Kristine Lilly (@KristineLilly) is a PCA National Advisory Board Member and Former U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team Captain. Kristine was a four-time NCAA Champion at the University of North Carolina and went on to play in five World Cups, helping the U.S. to championships in 1991 and 1999. She is currently an Assistant Coach for the Boston Breakers Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) team.

Lilly spoke with Positive Coaching Alliance at the 2013 National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Convention.

Here, she explains that all athletes and people deal with adversity. While the degree of adversity may vary, athletes should expect that things will not always be easy or in their favor. But Lilly says athletes can “control the controllables.”

Everyone wins and everyone loses, but athletes can control the way they handle it. Lilly urges coaches to teach this important lesson to their athletes very early on, so that athletes understand this throughout their career, rather than learning the hard way later on that life and sports are not always easy.