Newsday's Athlete of the Week is Sophia Bica of Northport field hockey

It doesn’t matter if it’s field hockey, basketball, or academics — Northport’s Sophia Bica is one ambitious individual.

"I put everything I have into everything I do," said Bica, the middle of five children who has a weighted average of 106. "I have high goals like my older siblings. I’m competitive."

It seems the bigger the occasion, the better Bica performs. The senior has scored in every game for first-place Northport (12-0, 11-0 Suffolk Division I) so far this season.

Bica, Newsday’s Athlete of the Week, enters the weekend tied for third in Suffolk in scoring (25 points) and leads Long Island with 14 assists.

She had four assists in a 7-2 win against second-place Sachem East on Sept. 28, and one of the Tigers’ goals in a 2-1 victory on Monday against rival Ward Melville.

"They are two of our top opponents, and she rises to the occasion," Tigers coach Gina Walling said. "She lives for those moments as do the kids around her. They’ve been waiting for this all season."

Northport won the school’s first Suffolk and Long Island titles in field hockey during the truncated spring season.

But Bica and fellow captains Hailey Roethel and Angelina Longo came up with a motivational T-shirt for the team's warmups this season; on the back it reads: #notdoneyet.

"That’s referencing the fact that we have 10 of 11 starters back and our team is basically the same," said Bica, who had 15 goals and 11 assists as a junior. "We felt like we were robbed [this spring] of seeing what we could do upstate.

"We know if we repeat as Long Island champs we’d be going upstate [to the state semifinals] for the first time ever. It’s definitely in the back of our heads, but we are really taking things one game at a time."

Bica — a fifth-year varsity player — is a center midfielder in field hockey and point guard for the basketball team, which won the Suffolk overall title in 2020.

The 16-year-old (who doesn’t turn 17 until December) sees a connection between her two positions.

"They might look completely different, but they are more similar than one would think," said Bica, who hopes to play both sports in college and one day become a physician assistant. "The CMF (center midfielder) connects every position in field hockey, and the point guard controls the offense in basketball. Playing the two positions helps me in both sports."

Bica has come a long way from being a young eighth grader on the varsity.

"I was a little hesitant, at first, playing varsity at [the age of] 12," she said. "I was just a small kid, but right away things clicked.

"My teammates and coaches helped me every year. Now, this is my last year, and I’m just trying to enjoy it. I’ve put in all the work, and now it’s about having fun with the girls and making the most of this last opportunity."