With one season remaining in her Kansas career, the time has arrived for KU soccer star Lexi Watts to pour everything she’s got into her final season on the pitch.
As she does, we’ll follow her every step of the way in the latest edition of our weekly diary series that will chronicle Watts' 2025 season.
Some of what you’ll read here, in Watts' own words, will focus on the stuff happening between the lines — big wins, memorable moments and the grind of the season.
But a lot of it will focus on Watts the person, who loves soccer, loves KU, loves her teammates & coaches and is looking to make one more mark on the program before she says goodbye.
The Watts File
Age: 21 | Number: 18 | Height: 5-7 | Position: Forward
High School: St. James Academy (Lenexa) | Club: Sporting Blue Valley
Notable: Lexi Watts began playing soccer at 3 years old and has not looked back. The daughter of soccer-playing parents, Watts quickly showed her skills in the game en route to earning all-league and all-state honors in high school, where she solidified her status as a goal-scoring machine... During an all-Big 12 freshman year at Kansas in 2022, Watts' 6 goals were the most by a KU freshman since 2012... In Year 2, Watts appeared in all 18 KU matches, finishing second in points scored and third in assists... Last season was Watts' true breakout season, as she finished with a team-best 21 points and 9 goals. Her shots on goal (38) and total shots (82) both ranked in the top seven on KU's all-time, single-season lists, and she was named to the Big 12's all-tournament team as the Most Outstanding Offensive Player of the 2024 Big 12 tourney, with a spot all-Big 12 first team following that.
KU record to date: 6-0-2 | Next up: Thursday at Oklahoma St., 7 p.m. kickoff
There's a street sign in Clovis, California that led to Lexi Watts receiving her name a little more than 21 years ago.
Lexington Avenue.
It's certainly not uncommon. A quick Google search revealed that there are too many streets, roads, avenues or ways that use the name Lexington in the United States to accurately count them all.
But for the Watts family, this is the only one that matters. Not the Lexington Avenue in New York City on the east side of Manhattan. And not the one on K-10 between Lawrence and Lenexa, although Lexi laughs/smiles/rolls her eyes a little bit each time she sees that one.
“My parents were trying to think of what to name me, and they loved my cousins’ names — their names are Brooke and Lauren — so they wanted to steal that. But then they saw that street sign and there are also street signs everywhere that say that.”
Lexington Avenue.
“I think they saw that and then just shortened it.”
Your name’s not Lexington, though, right?
“Well, it is. My real name’s Lexington. But no one really calls me that. I remember in all of my classes when I was younger, and we had a substitute teacher, they’d call out, “Lexington,” and I’d just be like, ‘Ugh.’ Even on my team, when people find out, they’re like, ‘Whaaaat? Your name’s Lexington?’ Yeah.”
Her middle name is a little more conventional.
“Marie. That’s like a family name. My mom’s middle name is Marie, my aunt, my grandma and then my cousin. All middle names. I feel like it’s a pretty common middle name.”
She started going by Lexi immediately, even though her life included the cliché moments of her mom yelling “Lexington Marie” at her when she was in trouble.
“I used to be like, ‘I’m gonna change it when I get older, but I’m not going through that. I don’t care anymore. I think everyone's kind of forgotten it.”
When in need, she could always lean on her younger sister, Sydney, for comfort in those moments.
“Sydnington."
[Long pause. Reporter looks around the room to make sure this moment is real.]
"No, I’m kidding.”
Lexi’s parents were both athletes. Her dad, Rian, is from California and her mom, Wendy, is from Kansas. They both attended nearby Baker University, where he father played soccer and her mom played soccer, basketball and track.
“I didn’t know she was that athletic. And I don’t know if she actually was. I look at her now and she trips over weird stuff and I’m like, ‘You were an athlete?’ I think my mom was good, but I just like to clown her. My dad was really good.”
Rian, a member of the Baker University athletics Hall of Fame, played professionally for a bit for the Wichita Wings, and he coached Lexi and Sydney with the KC Fusion club when they were younger.
She says she started playing soccer because her dad made her and recalls days when, as the smallest, weakest player on the field, she would get pushed over and cry.
“I would cry about everything and they’d always take me off the field and put my sister in for me. She was really good and she played up (a grade). I remember having a conversation with my dad at his desk and him being, ‘You’re not going to make the team next year if you don’t figure it out.’ I think at that point, I just didn’t like it nearly as much as I do now. I wasn’t even good until I got to freshman year of high school. I hadn’t grown into my body. I would run awkward. I wasn’t super-fast.”
So, why’d you stick with it?
“I think because of my friends. I still have the same friends from when I was young and playing for my dad.”
Lexi also played basketball and ran track.
“My hand-eye coordination was awful. I was the worst basketball player ever.”
She started her high school career at St. Thomas Aquinas and she was on the basketball C team as a freshman. She remembers hearing that if she could convince her sister to come to Aquinas, they’d move her up to JV.
“I was like, ‘Are you kidding?’ First off, I had no business being on JV. I know that.”
That family dynamic is why soccer is so big in their house. So much so that both Watts girls went to play in college. In fact, in each of the past two seasons Lexi and Sydney faced each other with Lexi playing for KU and Sydney at Vanderbilt.
During her sophomore season, Lexi and the Jayhawks hosted Vanderbilt. During her junior year, in 2024, KU traveled to Nashville to take on the Commodores on their home field.
Both games ended in a tie (0-0 last year and 1-1 in 2023) and the Watts girls — both forwards — were held scoreless. Regardless, Lexi said those experiences were among her top soccer memories of all-time.
“Oh yeah. For sure. It was great. Both times. I wish we could play them again this year.”
With Big 12 play starting this week, the only chance for that to happen would be for Kansas and Vanderbilt to meet in the postseason.
“That would be insane. I would love that.”
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