Lily Nabet’s road to Angel City FC paved with passion
The Chaminade High grad has gone from a walk-on at Duke, where she became a co-captain, to her third season as a midfielder with her hometown club
It was not a road easily traveled.
Lily Nabet arrived at Duke as a walk-on freshman. By the time she had graduated, Nabet had made 86 appearances at midfielder and earned the co-captaincy role as a senior.
“It was really difficult walking on,” Nabet said. “I wanted to go there for so long, so I knew what I was getting myself into. It kind of helped once I got there and I knew how much of a challenge it was. It didn’t really come as a surprise, which was a good thing for me.
“It was definitely extremely difficult, just because as a walk-on you don’t really get first glances, first looks or really anything. On the other hand, nobody really has expectations for you, so you don’t really feel pressure from anyone. I knew I wasn’t ready my first year, but I knew I could get to where the coaches wanted me to be. Just showing up every single day and giving everything I had, but also after that asking questions and doing all the extra work landed me in a good spot.”
The Tarzana native and Chaminade High grad was eventually a third-round pick by Angel City FC in 2022 and is now in her third season in the NWSL.
Chalk it up to her work ethic.
“I feel it comes from my passion and love for this sport,” she said. “It’s really easy to come out here and work my butt off. It’s also just working hard for my teammates, whether I’m picked for the squad for that game day or not.
“You owe it to yourself, your teammates and your coaches to show up every single day and push not only yourself, but the girls around you. It’s pretty easy when you love what you do.”
Nabet made 10 appearances in 2022, including two starts for 209 minutes. Last season, she made 11 appearances and five starts (410 minutes). So far this season, she’s played in four games, with three starts, and is on track to eclipse last season’s total minutes. She’s at 257 as Angel City heads to face the Washington Spirit on Saturday.
Through eight games (3-4-1, 10 points), Angel City sits in ninth place and is still in search of a complete game and effort. In its last game, Angel City was moments away from a point in a scoreless draw before Paige Nielsen, traded by ACFC last month, scored the winning goal.
“We’re trying to put those things together where we play a complete 90 minutes, 90-plus minutes. We’ve conceded two late goals that have cost us some big points,” Nabet said, referring to a 3-1 loss to Kansas City on April 26. “Every single second matters, every minute matters. I think we’re definitely getting there, but we need to fix some minor details and have that consistency throughout the games and throughout the weeks and months.”
MARK WILSON HIRED
Angel City announced the hiring of former Mark Wilson as the club’s first technical director.
Wilson’s playing career took him to Manchester United and FC Dallas in MLS. Angel City is only the second club in the NWSL with a technical director.
“In terms of what the role entails, it’s creating a strategic vision of eventually building an academy, developing a second team and supporting the coaching staff and providing them with every resource or experience to make sure that they’re growing and developing beyond any sort of ceiling,” Wilson said. “There will be some recruitment pieces in there. We want it to be data informed and thorough.
“We want to make sure that the players we have onboard, not only have the right quantitative data pieces, but we also want to know they have the right character, that they fit our culture, and they fit this club and the people around it. We’ve got some work to do, but we’re already making those steps forward.”
ANGEL CITY FC at WASHINGTON SPIRIT
When: 4:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Audi Field; Washington, D.C.
How to watch: ION