Where Are They Now? . . . Aley & Taylor Lucas

Aley and Taylor Lucas became known at Sullivan High School as twin sisters with incomparable chemistry and a distinct competitive edge. The two Lady Eagles always went the extra mile on the court and the soccer field. The siblings led the girls basketball team to a district championship each of their four seasons. They won a title in their junior year and helped take Sullivan to the state quarterfinals.

After graduating in 2014, the Lucas sisters pushed themselves to greater heights by playing basketball at Webster University. They led the Gorloks in breaking a seven-year drought by winning the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) Tournament and clinching a berth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III playoffs.

Aley has returned to Sullivan and is now employed at the school district to contribute back to what laid her life’s foundation. She said, “I work at the Sullivan Primary as a special education teacher, and I am able to give back to the programs that gave so much to me. I coach middle school girls basketball, girls high school basketball and girls high school soccer.” Aley also recently married former Eagles baseball alumni Matt Foster.

When asked what she missed most from high school, Aley listed, “Playing sports with my sister and friends. The bond my sister and I shared playing sports made us better and pushed us to be stronger individuals.”

If she could give her freshman self any advice, it would be to “enjoy every moment because one day you are going to miss every day of high school sport[s]. Now I’m an ole washed-up slow-pitch softball player.”

Then, Taylor, who graduated from Webster with a bachelor’s degree in 2018, continued pursuing education at Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College. She is now a med-surg nurse working the Missouri Baptist Sullivan Hospital night shift. She enjoys it because she is  “giving back to the community a little bit, being able to take care of people [and see] some familiar faces.”

Taylor reminisces most from her high school years playing basketball with her “best friends,” whom she had known since third grade. She describes her favorite memories with them “in the locker room, like dancing before games, bumping each other up, like laughing and stuff.”

The sisters both listed winning the district basketball championship in their junior year as another of their favorite memories at Sullivan. On Mar. 2, 2013, they helped the Lady Eagles pull off a 39-37 upset victory against the top-seeded Pacific to take the title. 

In the Class 4 State Tournament, they knocked Bolivar out of the playoffs with a 51-41 sectional win and then finished their season in the quarterfinals.

Taylor stated that the team’s success came from their ability to “feed the ball” well and score. She also credited head coach Jason Merkel for holding the squad to a “very, very high standard” and training the Lucas twins to be suited for the collegiate level.

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