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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Lily Burford, a senior at Hewitt-Trussville High School and member of the girls varsity soccer team, at the soccer stadium April 3.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Hewitt-Trussville’s Lily Burford (17) takes a shot at the goal as the Huskies face Shades Valley at Hewitt-Trussville High School on March 22.
With Lily Burford becoming a varsity player on the Hewitt-Trussville High School girls soccer team as an eighth grader, it’s no surprise that a few years later, she is on her way to playing college soccer at Oglethorpe University.
However, her journey from point A to point B has been anything but straightforward. Burford has experienced everything from elation to heartbreak along the way. What could have been the decisive blow to her soccer career turned into a defining moment in life and in sport.
“I’ve never been more glad that I was wrong,” Hewitt-Trussville girls soccer coach Lauren Wooten said.
Burford was “super stoked” to make the varsity soccer team at Hewitt-Trussville as an eighth grader. But things were shuffled a little once Wooten took over the program ahead of the 2020 season. Her vision was for Burford to play on the junior varsity team, an assignment Burford accepted and understood at the time.
She was left on the JV team as a sophomore, which was a little more difficult to stomach. She chalked it up to coming back to the team a little late, considering the basketball team’s success (Burford played flag football and basketball during her time at Hewitt). She worked hard to get pulled up to the varsity team at the end of her sophomore season.
Burford never envisioned what came next, though. Following school tryouts her junior year, Burford was in disbelief to not see her name listed as one of the players to make the team.
“I didn’t think it was real at first,” she said. “It took me a minute to truly process that I’m not on this team. It was devastating because soccer had always been my dream.”
What followed was a pivotal moment in Burford’s trajectory. Wooten explained the decision to Burford and her family — Wooten felt as if Burford wasn’t making the necessary progress as a player — but that didn’t make it any easier to take. Burford had also recently not made a Hoover-Vestavia Soccer Club team for which she tried out, so she was faced with a tough decision.
She asked herself, “Was this a bump in the road, or are you not good enough at soccer and should quit now?”
But Burford was determined to not let that be the end of her story in soccer.
“It probably just took me a few hours that I was really upset. Then, I was like, I play soccer; there’s no other option,” she said.
That spring, Burford played with Alabama Elite, a program designed for players not playing high school ball. She thrived in that environment, possessing a renewed determination to exhibit progression as a player.
In September of her senior year, Burford again tried out for the HVS team and was told she would merely be a practice player, meaning she would play little, if at all, and not travel to tournaments. By the end of the season, she was a starter and playing full games.
What Wooten saw at the fall tryouts was stunning. “I have never in my life seen a one-year transformation like I did with Lily,” Wooten said.
Pretty quickly, Wooten realized Burford would be an asset to the varsity team as a senior. After a short time, she realized Burford would be a pivotal player on the team. It was safe to say she was making the team this time around, much less becoming one of its best players.
“You could tell wherever she went and whatever she was doing, she had improved,” Wooten said. “It was not the same player from 10 months ago, from a skill or mentality perspective. She was totally transformed.”
Burford believed in her training and overcame the difficult emotions that came with going out for a team from which she was cut a season before.
“It was scary coming back, but the girls were extremely welcoming and would still build me up,” she said.
That acceptance from her team was evident in the voting for team captain ahead of this season. Each player gets to vote for two captains, and Burford was a unanimous selection.
“It was special,” she said.
Ella Allen, a fellow senior who has played with Burford at various points over the last 10 years, was impressed with her friend and teammate’s determination to make the best of her situation.
“With her attitude and the drive she has, I was excited to see her come back. It’s been awesome to see,” Allen said.
Burford still had not realized her ultimate goal, though, which was to play college soccer. While many of her classmates had already been accepted to schools and were even finding roommates, she still had no clue what her next step was. But a coach from Oglethorpe University took notice in the fall and invited her to campus for a visit. Once she was there, she knew it was home. She announced her commitment in March and will play at the Division III school near Atlanta.
“It’s amazing; it really is,” she said. “It’s cool to see how everything’s come about. If you would’ve told me six months ago, I would say you’re kidding. I could never picture it for myself.”
Along with playing three sports in high school, Burford was involved in several clubs and led a Bible study, while maintaining a stellar academic resume. Her graduation gown was adorned with more than a dozen cords for various distinctions.
“I wanted to use my time to make an impact,” she said.
