Jenika Cuocco Spurned Transfer Opportunities to Finish Story at Drexel

Katie O’Donnell quickly caught herself. While singing the praises of Drexel goalie Jenika Cuocco, the Dragons’ coach did not pass up the opportunity for a well-timed pun.

“She wears a couple different hats — or helmets,” O’Donnell said.

Referencing a busy day in the life of Cuocco, who toyed with the transfer portal for about a month before removing her name and staying put in Philadelphia, O’Donnell spoke like a head coach relieved to have her superstar netminder back for a few more years.

Most days, Cuocco participates in 6:30 a.m. lifts before switching gears entirely. While those around the nation have become accustomed to calling her an “All-American” on the field, she goes by another name during the school day — Ms. Jen.

Part of the beauty of Drexel, and why it was so hard for Cuocco to leave, is its undergraduate co-op program. Students spend real time in work environments to develop perspective on their career paths.

Last year, Cuocco spent six months as a student teacher in preschool. Now she’s a student teacher in kindergarten at a school just a short walk from Drexel’s campus.

“I did my introduction the first day, and I put lacrosse sticks [on the presentation] to see if they’d know about it,” Cuocco said. “Some of them thought they were fishing nets.”

Cuocco works from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in a classroom and then gets back in time for practice, sometimes arriving in what O’Donnell calls her “teacher outfits.” Then Cuocco plans lessons for the next day.

Grinding, though, has never been something Cuocco shies away from.

“It’s a different kind of tired,” the redshirt junior said. “You’re not physically tired. If anything, they keep you active. It’s an emotional drain because you give your everything to the kids, and they want your everything. But it’s such a reward to see their growth.”

Drexel’s also seen plenty of growth from Cuocco, a lesser-recruited talent from Rocky Point (N.Y.) High School who’s blossomed into a short-list candidate for the best goalie in the nation.

JOANNE CUOCCO IS RIDE-OR-DIE DREXEL. It’s not because she went there (because she didn’t). It’s because Drexel gave her daughter the same attention top-10 teams were busy showing five-star recruits.

For that reason, she was hesitant when her daughter approached her toward the end of last season about the idea of entering the transfer portal to explore what else was out there.

“I just wanted to see my opportunities,” Jenika Cuocco said.

It was not a slight to Drexel or to its coaching staff. Cuocco was recruited by Jill Batcheller, who later took a gig down the street at Villanova. Then came Kim Hillier and now O’Donnell, who was an assistant on Hillier’s staff.

O’Donnell knew Cuocco from when she was on Lehigh’s coaching staff. Lehigh was one of the only other schools to show interest in the Long Island product whose name did not stand out like others from the lacrosse hotbed.

“This wasn’t the coaching staff that recruited me [to Drexel], but they were kind of the only ones who saw something in me,” Cuocco said. “That drew my mom’s attention. They wanted me for the right reasons. She also loves the co-op system and loves that I’m going to have a ton of job experience in the real world.”

While Cuocco wanted to operate on her own timeline and come to the decision on her own terms, her mother’s opinion mattered.

It’s always been Cuocco, her mom and her brother, KeShaun. Her mother and her grandmother are her biggest supporters, and they’re at every single game.

That’s not hyperbolic. Home games, away games, road trips or long flights — they’re there.

“My grandma and my mom have come to every one of my games since I started playing in middle school,” Cuocco said. “I can count on maybe one hand how many games they’ve missed since then. They will fly. They will drive. They’ve driven anywhere in this country just to see me play. They don’t even miss fall ball.”

Cuocco’s stay in the portal was both brief and eventful. She estimates May 20 as the day she first entered her name. It took all of five minutes for the first big-name coach to reach out and inquire about scheduling a call.

Cuocco chose not to specify the list of teams that were most aggressive in their pursuit, but “almost all the top 10s” reached out and “maybe 15 coaches” in total threw their names in the ring.

Ultimately, it didn’t take long to reach a decision. At a team banquet in mid-June to celebrate a fourth straight NCAA tournament berth and other spring accomplishments, Cuocco couldn’t resist the draw of Drexel. The next day, she called O’Donnell — who had been supportive even during her weeks as a college free agent — to announce her intention to return.

“From an outsider’s point of view, it’s really hard to understand my decision to stay unless you’re fully in the Drexel family,” Cuocco said. “The people make the place. It is so, so, so hard to leave this place because you know what you’re going to be missing.

“It just didn’t feel like my book was finished being written here.”

DREXEL HAS SHOES TO FILL ON OFFENSE AND DEFENSE. O’Donnell is thrilled the shoes between the pipes are occupied once more by Cuocco.

A steward of her craft, Cuocco takes goaltending “very, very seriously.”  O’Donnell calls Cuocco her own toughest critic.

“My Achilles’ heel — but I always think it’s why I am where I am right now — is that I don’t like to be content and I don’t like to settle,” Cuocco said. “I have such high expectations for myself.”

Mentored by all-time Drexel goalie Zoe Bennett (who is now back as an assistant working with the goalies) as a freshman, Cuocco opted to redshirt that first year and hone her craft. Under the watch of Bennett and former assistant Alyssa Guido, who is now the head coach at Colgate, Cuocco blossomed from an underrecruited unknown into a goalie who saved 53.2 percent of shots in 2023 and 56.9 percent of shots in 2024.

That 56.9 percent was first in the nation. As were her 224 saves.

“She’s Steady Eddie,” O’Donnell said. “Jenika is very levelheaded. From a standpoint as a leader, she’s calm, cool and collected. You rarely see her get rattled or angry. In those big moments — big momentum shifts where we make a play — she gets really amped up. When those moments happen, that gets everyone else going, too.”

That steadiness comes from preparation, routine … and superstitions. Cuocco doesn’t veer from her routine — at all.

“I wear the same sports bra since I’ve started playing. I wash it, of course,” Cuocco said. “I always, always juggle before games. I never miss it. … And I always have a coffee before a game. I’m a Dunkin’ girl. I love a good Dunkin’ iced coffee with caramel and always two creams.”

Cuocco’s return sets the stage for another NCAA tournament push. First, though, Drexel’s eyes are set on a CAA championship, which Stony Brook has won each of its first two seasons in the conference.

O’Donnell firmly believes there’s always a window against any team Drexel plays. Not just Stony Brook, the team with a target on its back in the conference. To earn the statement wins that will improve Drexel’s national standing, the Dragons “just have to be shooting the gap [in the window] at the right time.”

Speaking of gaps, Cuocco leaves few of them uncovered. The calculus for this spring would be much different had Drexel lost its backbone. Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side. It was plenty green for Cuocco on the side she’s grown to love.