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Sports

Suffield High School Girls Complete Perfect Soccer Season

Championship tradition grows to record-setting levels.

Winning is not only a tradition for the Suffield High School girls soccer team; it is a habit.

So did this year’s perfect season culminating in the Class M State Championship come as a surprise?

“It was our mission since the very first captains' practice,” said senior co-captain Grace Presnick. “It was the only thing we were shooting for but to go undefeated and untied this year made it extra special.” 

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“I was kinda weird though,” she said, laughing about that first practice back in August. “We had never been the seniors before and we really didn’t know what to do. It was hard being the bosses…and it took time but it worked out really well.”

Head coach Dave Sullivan has established a tradition of championships virtually unparalleled in Connecticut girls High School soccer.

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Suffield’s six titles in the last 13 seasons is an impressive achievement and places them among the powerhouse Wilton High School (11 titles) and Trumbull High School (eight titles) soccer teams from the past 25 years.

Sullivan knows his team’s success is due in a large part to the player development programs around him.

“We have some very talented players,” he said. “My job is motivation and team chemistry…I don’t have to spend a lot of time teaching them how to trap a ball.”

But give the Wildcat bench boss his due. Motivating a team to consistent success is not easy.

As Presnick put it, “he doesn’t settle for a second-best effort.” 

Setting an example and working with the youth teams has been part of Sullivan’s formula for success. Some of the most fun he had during the season was sharing practice times with a local U-10 girls’ team.

“It was great for the younger girls to see the older girls play and the older girls get to teach and learn the game too,” he said. 

Presnick, the team’s star goalkeeper, is a three-year starter for whom goals against were sparse, allowing only a handful of goals in her time as a Wildcat. She She sports a career record of 53-1-3.

Presnick noted that a key turning point this season was in a game against Ellington. The Wildcats had beaten Ellington 6-0 in their first meeting on Sept. 16. The second game, at home on Oct. 2, was much different.

"[We] played them and we got ahead 1-0 and then they scored on us," Presnick said. "I was really upset not only because we were tied but because it was the first goal I had given up in regular play since I was a sophomore. But anyway, we scored and won the game and then we stayed after and did sprints. I think it was an eye opener for everyone that we don’t even want to get close to losing.” 

The Suffield squad was led by seven seniors: captains Presnick, Ally Pasquariello and Kristi Chamberlain (who missed most of the year with a knee injury) plus Hadley Stevens, Stephanie Guminiak, Katelyn Wood and Tara Sullivan. 

Freshmen contributed extensively to the team. So did sophomore Alexa Keney, who tallied 26 goals and 17 assists to lead the team.

The balance made a difference when last year’s returning playoff MVP Chamberlain went down with a knee injury,

“The freshmen really stepped up…I think the seniors set the tone of expectations and the rest of the team followed,” Sullivan said.

“We are a team and we told everyone that what happens on the field stays on the field and it doesn’t carry off it," Presnick said.

This unselfish nature helped Suffield overcome it’s firsr deficit of the season in the CIA Class M semifinals. Down 2-1 to undefeated Joel Barlow, the Wildcats came back. Presnick said she knew if the team won that game, they would win the tournament.

Suffield went on to defeat unbeaten, untied Lewis Mills 1-0 to earn their perfect record. 

“This season was the best,” concluded Presnick. “It is what we worked for all these years.”

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