Youth Comets’ No. 2 jersey retired after death of ‘Lightning Lilly’
By Vicky Wedig
Editor
With her signature scowl and an appetite for taking down ball carriers – and then offering a hand to help them up, seventh-grader Lilly Perry was already scheming how she’d play a contact position in high school despite rules against it.
If she didn’t have a career in football, she would probably have a cable comedy show, said her football coach Craig Gengler, who said he often had to turn away to mask the laughter he could no longer contain at the things that came out of Lilly’s mouth.
But neither was to be. Lillianna Elizabeth Perry died Dec. 9 at the age of 12 at Mercy Walworth Hospital and Medical Center from complications after an asthma attack.
Hundreds of mourners and well-wishers turned out Saturday at Delavan-Darien High School to celebrate the life of “Delavan’s Lilly” – no last name needed, said friends and family.
A line of family members and friends took to the podium in the overflowing D-DHS auditorium and described Lilly with a string of adjectives that drew knowing nods and smiles – and tears – from people who attended. Good. Silly. Determined. Crazy. Funny. Insane. Bright. Kind-hearted. Courageous. Outgoing. Beautiful. Spontaneous. Lovable. Spunky.
No. 2
Lilly was the only girl in the youth tackle football league that Delavan-Darien plays in.
“She was the toughest tackler on our team,” said her sister, Keanna, 19 – one of five siblings Lilly leaves behind.
Her mom, Heidi Ecklund, recalled taking Lilly to sign up for football for the first time. She said Lilly riled when the woman at the registration table preparing to hand her a form said, “Oh, we have a new cheerleader.”
“She was like, ‘Pfffttt! You can’t pay me a million dollars to get in a skirt, honey. Give me the football one!’” Ecklund said.
And football it was. No. 2. For three years – fifth, sixth and seventh grades at Phoenix Middle School, Lightning Lilly, as she was known, “killed it,” said her brother, Quincy Perry, 18, a defensive end on the Delavan-Darien High School football team.
Quincy Perry broke down when he told people at her memorial service that she looked up to him – the oldest male in the household – like a father. “She did awesome” at her last football game, Perry said, and he turned around when he heard a “clunk, clunk, clunk” as they were walking away from the game.
“She was wearing my cleats,” he said.
Comet youth football players gathered on the stage and D-DHS football players stood as Gengler retired Lilly’s jersey – never to be worn again by a Comets youth player.
Lightning Lilly
Gengler said Lilly was the fastest player on the team, earning her the nickname Lightning Lilly.
At defensive back – and other positions Lilly was eager to try and Gengler was happy to oblige – coaches had no doubt Lilly would catch up with an opponent if he got past the Comet’s line and little doubt she’d take them down.
“She was our best form tackler,” he said. “She would take down the biggest of the big without hesitation.”
Gengler said the looks on opponents’ faces were priceless when coaches would cheer, “Nice job, Lilly!” after a tackle. “Lilly? What do you mean, Lilly?” the looks on their faces said.
Just as priceless, Gengler said, is when the teams would line up at the 50-yard line after the game and take their helmets off and opponents saw two pigtails on the head of the player who’d taken them down.
“They knew they got lit up by No. 2,” he said. “She literally wasn’t afraid of anything.”
Gengler said he would inevitably hear the same question from Lilly at each practice: “‘Coach, is today a defensive day?’ Which was pretty much code for, ‘Do I get to hit somebody today?’”
Phoenix Middle School Principal Hank Schmelz said Lilly was a “pint-sized powerhouse” known for her spunk, positive outlook and crazy infectious smile. He said he would tease Lilly about her basketball shoes that were Elkhorn Elks and Minnesota Vikings colors.
“She’d say, ‘I don’t care. I like purple shoes,’” he said.
Kind-hearted
Family and friends told story after story about the kind-hearted and goofy girl they loved.
Her aunt, Heather Peterson, said Lilly wowed people from the beginning. Born at 3 pounds, 3 ounces with respiratory syncytial virus, commonly called RSV, Heidi Ecklund said Lilly was her miracle baby. Despite the challenges, her “peanut” came home 48 hours later. At 2 months old, Ecklund said, she died and was revived.
“How does she do that?” Heather Peterson said. “That girl wows me.”
Peterson said Lilly had a soft spot in her heart for the underdog and was often seen putting her arm around someone who was feeling blue. Peterson recalled a time when she was down.
“She put her arm around me, ‘Oh, Aunty Heath, it’s going to be OK,’” Peterson said. “And then licked my face.”
Lilly’s youngest brother, Isaiah, 15, recalled a time when his bed broke. He came home to find a table propping up his bed, and a note from his little sister that said, “I felt bad your bed broke, so I made you a new one. I hope you like it.”
Isaiah Perry said the last words he got to hear his sister say were, “I love you, too.”
Lilly’s sister, Keanna, recalls how Lilly would make up her bed so she’d be comfortable when she came home tired after working second shift. She told about another time Lilly was determined to win a huge bear for her cousin at the fair. When she didn’t win it the first day, she went back he next day and spent hours playing a game until she finally won the bear, which Keanna then had to figure out how to fit in her Jeep.
“It’s head wouldn’t even fit through the door,” Keanna said.
Ecklund recalled being sad and teary after Keanna went off to college. One day in the McDonald’s drive-through, Lilly commented, “Mom, you’re crying a lot. Do you need therapy?”
Lilly is also survived by her sisters Iesha Perry, of Burlington, and Natallya Perry, of Delavan.
The post-season
Family friend Bridget McCarthy, who lost her 11-year-old daughter, Avery, in a car crash two years ago, said she knows the darkness and the pit the Perry family is thrust into. But, she said, she has been on the journey for two years now, and is excited for Lilly, as strange as she said that might sound. She said Lilly was in training on earth, and is now running the play God called whether it makes sense to people or not.
McCarthy said she can picture the look on Lilly’s face when Jesus said, “Suit up, kid. We’re putting you in to play.”
And Gengler knows how Lilly responded:
“God, are we going to play defense today?”
