I Wish I Were Talented Like Mary Lisicky

By Gwenna Johnson

At almost any hour of the day from the age of eight to eighteen I could be found on the driveway of my suburban neighborhood playing basketball. My happiness almost completely revolved around the percentage of free throws I was making, or how many times I could hit the shot from behind the log pile. One day in July, a team from Whitehall PA ventured down to Lancaster Catholic High School to play in our yearly tournament. As a defensive specialist, I always guarded the opponent’s best shooter. This is why I met Mary Lisicky and how I received an education about the art of basketball.

Mary was raised in a large family, and was the youngest of five brothers and two sisters. Of the eight children, five went on to play sports in college; three of which excelled at Division I basketball programs. Although Mary was offered scholarships from multiple Division I basketball programs, she committed to Georgetown University in the fall of her senior year of high school. Mary was excited to become a Hoya because, “Georgetown is known for its challenging academics and its Women’s Basketball program was really strong and had a great coaching staff. “ After pausing for a few seconds Mary added, “Oh, and it was really important that my games would be played close to home so that my family could come see me play, and Georgetown is a member of the Big East Conference so my games would be relatively close-by.”

From the start, Mary proved to be a huge asset for Georgetown. Her freshman year, Mary knocked down 76 three-pointers and set the record for the most three-pointers made in a single season. A four-year starter, and two-time captain, Mary’s enthusiasm for the game led her to success. “If basketball hadn’t been so fun, I probably wouldn’t have played as well as I did. As long as I was enjoying what I was doing, I would perform well on the court.”

At Georgetown, Mary is the 8th All-Time Leading Scorer, holds the highest free-throw percentage with 88.2%, and has the highest career three-point total with 431 three-pointers. Despite her accomplishments, Mary suffered a setback early in her senior season as a hip injury kept her from playing in two games. “It was really frustrating to have to sit out because I had never had a serious injury before. And on top of that, there was no diagnosis for my hip, I was just told to rest it as long as I could. So, I missed two games completely and lost a lot of playing time after that… Any athlete knows that injuries are something you have to deal with, it was just unfortunate that I was injured during my senior season.”

At Georgetown, Mary studied business and majored in Finance and is currently a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley. She said, “I really enjoy my job, I get to help people with their retirement and show them how to invest their money in the market. It’s exciting when I get really big clients, like a few weeks ago I helped a man invest one hundred million dollars after his company was bought out.” Mary tried to explain the rest of her job to me, but I was lost in all the financial jargon.

Mary is presently living in Rockville, Maryland and helps to coach community basketball for 7th grade girls. Mary joked, “I’m not trying to brag or anything, but my team did win the championship last year when they were in sixth grade, and I think we’re gonna take the title again this season… I mean, would you expect anything less with coaching like mine?” When she is not working she plays with Madison, her chocolate lab puppy, and hangs out with her friends in Washington D.C. It was through our mutual friends from basketball that I was able to locate Mary. Although she was initially confused as to why I contacted her, we had a really good conversation and it was nice to catch up with an old friend.