Parkersburg Catholic High School Junior Sophie Lott is on the girls’ basketball team and has played the position of point guard. Lott is looking to be able to play and eventually coach women’s basketball at the college level. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — For Sophie Lott, it is all about building teamwork and relationships with people.

The 16-year-old junior at Parkersburg Catholic High School participates on the Parkersburg Catholic Girls Basketball team as a point guard, works at the In Step Athletic Center in Vienna, is active on student council and is involved in her church.

With plans to become a coach herself one day, she is developing the skills to be able to work with others, take on a leadership role and more.

Lott has been involved in basketball for a number of years.

“I started at a very young age,” she said. “My father worked at the YMCA and I was there all of the time.

Parkersburg Catholic High School Junior Sophie Lott helps fifth-grader Lila Bise of Wirt County with her basketball skills at the In Step Athletic Center in Vienna. Lott is looking at someday possibly doing sports training work, physical therapy and coaching. (Photo Provided)

“I fell in love with shooting and I just continued. I started training a lot in the off season and fell in love with the game and the process of getting better.”

Lott recently tore her ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in her knee and has not been able to be out on the floor playing, but has been supporting her team in other ways by taking stats and keeping her teammates’ spirits up during games.

She will have surgery soon to repair her ACL and is expected to have a six to eight month recovery period, but she is planning to return to the basketball court for her senior year.

“Yes, for sure,” she reiterated about playing again.

Lott has worked at the In Step Athletics Center (at the former Ohio Valley University Athletics Center) for a few years working with kids in grades kindergarten to eighth grade, helping them develop skills and train to play a number of different sports as well as build up their strength and develop a relationship with God.

Bryley Starkey and Sophie Lott of the Parkersburg Catholic High School Student Council put together food boxes recently for Thanksgiving at the Old Man Rivers Mission in Parkersburg. The student council helps with a variety of community service projects. (Photo Provided)

“It is a place for athletes of all ages,” she said. “It is a training place where you can get better at the sport you want to do, whether that is basketball, volleyball or weightlifting.

“It is also where we talk about God and help everyone grow in their faith.”

She acts as a coach to many of the young kids she works with on basketball skills and some weightlifting. She also does any other jobs that need done there at a given time.

“Whatever they need I can do, whether that is training the younger kids, helping coach or run Bible study, I can do whatever they need me to do,” Lott said.

She is also involved in the Parkersburg Catholic High School Student Council and helps plan a lot of the activities for the school.

Parkersburg Catholic High School’s Sophie Lott drives for a layup during an open gym at PCHS last summer before the start of school. Lott was a point guard on the team. She is hoping to play basketball at the college level.(File Photo)

Recently, the student council helped make food boxes during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons at the Old Man Rivers Mission in Parkersburg (Thanksgiving) and at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption in Marietta (Christmas).

“We do a lot of things with the churches around town,” Lott said. “I just like helping other people.

“At Catholic, they make it a priority and teach us to give back to everyone else. Giving back is what God is calling us to do.”

Lott is involved at her home church, the Grand Central Church of Christ in Vienna and its youth group, Jesus Christ Youth Ministry (JCYM), which meets every Sunday and is also involved in the community, traveling, having church camp and doing different service projects.

The JCYM group recently did a Jesus With Jammies event for middle school to high school girls in the area.

“It was a day of worship and had a number of speakers coming in and talking to them,” Lott said.

In looking to the future, Lott said she wants to play basketball in college and would like to go to school somewhere within a few hours of the Parkersburg area. She has not visited any schools yet, but she said she has been contacted by some about the possibility of playing basketball.

“We are looking at different options,” she said.

She has also been looking into physical therapy as a possible career as well as personal training and coaching basketball at the college level.

“Those are my top three things,” Lott said. “I want to play and then become a graduate assistant and work my way up from there.”

Being on the PCHS Girls Basketball team, working at In Step and developing her faith, having been baptized within the last year, has taught Lott a lot about commitment, hard work and faith.

“It has taught me a lot about relationships and how to build them,” she said. “I feel like when you build strong connections with others and teamwork, everything goes much smoother.

“You are able to connect with a bunch of different people with a bunch of different interests. It is building relationships and learning to work with other people is the main thing.”

With tearing her ACL as well as learning to work with a variety of people, she has also learned a lot about adversity and turning to God in times when people face great challenges.

“The Lord is always there whenever we need him,” Lott said. “He is always someone you can lean on through hard times and good times.

“I feel that having that relationship you can always lean on through the hard times is definitely why. Our mission is to bring people closer to him. Showing his love and grace to other people is really important.”

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com

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