DULUTH — It’s not hard to spot Duluth East’s Lilly Kuettel when she’s on the soccer field.
The sophomore forward is always moving across the field, typically a bit faster than just about everyone else out there.
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The easiest way to spot her, however, is the “high bun,” according to her mother, Laura Kuettel. She tried a ponytail a few times during basketball and soccer, but she always seemed to come back to the high bun.
“You’ll never catch me on the court or field without a bun because I just don’t like it in my face,” Lilly Kuettel said. “For the whole team it became the signature Lilly bun.”
If there were a lasting image from the 2024 soccer season, it’s likely Lilly racing up the field to put a shot past another helpless goalie.
Kuettel scored a school-record 32 goals this year — including a single-game record six goals against Cambridge-Isanti — and garnered first team All-State honors. More importantly, she led the Greyhounds to the state tournament for the first time since 2010.
Now Kuettel can add News Tribune Player of the Year to her growing list of accolades.
She is more than just an outstanding athlete, according to East coach Steve Polkowski.
“There’s athletic ability, which there’s no doubt she’s in the top 1% of human beings,” he said. “Then there’s the mental component and this kid is tough as nails mentally, as well. You put that into a soccer player and add a whole bunch of skill — then you get Lilly Kuettel.”
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Friday, an All-Area team selection in her own right, finished the season with 15 goals and 18 assists. The 18 assists was good enough for third in all of Class AAA this season, Polkowski said.
While just 15 years old, Kuettel is already inspiring some of Duluth’s future soccer players, Laura said. Friends often text her photos of their young daughters with their hair in a high bun, imitating the Greyhounds’ standout in their games for East Select Soccer.
She’s also inspired a confidence in her teammates that not only is she a fantastic player, but she’s going to make the right play for the team.
“Everything she does, she does 100%,” East freshman Darby Friday said. “Everybody knows, if they can get her the ball, she can do something amazing with it. Plus, they can trust her to give it back to them if that’s the best option — Lilly always knows what’s best to do.”
For Duluth East, it was a bit of a surprising run to the state tournament a season removed from graduating 14 seniors from a team that went 12-4-1.
What happened with the Greyhounds’ 2024 season, however, began not in August, but more than a decade ago when Kuettel met Friday at a daycare in Duluth.
‘A telepathic connection’
Kuettel and Friday don’t really remember a time in their lives when they didn’t know each other and it’s been nearly that long that they’ve been kicking a soccer ball around together.
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“They jive so well, it’s almost like a telepathic thing,” Laura said. “A lot of people wonder, do these two know each other — they do so well — and, yeah, they met when they were 3 years old at daycare.”
They started playing soccer in the backyard of the daycare, Friday said, and the pair have been honing their connection ever since.
“We both have the exact same goals in mind,” she said. “We just want to win and be the best we can be … We just learned to go off each other. We don’t even have to tell each other where we want the ball or where to go — we already know.”
The pair combined for 50 goals and 25 assists and gave opposing defenses fits all season. Teams man-marked Kuettel all season, but she consistently found ways to disrupt the defense, according to Hermantown coach Nate Hanson, whose Hawks squad — a Section 7AA finalist — lost 8-0 to the Greyhounds Oct. 2.
“What makes (Lilly) so dynamic is she moves into those spaces that makes the defense figure out who’s going to pick her up in that space,” he said. “If one person picks her up, she finds the space they leave and she exploits that. Another big reason why her and Darby work so well together is they’re constantly moving off each other and finding those spaces for each other off the ball.”
Not only has Kuettel been a driving force for Friday in her first season on the varsity team, but the opposite is also true.
“She wants to succeed and has a mindset of I’m up here to play,” Kuettel said. “That drives my mindset — we’re going to do this. We’re serious, we want to score, we want to do big things.”
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‘Quit being fancy!’
While the rest of the Greyhounds have a really fun team dynamic, Kuettel said, and their practices “are like a birthday party,” it’s not all flowers between her and Friday.
“Our parents say we argue like sisters,” Friday said, a feeling Kuettel echoed.
The pair isn’t afraid to take each other to task for mistakes on the field. Friday said occasionally in practice, she will get a certain move in mind and commit to it, even if there is an easier, simpler play to be made.
“It’s never personal off the field,” she said. “Sometimes it’s like, ‘Quit being fancy with it — just hit the net, just play it where I want it,’ then it’s back to normal.”
Kuettel said it’s not always pretty, but in the end they know that everything is in pursuit of getting better and — hopefully getting back to the state tournament once or twice before she and Friday are finished at East.
“Sometimes you’ll think, maybe we hate each other,” she said. “But that’s the only person I feel comfortable yelling at and getting yelled at by.”
Polkowski said it’s “a dream” to have players like Kuettel and Friday for multiple seasons — even if they are at each other’s throats from time to time.
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It isn’t just Kuettel’s natural athletic ability that’s set the team up to take a couple more swings at a state tournament appearance — maybe more —and it didn’t start when she showed up at Duluth East.
“She’s so driven that it’s not a hobby for her to go play soccer,” Polkowski said. “She loves the game, she loves what goes into it. The drive and effort she puts into practice away from our team really shows up when the team comes together and she’s able to do some special things.”
This story was edited at 12:25 p.m. on Dec. 1 to correct Steve Polkowski's name. It was originally posted at 6 a.m. om Nov. 30.
News Tribune girls soccer players of the year
2024 — Lilly Kuettel, Duluth East
2023 — Alyssa Doyle, Duluth Denfeld
2022 — Abbey Birkey, Grand Rapids
2021 — Katie Turner, Cloquet-Carlton
2020 — Maren Friday, Duluth Marshall
2019 — Kiana Bender, Cloquet-Carlton
2018 — Kendra Kelley, Cloquet-Carlton
2017 — Kendra Kelley, Cloquet-Carlton
2016 — Callie Hoff, Hermantown
2015 — Kayla Baker, Cloquet-Carlton
2014 — Kayla Baker, Cloquet-Carlton
2013 — Hailey Hoff, Hermantown
2012 — Hailey Hoff, Hermantown
2011 — Alex Freeman, Duluth East
2010 — Alex Freeman, Duluth East
2009 — Amanda Bergstedt, Esko-Carlton
2008 — Kaylee Steen, Hermantown
2007 — Megan Stingle, Duluth East
2006 — Becky Anderson, Duluth East
2005 — Anna Bjorlin, Hermantown
2004 — Tara Wegehaupt, Duluth East
2003 — Cassi Johnson, Cloquet
2002 — Melissa Nelson, Duluth East
2001 — Melissa Nelson, Duluth East
2000 — Betsy Pratt, Duluth East
1999 — Nora Kaitfors, Proctor
1998 — Amy Masterson, Proctor
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