As Warren East senior Lucy Patterson prepared for softball practice Wednesday, she came to the realization it would be her last practice as a Lady Raider.

Sometime this weekend, Patterson will play her final game with the Warren East softball team. It will end a career that began in softball as an eighth grader and spanned three sports – soccer in the fall and basketball during the winter. For the past four years, Patterson has juggled all three sports – excelling in each one – while keeping up with academics and going to work.

It’s made for a hectic but rewarding four years for Patterson.

“It’s kind of crazy,” Patterson said. “It went by so fast. It’s very emotional knowing I am done and I’m not coming back to Warren East.”

Warren East softball coach Philip McKinney said Patterson has been a special talent in all three sports.

“Just to do that is an accomplishment,” McKinney said. “To win the awards she has won and put up the stats that she’s done, night in and night out, she is usually the best or one of the best players on the field or the court.”

Patterson has been playing basketball and softball since she was a youth. Soccer was a sport she didn’t even consider playing until her freshman year, deciding to play because her sister Dayiaone Bibb – a 2014 graduate – played the sport.

“When I first got out there, it was kind of rough,” Patterson said. “I would get down on myself because of the way I was playing. A lot of teammates were helping me and telling me how to do things. Once I relaxed, I just started to get it.”

While Patterson struggled the first year, she took off as a sophomore leading the team in goals scored each of the next three years. She’s scored 48 goals the last three years, including 30 her junior season.

“It feels really nice to know I can go out to a sport and just do what I do out there,” Patterson said. “It’s honestly surprising how well I did after my freshman year because I wasn’t feeling it my freshman year.”

Patterson said she almost didn’t play soccer her senior year, but changed her mind after a talk with her mom – adding she is happy she reconsidered.

“I didn’t do anything during COVID,” Patterson said. “I was still kind of paranoid and didn’t want to play due to that. Just being off and not having to do anything besides work, it was hard to play a sport all the time.”

While soccer is her newest sport, Patterson said basketball is her first love. She already has signed to play basketball at Lindsey Wilson after a four-year career in which she scored over 1,500 points, helped lead Warren East to the Region 4 Tournament in 2020 and was a Miss Basketball finalist this season.

She credits another former Warren East great with helping to develop her game.

“I always looked up to my cousin, Ashley Rainey,” Patterson said. “I always tried to be like her. I struggled my first year because we had scorers, so I didn’t really score much my freshman year. Once I noticed everybody was leaving, I knew I had to step up. My siblings helped me a lot in the offseason, playing against my brothers.”

Patterson said of all of her accomplishments in basketball, she is most proud of being a Miss Basketball finalist.

“I’ve always thought of that, even as a freshman,” Patterson said. “I think that stood out the most because it let me know all the hard work in the offseason paid off.”

Softball brings Patterson’s prep career full circle. She played varsity in eighth grade, starting in the region after a teammate was injured during the district tournament.

“That really helped me going forward,” Patterson said. “After that I really don’t get nervous anymore.”

In Patterson’s five seasons playing softball, Warren East has won three straight region titles after reaching the region title her eighth-grade year and made it to two state finals. The Lady Raiders did not play last season with the season canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Of all of her accomplishments on the diamond, Patterson said her catch going over the fence at the state tournament her sophomore year – which made ESPN’s Top 10 plays – remains her favorite moment. She still has the tweet of that ESPN highlight as her pinned tweet on her Twitter account.

“It feels so good to know we can go so far,” Patterson said. “I love basketball, but we didn’t go far at all in basketball – no matter how hard we tried. It’s just something about the softball team that we can go far – and I love it.”

Patterson said this weekend is going to be emotional because win or lose, it’s going to be the end of her softball career. She added she can’t think of a better way to finish her career than with the program winning its first state title.

“That’s all I have been thinking about, just let me win one time,” Patterson said.

Once Patterson gets to Lindsey Wilson, she said her focus will be on academics and basketball.

“I’m kind of done doing all these different sports,” Patterson said. “Since I am a psychology major, I’m going to have to focus. I will have a lot of stuff to do. I’m just going to put all my energy toward basketball and school work.”

She will also await the inevitable call from Warren East about one day joining Rainey and many others in the school’s athletic hall of fame. Patterson admits she has already thought about that honor.

“There is no way I shouldn’t make it,” Patterson said. “It would be great if I got that call, but if not I’ll still know I made an impact.”{&end}