Kristine Lilly attended Wilton High School in Wilton, Connecticut. While still attending high school, Lilly became a member of the United States women’s national team. Lilly led her Wilton High School team to claim State Championship titles in ’86, ’87, ’89 before graduating in 1989.

She was recruited by, and eventually chose to attend, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lilly competed as a student-athlete, playing for the university’s North Carolina Tar Heels women’s soccer team from 1989 to 1992 and captained the team in ’90, ’92. Kristine graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1993 with a degree in communications. During her time there, she won the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship every year she played. She won the Hermann Trophy as a junior in 1991. To honor her time with the school, North Carolina retired her #15 jersey in 1994.

Kristine Lilly is the world’s all-time international caps leader, having played 352 games for the United States between 1987 and 2010. She was a three-time U.S. Soccer Player of the Year (1993, 2005, 2006). She left the game in 2011 as the second-leading goal-scorer and assist-maker in U.S. team history. Her career included winning two of the five FIFA Women’s World Cups in which she played, and she was part of Olympic teams that earned two gold and one silver medal.

On February 14, 2015 Lilly was inducted into the US Soccer Hall of Fame. As part of her acceptance speech, Lilly addressed 13 life lessons from what the game of soccer has taught her:

No. 1: Oranges at halftime are still my favorite part of soccer, and they don’t have them much anymore.
No. 2: U.S. stamps don’t work when you are sending postcards from China. I was 16. It was my first trip, c’mon!
No. 3: A team is stronger when you stick together on and off the field. Winning is easier together and fighting for what is right is, as well.
No. 4: Playing for your country is an honor and a privilege and one that should never be taken lightly or disrespected.
No. 5: Scoring your first goal makes you feel like you belong. Scoring your last goal makes you feel like you still belong.
No. 6: We all have our role, whatever it may be – coming off the bench, trainer, coach, or protecting the post on corner kicks. It all makes a difference.
No. 7: You can’t do anything alone.
No. 8: I love being a role model, and we all have the responsibility to be one to someone.
No. 9: Standing on the podium with your teammates while your National Anthem is playing reminds me that dreams do come true.
No. 10: You always need your family, even if you’re miles and miles away from them.
No. 11: The FIFA anthem will always bring me back to a happy time.
No. 12: Playing in front of 90,000 people is a lot easier than giving a Hall of Fame speech.
No. 13: Relationships outlast the game of soccer. When I think about what I remember the most about playing, it isn’t the wins and losses – although they still feel good or still sting a bit – it is the people. It is the people that made my career so special. There are so many people that have impacted my life and I think or I hope that I have shared enough with them that they know.

Kristine Lilly has accumulated an impressive collection of accolades from her playing days. After retirement, Kristine served as an Assistant Coach with the University of Texas Women’s Soccer Team from 2014 to 2017. More recently since retiring, Kristine has been developing the women’s game further by giving ‘back to the game’. Currently, she runs the Kristine Lilly Soccer Academy (KLSA), serves as an Ambassador for the U.S Soccer Foundation, and speaks to corporations, universities, and soccer programs around the country. She also is CoFounder of the TeamFirst Soccer Academy that she runs with former teammates and friends Mia Hamm and Tisha Venturini Hoch.