New coach, same standards for Sussex Academy girls’ soccer

The Sussex Academy girls’ soccer team picked up Henlopen South and Henlopen Conference titles in 2024, and despite the graduation of six key contributors and a new gaffer at the helm, the Seahawks have high hopes for 2025.

“I have a lot of really high expectations for this team,” said senior Sienna Serpico. “I think a lot of people expect us to not be at the same level as last year because we lost so many seniors, but I think there's a lot of younger players that are stepping up.”

Chase Humphrey will be leading the girls this spring and will run tactics different from last year’s team, which is common in soccer but does create an adjustment period. Thus far, the girls believe the transition has gone well.

“We're seeing right now, individually, where we're putting specific people, but I think we're gonna do pretty good with the new system from what we have seen so far,” said senior Natalie Roblero.

Roblero and Serpico will be called upon to help facilitate an offense that lost nearly 70% of its goal scorers to graduation.

“The biggest thing that we're trying to figure out is who's going to put the ball in the back of the net for us,” Humphrey said. “We've kind of put that up to the girls to see who's gonna step up and fill that role; the expectations have to be high, but we also have to take what we have and make the most out of it.”

Sussex Academy will have a freshman in goal, Ella Sprucebank, and could see big minutes from freshmen like Carley Couch, Isabella Laupert-Visioli and Addyson Blielle. All four were on the team as eighth-graders. Patricia Lara Nieto, Eva Taylor and Jordan Blades are the middle schoolers on varsity this year.

Helping the young girls will be juniors Deb Williams and Yuvia Velasquez-Juarez. Williams played a major role for last year’s quarterfinal team, while Velasquez-Juarez is looking to make her mark. 

The back line is where most of the experience will be, led by seniors Jenica Jean-Louis and Ashley Alvarez. Jean-Louis will be called on a bit more this year than last, and Alvarez was very productive holding down the fort in 2024.

“Stepping into this new role, I always think about the seniors who graduated last year,” Jean-Louis said. “I think about how they adjusted to playing in that role.”

“This program has grown a lot throughout these years, and it's been very wonderful,” Alvarez said. “We've been successful throughout the years; last year, made it to the quarterfinals, and this year, with this new coach, I think we’ll be successful.”

Sussex Academy opens its season at home against Sussex Tech at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 25.