Soccer, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Rose Lavelle
Favorite team: 76ers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating CB West in penalty kicks in the first round of districts
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Summer of freshman year before the high school soccer season started, I was running bleachers at an optional fitness practice, and fell down the bleachers. I almost broke my ankle causing me to miss the first month of my first high school season.
Music on playlist: Taylor Swift
Future plans: Attend Drexel University while playing soccer and majoring in nursing
Words to live by: “It’s not about how good you are, it’s how good you want to be.”
One goal before turning 30: I want to be a nurse in a hospital on a pediatric floor.
One thing people don’t know about me: I have had a blood blister on my elbow since sophomore year that has not healed.
By Mary Jane Souder
Ask Liz Potash what Elise Duffy meant to the Central Bucks East basketball team this year, and the Patriots’ coach looks no further than her team’s recent opening round District One 6A game against PAC champion Spring-Ford.
“That game is absolutely the epitome of what she’s done,” Potash said. “We were down 13-0, and Elise goes on an 8-0 run with two 3s and a layup. She didn’t even average eight points a game last year – she averaged under five, but for us this year, that’s pretty much what she did from the beginning.”
Duffy finished with a game high 18 points, keeping the underdog Patriots in the contest until the final horn in a 42-37 loss. Impressive by any standard but especially considering that her role for three years had been as a defensive stopper.
A soccer player first, the role of defensive specialist seemed custom made for the naturally gifted athlete who will continue her soccer career at Drexel University. Scoring points? That wasn’t important. Until this year, that is. With the loss to graduation of four all-league starters from last year’s SOL Colonial Division championship squad, including Emily Chmiel who is excelling at Chestnut Hill College, the Patriots - with four new starters and Duffy - were without a proven scorer.
“I knew we didn’t have much experience coming back,” said Duffy. “When I was in travel basketball (in middle school), I knew I needed to carry the team, so let’s channel the inner eighth grader in me and go back to that time.
“So I just played the game I know how to play. I didn’t expect to go out there and average 12 or 14 points a game. I just wanted to go out there and help my team win, so I did what I could.”
What Duffy could do was more than Potash could have possibly imagined. The senior captain averaged 13 points (sharing team scoring honors with Anna Barry) and a team high 7.4 rebounds, 3.2 deflections and 2.2 steals. Good enough to earn first team honors in a strong SOL Colonial Division after not receiving so much as a mention last year.
“I don’t even know what to say about her at this point because I am so blown away,” Potash said. “I can’t even put into words what she did for us this year.
“It was like, ‘All right, we have Elise back, and well, she’s good on defense,’ but it’s like - wow, where did this come from? I just think it’s her being a competitor and such a phenomenal athlete that it was like, ‘All right, this is what my team needs out of me, and this is what I’m going to do.’ I would never have thought she was capable of the offense she gave us this year. I told her mom – what happened this year is one of the coolest things I’ve seen as a head coach at East.”
All of this, of course, was in Duffy’s second sport. Her accomplishments on the soccer field were equally – if not more - impressive as she scored 17 goals and assisted on 16 others to lead the Patriots to a share of their first SOL Colonial Division title and first trip to the state tournament since 2015. A first team all-league honoree and team MVP, Duffy, according to her coach, is one of those players every team needs.
“You wish you could have 50 (players like Duffy) and just play every sport possible,” East coach Jake Nesteruk said. “What’s so cool about her is the simple stuff, the soft skills – she’s a good teammate, she works her butt off, she’s respectful, she’s coachable, and somehow that’s made a Division 1 athlete in one sport and potentially a very serious Division 3 athlete in a second sport if she wanted to. It’s crazy.”
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Duffy has been competing in sports for as long as she can remember.
“I played soccer, basketball, I did t-ball, I did dance, I did gymnastics – dance and gymnastics didn’t last long,” she said. “I played a year of baseball actually, but I thought it was too boring. I didn’t like standing around.
“For as long as I can remember, I was playing soccer. My mom played soccer, so she got me into soccer, and my dad played basketball and he got me into basketball.”
Duffy loved both sports from the outset.
“I joined travel soccer probably the first year you were able to,” she said. “I joined the Olympic Development team third, fourth and fifth grade. I played for Warrington soccer my whole life, and it was the same for basketball. I played for CBAA (Central Bucks Athletic Association) intramurals through travel. I stayed consistent.”
Quitting either sport was never a consideration.
“I played one year of AAU basketball, but it was a relaxed AAU because it’s during soccer season – if I could make a game, I would go, but all through high school I never played AAU,” Duffy said. “It was just high school basketball season and then soccer. I went to open gyms I could make for basketball and did pick-up games.
“I always loved basketball. It made a special connection with me and my dad. I always loved the people I met through the sports. I could have never left anyone I met in my basketball years, especially in high school. I just made such great friends. I just loved playing the sport and never could have thought of leaving it.”
Duffy capped a four-year varsity soccer career with a spectacular senior year. What impressed those who know soccer best was not simply her ability to put the ball in the net.
“What people always came to me and said, whether it was someone that knew the game as a coach that we played against or whether it was a trainer on another team – Elise Duffy doesn’t get outworked, she does not get tired, and in a sport that’s so dynamic and so conditioned heavy, it puts so much pressure on other teams,” Nesteruk said. “That was a huge part of her game, but as she progressed and dealt with more attention and more focus from other teams, she just figured out how to play smarter. She figured out how to manage situations, manage her space and finish the ball well.
“What turned her from a great athlete into a great dominant soccer player was not only could she put in 80 minutes of an entire game, but she could go and score two goals when you needed her to score two goals in the moments when you really, really needed her. She was such a top-class performer in the moments when you needed her the most, and that made her so special for us.”
Duffy grew up with her sights set on playing collegiate soccer, but the idea of attending a big school with its ‘big school spirit atmosphere’ seemed as though it was going to win out over playing soccer.
“I knew realistically I didn’t think I could play at one of those schools or pursue my major (nursing) while playing, so I kind of stepped back and was playing for fun and just played high school and club,” Duffy said. “Then COVID came, and I had no soccer for maybe three months, and that’s when I was like – I can’t not have this for the next four years, so I started doing my training, reaching out to more coaches.
“It was a shorter process than what people normally go through because of the time restriction I had with COVID happening.”
In Drexel University, Duffy found the best of all worlds, and she committed in October of 2021.
“I found it gave me the major I wanted while also having a chance to play soccer,” she said. “I didn’t care where I was playing a sport or anything like that. I was focused on academics first and looking for what would give me the best chance of having success in the future. Drexel just checked all the boxes.”
Duffy’s final high school soccer season pretty much checked all the boxes as well.
“This year meant the world to me honestly,” she said. “Five of us girls have been playing together on the travel team since we were younger. We got to play against each other, we got to play with each other.
“I couldn’t ask for a better senior year and ending. For the first time in my past four years going to districts and just getting to do it with all my best friends – we were so close with the juniors and the sophomores. It was just so special. We were one big family, and we didn’t care who was on the field at any point – we were all going to play for each other and just keep pushing to get as far as we could.”
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In basketball, there was nothing especially remarkable about Duffy’s first three years. She was a swing player as a freshman and saw plenty of action for the jayvee.
“It was good to be able to sit on the (varsity) bench and watch the seniors like Caroline Pla, Skylar Kraues and Elyse Shine and just enjoy the game,” Duffy said. “Sophomore year I made full varsity, but that was when I was a defender.
“Devon Burns and I would both go in on defense. I kind of sat back on offense, and other people would take the main roles. Junior year I definitely stepped up more defensively. Me and Emily Barry took the hardest players each game. I always looked at Mia (Salvati) and Emily Chmiel to make the big plays. I would score maybe a point a game.”
Then came a senor year that still astounds her coach.
“I think she’s such a competitor that she will do whatever her team needs to be successful,” Potash said. “She’s so quick, and she could get to the basket any time she wanted, and she shot 75 percent from the foul line for us, and that was actually huge because she got fouled a ton. (Assistant coach) Kyra Scaliti said it best – every night Elise is the best athlete on the floor for either team. I can’t think of a better athlete we’ve seen all year outside of Elise.”
Duffy is still surprised by her transformation from reluctant shooter to the Patriots’ go-to player.
“I was actually thinking about that the other day,” she said. “I liked being in the shadows the other three years, being the unknown person, let the other girls shoot. There was definitely less pressure.”
Still, Duffy admits that the season just completed – which included handing SOL Colonial Division champion Souderton its only league loss and a return to districts – couldn’t have been much better.
“This year was probably my favorite year of high school basketball, just being with the girls – we all hyped each other up,” she said. “Some girls would have great games one day and have a rough game the next, but we could count on each other to step up when the other one wasn’t doing their best or having an off day.
“I think our team was the closest it’s been in a while, not separated by classes. It was nice to be almost like a family. We hung out outside of basketball. We went team bowling. We did a lot of fun stuff. I think it helped us on the court. Even if it was just two or three or three or four people doing the main scoring, everyone was contributing in their own way, even if it wasn’t seen on the scoreboard.”
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If Duffy was only a standout athlete, that would be noteworthy, but according to her coaches, there’s much more to it than that.
“She is the nicest, kindest, most caring person,” Potash said. “She’s very welcoming to all the underclassmen. The fact that you see how hard she works, and she gets this determination about her – the other kids see it and respect it.”
When Duffy scored a pair of foul shots to seal the Patriots’ district playoff win over Pennsbury last year, the then junior was asked what went through her mind – as a soccer player – when she stepped to the foul line.
“Her answer was, ‘I had to do it for the seniors,’ and that’s who she is,” Potash said. “She is always going to do stuff for her teammates and those that come above her. She’s really a good kid from a great family.”
Away from the athletic arena, Duffy is a member of the National Honor Society, the Spanish Honor Society and she is part of class council. She volunteers every Sunday morning in the CCD program at her church, and she referees basketball for CBAA.
“I like that because I get to see what I was like when I was little,” Duffy said. “It’s really a full circle moment.”
Duffy gives back as a volunteer through the National Charity League.
With an aunt who’s a nurse and an interest in all things medical, Duffy will pursue a nursing major.
“I was the girl who – when someone got hurt in a game, I didn’t really care about what was going on in the game, I wanted to know what happened to the kid that was hurt,” she said. “I always knew I wanted to do something medical. I thought nursing and then the pandemic definitely made me realize that was definitely for me.”
Listening to Nesteruk tell it, Duffy’s mindset on the soccer pitch will serve her well in her future career.
“With a typical goal scorer in any sport, you expect this swagger, but she’s not like that,” the Patriots’ coach said. “She’s willing to be a scorer, and she’ll put herself in a position to put the ball in the (goal), but ultimately, her goal is whatever produces the best outcome, and that’s what she’s going to do.
“You look at a nursing major, and their entire job is – how can I produce the best outcome for my patient, my teammate, or whoever is in front of me for the long term. If that means I have to carry more of an emotional load or more of a physical load, I’m willing to do it. If I need to take a backseat and supportive role, fine by me. I can’t imagine more of an adaptive athlete in any position.
“She’s one of those kids you look at and say – I don’t think she fully realizes how much of an impact she’s made. She gets the weight of the soccer component, but long term when kids look at just how much of a work ethic and how much is expected of high school athletes and then add the humility to it – I really don’t think she’ll realize the benefit and the weight that she’s carried for both sports. To do it in two sports, you don’t see it nowadays. You really don’t.”
