History-making wrestler takes next steps

Hard work pays off. Lily Harris has learned this through her historic wrestling career at Green River High School, and she shows no signs of slowing down as she looks ahead to college. Lily is not only making plans to continue wrestling, but also receiving special recognition for everything she's done so far and getting help making her future goals a reality.

Last week, Lily shared lots of laughs and a few tears with her family, friends and coaches as she celebrated her commitment to attend and wrestle for Colorado Mesa University.

"It took me a while to make that decision, because it's just so big," Lily said.

After both hearing of others who've attended and wrestled for CMU and getting to visit the campus and sit in on some practices, Lily felt confident that the Colorado school was the right choice.

"I really, really like the program," she said. "The coaching staff is so good."

Competing for CMU will also provide new challenges for Lily, particularly since she'll be wrestling freestyle, which is a different style than she's used to.

"I'm excited for that," she said of the new style, "and just the higher level of competition and the competitiveness inside the room as well."

Last season, Lily was the oldest member of the Lady Wolves wrestling team, with her teammates being freshmen and sophomores. This means she has been the most experienced and the strongest on the team, but she's ready for that dynamic to change at the collegiate level.

"Being the worst and having to work for a spot - I'm excited for that," she said.

Although she's been at the top recently, it only came after working her way up and persevering through multiple challenges as one of the very first female wrestlers for GRHS.

Lily wasn't initially sure about joining the newly-formed Lady Wolves Wrestling program three years ago. She's played almost every other sport during her high school career, including tennis, soccer, track and field, cross country and cheer. They were all fun, she said, but none of them quite stuck.

"And then I heard that they were gonna start this program, and I was like, 'maybe I'll just go to a practice,'" Lily explained.

Lily has five brothers who all wrestled, so she was already familiar with the sport. She said they like to take credit for her wrestling, and probably do deserve some of that credit. But others also played a part, like Coach Clayton Wright and his daughter, who helped start the program and were kind and inviting during that first practice. Lily decided to try wrestling for at least a year.

"My first tournament, I lost all of them, and I just remember it was really hard, but I loved it," Lily explained. "Eventually I stuck with it and I got pretty good."

In the early days, winning even one match felt life-changing, Lily said. But even as she started to see growth, she still faced challenges. Last year, she especially struggled with the mental aspects, being caught up in her own thoughts, listening to comments she heard about how other girls at competitions would beat her, and believing that she wouldn't be able to win. And she did face tough losses. So she realized she needed to change her mindset.

"I feel like I've come to love to compete more than winning now, and I think that has caused a lot of my success," she explained. "Learning from that experience has helped me exponentially."

Persevering through challenges has helped Lily grow on and off the mat. She explained that some of the main lessons she's learned from wrestling are the value of pushing past your breaking point, being body-positive, and knowing that "hard work is worth so much more than talent."

Coach Clayton Wright has seen that hard work from Lily and watched it pay off as she's not only helped develop the Lady Wolves Wrestling program from the beginning but also become one of its leaders.

"She's a dedicated athlete and she really pushes herself towards becoming a champion," Wright said.

He has watched Lily grow and succeed, explaining that she took sixth at State her first year, then moved to second the next year as a junior, becoming the first Green River girl to make the State Championship.

"And then her senior year, capping it off, undefeated season, gold in her hand – perfect story ending," Wright said.

Not only did Lily make history for the high school, but she helped develop the program.

"She's the leader," Wright said, explaining that Lily has helped the coaching staff give direction to the younger girls. "She's more than just a wrestler. She's a great young lady that's going to really help guide these young female wrestlers to that next level."

Wright is also excited to see Lily continue to be a role model as she takes the next steps into college.

"Now she's finally there towards the end of her high school career where she's going to execute her plan and achieve something bigger than high school sports, so that's going to be something that we all want to see these young ladies to be able to achieve," he said.

He also believes that, even with the new challenges of wrestling in a different style, Lily will continue to shine.

"She's going to really explode in that environment," Wright said.

As she takes her next steps, Lily also has the support of the community and the help of multiple scholarships behind her.

Lily was recognized and honored as the GRHS All-State Wrestler during the May 13 Sweetwater County School District No. 2 School Board meeting, where Coach Wright explained that she was Green River's first female State Champion, a two-time All State wrestler, a one-time Champion, a two-time Conference Champion, and a two-time champion for the Vernal Tournament of Champions.

Lily was also recognized this week at the City of Green River Council meeting, receiving a Certificate of Achievement "in recognition of outstanding achievement and excellence" for her participation in the United States Presidential Scholars Program and receipt of the Horatio Algers Scholarship.

While Lily has received multiple scholarships, the largest and most surprising was a $60,000 scholarship from Burger King.

"Lily did not know that she would be receiving the National Burger King Foundation Scholarship. It was so exciting," Lily's mother, Marsha Harris, explained. "The representative from BKF announced that three of 33,000 applicants received a National BKF Scholarship, so Lily feels it is such a great honor."

The scholarship was presented to Lily by Talia Gonzalez, the Senior Analyst for Programs for the Burger King Foundation, at the high school's awards banquet on May 12. Scholarships range from $1,000 to $60,000, meaning Lily was chosen to receive the highest amount.

"Recipients are selected through an application process that takes into consideration their grade point average (GPA), work experience, extracurricular activities, financial need and community service," according to the Burger King website.

"The BKF representative said that the grandchildren of the founder of BKF reviewed each application and were impressed with Lily's application and story," Marsha explained.

Lily expressed her excitement and gratitude for the scholarships. She explained that she's done lots of work with community service and nonprofit organizations, and has always tried to be outward-focused in serving the community. She also noted that she's not only grateful for the money but for the opportunities that the scholarships provide.

With a strong network of support, Lily is excited to continue her journey at college.