Varsity
Stacey Spring, Head Coach
Penn Graves, Assistant

Junior Varsity
Sue Altman, Head Coach
Alexis Machabanski, Assistant

The girls’ soccer season runs from September through the end of October.

Program Overview
Blair Academy fielded its first girl’s varsity soccer team in the fall of 1990. The team has enjoyed great success including a Prep B state championship, an appearance in the Prep A finals, and several semi-final berths including during the 2004 campaign.

Blair has produced numerous players honored as All-Prep and All-MAPL (Mid-Atlantic Prep League) including: strikers Arielle Aikens ’10, Katherine Newmann ’06, and Mollie Dawson ’05; midfielders Winnie Adrien ’05 and Beth Martens ’08; defenders Jen Welsh ’05 and Kaitlyn Surdoval ’08, and goalkeeper Staci Alario ’05. Several players have also gone on to compete at the college level including Meredith Habermann ’04 at Franklin and Marshall. Staci Alario at Wooster College, and Winnie Adrien at Ithaca College.

Blair’s varsity squad carries between 18 and 22 players. Practice is held daily except Sunday, and a varsity player is expected to attend every practice unless she is working with the trainer to recover from an injury. A typical practice session is two hours long, and the team typically competes in matches on Wednesday and Saturday.

Blair also has a JV team for the development of younger, less experienced players. The JV team plays 14-16 matches per season, including their participation in Peddie Day-where a JV victory is equal to one gained on the varsity level. (All sports compete against Peddie in an effort to win the Kelley-Potter Cup.) On average each season, one to four former jv players move up to the varsity level.

Our schedule gets more competitive each year as well, though it is hard to beat the competition in our own Mid-Atlantic Prep League. MAPL includes our rival, The Peddie School, as well as Hun, Lawrenceville, Hill and Mercersburg Academy. We also play Pennington, Ridge High School, Oak Knoll and other local high schools such as North Warren Regional and Pope John Paul XXII High School.

To prepare for this level of competition, we participate in two separate pre-season experiences. First, players are asked to begin their own training in June (see Summer Workout). Then in August, we attend Team Prep Camp in Casco, Maine, where we play five scrimmages in five days against the best competition in New England. On our last two trips we have played teams such as Tabor Academy, Phillips Andover Academy and Phillips Exeter, among others. We have found that we can compete with even the biggest New England schools.

Players return to Blair’s campus after Labor Day for a five-day pre-season that really is try-outs. While the Maine trip includes players interested in either varsity or junior varsity, the true pr-eseason sessions only include varsity candidates who attend by invite. The week begins with a fitness test that includes a timed mile, sit-ups, push-ups and sprints. Varsity players are asked to complete a mile in seven minutes or less-which is both a goal for players- summer training and a measure of fitness.

For the soccer player looking for a challenging academic experience combined with a quality soccer program, Blair is an excellent choice. Please email the coach at sprins@blair.edu for further information.

Blair Soccer Player Signs with West Point

Dymon Washington ’08 signs a letter of intent to the United States Military Academy at West Point; she is pictured with Headmaster Chan Hardwick. Dymon, a soccer player who hails from Las Vegas, was a candidate for Gatorade Player of the Year for the State of Nevada. This fall she scored nine goals and had nine assists, including the game-winning goal over Lawrenceville.

This winter, she was a member of the swim team and part of Blair’s school record-breaking relay team. This spring, Dymon contributes to varsity lacrosse team, a sport she is playing competitively for the first time.

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