KU Scholar Athlete of the Month: Jay Ballard

No Stats, Just Results For LexCath’s Top Scorer

School: Lexington Catholic High GRADE: 11 Sport: Basketball
Academics: Jay is a straight-A student, has taken five A.P. classes, scored 27 on the ACT and is a member of the school’s math-science-technology program.
Parents: Jennifer & Hubie

Ask the best student on the Lexington Catholic High girls basketball team about her stats and you receive an uncommon answer from Jay Ballard: “I don’t know.”

How many points do you average a game? “I don’t know,” she says shyly.

The two-time team captain has also passed 1,000 points for her career. How many points do you have? Same answer: “I don’t know.”

For the record, the 5-foot-8 junior point guard has led the team in scoring two years in a row and averages 17 points a game. Her high game is 38. She is on pace to finish this season with 1,200 points.

But these are among the few things Jay doesn’t know. She’s a straight-A student in the school’s rigorous math-science-technology program. From 200-plus students in her class, she is one of only 15 in the program.

Her class load consists of chemistry, biology, English and U.S. history – all A.P. classes – plus honors trigonometry, computer programming and religion. She scored 27 on the ACT and is a National Honor Society member.

Jay also serves a mentorship with Dr. Lori Shook, a neonatologist at UK. Once a month, she shadows Dr. Shook, and the two devised an experiment to test whether aromatherapy would lower stress levels and improve sleep for nurses.

(The preliminary results say yes.)

“It’s a great experience just to be in that environment,” Jay said. “My favorite part is to see the babies and how small some of them are. It’s amazing how much of a chance they’ve been given to survive by the work of the doctors.”

Jay is among the rarest of students – a reverse procrastinator.

“Any project she gets at school she does immediately,” said her mother Jennifer. “When she comes home from school on Friday, she does all her weekend homework right away. She’s a hard worker.”

That goes for the basketball court, too. Said her coach, Scott True: “She puts in more time outside of practice working on her skills than any player I have coached in 17 years.”

For a teenager, Jay is extra polite. Yes sir and yes ma’am are staples of her vocabulary. But on the court, you better get out of her way.

“She is the sweetest, kindest person I know,” her mother said. “Basketball brings out her competitiveness. Instead of shy, she is now outgoing.”

Jay’s goal is to study medicine and play Division I basketball. That’s a tall order but if anyone can do it, Jay is your go-to guy, so to speak.

Said Coach True: “Jay is a great example of what a student athlete should be both on and off the court.”