Emilee Prado
When it comes to family time, things look a little different in the world of Kris and Kim Fuller. Even when their kids were growing up, Kim was busy coaching soccer and volleyball at Austin-area schools Cedar Park, Vista Ridge and Round Rock Cedar Ridge, while Kris coached football and basketball at Round Rock McNeil and Cedar Ridge.
With kids on club teams competing across the globe or attending multiple local training sessions every week, the Fuller family has come to grips with a calendar that’s hectic year-round — even during the holidays.
“I think of the last six or seven Thanksgivings, we've probably only spent two or three at home,” says Kris, recounting club soccer tournaments that brought their daughters — and the entire family — to California and London on a couple of occasions. Don’t feel too bad for the Fullers though, as their family time on those trips included visiting Disneyland and watching soccer matches in Manchester City and Chelsea.
“We don't live a normal life, but that's okay,” he says. “We don't have normal soccer players, either.”
Teen daughters Kennedy and Kamdyn left normal behind long ago. In fact, the term may have never even applied, especially when it came to soccer. At 16 years old, Kennedy has spent the past two-plus years receiving over 30 combined honors — ranging from local to state, national and international levels — recognizing her achievements in high school, club and national youth soccer competitions. Kamdyn is also making her mark at 15 years old, playing on nationally-winning club and youth soccer teams, earning a spot on top national soccer lists, making high school district honors and participating in national youth soccer camps.
Reaching the level of play that earns such recognition requires constant training, daily drives to team practices and energy to battle through contests on nights and weekends. All this takes place on top of going to classes at Carroll. “Downtime” and “taking it easy” just isn’t in the vocabulary of the teen athletes or the parents that cheer them on.
“When they were little, they grew up on the field, grew up in the gym,” Kim says. “I think [the busy sports schedule] is kind of all we've known.”
Sports are just in the Fuller family DNA. Even pre-teen Kolton is keeping busy with football and basketball, which means more games and practices on the weekly schedule. Their love of sports and desire to excel means joining challenging organizations that bring out their best, helping them reach the next level of development in their game.
But the Fuller siblings don’t leave that drive on the practice field — they bring it home as well.
“I think in our house, one of the biggest things you'll notice is we're all super-competitive,” Kennedy says. “It doesn't matter what sport. Our brother Kolton plays basketball and football, and we'll go out and play with him. He'll come play soccer with us. Everything we do is very, very competitive.
“We're just all very hard on ourselves, but we work for it,” she says. “As a family and as an individual, we don't know anything else but work. You will never earn anything that you haven't worked for.”
Chasing Her Dreams
The sports world came this close to celebrating Kennedy as a national gymnastics star. That was her first sport at the age of 5. Her competitive talents revealed themselves quickly as she became a state champion in her age group and was ranked on America’s Top 100 list of young gymnasts by the time she was 8.
But after joining youth soccer at 7, the hours of practice needed to continue both sports began to mount up. Often needing to commit a combined total of 55 hours to both gymnastics and soccer each week, Kennedy had to make a choice. At age 11, she traded in the mats for the turf and turned her full attention to soccer.
“I had to pick which one I liked best,” Kennedy says. “I liked the team atmosphere of soccer.”
Her dedication to improving and honing her skills allowed her to make the various youth teams she joined better. Working with a trainer for sometimes 10 hours a day in the summer, Kennedy perfected the fundamentals and sharpened her skills in all the technical aspects of the game as well.
A year younger, Kamdyn continues to take the same path as her sister, starting in gymnastics and then moving to soccer. Both girls benefited from the experience of joining youth soccer teams, but practicing together over the years also aided their development.
“Just growing up with Kennedy, having her there like a best friend and there to push me and motivate me — it’s like a built-in partner where you can go out and train, and she’s making you better,” Kamdyn says.
The sisters joined Solar, a nationally-recognized club soccer organization based in Dallas. Traveling to tournaments across the country, Kennedy’s performances stood out and led to tournament honors on several occasions. While on Solar, Kennedy was named to Elite Club National League All-Conference and All-American teams and was the Texas Conference Player of the Year for the 2021-2022 season.
The accolades continued to rack up for Kennedy as she was invited to play on the U.S. National Team for her age group. In 2022, she was the Golden Ball winner for best player at the Concacaf Tournament after tying for the most goals scored, then she was awarded Best Player recognitions at the Mondial Montaigu Tournament in France in 2023.
In her two years of high school competition for Carroll, Kennedy helped lead the Lady Dragons to the state title as a freshman and broke school single-season records in scoring (55 goals) and total points (136) as a sophomore. Area, state and national honors ensued both seasons, capped off with the Gatorade Texas Player of the Year award in 2022 and the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2023.
“Wearing the crest and doing something like this for your country is an opportunity that you can never take for granted,” Kennedy says of her experience at the World Cup-qualifying tournament Concacaf. “Winning [the Gatorade] award and being able to represent Southlake… Southlake was very supportive and backed me in pretty much everything I did.”
Now, she follows through with the tough but rewarding decision to reclassify to the class of 2024 and graduate early — which she did this past December. With enough credits to earn her high school diploma after two and a half years, Kennedy leaves Carroll and prepares for a college career at the University of North Carolina — a perennial women’s soccer power with a record 22 national titles.
Until she officially enrolls, she has opportunities to train with some pro women’s soccer league teams, such as the North Carolina Courage and Washington Spirit.
“I just think the opportunities for girls in soccer have blown up over the last five, six years,” Kris says. “They're at that right time where all of a sudden, the opportunities in front of them are magnified because of what all those women [pro athletes] did before them.”
From Coaching To Cheerleading
Kris and Kim were high school sweethearts at San Marcos High School. They were also athletes in multiple sports, including soccer for Kim. Kris was a basketball and football player, and Kim even found the time to root his team on as a cheerleader.
Kim played a year of soccer at Incarnate Word in San Antonio, but she and Kris eventually earned degrees at Texas A&M. Both became coaches, and Kim took her 2002 girls soccer team at Cedar Park to the state finals game to face the Highland Park team that ironically got the best of then first-year Carroll coach Matt Colvin’s Lady Dragons in the state semifinal game.
Kim’s Cedar Park team lost to Highland Park in the finals, one year after her girls lost in the semifinals.
Later taking over the Vista Ridge volleyball program, Kim took that team to the state finals as well, only to fall just short to Dumas in the championship game.
“I coached two sports that went to state, but just never got that gold,” Kim says. “When [Kennedy] got the gold, she was rubbing it in my face.”
Kim and Kris might have continued to coach, but when their kids were old enough to become heavily involved in sports, they decided they did not want to miss their athletic involvement. Both transitioned away from coaching in order to be able to view their children’s sports development.
“We know that… we're going to blink and they're going to be gone,” Kim says of raising her children. “We're just really trying to soak it all in and really enjoy them. And we're just trying to support them.”
As players and former coaches, Kris and Kim know the value of athletics. And as parents, they want to see their kids set themselves up for success as they journey toward adulthood — whether through opportunities afforded them on the field or otherwise.
That’s the reason the Fuller calendar remains filled with games and practices, and that’s why there are few days throughout most of the year for family members to kick back and relax.
Kennedy has experienced an incredible amount of attention and success due to her achievements. Her parents were committed to making sure the door was open to opportunities for her to develop, and she’s made the most of it. She’s not alone, as Kamdyn’s future in high school sports and beyond also appears very bright.
As a freshman last year on the Lady Dragons’ varsity soccer team, Kamdyn scored 25 goals and 15 assists for 65 points to be among the top four scorers for another of coach Colvin’s state championship-contending squads. Those numbers are very similar to Kennedy’s totals during her freshman season. As such, Kamdyn was named District Newcomer of the Year in 2023.
Although her parents are already hearing murmurs of college programs’ interest, Kamdyn can’t officially be recruited by schools until June. Until then, she’ll just have to keep adding to her resume with strong performances playing for Carroll and Solar and aim to achieve lofty goals in high school and beyond.
“Obviously I would like to not just win state, but I would like to follow [Kennedy’s] path and get MVP at state and whatever that holds,” Kamdyn says. “My path is not just for high school, but for finding and committing to a good college that I enjoy and like.”
Kolton’s athletic success for the coming years is yet to be seen, but that journey won’t involve soccer like his sisters. Following in his father’s footsteps, football and basketball are the sports Kolton gravitates toward most. Moving to Southlake when he was young only sealed the deal.
“The very first day of school, I picked him up and he said, ‘Mom, can I join football?’” Kim says. “They brainwash them early.”
“We tried to put him in soccer when he was younger, and when they were [competing in] games, he would be doing flips and cartwheels and other stuff on the field,” Kris says. “It's kind of hilarious.”
As the hectic sports schedule continues for a few years longer, the Fullers will make the best of it by enjoying family travel while attending club tournaments across the nation and the world. Kennedy’s team competitions in places like England, Germany, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and France gave the family a chance to experience different cultures once club games finished. They’ve also traveled together to Australia and New Zealand to attend World Cup matches.
The Fullers’ weekly grind of packed-out schedules due to hours of practices and personal training can be endured if it’s put in the proper perspective and the end result is viewed as worth it.
“I always tell them… if you want to be elite, you can't be normal,” Kris says. “It's okay to go and try to achieve something, but to do that, you're going to have to make choices that aren't normal — that most normal people aren't willing to do or aren't willing to make.”