DEWITT – Prior to Hayley Nies taking over as head coach, no Jamesville-DeWitt girls soccer team had ever claimed a Section III championship.
With Nies leading the way, the Red Rams reeled off 11 sectional titles in a row and accomplished everything possible except the last elusive step of a state crown.
This made the news that Nies would step down a big deal, as J-D, who struggled in the abbreviated 2020 season, will attempt to reclaim its old dominance with a new coach in charge.
In explaining her departure, Nies said that her son, who lives in Oklahoma, and his wife are having a baby in late October, Nies’ first grandchild, and she wanted to be there -which conflicted with the time when J-D would typically be in the midst of another post-season run.
Thus, Matt Murphy, an assistant coach to Brett Ostrander at Fayetteville-Manlius who has helped the Hornets earn back-to-back sectional Class AA titles, will succeed Nies for the 2021 season.
All told, Nies coached for 19 seasons, beginning in 2002, when there was still just four statewide classes and J-D rarely factored in league or sectional title races. Her teams won 274 games, lost 92 and tied 17.
Success wasn’t immediate. Only in 2008, when the Rams reached the sectional Class A final only to fall to Cortland, did it begin to make long-term noise.
The sectional championship breakthrough came in 2009, a 4-0 win over neighbor East Syracuse, and through the next decade, no one could top J-D in a sectional playoff game, a remarkable streak of 33 consecutive matches.
For a while, though, the Rams could not translate this into success in the state tournament, taking a series of regional-round defeats to Section II’s Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake until it finally claimed one of them in 2012.
After that, J-D made trips to the state final four routine. Four different times, the Rams won state semifinal games and took it all the way to the championship game, only to get stopped one win short of the ultimate goal.
Long Island’s South Side stopped J-D 2-0 in 2012, with another Long Island team, Islip, edging the Rams 1-0 in 2015 and Section V’s Spencerport prevailing 2-1 in 2016 Valley Stream South held off J-D 1-0 in the 2018 state title game.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to an abbreviated 2020 season where J-D took a 4-6-1 record against a tough schedule of opponents, including an undefeated ESM side along with defeats to F-M, Baldwinsville, Central Square and Auburn.
Just five seniors graduated from that roster, meaning that Murphy should have a strong veteran lineup as J-D looks to bounce back this fall.
