THS star wrapping up decorated athletic career

Growing up the youngest of three sisters, Sierra Lyons learned to be tough at a pretty young age.

“I was always getting picked on,” Lyons said. “I wasn’t the favorite, because the middle child is always the spoiled one, so I wasn’t spoiled. I’d spend a lot of time with my daddy. That kept me away from them.”

The reason for the ribbing was because Lyons was the baby in the family tree, but not necessarily the baby in size.

“Poor Sierra would always get teased because she was the biggest sister and the youngest sister,” said her mother Angela Lyons. “But my girls always got along well and pushed one another to do their best.”

With the pestering came thick skin and Sierra agreed with her mother and said her sisters have pushed her to her current position as one of the most decorated athletes in Terrebonne High School history.

“Those are my best friends,” she said. “Sometimes they make you just want to say ‘ugh,’ but I couldn’t do these things without them.”

Lyons is already an all-state selection in volleyball and basketball this year. After breaking the meet record in the shot put at the Tiger Relays on Friday with a 41-foot, 7-inch throw, Lyons seems on a collision course to be a member of a third all-state team when track season closes.

“They say kids like that come along once in a lifetime,” said Terrebonne girls’ basketball coach Gregory Knox. “And I was fortunate enough to get to coach one of those kids in Sierra. It’s been a marvelous experience for me.”

Most polished athletes get their starts in early grade school, but Lyons started playing sports in sixth grade when her father Lee Lyons brought her papers to sign up to play TPR volleyball.

After a year playing recreational sports, Lyons moved to Houma Junior High in seventh grade, where she’d come home from school and have nothing to do because her sisters had after school practices in their own sports.

“My momma told me, ‘If you don’t want to come home and be bored, then you might as well join a sport,'” Sierra said. “So I tried out and went from there.”

Lyons played basketball and volleyball in junior high before adding track to her repertoire in high school – a sport she quickly mastered.

She has collected countless field MVP awards at meets this year. Lyons throws the javelin, discus and her main event, the shot put.

Her father said the first time Sierra ever threw shot put in high school, he was amazed at the strength of his daughter.

“She got up there and all these other girls had so much form,” Lee Lyons said. “But Sierra just stood up there and pushed it out and ended up taking first place. No form yet, no technique. Just pure strength. That was a special moment for me.”

During her time in high school, Lyons has been a member of a district champion in both basketball and volleyball and she figures to be an individual district champion in track.

But while Lyons stands out to most because of her supreme athletic ability, she sees athletics as just a portion of her personality.

Ever since she was a small child, Lyons said she’s loved helping those in need and she volunteers some of her free time to various entities around the community.

“Growing up, I can remember Sierra telling me she wanted to do missionary work,” her mother said. “When AIDS was all over the TV, she’d say she wanted to go to Africa and help those people there. And she was saying these things as such a young child. Helping others has just been a first instinct for her.”

With that gift, Lyons plans to attend Xavier University in New Orleans following graduation and pursue a career as a pediatrician, while also continuing her volleyball career.

In addition to being all-state in all of her sports, Lyons was also a member of the Academic All-State basketball team this year.

“I have to do this,” Lyons said of her career choice. “I hate to see anybody suffer … When you look at TV and see all the malnutrition children and all of the kids who aren’t eating right, I have to do it.”

Regardless of what the future holds, Lyons said she will get strength from her family – whom she calls the foundation for her success.

“Everything, they mean everything to me,” Lyons said. “My dad, he pushes me for everything. My mom is the soft kind, she is always looking on the bright side of things and that helps me when I’m down about things. And my sisters, even despite the ridiculing sometimes, they are there for me and always support me through everything. Those people mean everything to me.”

Sierra’s sister, Leah Symmone took it a step further and said the sky is the limit for the little girl who used to be picked on daily.

“Sierra has the potential to be the best at anything she tries,” Symmone said. “She’s a very strong girl; physically as well as mentally. I’m very proud of what she has achieved and I know she will continue to make me and my family proud with whatever she decides to do.”

And when asked if the teasing would ever subside, Symmone had a pretty clear answer.

“That’s what big sisters are for, right?” Symmone jokingly said.

THS star wrapping up decorated athletic career