Napolitano sisters, mother strengthen family bond with Mount Saint Mary field hockey team

It’s rare that two sisters and a mother are all part of the same sports program in high school, so it’s an experience that the Napolitano family doesn’t take for granted.

Senior forward Emilia, sophomore defender Sienna, and co-head coach Heather have been strengthening their bond with the Mount Saint Mary Academy field hockey team for the past two fall seasons.

“It’s been a really fun experience, and I feel like we’ve gotten a lot closer because we’re together all the time,” Emilia said.

In a way it was fated to happen one day because Heather also attended Mount Saint Mary and played field hockey there before playing Division I at Fairfield University. Naturally, she introduced her only two children to the sport, and their hometown of Metuchen provided a clear pathway to success because it featured a strong recreational program for them to start playing in first grade.

Emilia and Sienna have also played club field hockey with the Mid-Jersey Knights for the past eight years to foster their skills. Emilia is committed to playing the sport at Wesleyan University and is considering studying political science, while Sienna also intends to play in college but is still early in the recruiting process.

The sisters have grown up in a home where their backyard has a goal and a turf to play on, and their basement has a pad for passing a ball back and forth.

“Honestly, they’re super close,” Heather said. “People think they’re twins all the time because they’re similar in height. But obviously they’re siblings so there’s some bickering at times on the field, which is challenging being a coach and a parent because you have to try to navigate objectively how I would handle it if it weren’t my kids because we do have other siblings on the team.”

The irony is that even though they played the same position until they got to high school, when Sienna switched to midfield and eventually defense during club season, they’ve always played differently on the field in a way that they can complement each other.

“She has more touches on the ball, but I make passes,” Sienna said. “I just play more defensively.”

“I feel like it’s really good because she can also help me with the press because it’s more defensive, and I can help her with skills when she’s dribbling out of the circle in the back,” Emilia added. “We can give each other tips based off of what we know.”

With an 8-5-1 record as of mid-October, Mount Saint Mary is poised to finish with its most wins in a season since 2021. Emilia has been the team’s leading scorer with 21 goals and 13 assists (133 points in four varsity seasons), while Sienna has a team-high 10 defensive saves.

They are one of two pairs of sisters on the team, along with senior Audrey Bassolino and freshman Katelyn Bassolino.

Heather was an assistant coach with the team in 2022 and 2023 before becoming a co-head coach this year with Brittany Maldonado. The opportunity to lead her daughters has brought mixed emotions, as one could imagine, because she admits that for as much as she would prefer to view them as any other players on the team, she is a bit tougher on them when coaching.

“Honestly, it has its pros and cons, but ultimately it’s an amazing experience,” Heather said. “The kids are great. I have a really, really great group of players this year. We have seven seniors, so they’ve really grown together as a team.”

Heather was originally a soccer player who only switched to field hockey because Mount Saint Mary didn’t have a soccer team at the time. But she quickly came to love the sport – and became quite good at it – at a school that is dear to her heart and special to see her daughters now excelling at.

“It’s an amazing school obviously rooted in faith,” Heather said. “The girls say the Hail Mary before each game, and we try to instill that on a day-to-day basis in practice and being kind to each other.”

Field hockey has become such a family affair for the Napolitanos that even their father will get involved with discussions about the sport. They will often study highlights and college games at home, which allows them to bolster the field hockey IQ of the high school team.

But ultimately, playing a sport is about having fun. The girls at Mount Saint Mary enjoy staying connected even when they leave the field with pool parties, pasta dinners and other social activities.

“When you see someone, you are friends with your field hockey friends for the whole year. It’s not just during field hockey season,” Emilia said. “We’re always talking in lunch, and I feel like also because it’s a fall sport, when you come in your freshman year, you make all these friends right off the bat and they kind of stay your friends for all of high school.”