer just another pretty face. Still, there the Nelson County Lady Cardinals were against the powerful Elizabethtown basketball team with a five point lead with less than a minute to go for a chance to play in the Region Final. One more stop and her Wonderful Senior Season just might have a happy ending if they could beat the winner of John Hardin-Bardstown. However, it was not to be.
Still, Miss Wonderful feels blessed.
It has been a great run for Walls. One that she has said many times that she really enjoyed. There she was standing at midfield on Senior Night with her Mom and Dad with a smile ever so bright. She talked a little about her other passion which is art. She loves drawing and creating on paper and canvas. She currently has a piece hanging in a prestigious place and it got her a trip to Washington D.C. and a tour of the White House.
She talked at length about her love for the Kentucky Wildcats Basketball and Dallas Cowboys football and how their basement which looks like a Big Blue mancave with a all kinds of Cowboys items and autographed things. She talked about her next destination which is Bucknell University Lady Bisons and how moving as far away from home was an choice for her. Although being a Cowboy fan in Pennsylvania could be hazardous during football season.
Anyway, Miss Wonderful should be al right and after a wild and crazy senior year, why shouldn’t she be.
