'Her journey is different from all of ours': Sooners' Tia Milloy leans on family legacy in debut season

NORMAN, Okla. -- Lawyer Milloy often wondered if his daughters would ever get along.

Such was the competitive zeal within the five-bedroom family home where the former NFL safety and his wife Claudine -- a former two-time All-American sprinter -- raised four girls and reared a familial softball dynasty in the suburbs of Seattle.

"We know they're our children because they don't like to lose," said Lawyer, who captained the New England Patriots to a Super Bowl XXXVI victory and made four Pro Bowls across 15 seasons from 1996-2010. "It was like Armageddon in the house sometimes."

Amirah arrived first in April 1997, five years after Lawyer and Claudine met at the University of Washington. Kiki came next in 2001, then Tia in 2006 and Breya, the baby of the family, in 2012.

All four Milloy sisters came with an inherited blend of athleticism, intensity and stubborn drive, characteristics that later helped weave the family name into the fabric of college softball.

For years before that, however, they were the combustible traits that defined daily battles in a family with a gift for turning ordinary activities into competitive events, even Thanksgiving dinner. The annual weigh-in to see who's gained the most eating is a cherished tradition.

"Being average was just never an option in my family-- everything was a competition," Tia told ESPN. "Who could clean their room the fastest? Who could get up the mountain first on a hike? We were always beating each other down but lifting each other up. That's just kind of how my family is. We became individually strong, and that made us stronger as a whole."

The hyper-competitive upbringing launched Amirah to three Women's College World Series appearances with Washington from 2016-19. Kiki followed next as an All-American outfielder at Tennessee, closing her career in 2024 as the Lady Vols' all-time home run leader.

This spring, a third Milloy sister is finding her footing in college softball, settling in with the sports' preeminent powerhouse.

Tia's freshman season with No. 4 Oklahoma continues Friday night when the four-time defending national champions begin a three-game series with No. 3 Texas (6 p.m. ET on ESPNU). With 11 starts in 44 games, Tia has filled a reserve role as one of 14 newcomers on the Sooners' 2025 roster, part of the next generation in coach Patty Gasso's softball dynasty.

But that's not the only legacy resting on her shoulders as Tia carves her own path under the weight of a famous last name and in the wake of sisters who combined for 333 career starts, eight NCAA Tournament appearances and four trips to the WCWS from 2016-24.

Amid a freshman campaign that has shaken the confidence she built growing up in her ultra-competitive environment, Tia has discovered the power in leaning on her family tree.

"They've done exactly what I'm doing now and they know what I'm going through," she said. "They've prepared me for this. And they're still here with me, even from a thousand miles away."

The Milloy sisters were raised on and around softball fields across the West Coast. While her father spent Saturdays preparing for NFL Sundays, Tia's earliest weekends came by her mother's side, traveling to watch Amirah and Kiki play.

"She came with me to all the big tournaments," Claudine said. "She was the baby hanging around the field."

Tia insisted on dressing up when she was young. She often arrived at her older sister's games in long dresses, flowy skirts and pink tutus, but the outfits never kept Tia from joining games of tag or stepping into a batting cage. "She was a princess who liked to get dirty," Lawyer recalls.

"I always wanted to be a girly girl when I was little, but softball takes some level of grit and fire," Tia said. "Even though I wanted to dress myself that way, I would still climb trees in a little skirt. I knew I had to be tough. But I also knew I didn't have to look a certain way to do that."

Even under the lofty expectations and busy daily rhythms of a family that spent years bouncing from weeknight practices to weekend tournaments, Tia always stayed true to herself.

The Milloy sisters understood that they didn't have to be top athletes. But Lawyer and Claudine were committed to making sure each of their girls became elite at something.

"They expected us to strive to be the best in anything we do," said Amirah, 28. "I'm fully removed from softball and my parents are still checking in about the next promotion."

"Our parents led with love first, but there was no coddling," she continued. "I'd always joke about which parent I wanted to drive home with after a bad game. People say you grew up with Lawyer Milloy -- NFL player -- he must have been so hard on you. They forget that my mom was a badass, too."

The Milloys were also intent on putting their daughters on a multi-sport track. Amirah played volleyball, and Kiki and Tia played basketball for a time. But the Milloy sisters always reverted to the diamond. As far back as preschool, Tia knew she wanted to be a softball player, just like the older sisters she always tried to mirror.

Yet, Tia has always been a little different. If Amirah and Breya got their mother's steely composure, and Kiki and Lawyer share the same stone-cold demeanor, Tia is the more bubbly and expressive personality sandwiched within the family dynamic.

"She's like a Hollywood starlet," Gasso said of Tia. "She's got the look, a great, big personality and she's fun to be around... if we have recruits here, she comes without even asking. She just wants to be part of game night."

The interpersonal contrasts between the Milloy sisters spill onto the field, too.

Amirah and Kiki learned to manage the game's pressures with the same quiet intensity their father once brought to NFL secondaries in New England, Buffalo, Atlanta and Seattle. Conversely, Tia thrives within the freedom of the loud, unreserved spirit she brings to the field.

"Tia needs to be loose to feel prepared," Kiki said. "She once had a full conversation with a catcher mid-at-bat. She plays well when she's laughing and joking. I envy her ability to do that."

For the first month of her college career, Tia played like herself: loose.

She launched a home run in her first career start on Feb. 7 against Cal Baptist, then homered again the next day against Loyola Marymount. Never known for her power, Tia flashed more of it a week later with a walk-off, solo blast that clinched a run-rule victory over Hofstra.

All told, five of the eight base hits Tia notched over her first 34 college at-bats were home runs.

"I wasn't thinking about much," Tia said. "It all felt like what I was supposed to be doing. My body was calm and all I was focused on was my next opportunity."

We'll take it - Tia calls game ‼️ pic.twitter.com/O9rLJP2JZC

Raised in a family of intensity, it was no surprise that Tia gravitated toward another at Oklahoma, where Gasso has spent 31 seasons forging a demanding and close-knit program culture that's yielded 17 WCWS appearances since 2000.

The Sooners claimed six national titles across the nine seasons Tia's older sisters spent in college softball, and four trips to see Amirah and Kiki play in the WCWS in Oklahoma City meant she saw plenty of Oklahoma leading up to her recruitment. By high school, Tia was Washington's No. 1 prospect, per Softball America; she remembers how her stomach turned the first time Gasso came to see her play.

"I was a nervous wreck," Tia said.

For all the family intensity, Lawyer and Claudine allowed each of their daughters to guide their own recruiting processes.

Amirah found a fit playing for longtime Huskies coach Heather Tarr less than 20 miles from home. Kiki fell in love with the program husband-wife duo of Ralph and Karen Weekly built in their two decades in charge of the Lady Vols.

Either school could have been a seamless landing spot for Tia. Instead, she set out to find her own home at the top of the sport. On Oct. 10, 2022, nearly two years before she arrived on campus, Tia committed to the Sooners.

"Kiki and Amirah had such special connections at their schools," Claudine said. "I think Tia just wanted to create her own. We're not a family that says you have to continue a certain legacy. You'll build your own. "

Tia's bat went cold in March. In the 17 at-bats since capping her early season power surge with the towering home run against Kansas City on March 2, she's reached base only four times.

Such a midseason freshman slump was perhaps inevitable in a spring that's thrust Tia into an unfamiliar role on the bench. A three-time all-state selection in high school, she's never before taken fewer trips to the plate and had more time to fixate on it.

"Once you start pressing for hits, it doesn't work," Lawyer said.

Included in the starting lineup three times in 28 games after March 1, Tia stopped playing like herself. Her parents and sisters saw it, too, each recognizing familiar growing pains.

Tia's swoon may be no different from the first-year struggles of most freshmen. But in the throes of the most challenging spring of her softball career, she's battled through with help from a family with experience unlike almost any other.

"It all comes back to the support that they've always given me," Tia said. "They never let me get into a bad place mentally or let me feel like I was never going to get out of that hole I was in."

Lawyer has typed out motivational pregame messages to his daughter for years now.

The texts vary in length, tone and context, but the themes remain consistent. "Something to empower them," Lawyer said. "A reminder they've been here before."

He began sending them when Amirah got to Washington, then kept it up during Kiki's years at Tennessee. Lawyer started again this past fall after Tia arrived at Oklahoma.

"I love waking up to those messages," Tia said. "My dad is who I kind of learned everything from. His texts just kind of make me think back to our times together. Flying to tournaments. Being in the hotel together. All that stuff. He knows exactly what I'm going through."

Alongside a trusted coaching staff and her new teammates at Oklahoma, morning texts, post-practice phone calls and support from home have kept Tia grounded this spring, pushing her in time to embrace the challenge of this debut campaign.

Gasso and the Sooners believe Tia has turned a corner in the back half of her freshman season. In her breakthrough, a three-hit, three-RBI performance against Texas-Arlington on April 1, there was a glimmer of the light potentially waiting at the end of the tunnel.

"[Tia] is really hard on herself," Gasso said earlier this month. "But I see her at practice and she's squaring the ball up much better... She's really settled in swinging the bat. I think she can definitely help us going forward."

Amirah waited two years to become a regular contributor at Washington. Kiki needed less time to crack the starting lineup at Tennessee, but fought the disappointment of a freshman season cut short by COVID-19 and wrestled with multiple injuries across her senior season last spring.

The eldest Milloy sisters know the battles Tia is fighting. They understand the pressure they come with, too, part of why Amirah and Kiki have kept their conversations with Tia frequent, but light on softball this spring.

"You talk softball every single minute of every single day in an environment like this -- sometimes you don't want to hear about it," Kiki said. "College is where your mental gets tested. So we do our best to just listen and learn about whatever else is going on in her life."

Claudine is another emotional outlet. Night-time calls for updates on Breya and the latest on the family home her parents recently put on the market have helped Tia slowly regain her footing.

If life in a family of athletes brought pressure, it also gifted Tia with a certain perspective. Even at the depths of her frustration, Tia has understood the long game this spring.

With the Sooners, there's a pathway to regular playing time and likely multiple trips to the WCWS. Recent history suggests there's a good chance she'll lift a national championship trophy before she leaves Norman, too, achieving something neither of Tia's sisters ever did.

However, none of that diminishes the inescapable pressure of her last name. "You can't run away from it," Lawyer emphasized. "...It's Googleable."

The legacy follows Tia, just like it will Breya; the last Milloy sister is a rising eighth grader and herself a promising softball prospect.

It's why Lawyer was so proud when his third daughter chose to go to Oklahoma.

Tia paid close attention while the Sooners cultivated status as the standard across college softball during Amirah and Kiki's respective careers. When the time came for Tia to embark on hers, Lawyer watched his daughter identify her own mountain to climb in the challenge of competing with the very best at Oklahoma.

"Her journey is different from all of ours," Lawyer said. "That's very important. If she handles all of this in the next few years, I'll know she's the woman she wants to be. Tia is built for this."