Her Future Leaps Lie in the Balance

Ariana Lallone admits to feeling some sadness when thinking about her basketball career.

She’s sad because it will end soon.

“I’ve had such a good time, it’s been wonderful,” said Lallone, a senior on the Buckley girls team. “It will be nice to go on.”

Lallone, 17, is a talented basketball player, but she will pursue instead a career in classical ballet. She has danced for 10 years, performing in Boston, New York and San Francisco. Last summer, she trained five weeks at the School of American Ballet in New York and three weeks at the San Francisco Ballet School.

If her plans of dancing professionally don’t pan out next year, she will attend college.

“Hopefully, I’ll be dancing, “ Lallone said. She is auditioning with dance schools and companies around the nation. “I can go to college when I’m 30.”

Since she will not be playing college basketball, Lallone is making the best of her final season. The 5-9 center is averaging 17.9 points and 15.5 rebounds a game for the Griffins (5-1, 10-5 overall), who are second in the Delphic League.

“She is playing very well,” Buckley Coach Barbara Rodney said. “Her stats aren’t quite as overpowering as last year, especially her rebounds, but her overall game has improved tremendously.”

Last season, her first with the Buckley varsity, Lallone averaged 10.7 points and 19.1 rebounds a game. She has been a dominant rebounder--possibly because of the balance she has developed after years of ballet.

“She is playing with so much more confidence this year,” Rodney said. “If it’s a tight game, she wants the ball.”

And opponents are trying even harder to deny Lallone the ball in this her last season. “Teams know about me,” she said.