There is no sleep.
When would there be sleep?
Juliana Cerasi of Wantagh High School gets a few winks now and then.
In between starring on the girls’ soccer, basketball, and lacrosse teams, helping lead the latter two to amazing heights over the past 12 months, Cerasi occasionally climbs into bed.
“But yeah, not much sleep for me,” she said with a laugh. “Lot of stuff to do.”
The senior has had a busier-than-usual last few months. First, as a midfielder for the soccer team, she helped Wantagh win the Class A county title.
Then, jumping into her phone booth and changing uniforms, as a guard on the Warriors basketball team, she averaged eight points and 6.8 rebounds per game in leading Wantagh all the way to the state championship contest, where they fell to Ardsley on March 22. Along the way, Wantagh claimed its first Long Island championship.
Then, after “maybe one day” of rest, she traded sneakers for cleats and resumed her magnificent career for Wantagh lacrosse.
On that field, Cerasi shines in her best sport. Last season, she helped Wantagh finally overcome a hurdle named Manhasset, beating Set in the county championship game after three straight years of Manhasset eliminating them.
“It all felt surreal to finally do it because until we did, I’m not sure we all believed we were going to,” Cerasi said. “We had come so close so often.”
In scoring 34 goals and dishing out 11 assists, Cerasi’s vision and ability to get somewhere on the field a second or two before anyone else set her apart.
“She not only sees the field so well from her point of view, but she can see from the goalies on out what needs to be done,” head coach Lauren Ruppert said. “She coaches our players and sees things way ahead of other kids, which gives her an advantage.”
Cerasi said that point guard-like vision doesn’t even come from her best sport.
“I think it stems from when I started playing soccer on defense and just saw everything happening in front of me,” Cerasi said. “I would be thinking about the next pass, where that girl was going to slide on D, whatever was happening, I’d see it.”
All that vision may be natural, or it may have come from constant backyard wars against her siblings. Brothers Nick and T.J. are 25 and 22 now, while sister Kate is 27. So Juliana was always much younger and fighting for attention and the ball against them.
Lacrosse, though, has always been her favorite sport. From her time as a toddler toting around a stick that was as big as she was, Cerasi has loved watching her siblings compete.
“I got pushed around a lot by them, but it made me stronger and I learned how to handle these big people coming at me,” Cerasi said. “They prepared me for the worst.”
Cerasi joined the Wantagh varsity as an 8th grader and quickly established herself as a force in the midfield.
She handles draw controls (the girls lacrosse version of faceoffs) and is a leader on and off the field.
“She’s just naturally a motivational person,” Ruppert said. “She’s outspoken because she not only wants herself to be better and is such a hard worker, but she wants to see her teammates get better, too.”
Cerasi’s skill has led to her being recruited heavily by Division I programs, and she chose James Madison, currently ranked 13th in the nation.
“It was such a pretty campus there in Virginia, and I loved their coaches and the team,” Cerasi said.
In the rare moments she’s not playing a sport, Cerasi walks her three Labradors and plays volleyball in the backyard (sure, why not a fourth sport?), while planning to study psychology in college.
Asked how she’d like to be remembered at Wantagh, given all she’s accomplished, she thought for a moment.
“Just as a role model and a good person for people to look up to,” Cerasi said. “It feels good to know people are hearing me and willing to listen.”
