PAWTUCKET, R.I. — Hingham native Lilly Reale says the past few days have been a blur.
The former South Shore soccer standout is still trying to process her new life of suiting up for the Boston Legacy FC in the franchise’s inaugural season alongside Sammy Smith, a former club teammate from Hanson.
On Saturday, Reale and Smith found themselves in the same warmup line during an open practice in front of season ticket holders at Centreville Bank Stadium. They said they couldn’t help but laugh at their new reality.
“Who would’ve thought?” Reale told the Herald after practice ended, standing next to Smith. “It’s just so full circle, it’s actually still so crazy to me. I am so happy to be here.”
Smith chimed in, laughing, “I always wanted her to come here. I mean, way back when, we were both committed to Boston College, but she just didn’t want to go. It was always meant to be that we were going to play together again.”
Reale’s homecoming comes after the Legacy acquired her on Wednesday in a trade with Gotham FC for $350,000 in allocation money and $50,000 in intraleague transfer fee funds.
She joins a Boston team that has struggled in its first season, sitting at 14th place in the NWSL standings with a 2-7-3 record, as a proven winner.
Liz Lima, founder and president of the Select Soccer Club, knows the “grit and tenacity” that Reale has brought to every team she has played on, at all levels.
The 22-year-old Reale earned NWSL Rookie of the Year honors last year, as Gotham FC won the league championship. The standout made history as the first player to win the Pac-12 Defender of the Year award in 2022 and 2023 with UCLA.
Boston Legacy’s Lilly Reale takes part in a drill during practice Saturday in Pawtucket, R.I. (Photo by Paul Connors/Media News Group/Boston Herald)
In 2022, the Bruins won the NCAA Division I championship.
These accolades and championships came after Reale recorded one of the most decorated club and high school soccer careers in Massachusetts history, with South Shore Select and at Hingham.
Lima said she is “not surprised” about Reale’s success, a stance she doesn’t admit often because of the thousands of talented athletes she has coached over the decades.
“Lilly was different from the beginning,” Lima told the Herald on Friday, “and I think everyone knew that, except maybe Lilly. But Lilly is just a winner in every sense of the word. She doesn’t quit, give up, or accept defeat; those are just terms that do not exist in her vocabulary.”
Reale helped spoil the Legacy’s first-ever NWSL gameat Gillette Stadium, factoring in on the match’s only goal for Gotham FC, on March 14.
“Even that first game at Gillette, all of the fans that were there – it was incredible to see that atmosphere and know that my family, my big family, was somewhere in that crowd,” Reale said on Saturday. “It was awesome to have that be our first game, and now, obviously, this takes the cake, being here.”
Smith, a forward who has played in 11 matches for the Legacy in her NWSL rookie season after playing professionally in Iceland for two years, said she believes the team’s fanbase will “double” because of Reale’s family.
The addition of Reale, on a four-year deal through December 2029, should improve the Legacy defensive unit, which has yielded the third-most goals in the league.
“The energy that she brings, the experience that she brings,” Smith said of Reale, “it’s going to be amazing to have her on our team.”
Boston Legacy’s Lilly Reale, front, and teammate Bianca St-Georges battle for the ball during practice in Pawtucket, R.I., on Saturday. (Photo by Paul Connors/Media News Group/Boston Herald)
Reale and Smith will have to wait a couple of weeks to play in their first game as Legacy teammates, on July 5, due to the men’s FIFA World Cup, with some matches taking place at their other home venue in Foxboro.
The World Cup has sparked a buzz around soccer, seen in other countries where it is the main sport, unlike in America, which is usually driven by football, basketball, baseball and hockey.
Reale and Smith said they love how the premier tournament is shining the spotlight on their sport, and they both acknowledged Scotland’s Tartan Army.
“It creates a lot more traffic,” Smith said, “but I have loved seeing fans from all over the world come because whenever we leave our apartment, we’re running into Scottish guys.”
Some 20 years ago, Lima said she recalls Reale’s mother, Melissa, bringing her 3-year-old daughter to South Shore Select’s tots program and telling the coach that it seemed Reale didn’t want to play.
Now, Lima called Reale’s homecoming “unbelievable” amid the World Cup craze in Massachusetts. The coach pointed out how she also helped bring up Ally Sentnor, another South Shore standout who was selected first in the 2024 NWSL Draft by the Utah Royals.
“For our girls, there is no better role model than Lilly, Ally and Sammy, girls who literally wore the jerseys that they’re wearing at their age,” Lima said. “It’s all so inspiring.”
Reale and Smith also think alike away from the field. They agreed that the best South Shore bar pizza is Damien’s in Hanson.
“We used to get that growing up,” Reale said. “It was like a 25-minute drive, but we’d still go. It was like the thin crust. … You get your pizza.”