Emily Gallagher has fond memories of Ladywood High School.

“It’s sad,” she responded when told about the school’s closing at the end of this academic year.

Among her fondest memories were the caring environment, the “nuns in their brown habits,” and “our uniforms, which certainly made dressing up for school easier.”

And, she’s “grateful for the single-sex education. There wasn’t the pressure of what the boys were thinking. The focus was on learning.”



She was Emily Wagner then. Born in Minnesota, she was a first-grader when the family moved to Pleasant Ridge. Emily attended Royal Oak Shrine and Bloomfield Hills Sacred Heart Academy.

A self-described tomboy, Emily played all the sports that were in season, but her focus was on basketball, and that was why she enrolled at Ladywood in Livonia.

The 1980s could be described as the heyday of athletics for the Blazers. They were in the hunt for eight state championships that decade, bringing home five trophies: cross country in 1980, basketball in 1983 and 1985, and volleyball back-to-back in 1988-89.

Ladywood beat River Rouge, 51-34, for the 1983 Class B title. Mick McCabe reported for the Detroit Free Press: “(Juniors) Char Govan crashed the boards and Emily Wagner took care of just about everything else ... Govan had 24 points, 18 rebounds and nine steals. Wagner scored 17 points and played a flawless floor game.”

When Rouge trimmed the deficit to seven in the fourth quarter, McCabe wrote: “Wagner went to work, scoring eight points as the Blazers held Rouge scoreless for four minutes.”

“I like to play in the clutch. That’s my favorite part of the game,” she said afterward.

The two teams clashed again for the 1984 title. Ladywood, 24-3 and ranked No. 1, trailed most of the game. Emily converted two free throws with 37 seconds to play to give Ladywood a three-point lead. Rouge went back on top, 47-46, with 12 seconds left and held off the Blazers for the win.

Govan had 17 points, Emily 14. (An aside: if anyone knows Govan’s whereabouts, please let me know.)

Emily was selected the 1984 Miss Basketball by the Michigan high school basketball coaches. In four years at Ladywood, the 5-foot-9 forward scored 1,284 points, 313 rebounds, 269 assists, 262 steals. She was named all-state three times.

Emily graduated in 1985 as class valedictorian. She accepted a full athletic scholarship to Stanford over offers from a host of other elite Division 1 universities. “I fell in love with California. In January, no snow!” she laughed. “My family wanted me to go for the best education. There’s no life after basketball.”

There almost was no basketball at Stanford. Trying out for the Olympic team, she suffered a knee injury, forcing her to sit out her freshman year. She was sidelined again for her sophomore year with a stress fracture “from overworking to get back into condition.”

Armed with a bachelor’s in history from Stanford and an master’s in education from Harvard, Emily has taught, mentored and coached at the high school level for nearly 20 years.



She and her husband, Matthew Gallagher, also a teacher, whom she met at Stanford, moved to Lake Forest Park, Wash., near Seattle, 13 years ago. On the foggy morning I called her, she quipped, “We traded sunshine for rain and gloom.” They have a son and a daughter, a high school sophomore and freshman, respectively.

In 2009, Emily founded Edge Academics & Athletics, drawing upon her experience as a scholar-athlete in the classroom and in the counselor’s office guiding hundreds of parents and students through the college application maze. Her writing camps and workshops stress study skills, test taking, essay writing and critical thinking.

Contact Don Horkey at [email protected].