MOUNT VERNON – When Layne Lepley graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 2019, she decided to leave the game of basketball in the rear view mirror. She resolved to pursue a nursing career at Ohio Northern University.
Now in her second year in the program, Lepley is back on the court. She still wants to be a nurse, but she also wants the competition.
“I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go to college,” Lepley said. “I decided on Ohio Northern pretty late in the game. At that point, I played basketball all year, every year, from the eighth grade onward. I played AAU travel ball along with high school. By my senior year, I was burned out. Once I got to Ohio Northern, I picked the nursing career. I knew it was going to be very difficult, and I really wanted to focus on my academics.”
After faithfully hitting the books in her freshman year, she began to get the itch.
“My life has been basketball,” Lepley said. “After the first year at Ohio Northern, I felt like something was missing. Last summer, I contacted (ONU basketball coach Mark Huelsman). He said, ‘Just start coming to workouts once we get back to school and we’ll see where it goes from there.’”
Until then, Huelsman wasn’t even aware that the Mount Vernon standout was on campus.
“She has been a great addition,” he said. “She is a really hard worker, a good teammate and a really good student. She has shown us to have a maturity level that is a little more uncommon for a person who is 19 or 20 years old. She’s been a really good addition. Her personality and her approach to what she does is incredible.”
After a long summer of conditioning, the basketball skills are coming back. The best part is that the basketball team has been as welcoming to Lepley as the School of Nursing.
“I’ve honestly never felt more welcome by a team,” Lepley said. “Our team motto is, ‘Today, Together.’ Tomorrow isn’t promised. We are in today, so let’s be here as a group and get work done. As soon as I came into the program, I felt immediately welcomed by the coaches and the team. They really make it a family atmosphere. Everybody’s welcome. It was a very smooth process to get right in and be a part of the team.”
Lepley is looking forward to the start of basketball season, which was delayed until Jan. 22 because of COVID-19. She’ll also have her first clinical in the new semester — a first step toward her ultimate goal of being a nurse practitioner.
“I’m excited,” Lepley said. “I’m really looking forward to working in a real hospital.”
