Choosing Not To Choose: Lily Furrow’s Multi-Sport Success Story at Galesburg HS (Part 1)

Today more and more high athletes specialize in just one sport. Often they are pressured by high school coaches, club coaches, travel team coaches, or AAU coaches to focus on just one sport. The message is often,”If you want to get a scholarship, you need to do this sport year-round.”

So athletes become committed to doing one sport for a solid 12 months. Numerous sports psychologists feel this leads to a “burn out” by athletes. And there are “sports trainers” who feel the rise in more injuries by pitchers in baseball and more ACL/achilles injuries in basketball may be the result of 15-16 year old using the same muscles and the same actions in the same sports over and over. 

Lily Furrow, who will be a senior at Galesburg HS is certainly the exception to athletes specializing. Whether she or her parents heard the voices saying just do this sport, she chose not to specialize. If anything, probably Lily’s greatest regret is that there are only 3 sports seasons so she can’t do an 4th sport. 

To say Lily is thriving, it is a huge understatement. Here are just some of her achievements:

SWIMMING- 3 x State Qualifier, 2 x WB6 Conf MVP, School Record- 100 Fly, 3 x GHS MVP, 3 x All-WB6, Sectional champ- 100 Fly, 50 Free, 200 Medley Relay, GHS Captain.

BASKETBALL- 3 X Varsity Letter, 2 X Regional Champ, GHS Captain

TRACK- Indoor State Champ- 4x400, State Qualifier- twice- 4x400, WB6 Conf Champ- 4x400, WB6 All-Conf- 4x400, 300 hurdles, triple jump, GHS Captain. 

Through her junior year, she has been selected a team captain in all three sports, and she has advanced in State competition in 8 of the 9 season. 

I had an opportunity to ask Lily, her parents, and her three coaches about her tremendous success and their view of her participation in multi-sports. Part 1 is a “conversation” with Lily. 

Massey- So often today we hear stories about athletes who decide that they need to specialize in one sport people will tell athletes that “if you want to get a scholarship” “you could win state if” or even “you could go pro if” so there are athletes who focus on just one sport it has to be demanding for you and it you have to have heard “voices” telling you to specialize what has driven you to continue doing three Sports 

Lily Furrow- I want to become one of the best athletes that have come out of GHS and one of the few 4 year, three sport varsity letter recipients. All three of my sports work on different body muscles to make me stronger. Many athletes face burn out from a sport, with me rotating through three, I don’t get burnt out as easy. Has it happened to me before, yes, but I was able to overcome it and come back even stronger. Both swim and track are more individualized. It’s me against myself. Basketball is physical and I get so much stronger. Sometimes I’m inconsistent with practices for swimming out of high school season, but because of my other training from basketball and track, I’m still seeing personal records.

Massey- How has being in three Sports helped you athletically? For example, do you feel you are better at basketball because you run track, or that you are better at swimming because you play basketball? Or has it held you back?

Lily Furrow- Yes, being a three sport athlete has definitely helped. Similar to what I said in question two, because of my training from basketball and track, I’m still getting stronger and seeing those personal records in swim. Swim definitely helps with the aerobic part of track. I’m able to catch my breath quicker and recover faster. With the training that basketball and track give me, I’m getting the dryland part of my swimming done.

Massey- Your sports are so different. In basketball it is a team sport where everyone is on the floor at the same time. Swimming in track, well you can only be on relays, they are mainly individual sports. Do you feel you gain something by being in sports which are so different from each other? 

Lily Furrow- Yes, I do. Track and Swim are very much individualized except for the relays. It’s always you against yourself and the clock. In basketball, you need to have trust in your teammates on the court and be able to work with other people. The individual aspect of swim and track, help me push myself to be better even when others are not around. 

Massey- There are a lot of time demands on you, especially in the summer. how do you balance your schedule and make things work? how do your coaches help you make things work? 

Lily Furrow- June is a very busy month. I don’t do anything for track in the summer, but basketball and swim happen everyday. Most days, I swim early before basketball practices. I’m constantly going from one sport to the next. For the summer to be able to work for me, I have to communicate with both my coaches. Both coaches are very understanding in my schedule and my dedication to them both. We figure out what works best for us and go with it.

Massey- In my experience, even when an athlete plays multiple sports, they have one sport that is their “Main sport.” Would you have a main sport? 

Lily Furrow- Yes, my main sport is swimming. I’m going on my 12th year of swimming. I swim basically year round, double-dutying swim and either track or basketball.

Massey- If you could do a fourth sport at GHS, what sport do you wish you could add to your schedule

Lily Furrow- I would probably do volleyball. I’m not very good at it, but the times that I’ve played with friends and family I have fun with it. I think as I practiced the sport more, I could get pretty good at it.

Massey- Headed into your senior year, what are some of your goals in each sport?

Furrow- I have a post-it note stuck on my mirror that I see every day for swim. It has time standards that I want to reach and small goals that I want to focus on. Specifically, for swim, I want to make finals at state and get more team records. We won conference last year as a team, and it would be fun if we were able to do that again. For basketball, I want to be conference, regional, and shoot for the sectional title. We go to a tournament in Mattoon every year around Christmas, and we’ve fallen short in the championship game the last few years. For track, I want to get team records, become all state again, and get top three at state.

Massey- Do you plan/hope to continue to compete in sports in college

Furrow- Yes, I do. I’ve narrowed down my decision and I’m hoping to commit before the school year starts. If I were to go to a smaller school, I would want to do both swim and track, but if I go to a bigger school, I would compete in just swim.

Massey- When you graduate from GHS, what do you hope your teammates and your coaches will say about you?

Furrow- I hope they say how kind and determined I am. I always try to be the teammate that others can come to. I want others to hear how determined and hard I worked to get to where I am. Success doesn’t come without work. It’s not easy. I hope younger athletes will see the hard work I put into all three of my sports to get to where I am today.

Massey- So often today, we hear stories about athletes who decide that they need to specialize in one sport. People will tell athletes that- “If you want to get a scholarship,” “you could win state if,” or even “you could go pro if”.  As parents, what went into the decision to allow her and/or encourage her to do three sports?

Aaron Furrow (Dad)- Sports were important to me when I was in high school.  I was lucky enough to have some success, and I fed off that.  When you grow up in the middle of a corn field, you might as well do all the extracurricular things you can so you can be with your buddies.  I was able to look back at the sports and the mentors that coached me.  Not only were they hard on us, but they cared more about us being respectable young men that represented our community.  My coaches and mentors instilled characteristics that I still hold and hopefully exhibit today.  They only wanted the best for me.  They showed us adversity, commitment, failure, success, time management, comradery, hard work, how to lead, how to lift others when they are down, teamwork, one is not better than all, toughness, and many more.  If my kids get half of what I got our of sports they will be better off!  For those reasons, we encourage and support as much as possible.  Lily is built a little different.  Her drive is tremendous.  She does not like to fail.  She works her tail off. She likes to compete.  Why not let her do everything she possibly can. 

Valerie Haacke Furrow (Mom)- It was never really an option.  We were both three sport athletes and the benefits of being that are just too great.  Starting at 5 Lily was active in youth sports.  She just always wanted to be doing something.  She would get bored otherwise.  As she got older, she found a love for each sport and didn't want to give it up.  Going into her freshman year of high school and throughout the entire year she swam.  By the end of the school year she was getting burned out.  We knew then that she needed a break and competing in other sports allowed that along with bringing back that love of being in the water.

Read “Choosing Not To Choose”- Part 2

Aaron and Valerie Furrow as parents talk about the value of a multi-sport approach for a high school athlete. 

Coaches Demott, Chapman, and VanHootegem share their perspective on the value of multi-sport approach. 

Click here to go to Part 2 on Massey Basketball Blog

Choosing Not To Choose- Part 2