Sussex Academy field hockey has title ambitions

Sussex Academy field hockey believes it has what it takes to be the last team standing in Division II in 2025.

Last year, the Seahawks opened its season by handing Smyrna its only non-Cape loss of the season, and saw its year end in overtime of the semifinals to perennial champion Delmar. The girls are hoping to continue building off their recent success.

“We spent a lot of time last year building from the JV program,” said coach Caitlyn Hardy. “I feel confident this year that we have a good squad; it's just finding the key people to cover those positions that they did not play last year.”

Hardy said Sussex Academy will be suiting up 14 girls, so there won’t be a lot of subs, but the girls she has are buying in.

“We've all been playing as a unit, and every drill we try to give 100%,” said senior Kacie Rawlings. “We try to push ourselves to our limits.”

In addition to the mental battle of conditioning, the girls are also racking their brains in the name of program consistency, especially the seniors.

“We're just gonna carry in a lot of what we played with last year, keeping the same culture and everything,” said senior Shea Danahy. “We're just gonna try to up our game and do better than what we did last year.” 

Younger players who gained valuable experience during last year’s run and new girls on the team are keeping hopes high for the Seahawks.

“We lost a lot of seniors, so there's a lot of young players on the field, but they look great,” said senior Ryan Lowe. “They're not missing a beat; we have very skilled young girls.”

Lowe has been impressed with the poise of the underclassmen.

“They definitely look a lot more comfortable out here just learning off our seniors and upperclassmen,” Lowe said.

The schedule will grant them no quarter, as their non-divisional games are against the best programs in the state (Cape, Smyrna, Newark Charter, Saint Mark’s, Wilmington Friends, Charter School of Wilmington and Caravel Academy) and the rest of those top teams reside in the Henlopen South, a schedule the Seahawks are locked into.

“The biggest one that I'm looking forward to is Delmar just because I feel like we have what it takes to win,” Rawlings said.

Sussex Academy will open its season at home against a Newark Charter School at 11 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 6. The Patriots finished the regular season undefeated in 2024.