JOHNSONBURG, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Lucy Klawuhn didn’t set out to be a three-sport star at Elk County Catholic.
Softball and basketball were her main sports and she excelled at both.
Playing volleyball never really entered her mind.
But her persistent Elk County Catholic friends, many of whom also played softball and basketball with Klawuhn at the school, kept hammering at her to give the sport a shot.
(Pictured above, Elk County Catholic incoming senior Lucy Klawuhn hits the ball over the net during a volleyball match. Klawuhn has become a three-sport standout for the Crusaders/submitted photos)
Finally, the Johnsonburg native gave in.
“I never really wanted to play that sport, but everybody talked me into it,” Klawuhn said with a soft chuckle. “Once I started playing it, it just sort of came to me and I started to love the sport. I’m happy I decided to do it.”
But the journey from indifference — and maybe even a little disdain — to love didn’t happen overnight when she first hit the court as a freshman for the Crusaders.
There were times early on when Klawuhn contemplated quitting.
“I was always playing softball and basketball. I was always doing those two as my main sports,” Klawuhn said. “I didn’t like (volleyball) because you make a ton of mistakes and that just gets aggravating. I get hard on myself when I make mistakes and volleyball is a sport where you make a lot of them, so that was hard to adjust to. I kept with it. I decided I was going to stick with it and it worked out.”
And in a strange way volleyball has helped Klawuhn, an incoming senior at Elk County Catholic, take her softball and basketball games to an even higher level.
Through volleyball, Klawuhn learned a valuable mental skill: letting things go.
As a setter, Klawuhn discovered quickly that she had to have a very short memory and she was able to apply that to her other two sports.
Now, those pesky doubts no longer bother Klawuhn as much.
“Oh, it helped me a lot,” Klawuhn said. “I would get down on myself and my parents were always like, ‘Come on. You got this.’ And it would help me. But I had to get into a better mindset in all of my sports. In basketball, you’re gonna miss shots. In softball, you’re gonna make an error or make an out. It really helped me get in a better mindset.”
It has shown in her numbers.
This spring, Klawuhn turned in a stellar season for the ECC softball team, batting .535 with nine home runs, 28 RBIs, six doubles, three triples and 41 runs scored, which led all of District 9.
(Klawuhn turned in an all-state season on the softball diamond for ECC, batting .535 with nine homers, 28 RBIs and a D9-leading 41 runs scored)
She parlayed that success into a spot on the all-state team.
The power came to somewhat of a surprise to Klawuhn.
“That was definitely the highlight of my year,” she said. “That was fun to do because I’ve never really been a power hitter my whole life. So this year it was like, ‘Wow. I can do it.’ It was a nice feeling.”
She started the season on a power tear, but then went into a minor slump toward the end of the campaign, which saw ECC fall to DuBois Central Catholic in the D9 Class A championship game.
The Crusaders won the true second-place game over Forest, but fell to West Branch in the first round of the PIAA playoffs to finish 17-6.
Klawuhn also played well defensively at shortstop.
On the basketball court, Klawuhn was a force, too, averaging 10.6 points per game as a dangerous shooting guard. She drained 62 3-pointers.
Klawuhn is closing in on 1,000 career points.
She helped the Crusaders turn in another fine season, going 17-5 and winning a first-round state playoff game over Northern Bedford.
The volleyball team at ECC was also strong, reaching the D9 Class A title game against Oswayo Valley.
Klawuhn is a part of three sports with big-time winning traditions at Elk County Catholic.
“It’s awesome because I hate to lose,” she said. “It’s really nice having a winning team and knowing you will be winning a lot.”
She wants to win more.
To do that, Klawuhn is always working on her game — all three of them.
That doesn’t leave much time for anything else. But she is accustomed to the grind.
“Oh, yeah, it definitely gets tiring,” Klawuhn said. “You go from volleyball and have to hop right into basketball season. You really can’t take any time off. It’s definitely tiring, but it’s well worth it. We do work hard and we do like achieving those accomplishments. It’s really rewarding.”
Klawuhn has a clear vision on what she wants to do post-high school.
She hopes one (or perhaps more) of her sports are in her future at the next level. That is still up in the air.
She does know what she wants to do for a living.
Klawuhn will pursue a degree in forensic science.
For now, her focus is squarely on making her final season at ECC in volleyball, basketball and softball the best ever.
“For volleyball, I’d say I’m going to work most on my passing,” she said. “I’d like to get my passing on the button so I can get more balls to our hitters. Basketball, I definitely want to try to get 1,000 points because I know I’m about there. So I kind of what to get that. And for softball, definitely just like this past year. I want to minimize my errors and do even better hitting.”
There’s one thing, though, she wants to do more than anything else.
“Win,” she said.
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