West Essex’s Adelaide Minnella is the 2025 Field Hockey Player of the Year

When Dorris is on her way, West Essex field hockey players better be ready. Depending on the day, Dorris travels on a schedule between North Caldwell, Essex Fells, Roseland and Fairfield, the four towns that make up West Essex High School, bringing players to and from practice and games. Dorris is a 2011 Honda CRV. The driver is Adelaide Minnella. Traditionally, West Essex has enough seniors where at least one from each town brings teammates to and from practice and games. This year is an anomaly. Minnella was on an island as the only senior on one of the top teams in the country. “I made a schedule,” she said. “I wanted everyone to feel like there are certain traditions that you do with seniors, like carpools and breakfasts and all that stuff. And I didn’t want anyone to feel like they couldn’t do that just because there was only one of me.” The trips to and from Essex Fells and Roseland are the longest, sometimes taking as long as 45 minutes, but her workload eased up once some of the juniors got their licenses during the season. The car itself came from Minnella’s grandmother, Syby. The name was a product of a conversation with Minnella’s older sister, Evangeline. “It’s like a grandma car,” said Minnella. “We should give it a grandma name and we just kind of went through some more older names that we knew of and I think it was a mutual decision.” ... “Dorris became like one of us as a team. We only referred to her as Dorris.” Minnella never tells her teammates that she’s coming to pick them up. She just sends them a simple message: “Dorris is on her way.” She admitted that this travel arrangement was a lot to shoulder at times but Minnella became such a team player that she stuffed those thoughts away. She and Evangeline even went the extra mile, pun intended, buying an adapter so anyone with the latest phone could still play music along the rides. “I was having so much fun with the girls,” Minnella said. “If I could go back and just have like one more car ride or one more carpool with each of those carpools, I would do it in a minute.” That’s just her impact on this team off the field. On it, she’s a dominant force. Minnella fully embraced the challenge as the only senior on the team and still put forth the best season of her career in her swan song in a West Essex uniform. Any time she felt overwhelmed, she had a great source in her sister. “I would ask her just how she managed a lot of it and everything, and she would give me all of her advice, like, just keep going through every day with a smile, be there for everybody and lead them how you would want to be leaded as a freshman or a sophomore as a junior,” Minnella said. “But also know that you can’t do more than what you have the ability to do. So, don’t overboard yourself with responsibilities and make it impossible to be you.” The senior set career highs with 54 goals and 130 points, both of which led the state. She either scored or assisted on 67 percent of her team’s goals this season. Goal No. 52 clinched a sectional title and gave her mom, Jill Cosse, her 900th career coaching win between field hockey and girls lacrosse. Three days later, the stakes were even higher. Field Hockey: NJSIAA Group 2 Final - Point Pleasant Boro vs. West Essex, Nov. 15, 2025 Teammates celebrate a Adelaide Minnella (17) of West Essex goal against Point Pleasant Boro in the NJSIAA Group 2 Final at Bordentown High School in Bordentown, NJ on Saturday, November 15, 2025.Dave Hernandez | For NJ Advance Minnella lined up for a penalty stroke late in the fourth quarter of a scoreless Group 2 state final, her last game as a high school player. The weight on her shoulders couldn’t have been heavier, but she came through. Minnella scored twice to lift her team to a 2-0 victory over Point Pleasant Boro, which was her mom’s 600th field hockey win. “That is such a family milestone,” she said. “There would be no other perfect ending than that.” With that exclamation point punctuating a magnificent career, Minnella has been named the 2025 Field Hockey Player of the Year. “It’s almost bittersweet because even though we’re almost a month past (winning the state championship), I feel like it’s still not done, and I still have more years with West Essex,” she said. “But I’m really proud of the team this year and how we handled everything.” This was Minnella’s fourth state title. She ended her career with 160 goals, 116 assists and a staggering 436 points. In the last 15 years, no player in New Jersey has had more assists. Only Eastern’s Austyn Cuneo (750) and Ryleigh Heck (550) had more points. Minnella hit those totals despite West Essex’s self-enforced goal limit. The team never wins a game by more than eight tallies. Cuneo and Heck, meanwhile, played in a combined 105 games that were decided by at least nine goals. Minnella’s 160 goals are with Rumson-Fair Haven’s Lily Croddick for sixth most in that span. “Whenever I find out new stuff like that, it’s cool because it kind of humbles me where I’m I’m among some of these really great players who I’ve watched on Instagram and YouTube and ESPN and all over the place since I was little. Seeing that is kind of like an ‘I made it’ moment in a way. I did what I was supposed to do. Like, I captured all my goals, and, like, I’m very proud of It. But also, like, humbling in a way where I know I couldn’t have gotten to 436 without my team,” Minnella said. “From freshman year to now, those points didn’t just happen. (Points) started when I was a freshman and they gathered up until now and I owe it to my teammates and the people I’ve been around for the last four years who just helped me grow my game and giving me those opportunities. I wouldn’t have had that many goals without those people behind me on the field putting the ball on my stick.” Field Hockey: NJSIAA Group 2 Final - Point Pleasant Boro vs. West Essex, Nov. 15, 2025 Adelaide Minnella (17) of West Essex takes a shot against Point Pleasant Boro in the NJSIAA Group 2 Final at Bordentown High School in Bordentown, NJ on Saturday, November 15, 2025.Dave Hernandez | For NJ Advance Not only was West Essex’s win at Bordentown on Nov. 15 Minnella’s last game with the program. It was also the last where her mother will coach her. Minnella has been coached by her mom since she was six years old. Going to Villanova next fall to reunite with her sister under a new coach will be a unique experience. “There’s a feeling where it’s like you’re so ready for it, but you’re sad that you’re leaving, but you’re so ready to begin that new chapter,” Minnella said. “And I’m so excited for it. The team is great. I’m really looking forward to being there.”

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West Essex Regional High School Athletics

WEST ESSEX’S ADELAIDE MINNELLA IS THE 2025 FIELD HOCKEY PLAYER OF THE YEAR

BRIAN BOBAL

NJ Advance Media | 12/11/2025

PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Hernandez