Junior Lily Burchett (20) had one goal her first two seasons at Centre College. She had two in the first game this season. (Luke Napier Photo)
Centre College junior Lily Burchett has seen her playing time significantly increase on the soccer team this season and knows she owes it all to her two biggest role models — her mother and older brother.
“My mom is a single mom and I look up to her and how she tackles everything in life. She doesn’t back down from any challenge. She’s always had to work super hard to get where she wants to be,” Burchett said. “She’s a lawyer, real estate attorney, and is one of my biggest motivators.
“My brother is in his first year of PT (physical therapy) school at Bellarmine. He just turned 22. He’s always been the person I look up to the most. If I knew he took a certain class, I wanted to take it. I’ve always just wanted to be as good as him. It’s always been a good level of healthy, friendly competition that has been great for me.”
Burchett played in 24 games during the 2023-2024 seasons and averaged about 15 minutes per match. This year she’s averaging 45 minutes per match and had three goals and one assist in the first seven matches going into tonight’s home match with North Central.
Coach Jay Hoffman says Burchett’s “confidence, strength and fitness” have led to her maximizing her opportunities this season. “She worked extremely hard this summer and you can see the quickness and strength when she plays,” Hoffman said.
She was a four-year player at Assumption High School in Louisville who always thought she wanted to go far away to college. That changed when Hoffman reached out to her early her junior year. She built a relationship with him and in September of her high school senior year she committed to Centre.
“I knew I’d made the right decision staying close to home, being close to family, and I had that personal connection with Jay. He knew me as a person, more than just a player on the field. I liked that,” she said.
Her cousin had played on the Centre men’s soccer team and told her how much he loved being a Colonel. She also liked Centre was close to home but far not away she could be on her own.
“Freshman year I kind of figured out if I wanted to go home I could but I never felt the pressure to do that. My mom, brother, grandma, grandpa come to my games most of the time home and away,” Burchett said. “So it is super nice to be able to go home but also feeling far enough away that I am actually at college.
Burchett was one of few freshmen to make the varsity team at Assumption and had to fight for playing time much like she did when she got to Centre as a freshman.
“I have high expectations. I wanted to play, I wanted to be a contributor,” Burchett said. “I played a decent amount at the start of my freshman year then I got a concussion that set me back. I had dealt with an ankle injury at Assumption, so I knew I had to be patient. Sophomore year was a struggle not getting as much playing time as I wanted but it was also good motivation for me.”
Burchett admits she changed her attitude and came in “very fit” for her junior year. She balanced having a job during the summer with making sure she got in her workouts and running.
“I came in, passed the fitness test and I attacked those two practices a day we had for two weeks,” she said. “I am a forward, so my job is to score. In the previous two years, I had scored one goal. That was not acceptable.”
She took care of that by scoring two goals in Centre’s season-opening win over Covenant.
“I worked a lot on finishing this summer with my trainer. My job here is to score, so that’s what I wanted to do,” Burchett said. “After scoring the first goal, I got a lot more comfortable and confident.”
While Burchett would like to play 90 minutes per game, she understands there’s no need for that with Centre’s deep roster. She understands her role and likes the system Hoffman uses.
“When Jay recruited me, he knew I was a very, very aggressive player. He wanted me to be that way here and I kind of got away from that freshman and sophomore year. I am not afraid of contact. I will put my body on the line for anything and it is finally showing this year in practice and games,” she said. “I am definitely very driven, especially after the past two seasons. I knew there was a lot more I wanted out of this program and wanted out of my career. Even when we have off days, you’ll find me doing something because I don’t like to sit still.”
Burchett is a neuroscience major with a Spanish minor. She’s on a pre-physical therapy track — her summer job was as a physical therapist tech — after originally thinking she would be a biology major. She took Spanish classes in middle school and always “thought it would be cool to speak another language” so she also took Spanish at Assumption for four years. However, she will be studying abroad in Scotland, not Spain.
Currently her focus, though, remains on this soccer season. Centre (7-0-1) was picked to finish third in the Southern Athletic Association behind conference newcomer Trinity and Sewanee. The Colonels did receive one first-place vote in the preseason coaches poll.
“Trinity was ranked top 10 in the nation, so how can you not put them first? It made sense. But we are going into that match in October very motivated,” Burchett said. “We didn’t make it to the finals of the conference tournament last year and that didn’t sit well with us. We are looking to get back to that championship and hopefully raise that trophy again. So while we were not upset about being third, I do think we are using it as extra motivation.”
