Wessex Again Team To Watch
While Coach Nears 600th Win

The 2025 field hockey season gets underway Aug. 25 and the state’s winningest active coach is nearing a new milestone with her 600th win certainly within reach this fall as she enters new season with 580 victories.

First of all, it’s amazing that West Essex has had just two head coaches in 58 varsity seasons with the legendary Linda Alimi (1967-1996) and Jill Cosse (1997-present) who is fourth on state's all-time wins list in the sport.

Now, she will lead last season’s state ‘Team of the Year’ in nj.com in pursuit of another Group 2 state title along with continuing domination in the Essex County Tournament.

Cosse is behind an impressive trio of now retired all-time great coaches in 1-Nancy Williams of Shore Regional (839-67-55 from 1971 to 2014), 2-Ann Marie Davies of Madison (632 wins from 1982-2018) and 3-Claudia McCarthy of Millville (610-238-21 from 1971-2020).

The Knights’ longtime head mentor passed her own, former high school coach Nancy Gross of Wall Township (576-217-22 from 1971-2017) last fall.

West Essex defeated Point Pleasant Boro for the 2025 Group 2 state title and also played perhaps the state’s toughest independent schedule while also facing eight nationally-ranked teams during the season, while finishing 5-3 in those big tests.

The Knights will meet teams such as Hill (Pa.) among their big out-of-state opponents, along with top New Jersey programs such as Camden Catholic and Kingsway.

Oak Knoll, which is guided by 20th-year coach Ali Good (427 wins, .90 %), will lead her defending Non-Public champs vs. West Essex in conference action on Oct. 7 at the Royals’ field in Chatham.  

West Essex returns a number of top players from last season including Cosse’s very talented daughter, rising senior forward Adelaide Minnella (44 goals, 36 assists in 2024) and top juniors including midfielder Julia Conforti, defenders Alex Agostini and Julian Breslin and goalie Katie Moran.

Sophomores Delaney Farrell and Tessa Delvescovo are among the other talented, young Knights set to return for the 2025 campaign.

Cosse, who was selected as the 2021National Coach of the Year by USA Field Hockey, is also the winningest coach in Essex County where among the other veteran coaches returning for another season are Montclair Kimberley Academy’s Injoo Han (191 wins in 15 seasons) and Caldwell’s Sarah Pallino, who has 120 wins in one season with the Chiefs after 12 seasons guiding the Millburn Millers.  

Essex County field hockey and the entire state bid farewell after last season to an all-time great coach in Montclair’s Mary Pat Mercuro who retired after 31 seasons at the helm of the strong Mounties’ program.

Mercuro, a member of Columbia High School’s Class of 1980, and a 2008 CHS Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, compiled an impressive record of 457-146-53 in her 31 seasons at the helm while directing her Mountie stickers to seven state sectional titles (2003, 2004, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2024), and two Essex County Tournament crowns (2005 and 2010).

MHS gave perennial champion West Essex a real run for its proverbial money in last season’s ECT final, falling 3-2 in a very close county tourney championship match at the Knights’ Travis Field in North Caldwell.

The Mounties had also lost to West Essex, 4-1, in their regular season meeting; however, that match was tied 1-1, in the fourth quarter before Wessex took control.

In essence, the 2024 MHS field hockey squad competed at a high level with everyone it played, and rolled to the North, Group 4 title culminating with a 5-1 triumph over Phillipsburg, led by Middlebury College-bound senior Eliza Larson’s 3-goal hat trick.

Against Kingsway, a team that had outscored its three previous state tourney opponents, 34-3, heading into the Group 4 final, the Mounties more than held their own with the defending state champs as the match was tied 1-1 in the late going before the South Jersey school’s Erin Callhan scored off a corner for the game-winning goal with just 3:50 remaining in regulation.