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Meet your student-athlete: Battle Mountain’s Lilo Andrade

If she’s Lilo, who’s Stitch?

Lilo Andrade, senior, Battle Mountain soccer

Battle Mountain’s Lilo Andrade has a problem.

When she watches soccer games on television, the teams do not do what she wants them to do at a particular moment.

“I love soccer, but seeing soccer games on television stresses me out,” the Huskies senior said. “I want them to hear me and do what I say.”



Andrade, like a lot of us, clearly has a defective TV set that does not transmit her or our coaching orders.

The good news is that she doesn’t have much time to watch soccer because she’s playing it. She also is a serious mountain-biker with the Cycle Effect team, likes debating with her soccer coach, David Cope, and watching telenovelas, thanks to grandma.

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For more on Andrade, read on:

Birthday: Jan. 24, 2003.

Parents: Martin Andrade and Maria Fernandez-Andrade.

Siblings: Rocio Andrede, 24, and Jose Andrade, 23.

Your formal name is Lizabeth. How did you get Lilo? “My uncles liked the cartoon, ‘Lilo and Stich.’ I would say we’re both short, have long hair and the same skin color.”

How is Cycle Effect a different experience? “Competition-wise, it’s very different. We train year-round. We only get three months of training off. You really have to be involved in the sports and do well in the competitions.”

How is Cycle Effect different? “One of Cycle Effect’s main focus is getting Hispanic girls on a bike. I like the sister part of it. Girls on bikes break stereotypes.”

Inform us, please: “I believe that we have a high population of Hispanics and we should be on bikes and doing other sports. There’s a stereotype —maybe a little — that Hispanics don’t ride bikes. I didn’t know we rode bikes until I got involved. I think maybe I thought girls don’t ride.”

Is mountain-biking getting back to normal with COVID? “I would say that we are slowly inching back into that world. The short-track races have started. I’m hoping that this summer or fall, it’s back to normal for everyone.”

How’d you find soccer? “My sister and my brother played it. My dad loves it. I started at like 6 or 8 and kept going through middle school and high school.”

Soccer vs. biking? “I would say you’re more physically interactive with people in soccer than riding a bike. There’s more teamwork. You have to work together to score. You have to communicate to win the game. You have to get comfortable with everybody to know everybody’s on the same page.”

How is COVID affecting a season? “It’s a little more difficult. We can’t be doing more activities than usual. We usually have team dinners after practice, and that is where you can get to know the younger girls on the team. Obviously, it’s not safe to do that.”

How do you deal with the pressure of Battle Mountain soccer? “The expectations are high, but every girl enjoys the sport very much. The last time we played, the boys[‘ team] won league and we wanted to win it, too. We’re coming back as the 2019 defending champs and the boys won again. We want to win again. We just have to get into the mindset of the game to get game ready.”

Best moment in soccer: “We were playing down in Denver and we had two games, but on different fields. I was playing JV. We finished our game and Cope calls JV over and says, ‘We need Lilo. Get ready.’ It was the first time I got called to varsity. I was like, ‘I’m so excited you found me.'”

What’s Cope like? “We talk a lot. Because I had his class last year, we were debating whether we were going to have a season. I was thinking that COVID would hit and then a month later, we’d restart. He was saying this was going to shut down the economy and be big deal. We were going back and forth and then we got shut down.” (Score one for Cope.)

Favorite subject: Math.

College plans: Attending Colorado Mesa University. “When I did my admission work, I went as undeclared. I thought I might be a doctor or a nurse. I still may. I’m kind of roaming around and chosen financing for now.”

Favorite social media: Snapchat and Instagram.

Favorite watching: “Since I come from a Hispanic household, I’m really into telenovas. My grandma got me into them. I also really like ‘Frozen,’ the “Princess’ movies and anything on Disney+.”

Favorite food: Posole.

Favorite drink: Agua de horchata. “It’s a refresher with cinnamon and rice water.”

Favorite pizza slice: Canadian bacon and pineapple.

Mexico vs. the U.S. in soccer. For whom do you root? “That’s a hard one. Both. My dad always roots for Mexico. He’s a big fan, so sometimes I root for them. If I want the game to be more competitive, I root for the U.S.”

Favorite soccer players: Alex Morgan and Javier Hernandez, aka Chicharito.

Favorite music: Latin pop.

Favorite artist: Karol G.

If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? “Probably a pine tree.”

Powder day. Where do you go? “I think I would go to Beaver Creek and just try to get in as many runs as we can.”

COVID if over. You can travel anywhere in the world. Where do you go? “I would get a round trip to Greece, Spain and Italy.”

 


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