Laila Taylor, a 9-year-old student of Aurora Borealis Charter School, will next week travel to Idaho to compete in the semi-finals of the Elks National Hoop Shoot on March 15.

Taylor emerged as the first-place winner at a local hoop shoot hosted in November by the Kenai Elks Lodge and was later named state champion. She scored 15 baskets out of 25 free throws, more than any other participant in her age group in Alaska. In Idaho, Taylor will compete against other athletes in her age group from Washington, Oregon and Idaho. If she wins in that competition, she could go to the national finals in Chicago in April.

Speaking Wednesday, Taylor said she’d been “a little bit nervous and really excited” to compete. Though she’s played basketball all her life, she hadn’t put in a ton of practice ahead of the competition in Kenai. In the three months between Kenai’s competition and her departure for Idaho next week, though, she’s been hitting the court regularly — and her high score is 22 out of 25 baskets.

“She’s been really, really practicing,” Taylor’s mother Amber Rouswell said Wednesday. “I’m excited to see she’s been really working. Whatever happens, we’re excited.”

In addition to competing in Idaho, Taylor said she’s going to visit a golf park and buy some souvenirs.

Rouswell said she leads sports programs for the local Boys and Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula, so Taylor has been playing basketball for many years. She already had “a really good shot,” but hadn’t focused on the free-throw competition before stepping into the court in November.

In a Facebook post the day Taylor won the local competition in Kenai, Rouswell said she was proud to see her daughter confident on the court and successful in the competition.

“Hard work and dedication is what gets you there,” she wrote.

Editor’s note: Reporter Jake Dye’s mother is the exalted ruler of the Kenai Elks Lodge. Reach Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.