Burrell teen gets scholarship for a sport she’s never played

Lilly Householder figured the email she got from the Eastern Michigan University rowing team was a mistake.

The Burrell High School girls soccer captain had created an online recruiting account to play soccer at the collegiate level, fulfilling a lifelong dream.

She grew up playing soccer with her older sister, Andi. Her younger sisters, Ellie, 8, and Zoe, 6, play for Tri City Soccer, where their dad, Dwight, is a coach. Lilly this year has led the Burrell girls soccer team to the WPIAL finals for the first time in school history.

So Lilly — who has never rowed a day in her life — was a bit surprised when she saw the email from EMU recruiting her for the college’s rowing team.

“I thought, this had to be a mistake — I reached out to the coach and said, ‘Sorry this is a mistake,’ ” she said.

It wasn’t — and a few weeks later, Lilly, 17, committed to EMU to join the school’s rowing team.

The coaching staff told Lilly that she was tall — she’s 5’10” — athletic and had good grades, and they wanted to recruit her for the team.

“They said they saw a lot of potential,” Lilly said.

Talks turned into an official visit in October. That’s when, Lilly said, she fell in love with the university.

“It’s a beautiful campus,” she said. “It’s definitely different going from a small town to EMU. It’s a big school.”

EMU, located in Ypsilanti, Mich., had a student enrollment of 13,352 in the fall semester last year. Lower Burrell’s population, as of April 2020, was 11,758.

Lilly and her family are also active in the Lower Burrell community. Andi led a free prom dress event for her peers last spring. Lilly is involved in a slew of extracurricular activities at Burrell High School, and they also volunteer at Grace Community Church.

“It’s nice for them to be able to have a footprint in helping other people excel in other things,” said Sarah Householder, Lilly’s mother.

Not only will Lilly be competing in a sport she has never participated in, she also received a scholarship to do so. She intends to major in criminology and pursue a career in law enforcement.

“It’s one thing to go D-I for a sport, but to go D-I for a sport you’ve never done before — you’re putting a lot of faith in yourself,” she said.

Lilly is up for the challenge. While she received other offers to play collegiate soccer, there was something about EMU and the opportunity to try something new that attracted her.

“I felt like I belonged at Eastern,” Lilly said. “The girls are really down to Earth and great. The coaches are amazing.”

Lilly thinks skills from soccer can translate well into rowing, especially her strong work ethic. She said rowing, like soccer, is a physically demanding sport, using every major muscle group of the body. Rowers push with their legs, pull with their arms and remain strong through their core.

In soccer, Lilly is a center back, and is accustomed to playing 110 minutes, which correlates to running about 12 miles.

Lilly said she has learned that it’s common for college rowing coaches to recruit athletic students who are non-rowers, because it’s easier to teach the technique of rowing instead of breaking the bad habits a rower might have picked up before college. EMU coaches were unable to comment due to NCAA recruiting rules.

Lilly’s decision to pursue rowing was a little shocking to Lilly’s parents, but they’re ready for what the new opportunities will bring for their daughter and are excited to see how much she’ll grow.

“Not only is she going off to school by herself in a different state, she’s doing a sport she’s never done before. Everything is brand new,” Sarah Householder said. “It’s super exciting to have that opportunity. She’s going to shine, for sure. She has the motivation and ability to do great things.”