Southside’s Lily McLean to continue playing softball at MACU

Published 5:58 am Wednesday, March 5, 2025

By Jason O. Boyd

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Southside High School’s Lily McLean is one busy senior.

In addition to all of her academics, she plays volleyball, basketball and currently softball. She could have played on the school’s flag football team if she had the time.

So it’s safe to say between all of that and taking online courses at Beaufort County Community College, she’s already adulting in many ways. So when she chose to play softball in college at Mid-Atlantic Christian University, she had her reasons.

“My freshman year, I want to play it out and see how it all feels, because high school is totally different from college,” McLean said. “I don’t know how playing a sport and trying to balance my academics, because the academics are the most important thing to me, because that’s what helps you in life.

“But if that all goes well, I could possibly end up playing volleyball or basketball (in addition to softball), but it depends on how the year goes.”

She wants to get a degree in biology to become a veterinarian. She visited the school while playing travel softball and loved the environment and small structure. She felt it was the perfect place for her to do what she wanted.

“I’m happy, it’s just a great choice,” McLean said.

A ceremony was held last Friday to recognize McLean’s accomplishment. Joining her were her family, friends, teammates, Southside softball coach Kam Rouse and MACU’s Nicole Delosreyes and Garrett Lewis.

Rouse, who has coached McLean since she came to Southside from Washington High School, sees her as a winner all around. She was among her team’s leaders last season in batting average (.500) with 28 runs, 14 RBIs, 29 hits and 29 stolen bases. The team started the season 2-0 heading into play this week.

“What makes her special being a softball player is that she’s the one that put in the extra work, not only during the season, but off season, like for instance, this year she’s just coming off from basketball,” said Rouse, in his eighth year as softball coach.

“But I wasn’t worried about it because outside of school, she’s on weekends and stuff, and she works on her own to improve the level, but that’s what she loves.”

Rouse said he helped her with the process by getting her name out to colleges about playing. MACU’s coaches liked what they saw and began the process of recruiting McLean.

“We’ve, she plays short, that’s a key position for us,” said Lewis, in his 53rd with the program and is helping Delosreyes, in her first season as coach. “She’s got a strong arm, and she’s got power. And that’s a great combination that we’re looking for.”

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