Lauren Malsom (2025), after starring in soccer at HIES, on club teams, and currently a starter for the University of North Carolina, has been selected to play for the U.S. Under-19 Women's National Team, that will travel to Portugal Feb. 21 – March 7^th to play three matches outside of Porto.

She had previously represented the U.S. at the U-17 level as well.
 
"This is really a great thing saying we have one of our former student/athletes representing our country at that level," Holy Innocents' girls' coach Clayton Schmitt said. 
 The U-19 team consists of players born in 2007 and five who were born in 2008, and ones born after 2006 after age-eligible for next year's FIFA Women's U-20 World Cup in Poland. 
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The USA will take on Czechia on Feb. 27 at Estadio Municipal de Arouca and Wales on March 2 at Estadio Conde Dias Garcia before finishing against host Portugal on March 6 at back at Estadio Municipal de Arouca. These are the first international matches of 2026 for this group of players, 15 of which were born in 2007 and five who were born in 2008.

Looking back, Lauren just finished her freshman season for the Tarheels, where she appeared in 14 matches with seven starts. She missed seven matches due to being called up to the U.S. Youth National Team twice. Regardless, she logged 741 total minutes at UNC while also being a huge asset on the youth squad.

She graduated early at HIES, though she did play for two seasons under Coach Schmitt, where she was consistently one of the top scorers while starting both her freshman and sophomore seasons. 

While doing this, she played club with FC Prime – ECNL Girls All-American U-16 – and earned the Georgia 4A Girls Player of the Year and was Southeast All-Conference First Team on the U-15 squad. 

Also, while at HIES, she was very active in the art department and was a more than stellar student. 

A final note: Lauren isn't the only HIES girls' soccer standout earning top honors, as Coach Schmitt – this past Monday night – earned his 150^th career victory here, which includes a state title, one runner-up and several Final Four appearances.