J.P. SOUSA
Head Women's Soccer Coach
J.P. Sousa has been the head women’s soccer coach at Catholic University since 2004. In 15 seasons at the helm, he has set the mark for winningest coach in school history with a 176-86-23 record and led the team to four conference championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances.
CUA enjoyed incredible back-to-back seasons in the nation's capital in 2014 and 2015. The 2014 campaign saw the Cardinals post a 16-2-3 overall record, going undefeated in the Landmark Conference on their way to a second league championship. They finished the regular season with a #24 national ranking by D3soccer.com before the start of the NCAA Tournament, where they advanced to the Second Round for the first time in program history. The Cardinals followed that up in 2015 with a 17-3 record, which included a perfect run through the Landmark Conference to win another title before advancing to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row. Seven student-athletes were named All-Conference each year, with six players going on to earn All-Region honors. The Landmark Conference named Tricia Colucci as Defensive Player of the Year and Alexa Povelaitis as Rookie of the Year in 2014. Lindsay Aleman was named Offensive Player of the Year and Taylor Pisk was the Rookie of the Year in 2015. Sousa and his assistants were honored as the Coaching Staff of the Year both years.
Under Sousa’s direction in 2005, the Cardinals enjoyed their most successful season in school history with an 18-1-2 record. They completed an undefeated regular season, won the Capital Athletic Conference Championship, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever. They placed a record seven players on the All-CAC teams and swept the post-season awards, including Sousa’s first Capital Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Coach of the Year honor.
A standout forward for two years at Western Connecticut State University, after transferring to WCSU from George Mason University in 1996, Sousa went on to lead the team in scoring with six goals and 17 points his junior year and was ranked fifth in scoring in the Little East Conference. As a senior, Sousa tallied another six goals, leading his team to the ECAC New England Region Tournament, and was nominated for the Academic All-America team.
Originally from Danbury, Conn., Sousa was a three-year starting varsity player at Danbury High School earning all-conference honors twice and all-area honors once. He led all area scorers with 22 goals and 11 assists as a senior in 1993. While Sousa played for Danbury, the team won three consecutive conference titles, was a state finalist in 1991, state semi-finalist in 1993, and ranked as high as #14 nationally in the NSCAA/USA Today poll. He also earned all-conference and all-state honors in track and field.
Sousa graduated from Western Connecticut State University in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, and earned his master’s degree in education for school counseling at George Mason University in 2006. He currently works as a school counselor at Chantilly High School in Chantilly, Va., and resides in Fairfax, Va., with his wife Suzanne, son Cameron, and daughter Addison.
DEANNA KEIL
Assistant Coach
Deanna Keil completed her tenth season on the CUA coaching staff this past fall. She returned to her alma mater in 2009 after enjoying an extremely successful playing career from 2002 to 2005. During that time she was a four-year starting defender for the Cardinals, leading her team to a school-record 18 wins, a conference championship, and a trip to the NCAA Tournament as a senior captain.
As an assistant coach at CUA, Keil has been instrumental in helping the Cardinals win three conference championships along with advancing to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament in 2014 and 2015. She is also very involved off the field coordinating all of the program's alumnae relations events.
Keil graduated from Catholic University in 2006 with a bachelor's of science degree in architecture, and also earned her master’s degree in architecture from CUA in 2008. Originally from Allentown, Pa., she works for ZGF Architects LLP in Washington, D.C., and lives in Reston, Va.
Beatriz Fernandes
Assistant Coach
Fernandes is the newest addition to the Catholic University women's soccer coaching staff in 2018, joining the Cardinals as the team's graduate assistant.
Originally from Lisbon, Portugal, Fernandes played four years of Division II soccer at the University of North Alabama from 2014-2017. She started 65 of 72 games in the center of midfield for the Lions, scoring 6 goals with 16 assists for 28 career points. Fernandes was a four-time All-Gulf South Conference and three-time All-South Region selection, earning First Team honors after her senior year. She was also named a United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-American in 2017.
Before UNA, Fernandes played for the top club team in Portugal, 1st of December Sport Club. Her team won three consecutive national championships plus three Portuguese National Cup titles from 2010 to 2012, and played in the Group Stage of the UEFA Women's Champions League in 2011 and 2012. She was also selected to four different youth national team camps, representing Portugal in qualifying for the 2012 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship.
Fernandes comes to Catholic with a bachelor's degree in exercise science. She now lives in Washington, D.C., as she begins her master's degree in management in the Metropolitan School of Professional Studies.
