LILLY GARCIA-TAHLEQUAH

It’s not often that a freshman comes into a program and impresses a veteran coach the way that Lilly Garcia has done in her first year as a Lady Tiger softball player

“Lilly is the best athlete on the team,” said coach Chris Ray. “She hit leadoff and led the team in hitting last fall with a .438 average while playing shortstop. She may be one of the best players ever to come through our program when she’s done. She’s very fast, has a good arm and can hit with power. She’s farther along as a freshman than those before her and her ceiling is high.”

Getting into softball was almost a given for Lilly,

“Our family has always been into sports, and I had some cousins that played softball so that’s what got me started early and I just fell in love with it. Growing up I looked up to my cousin Randee O’Donnell who played here and went on to play at Oklahoma State, and I admired her for going so far and I want to go far too.”

Even though she has played travel ball, the move from middle school to high school this year brought a little anxiety.

“I was nervous for sure and didn’t know what to expect but I was so ready to compete at a higher level and have coach Ray as my coach. He puts so much into strategy and planning and really cares for his players. I had mostly played second base growing up and I was a little nervous when coach moved me to shortstop, but I found I really love it.”

Lilly helped the Lady Tigers make to the Class 5A state tournament last fall where she made a memory.

“It was nerve wracking going to state and coach Ray tried to prepare us when he sat us all down and said, ‘It’s going to be loud and it’s just going to a lot for you first-timers and you’re going to have to dig deep’ and I think we did.  In our first-round game against Coweta we struggled early but I did have two triples with the second one driving in some runs that helped us win 4-1.”

In addition to playing slow pitch this spring, Lilly also plans to run track where she has run the 100 and 200-meter dashes as well as the 4X100 and 4X200 relays in the past and says in what spare time she has, she likes playing with her niece. It would seem like a sure bet that you’ll be hearing the name Lilly Garcia well past this freshman season.