Everyone’s first memory of something that they do or enjoy doing is a little different. For Lily Grimes her first memory was age 5 and playing “Upward Basketball” in the Church league where both her mom and Dad actually coached her team. “I remember I was really young and we would play against the boys and my mom and Dad always made me guard the best boy player. I hated it, because I was so little and he was so much taller.” Grimes, who is the oldest of six children (three boys and three girls and all play basketball at some level), had the advantage of a Mom, who played at Breckinridge County in basketball and a Dad, who was also a standout athlete to learn from. For some, the pressure of living up to a certain level of expectations might cause undue pressure, but for Grimes it wasn’t that way at all. “Sports was a love because my Dad played football in college and my Mom played college basketball, so I think it was just natural for me. Basketball was easy to step into and my parents always had a basketball so I was always just doing something, so I think basketball was always my first love because I think it was the first thing that I really wanted to be good at.”
If you are not familiar with Lily Grimes you may want to catch her act. She is part of the new order in the 3rd Region which features such stars as herself, Baylee Harney (Muhlenberg County), Grace White (Grayson County) and Emma Johnson (Daviess County). The senior has been making waves the past two seasons as an indispensable piece of the Breckinridge County Lady Tigers basketball team and she may be ready to take her team another step further past the 3rd Region Championship game and into the KHSAA Girls Sweet Sixteen. As a sophomore (2014-2015 season), the talented guard led Breckinridge County to a 17-11 record and put 508-points on the board hitting on 168-of-398 shooting, hit 24-of-75 from three point range and hit 150-of-208 from the line (72%) despite losing to Meade County in the District Final and eventual 3rd Region Champ Muhlenberg County and star guard Baylee Harney in the first round of the 3rd Region Tournament, 49-46. Grimes, last season’s Messenger-Inquirer Third Region Player of the Year made great strides during her junior season driving the Lady Tigers to an impressive 20-11 record, an 11th District Championship and an appearance in the 3rd Region Final. In those games, Grimes was a difference maker. In the 11th District Championship, Grimes scored 22-points on 7-of-16 shooting and was 6-of-6 from the free throw line in a 56-40 win over Meade County. In the first round of the 3rd Region Tournament at the Owensboro Sportscenter, Grimes scored 28-points on 5-of-16 shooting and was 9-of-15 from the free throw line in a 62-56 win over Daviess County. In Breckinridge County’s 54-42 win over McLean County, she scored 22-points on 5-of-16 shooting and was 11-of-18 from the line. It led to the Lady Tigers appearance in the Region Championship game. In her coming out season, Grimes finished with 660-points on 218-of-592 shooting, had 45-three’s and hit 65% from the line.
Grimes describes herself as a layup machine that loves to attack the basket and hit the occasional jump shot. Something else she’s been working on. She’s also a dangerous rebounder with 175 as she always seems to have a nose for the ball. Unfortunately for her, she had one of her worst games against the eventual champion Owensboro Catholic, which had four senior starters and beat Breckinridge County 64-30. Grimes, who was hampered by foul trouble early was held to only 8-points and 1-of-16 shooting. “Catholic was a really good team. They had Makayla and we had played them at home (during the regular season) and stayed with them most of the game and we were winning at halftime and that was really good. I remember that final game, we started to get into foul trouble and that’s always hard when you have to sit the bench till the end of the second quarter and I remember how nervous I was. I was not ready. I was not in a good mental state that I should have been. That was one of the main things that caused me to foul and I’m aggressive anyway on defense, I don’t like to just sit back and do nothing and I get those knick knack fouls from behind and slap it out. I don’t think I touch them, but I guess I do and then on offense they were really good at taking charges too. I’m really good at setting up for those charges so that’s what happened in that game, so I really had two charges called on me and usually that never happens.” 
Grimes has tried to home her craft in preparation of her senior season by playing for the Southern Kentucky Stars during the offseason out of Glasgow. It’s during this time that the senior guard has tried to improve on her weaknesses and build on her strengths. “Mostly, my outside shot. That’s what I’ve really been working on and become more confident in my three’s and even stepping out from the three point line. So I can have that range and not always rely on going up the middle where I’m more comfortable. I need to be more confident because I can go to the gym and drain those three’s but during a game I sometimes lack it so that’s what I’m working on.”
The Lady Tigers haven’t won the Region Title since 1982 (they have been in the Final five times) and although Grimes wasn’t born yet she did had an Aunt who was a senior in high school, who quit the team during her junior or sophomore year because my grandfather away in Frankfort at the time and she didn’t have the desire to play while she was away. “I remember how PaPaw was upset later on because she wasn’t on that particular team.” In a Region which has seen three different champions in the last three seasons, head coach Jonathan Bennett’s fifth season with Breckinridge County the conventional thinking must be “Why not us?”
No one player can get it done by herself and the Lady Tigers have plenty of talent to go around this season as the team returns four starters from last year’s Region Final team. Mary Hinton was the third leading scorer (227-points) and the team’s leading rebounder with 189 is gone, but senior Sarah Shrewsberry was the second leading scorer with 281-points along with senior Morgan Marple (161-points) and junior Riley Collins (174-points), so the Lady Tigers will have plenty of experience on the floor during their run. “I feel like this is the final step for us which we have been preparing for since eighth-grade.”
The one thing (or things) that inspire the guard is her Mother and Grandfather, who were both athletes and can understand her plight. “I’d have to say my Mom because her jersey is hanging in our gym, because she played four years in college so she’s in the Hall of Fame. That’s always been a goal of mine. I want to be up there with my Mom (Lydia). My Grandfather played basketball at this high school too and he went to UK and that was when you couldn’t play on the varsity team if you were JV or freshman team and he told me all those experiences and I thought that was really awesome.”
“That loss to Owensboro Catholic was tough, but I had so much fun that season. I’ll never forget our win over Daviess County in the Region. It was a feeling I’ll never forget. It’s really motivated me to work harder this year and I’ll just take it as motivation.” If Grimes does have one passion (besides basketball) it may be her love for shoes. “My Mom gets mad at me because I have too many and I’m not allowed to get anymore for Christmas, but my boyfriend got me into it and he has about a hundred pair. Some are really expensive ones.”
Grimes will be playing college ball at Kentucky Wesleyan and was steered there because of the connection of her spring league ties. “I’ve played up there for spring league since I was in fourth grade until eighth grade, but I met the coaches there and I have got to know them. I love them and my parents love them and my grandparents love them so I felt like it was the right step and they are very strong Christian people that can help me not just in basketball, but also in life. It’s close to home and I can come home and watch my brothers play basketball. It’s perfect.”
After basketball, Grimes would like to pursue a degree in education and become an elementary school teacher and come back and live on the farm close to her parents and grandparents. That’s the plan to come back and teach and raise a family for No.11.
Grimes family lives on a farm where they raise cattle and grow tobacco, soybeans and corn which her uncle owns and her Uncle and father own a store that sells tractors. Grimes has said that during the offseason she counts little tiny parts for inventory specialists. She once said that working on a farm is tiring. Unlike basketball which is more fun. For now, the New Order will have time to enjoy this season as the she plans to take them farther than they have been since 1982.
