The Inside Track takes a closer look at the names and faces behind Racing Louisville — from technical staff to the supporting cast running our city’s top-tier professional women’s soccer club.
Born and raised in Louisville, Lilly Andres grew up playing soccer across the city. Now, she’s a part of the professional women’s soccer club representing it.
In February, ahead of the 2026 NWSL season, Andres, 22, joined Racing Louisville FC’s support staff as the club’s full-time player care coordinator.
Joining the club brought things full circle for Andres, who grew up attending Louisville City FC games during the Louisville Slugger Field days. She was also in the Lynn Family Stadium stands last November when Racing clinched its first-ever playoff berth.
“My role is to help the players off the field so that they can perform their best on the field,” Andres said. “I serve as a resource to them for all things logistically, from travel to housing to appearances and scheduling. I just kind of help out all things on that end, so that they can have everything be smooth off the field. … I also just serve as a support person under our medical staff, our coaching staff and also the operations staff.”
Whether it’s picking up new players from the airport, arranging their housing, or making sure they have the itinerary before a public appearance — if it makes a players’ life easier, Andres does it.
Alongside her siblings, Andres played soccer as a kid — predominantly at central midfielder and left back — and that’s where her affinity for the game stems from.
“I didn’t know I always wanted to work in soccer,” said Andres. “But I am from Louisville and when they announced there was going to be an NWSL team here, I kind of always had in the back of my head that I wanted to be here.”
“It’s so cool,” she added, “to see a division one professional team be in the city that I always grew up cheering for.”
Andres has a unique perspective as a staff member, having recently played in Racing Louisville’s youth academy for three years. It granted her the chance to see first hand the players living out their dreams as professional athletes. Fast forward to now, and she works with many of those same players on a day-to-day basis.
Similarly to Racing’s current general manager Caitlyn Flores Milby, who began her career with Soccer Holdings as an intern in 2017, Andres’ path at Racing featured time as an operations intern during the summer of 2024. It was a role that presented itself after Andres shadowed Milby during her senior year of high school.
Andres studied collegiately at the University of Kentucky, obtaining dual Bachelor’s of Business Administration degrees in Management and Marketing in 2024. Through a connection made within a sports management class at Kentucky, Andres also took an opportunity with Lexington Sporting Club’s men’s and women’s teams for a summer.
It was through her experience in Lexington that Andres knew operations was the route she wanted to pursue. Now, being a young professional in her role, Andres understands the importance of learning — soaking up knowledge from those around her and treating every day as a chance to grow.
“I’ve learned that it really does take a village to help everything go right behind the scenes,” Andres said. “It takes all of the staff working as a team and helping each other and always just having a yes attitude. … You always know there is an operational staff behind every team, but I never realized how much work went into getting the players on the field and helping them off the field.”
