Lillian Carey Doing It All (4 Sports!) For La Grange Right Now

There’s nothing Lillian Carey isn’t excelling at right now.

And the list is long. In addition to being one of the top students in the junior class at La Grange High School, Carey has juggled four sports this fall.

She just finished team tennis as one of the Leps’ top players, she’s heading to district cross country meet next week as the top girls runner. Lillian is also a varsity cheerleader and just had a smashing debut to swim season for LHS.

“She doesn’t miss a practice,” said La Grange cross country coach Barry Donovan. “She puts in the time and is getting the results.”

“In tennis, Lillian is one of those rare kids that has the mentality to stay on the court and outlast her opponent with consistency,” said La Grange tennis coach Chris Westall. “She can just grind down her opponents.”

For everything Lillian Carey is doing, we are proud to honor her as this week’s Fayette County Athlete of the Week.

We caught up with Lillian last week for a few minutes when, amazingly, she wasn’t participating in something.

Here’s some highlights of that interview.

Lillian said she takes the ‘athlete’ part of being a student athlete very seriously.

“I think I’ve always focused a lot on my school work,” she said. “I’m following in my sister’s footsteps (Eleanor who was also a gifted student athlete at LHS). My mom’s a teacher, so she definitely expects good work ... I’ve tried my best.”

Juggling all those sports does take its toll.

“The worst part is waking up really early to run,” said Carey. “We run at 6 in the morning and we have practice after school now. I don’t get home until really late, but it’s fun.”

Lillian said family members got her into some of the sports she plays.

“My sister played tennis and it seemed fun,” Lillian said. “I always went running with my dad when I was little.”

But she was also drawn to other pursuits.

“Since I was little, I was very into cheer, gymnastics, tumbling and those things, so I think I always want to do that (cheerleading).”

In contrast to her running preference, in swimming Lillian actually does the shorter races.

“Some people think when you are in running shape you are in good swimming shape but I don’t know if that’s true,” she laughed. “But running does help with tennis endurance.”

One of the biggest things coming up for Lillian is next week’s district cross country meet, and she’s peaking at the right time. She was second a few weeks ago at the Sealy meet and then ran a personal best 12:34 at Camp Tejas two weeks ago to place third individually in the two-mile there.

“She keeps track of her own data. I’m very data oriented. I love how she keeps track,” Donovan said.

Even though she’s just a junior Lillian, (who said her favorite food is baked potatoes and her favorite movie is either ‘Frozen’ or ‘High School Musical’) is already thinking ahead to after high school.

“I think I’ll end up going to UT because I love Austin,’” Lillian said. “But I’m not sure yet what I want to study there.”