One of the top girls teams in Nassau County and on Long Island are the Massapequa Chiefs. This season they went 10-4 in the regular season and have clinched the number one seed in the Nassau Class A bracket. They are led by three stud junior midfielders, Joely Caramelli, Jess Giller, and Bridget Valentine who fill out the draw circle for the Chiefs. The uniqueness of this lethal trio is that they have been playing lacrosse together for over 10 years. Their time on the field together goes all the way back to their days playing PAL lacrosse in the Massapequa community.
One of the top girls teams in Nassau County and on Long Island are the Massapequa Chiefs. This season they went 10-4 in the regular season and have clinched the number one seed in the Nassau Class A bracket. They are led by three stud junior midfielders, Joely Caramelli, Jess Giller, and Bridget Valentine who fill out the draw circle for the Chiefs. The uniqueness of this lethal trio is that they have been playing lacrosse together for over 10 years. Their time on the field together goes all the way back to their days playing PAL lacrosse in the Massapequa community.
In addition to playing PAL together back in elementary school, they are also teammates in club lacrosse for the Long Island Jesters. Caramelli is the one that primarily takes the draws for the Chiefs and this season she has 99 total draw controls. They all agree that the connection that they’ve formed by playing together for such a long time has helped with their success in the draw circle by knowing each others tendencies and knowing where to place the ball in order to come away with the possession. Giller and Valentine have also taken their share of draws this season, with Valentine accounting for 31 draw controls and Giller 21. They each feed off of one another to make each other better to be the best versions of themselves. The skill set that they each posses allows them to control the time of possession and completely take over games. They each attribute their successes to their parents, and Caramelli also attributes her success to her trainer coach Kilgus. Valentine also credits her parents for helping her get to where she is and says that she wouldn’t be playing the sport of lacrosse if not for them.
While they have had a very successful regular season, they all have bigger aspirations which is to win both a Long Island championship and a state championship. This year the girls LIC will be taking place at Stony Brook University. When asked about what it mean to play for a championship at Stony Brook, all three expressed how amazing it would be to compete for the Long Island championship in a venue like Kenneth P Lavalle Stadium.
They each have one more year remaining after this season playing for Massapequa, but once their high school careers come to a close, all three are committed to play division 1 lacrosse when their high school careers come to close in 2023. Caramelli will be heading to Syracuse, Giller will be going at Jacksonville, and Valentine will be attending UMass. Caramelli and Giller each admitted that the recruiting process was stressful but definitely worth it in the end. Valentine was excited to go through the process and stated that she would love to go through it all over again.
As for right now the practices are heating up and the Chiefs will look to get a couple scrimmages in before their playoff run gets started. Continue to follow these three stars throughout the post season as their road to the championship begins on May 24th where they will be in the semifinals at Adelphi taking on either Farmingdale or Port Washington. Check out a portion of a zoom interview with the these three stars down below to learn a little bit about them.
