East Hampton's Caeleigh Schuster Reaches U18 2023 Junior Nexus Field Hockey Championships

When she was in third grade, Caeleigh Schuster remembers watching a high school field hockey game with her mother, Danielle Schuster, and her aunt, Nicole Ficeto, and thinking that the goalie position looked like it was a lot of fun. Her mom and aunt downplayed it at the time.

“Of course, we told her, ‘No, you don’t want to be a goalie,’” Danielle Schuster said with a laugh on Monday when recalling that conversation. “And Caeleigh said, “No, no, I want to try it.’”

They sure are glad Caeleigh followed her instincts.

The rising sophomore at East Hampton High School, coming off a fall season in which she earned both All-County Goalkeeper honors and was named Division II Goalie of the Year, as well as All-Tournament Team honors, Schuster had a busy summer. After being named to the MAX Field Hockey Class of 2026 Top 100 Players to Watch in mid-June, Schuster was selected to the U18 2023 Junior Nexus Championships, which were held July 12-14 in Virginia Beach.

Being selected to the Junior Nexus Championships is one of the biggest accolades for amateur field hockey players in the country and sets a route for players to one day compete in the Olympics. Formerly known as its Futures program, USA Field Hockey’s Olympic Development Pathway Program is designed to help players take their game to the next level and develop the next Team USA Olympians, as detailed on its website, usafieldhockey.com/nexus.

Getting to the championships in and of itself is an accomplishment all on its own being that there is a three-weekend tryout just to get there. USA Field Hockey divides the country into different regions. Long Island is combined with New York State to create Region 4. As a player moves on through the different tryouts, they eventually get to regionals. Schuster reached her regional at UMass-Amherst, which included the entire Northeast, including New York and everywhere east of it.

Even though she’s currently 15, Schuster was evaluated to play with 16-year-olds and thus bumped up to the U18 team. After the Junior Nexus Championships, players are then selected for a Junior National team, which Schuster was not selected for, but that’s not to take away from her accomplishments. Having reached regionals the year before — the year prior was canceled by the pandemic — Schuster’s goal was to reach the championships, which she did, and while not making the junior national team, she was able to play in front of a number of prospective Division I coaches.

“Personally, I was just trying to keep a positive mindset and make it to the next round, especially since I was the youngest in my age group,” she said. “I was just trying to learn as much as I could from all of those coaches. It was honestly really great and I always look at it as, how can I keep getting better? How can I improve?”

Just competing in such a high profile showcase should be beneficial down the road, Danielle Schuster said.

“It opens a lot of doors. There’s a lot of crossover of college coaches, big DI college coaches. That’s where they start their recruiting process, so just getting there is huge. There are those players whose goal is to play on the U.S. team, either at the national or junior national level for international competition, but this was a big step for Caeleigh.”

Having played on travel, tournament and showcase teams since the third grade, Schuster’s summers are very much taken up by traveling to and from wherever they take her and her mother. Competing most recently for the New Heights Field Hockey Club based in New Jersey, which is nationally ranked fourth in the country, the Schusters will travel to New Jersey for a practice once a week and then back on the weekends for tournaments. On top of that, Caeleigh receives private goalie lessons from Emily Snowden at The Goalie Trainer, a dedicated goalie training facility in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

This past weekend was the final summer showcase, and now the Schusters will relax for the next two weeks before the varsity field hockey season at East Hampton starts its preseason training.

After Samantha James stepped down as head coach of the varsity team this offseason, Danielle Schuster was hired as the new coach, with Nicole Ficeto joining the staff as an assistant. Both Danielle and Caeleigh joked that they already spend enough time together as it is, what’s a few more hours a day on the turf?

“I was trying to give Caeleigh her own space on the team and not overshadow her, but I think we have a pretty good relationship and Caeleigh is well versed now. She’s established herself in the sport where she can kind of do her own thing,” Danielle said about joining the team as head coach this fall. “There was a need. Kathy Masterson and I had a conversation along those same lines. I do love the sport. At the same time I still want to be a parent, but I think it’ll be a good fit. Caeleigh and I can be very frank with each other and we’re very excited for this upcoming season.”

The Bonackers had one of their best seasons in recent memory a year ago, reaching the Suffolk County Class B Championship, where they lost in overtime to Rocky Point. The Schusters think they can go far again this season.

“It’s going to be great working with Nicole. We both share a great vision for the team,” Danielle Schuster said. “We came in second in the county last year and surprised a lot of people, but the girls worked hard and rose out of the ashes. Caeleigh was a big part of that and we have a lot of other great young athletes who Nicole has been training all winter and summer, keeping them on the turf, working with them and keeping their skills up.

“It’s up to the girls how far they want to go this season,” she added. “They have a lot of work to do get themselves ready for the season, but they have the potential to take it far, they really do.”