Photo by Jamie Plain
Lilah Morris sandwiches her passion for hoops between her time on the ball diamond. While a stand-out on her travel and school softball teams, she also finds joy in playing basketball during winter.
As an eighth grader at Daviess County Middle School, Morris regularly “gives it all she’s got” for the Lady Panthers.
“My favorite sport is softball because I’ve played it my whole life, and I love the game itself,” Morris said. “It’s like I was made for the game.”
Morris idolizes the likes of Jocelyn Alo and Kayla Kowalik, two record-breaking collegiate softball players. Alo graduated from the University of Oklahoma, which Morris referred to as a “dream school,” and is considered the number one home run hitter in the collegiate ranks. Kowalik plays for the University of Kentucky, another one of Morris’s “dream schools,” and shares the same position as her: catcher.
Morris has high aspirations for herself, hoping to one day play softball at the University of Kentucky and break Alo’s career home-run record. To reach those lofty goals, she remains steadfast in her training efforts.
In the winter, Morris attends basketball practices 2-3 days per week, with games on the other 1-2 days. Softball season follows a similar structure with additional training sessions on her own.
“My training consists of me working out for a sport almost every day,” she said. “I take lessons and work on hitting either at my own house or off the pitching machine at my travel softball coach’s house.”
With the travel ball season amping up, Morris will prepare for a tournament nearly every weekend with a five-hour practice planned for the weekends she’s not playing. She’s also ready to join the highly-decorated Daviess County program, which will hit the diamond soon.