Calhoun building off big season

For the 2024 season, Calhoun girls’ soccer coach Jason Elias has already focused on the road ahead.

“We have a wonder group of young women who are completely dedicated, ready to compete at a level that we haven’t in a long time,” he said. “Coming off the league title last year, feeling incredibly positive about the experience and hoping to build on that.”

A motivating force behind a push for repeated success are seniors and co-captains Jordana Bello, Alexandra Aievoli and Isabela Rohr, as exemplified by their leadership stemming from last year.

Bello, described as a generational player by her coach, has been a starter since her freshman year, and is the leading returning scorer, but her presence extends beyond the pitch.

“You can really feel that continued camaraderie from last year, which I saw building in a monster way, that took us to that league title,” Elias explained. “It’s a unified group of very different characters, which is the greatest part for me, I mean they complement each other in their personalities and their skills; one’s a fierce attacker, another is a holding center-mid, another is able to consistently play the ball with one, two touches so totally different skillsets that complement each other perfectly.”

There’s also junior defenders Alexa Addonizio and Isabella Tristaino, plus sophomores Sabrina Curcio and Grace Taormina.

The Colts, who won 11 games in 2023, also have competition in goal. It’s between Ryan Karis and Abby Dasilva for the right to the starting spot, and neither of them are making it an easy choice. “Both of them clearly went to work over the winter, spring and summer to make sure that they were coming in and would give us an opportunity to win, not just hold a spot in goal but really challenge the other team for the ball in the air and make sure that they lead from the back,” Elias said.

The ultimate test will be what kind of a leader emerges from the final line of defense.

“I want my goalie to be heard, I want my goalie to feel that she’s impacting the game physically and through her voice, that leadership to me is incredibly important, that the back four know that what they have behind them is somebody who will take care of all the easy plays, all the middle plays and make a couple of the tough plays,” Elias explained. “That’s what we look for and that kind of confidence is something that changes the dynamic of what you can do when it comes to the end of the season.”

One thing is engrained already: nothing is for certain. Calhoun is part of Nassau’s top conference.

“I think we’re going to have confidence going into every game, but the reality is playing the Massapequas, playing the South Sides, playing the Syossets, playing the Oceansides, it’s going to be really tough for us to compete at this level,” Elias admitted. “I certainly think we’ll all be super happy to see us come out with an over .500 record, but that’s how wide this spread is on where we could end up. We really have no idea until that first game against Oceanside, how we’re going to match up in this power conference.”

To put a bow on it: “we’re excited, we’re certainly not overconfident, we’re just sort of hoping we make our mark on this level.”