Photo by Adrienne J. Romero / SOC Images.
**Locker Room Talk is a Slice of Culture series where we highlight different athletes, coaches and more from local high schools and colleges from Hudson County and New Jersey overall.
Sophia Mannino is entering her junior year as goalkeeper for NJCU’s women’s soccer. She has been excelling at her position, but her path to this point wasn’t always as cut and dry.
She was a Jersey native, but moved to Florida when she was ten years old. She spent her first two years of high school in Florida, and finished her junior and senior years in New Jersey. But she only had two schools looking to recruit her—until a friend stepped in and helped her.
“One of my friends who I played club with here [in Jersey], her dad actually got in contact with the coach here [at NJCU] and threw me a lifeline and that’s how I ended up here… it turned out for the best,” she told Slice of Culture.
Mannino always took an interest in athletics, and enjoyed having a role on a team.
She started off playing softball, but then transitioned to soccer after her parents introduced her to the sport because Mannino mainly enjoyed diving to catch the softball “even though it was unnecessary,” which she laughed about.
She preferred the competitiveness of soccer and started as a striker, but later transitioned into a goalkeeper.
“One day I just decided to step into the net and there was no going back,” she smiled.
When asked about what sports mean to her, Mannino stated:
“I feel like without sports I’d be lost. Especially going to a four-year college. I feel like you need something extra to do… It’s a part of me, it’s a part of who I am and without it I think I’d just be lost.”
– Sophia Mannino
She described being a goalkeeper as a position that requires a lot of technique to be successful. The goalkeeper is the last line of defense before the ball gets scored, so a lot relies on the goalkeeper being able to stop a goal.
If a goal is scored, a lot of the blame falls upon the goalkeeper, however the ball needs to get past the other defenders first, who don’t shoulder much of the blame. Mannino stated this can sometimes be a mental hurdle as a goalkeeper but that she overcomes it in order to focus on the game.
She mentioned that there is constant involvement needed as a goalkeeper. She verbally directs her teammates to proper positioning and needs to reposition herself based on where the ball is headed.
Mannino credited her coaches and teammates for the chemistry formed between the squad, and stated that it led to their success in the previous season. For the first time in program history, the No. 4 women’s soccer team nabbed a NJAC Tournament win, knocking out No. 5 Rutgers-Camden with a 1-0 final score.
In that game, Mannino recorded a save in the 66th, which became one of the key moments of the contest as it set up for teammate Samantha Szymanski to score the only goal and capture the victory.
“… I remember standing outside the locker room to my friends who I got recruited with. I’m like, ‘This is what we came here for. And like that it came like full circle that we, we won that game and we got to go on and it sets precedent moving forward for us.”
Last season, Mannino added quite a few accolades to her resume. She was named NJAC Goalkeeper of the Year, All-NJAC First Team, ECAC All-Tournament Team, Academic All-District and a two-time NJAC Defensive Player of the Week.
Competing for NJCU, which is a smaller school compared to the schools that they face, Mannino was thankful for the recognition.
She enjoys playing for NJCU, because as a smaller university, they tend to get underestimated, which ends up ruining a lot of teams’ plans after being defeated by them.
“It’s nice because we get to be we get to ruin a lot of other teams’ plans like especially last year…,” she said. “We were like the disruptors—you would have to go through us before you would have to get to the higher rounds of the playoffs.”
Mannino added that she was excited for the upcoming 2026 World Cup, which will be featured at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which is roughly a 25-minute drive from NJCU.
When asked about her favorite athletes, she stated, “I like watching women’s basketball, especially Caitlin Clark, like the rise of her. I think that’s very entertaining. Like women’s soccer, it’s growing. It’s getting to where I feel like it should be, but I feel like it still needs more people to watch and people to pay attention compared to men’s soccer. We need the women up there too.”
And as for her team, Mannino said they’re looking for even better success this season.
The Gothic Knights kick off their season with a two-game Brick City Classic in Newark against Purchase on Friday, Aug. 30 at 3 p.m. and Eastern on Sunday, Sept. 1 at 2 p.m.
