If the women’s soccer team beats Stetson University on Oct. 31, Florida Gulf Coast University clinches its 13th Atlantic Sun Conference regular season championship. For team captain Lily Borders, it would signify more than just her second ASUN title — it would mean continuing her family’s championship legacy.
Thirty-four years ago, her father, Pat Borders, won his first World Series Championship with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was also named the series’ Most Valuable Player.
Born less than a month after her father’s final Major League Baseball appearance in 2005, Lily Borders grew up not really understanding the impact her dad once had on the game.
“I was probably in middle school or maybe even high school before I saw any highlights or anything of my dad playing,” said the junior defender from Lake Wales. “My brothers and I would pull it up on YouTube and watch the highlights every once in a while.”
She was in high school when the Borders were heading to a family vacation and traveling through the airport when a fan stopped to talk to and take a picture with her dad, making her realize he might have been a little bit more than just her dad.
A major league legacy
Pat Borders was certainly more than that. A 17-year big leaguer, he strapped on the gear and caught more than 1,000 games for nine different MLB teams during his career. But it was what he did in October 1992 that immortalized him to Toronto Blue Jay fans: helping lead the Blue Jays to their first American League pennant before squaring off with the Atlanta Braves in the World Series.
The Jays and Braves battled it out in a hard-fought six-game series with four of the six decided by just one run before Toronto outlasted Atlanta 4-3 in game six to raise their first World Series Championship. Borders, a blue-collar backstop that hit .450 during the series to lead all Jays while catching every single pitch, was announced as MVP during the trophy presentation.
Toronto would do it again in 1993, with Borders behind the plate for 130 games, becoming the first team to win back-to-back titles since the mid-1970s.
A large family of athletes
Borders and his wife, Kathy, went on to have nine children — all of whom enjoy sports. Lily Borders, the sixth college athlete in the family, found a home at FGCU after helping Auburn University’s soccer team to the NCAA Tournament as a freshman. Her brothers Levi and Luke played baseball at the University of South Florida. Her sister Laura was a three-sport athlete at Webber International University, while her sister Leah played soccer at Florida Southern College and Webber International.
As their father travels around the Sunshine State to watch his children play these days, he isn’t the type of dad found in the stands, yelling at referees or second-guessing coaches.
“I don’t have too much of a heartbeat during games,” Pat Borders said. “Kathy and I really just sit back and enjoy the games, enjoy watching the kids compete and just out there being athletes.”
Win or lose, he always knows just what to say after games, according to his daughter.
“He has been through it all — he knows what I am going through,” Lily Borders said. “He knows I am hard on myself and that I have high expectations, so he is very uplifting and really focuses on the positives.”
‘A natural born leader’
When asked how he passed his toughness onto his children, Pat Borders shared the credit with his wife: “We have always raised the kids to push through things that may be uncomfortable. But you have to live that as well, and the kids saw Kathy working hard, doing everything for them while I was out playing — and that leaves a big impression on them.”
When Lily Borders was named team captain for the Eagles this spring, he told her she was “a natural born leader.”
“I think that comes from both my mom and dad. They have always taught us to keep being who we are,” she said.
Borders has demonstrated many strengths on the pitch this season, leading the ASUN’s sturdiest back line that has played seven shutouts this season. She has been off the pitch for just four total minutes this season. She scored the game-winning goal for FGCU in its victory over High Point University earlier this year and had the primary assist on a 79th-minute game-winner against Jacksonville University.
When asked what she could bring from her father’s championship experience to help the Eagles win another crown, she said “just play with confidence, stay out of your own head.”
While one did it north of the border and one is doing it in South Florida, one thing is clear: Championships run in the Borders bloodline.
