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Friends, hometown revel in Carli Lloyd's success

It didn't take long for Carli Lloyd's high school to get in on the fun. The 2001 class yearbook from her senior year at Delran High School was on display on Monday morning, just hours after Lloyd led the United States to the World Cup title and was named the tournament's top player.

The jersey of hometown hero Carli Lloyd (DHS Class of 2001) at the Delran High School trophy case July 6, 2015, the day after she scored a hat trick in the World Cup final. ( TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer )
The jersey of hometown hero Carli Lloyd (DHS Class of 2001) at the Delran High School trophy case July 6, 2015, the day after she scored a hat trick in the World Cup final. ( TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer )Read more

It didn't take long for Carli Lloyd's high school to get in on the fun.

The 2001 class yearbook from her senior year at Delran High School was on display on Monday morning, just hours after Lloyd led the United States to the World Cup title and was named the tournament's top player.

Down a dimly lit hallway housing Delran High's athletic hall of fame sits the worn yearbook with ripped yellow Post-It notes sticking out of it.

Propped up next to the book is a picture of a teenage Lloyd, and the Post-Its in the yearbook mark each page on which her face appears. In it, she is nestling a basketball on her right hip and a soccer ball above her left shoulder next to "Most Athletic."

In another section, she is captured in black and white, getting ready to strike a ball. It's the same motion she made at midfield in the 16th minute on Sunday, when she caught Japanese goalie Ayumi Kaihori out of the goal and took a shot that sailed more than 50 yards, off Kaihori's fingertips and into the back of the net.

Ater Lloyd's performance on Sunday night, the yearbook could very well become an American soccer artifact.

"We've always had a place in our hearts for Carli here in Delran, and on the world stage she became an American hero and really a worldwide hero at this point," said Dan Finkle, Delran's third-year principal. "The school has only been around since the late '70s, so we're not talking about a tremendous amount of history, and she's really been the biggest thing here."

Carol Wolf, 31, who co-captained the 2000-01 Bears' girls soccer team with Lloyd, said her Delran Middle School classroom is filled with tweens in Lloyd's No. 10 jersey, the same number she wore in high school.

"It is so cool to see them walk in with her jersey," said Wolf, who teaches sixth grade. "[Carli] loves being a role model for these girls."

"It's almost like I'm not surprised by it," said Laura Verzi-Aleszczyk, one of Lloyd's longtime friends. "We are used to her coming up big - that's what she does. It continues to amaze us but not surprise us because that's what she does."

Verzi-Aleszczyk became friends with Lloyd at Delran Middle School, when Lloyd sat at the lunch table behind her.