Lily Behm, soccer
Lily Behm is a mild-mannered, polite, polite and attractive student at Waynesburg Central High School.
Until she steps onto a soccer field, that is. Once she sets foot on the soccer field, she becomes a leader, a force to be reckoned with who defined the position she plays as an “attacking midfielder.”
Behm also plays club soccer and has enjoyed the sport year-round since her high school career started four years ago.
She also plans to study neuroscience in college in hopes of becoming a doctor or a researcher.
That delicate mix of dedicated student and dedicated athlete led Behm to become Waynesburg Central’s fall sports female selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program. The daughter of Jennifer and Clay Behm of Waynesburg, Behm has two younger brothers, Will, who is a sophomore and Ray, an eighth grader, both at Waynesburg Central.
“I am an attacking midfielder,” Behm said. “I ran track when I was in middle school, but now I play soccer year-round. I play on travel teams. In college, I plan on participating at the club level, but that’s probably it. I would consider playing if a college team wanted me to play.”
Regardless, Behm plans on being busy enough as a student. Her plan is to study neuroscience at a liberal arts university, another rare combination.
“At liberal arts colleges, the school of thought is that you will come out a well-rounded student,” Behm said. “I definitely want the humanities in my education, but I want to focus on neuroscience, which is a combination of biology, chemistry and psychology. They are my favorite subjects.”
So what would Behm hope to become?
“Becoming a doctor is a possibility and being a researcher is another possibility,” she said. “I just want to leave the door open.”
Behm is a team captain this season and takes the role more as a responsibility than a perk.
“I’ve seen what captains do as I’ve come up through soccer, so now it’s my turn to lead,” she said. “It’s my turn to put in the work.”
She is a key cog for a Waynesburg team that set school history by winning a playoff game Saturday, 2-1, over Yough.
Before that game happened, she listed her most memorable sports moment during her time at Waynesburg as when she broke out of a scoring slump in a big way during her junior season.
“I had been in a little funk where I hadn’t been scoring,” she recalled. “I just started really wanting it, wanting to turn it around and be able to score again One game, I came in with the mindset that I am really going to score this game. We played against Uniontown and I ended up scoring five goals. It helped us quite a bit.”