Haley Parker felt some pressure when she started attending Lawrence High School as a sophomore.

Haley Parker, graduating from Lawrence High School today, plans to attend Emporia State University to pursue a degree in nursing but also to play basketball for the Hornets.

She was the latest in a long line from her family to attend LHS or its predecessor, Liberty Memorial High School. Parker only needed to look up in the school’s Hall of Honor to be reminded of her family’s history there.

The Lawrence Lions Alumni Association Hall of Honor includes her grandmother, Martha Demeritt Parker, a local historian and author from the class of 1945, and great-aunt Mary Demeritt Gordon, a longtime teacher known for helping blind children and the visually impaired.

She also followed her two older brothers, Taylor and Daren Parker.

“They were good student-athletes, so I felt like I had to live up to that a little bit,” Parker said. “I’m also the end of the line, and so I wanted to make my mark.”

As she graduates today with the LHS Class of 2010, her teachers, classmates and family members say she has made them proud in the classroom, as a senior class leader and on the basketball court, where she has earned a scholarship to play for Emporia State University in the fall.

She plans to apply for nursing school after her first year in college.

Quiet start

Parker leaves LHS after serving as the senior class president. She came into high school as a quiet sophomore.

“Through choir and student council and sports, I’ve met a lot more people, and it’s made it easier to be more social,” she said.

Parker has kept busy with several activities and her academics.

LHS calculus teacher Pam Fangohr said Parker would often come see her for help before and after school, and sometimes during lunch if she needed it.

“She’s very determined to do well in class, and I think that shows in everything that she has done,” Fangohr said.

For Parker, time management has come in handy.

She’s enjoyed participating in the choir and on the student council, she worked to keep the student body involved in the community.

She’s most proud of the LHS adopt-a-family project where seminar classes worked with Lawrence families in need.

Among her time spent on activities, she put lots of hard work in on the basketball court that allowed her to start for three years. And one shot she hit will be immortalized in LHS basketball history.

As a sophomore, Parker scored the game-winner in the Class 6A state title game in Emporia.

Ironically, when she suits up for Emporia State, she will be playing her home games on the same floor.

Attending college in Emporia on the basketball scholarship also allows her to fulfill her goal to stay close to home near her parents, Mark and Denaé Parker.

‘A big family’

As she entered high school wanting to both follow her brothers’ successes and excel in the classroom, Parker said she’s proud to be included in this year’s senior class.

“I think it was kind of like a big family,” Parker said. “I know a lot of us, we’re really close, and we all got along pretty well. It didn’t really matter who was who, but we all got along really well.”

Her teachers say Parker’s laid-back and friendly demeanor and strong work ethic made her very approachable for other students.

“I think students look up to her. They look for her guidance, and what she does they want to do also,” Fangohr said.

Those words thrill Martha Parker, her grandmother, because it means another member of the family has had success in the school.

“It just means so much to me that she’s a Lion,” Martha Parker said. “It’s just been wonderful to have the kids go through there and excel and be such good student-athletes.”

Haley Parker is happy with her high school career, and she hopes future LHS students can learn from her path.

“If you really want something, and you put your mind to it and just work for it,” she said, “you can really accomplish anything.”