Freshman Lilly Reid, right, met current Centre teammate Emma Rose Vincent when she was still in high school and that’s one reason she’s playing for the Colonels now.
Former Bullitt East High School star Lilly Reid had two unique factors that helped influence her decision to play basketball at Centre College.
First, Bullitt East decided to practice at Centre College one year before it went to play in the state tournament and she developed a “connection” with Centre coach Wendie Austin. Second, when Lilly attended Governor’s Scholars at Bellarmine University in Louisville, her resident advisor was current Centre senior basketball player Emma Rose Vincent.
“I didn’t know where I wanted to go to school and she (Vincent) talked to me about Centre and that relationship is a big part of why I am here,” Reid said. “She is really a great leader and is very inspirational. She is someone I looked up to and really played a big part in my college decision.
“I could tell coach Austin really cared about her players when we practiced here. Then she would send me notes encouraging me and that stuck with me.”
Reid was an elite team player at Bullitt East who helped her team make the state tournament three times with one runner-up finish and one Elite Eight finish. She averaged 15.8 points per game her senior season when she had to produce more after the graduation of 6-6 Gracie Merkle.
“It would have been selfish of me to take some shots when nobody could guard Gracie. Me driving and shooting was a lower percentage shot than throwing it into Gracie,” Reid said. “Now in middle school I had to shoot and do more and definitely in my senior year I had to learn to score without someone like Gracie to bail me out.”
She expects her role at Centre to be a facilitator but also to score herself at times to provide balance for the offense. Bullitt East coach Chris Stallings thought she was often overlooked and underestimated in high school and feels like Centre is the perfect fit for her.
“Lilly is a fierce competitor. She always kept a cool head as a point guard. She is also a very humble young lady,” Stalling said. “With her academics and ability, I just love her to death and what she brings to the team off and on the court. We were together for five years and she never backed down from a challenge one time.”
Perhaps that’s because she was born with unilateral hearing loss in her right ear. She has learned to adapt but still has issues when someone on her right side yells and she cannot always hear what is being said.
“A lot of coaches I have had help me with hand signals. If you just yell, I probably will not hear it the first time,” she said. “I actually had a speech therapist for a while because I didn’t talk until I was about 3 years old. I am half deaf with only 10 percent hearing in my right year.
“Coach Stallings really cared and did all he could to help me and make it easier for me on the court. He was like a grandpa to me. He was always there in school and basketball for me. He always cared about me as an individual and I think Wendie also does a great job of that. I think my connection and bond with Wendie will be similar to what it was with coach Stallings.”
While she knows there will be adjustments to college basketball, Reid believes the high level of competition Bullitt East played each year will make her transition to college easier.
“I think my freshman year of high school we played an intense schedule. That was a big adjustment. The speed of the game was so much faster. Here certain passes are not going to go as easily but it is a little easier to adjust because of the caliber of teams we played in high school,” the Centre freshman said.
Reid is used to winning. Her senior season was her team’s least successful but even then the Chargers went 22-11 and reached the 6th Region Tournament championship game.
“My freshman, sophomore and junior years we were not used to losing and if we did it was rare,” Reid said. “My senior year we got a taste of that more because we lost two Division I players. I had to take more responsibility my senior year and I think I learned to be a better player when we were not always winning every game.”
Reid, a biology major who hopes to be an occupational therapist, also learned one other valuable lesson her senior season — double check her gear before games.
“I think there were multiple times I forgot something but forgetting my shoes one game my senior year was really bad. We were playing our rival North Bullitt and I just had to sit there with everybody looking at the bench and wondering what was wrong,” Reid said. “Our assistant coach went and got them. We had never had a game that close with North Bullitt. I think we won in double overtime and I felt awful.
‘I am a really forgetful person. I lose everything. Like my phone, I never have it. But now I pack my shoes and make sure about my jersey before every game so that won’t happen again.”
She’ll have to pack her gear a lot this year as the Colonels have only two home games and go almost two months without a home game after hosting Warren Wilson on Nov. 18. They open the season tonight in Decatur, Ga., against Greensboro.
“Honestly my mom has been like to every single game since I have played since I was a child if she was not at my sibling’s game,” Reid said. “At our first scrimmage, I had like 10 or 15 family members there. I am used to family being there so it will be different on the road that much but also a good opportunity for us to grow close and reach our goals.”
