The Melrose Messenger

Melrose Soccer Teams Kick Off The 2026 Season

Written and Photographed By Patrick DeVivo

The 2026 World Cup soccer tournament generated a wave of enthusiasm for the soccer throughout the country. This fall, the Melrose High School men’s and women’s soccer teams hope to sustain that enthusiasm with success in the Middlesex League, even as they adapt to a new league scheduling format.

The Middlesex League consists of twelve teams in two divisions: the Liberty Division, made up of the league’s six largest schools (Lexington, Belmont, Arlington, Reading, Winchester and Woburn), and the Freedom Division, made up of the remaining six schools, including Melrose, along with Burlington, Stoneham, Wakefield, Watertown, and Wilmington.

In the past, each school played the five other schools in its division twice, and the six schools in the other division once. The new scheduling format pits each team against its five division rivals only once and replaces those five games with games against schools outside the Middlesex League. The six games with the teams in the opposite division will remain.

This new format means every game is against an opponent that each team hasn’t yet faced this year and, in the case of the games outside of the Middlesex League, opponents they may have never faced before. It also means that a smaller school like Melrose is likely to play more games against larger schools. The result is added uncertainty that makes each coach’s pre-game preparation more challenging.

Olivia Downey, the second-year head coach of the Melrose Womens' Soccer Team, welcomes this added challenge. Downey, a 2013 Melrose High graduate, played soccer and ran track for Melrose before continuing both sports at Merrimack College. She currently works as a special education teacher at Lexington High School.

Downey spent three years as an assistant soccer coach in Melrose under longtime coach Rob Mahoney before taking over the program. In her first season as head coach, Melrose reached the state tournament before falling in the first round on penalty kicks to Minnechaug Regional High School. The team shared the Middlesex League's title with Wilmington.

This year's senior class includes the same group of players Downey has coached since they were freshmen. She praised the three captains, center backs Katie Lehman and Claire McDonald, and attacker Lauren Healy, as being all that a team captain should be. “They are such good mixes of the positive and joyful,” says Downey, “while also being competitive and encouraging to their teammates. It's special that they have both qualities - and they’re just such hard-working kids too.”

Even after losing nine of last year's seniors to graduation, this year's team is an experienced unit. The midfield is anchored by Anna Matthews, Chloe Arnold, Zoe Tubinis, and Ella Yorkey, who Downey says have built real chemistry after playing together for multiple seasons. In goal, seniors Kate Stratford and Lila Croach bring the same seasoned confidence.

Downey makes a point of instilling in her players her belief that joy needs to be at the center of everything they pursue; otherwise, the pursuit is not worth the effort. She is supported by assistant coach Lydia Mays, goalkeeper coach Drew Nelson, junior varsity coaches Olivia Dziadyk and Colin Welsh, and volunteer coach Meredith Davis, a former collegiate player.

Downey points to Lexington, Arlington and Winchester as this year’s top competition for the Middlesex League title. She also looks forward to continuing long-standing rivalries with Wakefield, Stoneham and co-champion Wilmington.

Men’s coach Dean Serino is entering his 28th year coaching Melrose men’s soccer exclusively, part of a 37-year coaching career that began in Stoneham, where he still teaches high school physical education. Under his watch, Melrose men’s soccer has been a Division 2 state tournament fixture.

Serino acknowledges that the new scheduling format will be a challenge for all the Middlesex League teams and is cautious about predictions. He points out that, as with any group of young athletes, it takes time for a team to gel and find its identity, something that may take a little longer this year since the new schedule will offer up a new opponent with each game.

Still, Serino is confident about another return to the state tournament. Senior captains Gavin Barsotti and Sirak Araia will lead this year's group, supported by senior defender Ian McGrath and junior Quinn Cantin, a multi-year varsity player.

The coaching staff is stocked with Melrose alumni: Alex Kakambouras, Anthony McElligot, and Robbie Weisen, are varsity assistant coaches, and Jeremy Van Cleave and Christopher Dowd are junior varsity coaches. Serino noted that the soccer program remains strong even as the school's successful football and cross-country programs compete for the same athletes. Around 80 to 90 players tried out this preseason for slots on the varsity and two junior varsity teams.

Reflecting on his years of experience, Serino describes his coaching philosophy as drawn from John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach.

“Coaching is about teaching life lessons and helping players become good people. Sports are a microcosm of life – good coaching teaches players about teamwork, and about how to handle victory and defeat - it instills values like character, and commitment.”

Both coaches said this summer's World Cup added “a buzz” to the preseason. Downey also pointed to the arrival of the national Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) Boston Legacy Football Club, which debuted this year and is slated to move into the new White Stadium in Boston for the 2028 season, as a sign that women's soccer is regaining a presence in the region after the Boston Breakers folded in the early 2010s.

Serino, whose 37-year career has given him a long view of soccer’s growth in the U.S., said his players were clearly locked into the tournament over the summer, though the excitement has “settled into a more normal preseason rhythm now that school is back in session.” He does acknowledge the special pride that he and his players took in watching 2014 MHS standout Frantzdy Pierrot compete on Haiti's national team.

Regardless of the increased attention and support, both coaches are fully aware that success still needs to take place on the field. If you wish to join others in cheering on the soccer teams’ pursuit of success, their season schedules can be found here.

Posted September 25th, 2026