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Student Athlete of the Month: South Tahoe’s Lyon does it all

South Tahoe senior Shelby Lyon carves down a slalom course earlier this season at Alpine Meadows.
Harry Lefrak / Lefrak Photogrpahy |

Shelby Lyon is involved with everything surrounding South Tahoe High School.

The senior is the student body president. She helps set up and then clean up at school events. She is the student representative every other week at board meetings.

On some school mornings, she’ll give announcements over the loudspeaker.



While taking care of her presidential responsibilities, Lyon also is an officer in Key Club and has been the media master for two years. She’s the founder and president of Revival, the school’s Christian club that is about 20 strong. She plans and executes the club’s events and is heavily involved in her church. She has been involved in dance for a decade and was on the high school team for three years.

She’s one busy girl. And she likes it that way.



“It all takes a lot of extra time,” Lyon said. “It’s a lot of work but I really enjoy it.”

Lyon added something else two years ago, something she grew up doing: alpine skiing.

Lyon didn’t start racing on the Vikings team because she was looking for trophies, the fastest times or a pathway to the Olympics someday. She simply loves the sport that she has been doing since she was able to stand.

Her parents were ski instructors at all three South Shore resorts at one time or another. They hauled their pastor up a Kirkwood chair lift and were married on the mountain.

“I’m not really a competitive person, I’m just in it because I love doing it for fun,” said Lyon, who loves to go fast on the slopes. “It’s different than going up to ski for fun. I have gotten a lot better this year. I’m definitely not the best on the team but I have improved and have been doing pretty well I think.”

Between Lyon’s scholastic duties and the impact she’s had on her ski team, she was nominated for The Tahoe Daily Tribune’s Student Athlete of the Month and won the online vote.

“Shelby is just an amazing young lady,” said Vikings head coach Barbra Bedwell. “She’s an excellent student, a multi-talented athlete, and a subtle leader. She’s not the type of person to seek the spotlight, but she leads by example and through positivity. She is such a kind and positive person, and she always sees the best in her peers. Others are naturally better people when Shelby is around.”

Lyon is planning to ditch the mountains for the beach after high school.

She was recently accepted into the nursing program at Point Loma Nazarene University, a private Christian college, located right on the beach in San Diego.

She’s getting a “little” financial help to attend the university, but is planning to apply for several national scholarships. The A-student loves to be organized.

“I have a very well organized table on my computer with the scholarship name, the due date and what I need to do,” Lyon said. “It’s nice to look at. It’s time consuming but it’ll be really worth it.”

Lyon wants to graduate in four years and become a traveling nurse. She’d like to work on a mercy or medical ship and go to different places.

“I want to use my education to help people,” said Lyon, who also wants to become tri-lingual and learn Spanish and French.

Being recognized as the Tribune Student Athlete of the Month came as a surprise, she added.

“I’m really excited about it,” Lyon said. “It’s been really fun balancing school and being in sports and have that work out for me. I’ve been involved in a few sports so it’s cool to not have to be the super competitive one and still be recognized. A lot of times you think of athletes and they have this drive to win — that’s not me.”


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