Dupuy's speed, aerial skills made her area's most dangerous scorer

Born in Bulgaria and left in an orphanage, Dessi Dupuy, the daughter of a Turkish mother and Nigerian father, has adapted well to new environments since being adopted by Laura Dupuy, a single white mom who brought her to Lynchburg at the age of 2.

"She’s pretty much a survivor," said Laura Dupuy, who heads up a regional non-profit affordable housing and community development agency. "I see that in how she enters new things. She’s very cautious."

She could also be considered cautiously optimistic, and opportunistic.

The News & Advance girls soccer player of the year shifted from Holy Cross to E.C. Glass before her freshman year and emerged as the school’s all-time career scoring leader with 103 goals and 38 assists. That included career-best totals of 30 goals and 15 assists this past spring, when she was named Seminole District and Region III player of the year.

"It was a really difficult decision for me because it was such a big school," said Dessi, who served as president of her eighth-grade class and starred on the JV basketball team at Holy Cross before going on to be a team captain for both the basketball and soccer teams at Glass.

Now she faces the daunting task of taking her game to the next level, though, once again, she won’t have to travel far, moving across town to Lynchburg College.

"It’s scary, but it’s going to be great," Dessi said. "It’ll be different and challenging and everything (but) it’s going to be cool. I’m just going to go in there and play like I know how to play. It’s going to be competitive. I’ll just work hard and see what happens."

While she’ll miss her Hilltopper teammates who are going their separate ways after playing together at Glass and through Central Virginia United for the past several years, Dupuy is looking forward to forming strong bonds with her Hornet colleagues this fall.

"It’s going to be a whole new experience for me," she said. "I’m really excited and hope it turns out as well as it did at E.C. Glass."

"I think she’ll be a good fit there," Laura Dupuy added, noting that while her talents on the field have been well documented and recognized, few people may realize how gracious she is as a player. "She’s a very kind teammate."

Competing at a Division III school won’t be as pressure-packed or demanding on her schedule as playing for a Division I program would have been.

"We met with (LC coach Dr.) Todd Olsen and he said it will not be much different than high school, but the defenders are going to be faster than you are," Laura said.

That will be an adjustment for Dupuy, who was often the fastest, most dangerous player on the field throughout her career at Glass.

"Tell me when there’s a moment in a soccer game when you don’t have to worry about Dessi?" Hilltoppers coach Darien McClurg asked. "Dessi was a huge factor in every single game we played. Nobody shut her out. She was just as good with the ball at her feet as she is in the air."

Growing up next door to Glass standout basketball, soccer and football players Scott and Jordan McCauley, Dessi had some excellent role models to look up to.

In much the same way she considered Hilltoppers’ assistant coach Miles Tranks a father figure, she looked to Laurie McCauley, who died of cancer when Dessi was in eighth grade, as a second mom.

"Laurie was a wonderful influence on Dessi," Laura Dupuy said. "Greg (McCauley), one time, came up to me and said, ‘My kids are good athletes, but Dessi is a great athlete.’"

Dessi developed her ability to maneuver her way through traffic and elevate her body above defenders through basketball, a sport she may consider playing at Lynchburg as well after guiding Glass to its first-ever Group AA state tournament this past winter.

But she’ll be focusing her attention as much, if not more, on academics as athletics at LC. She is considering pursuing a degree in athletic training, though that is not an easy major for a full-time varsity athlete.

"It will be a good way for her to figure out where she wants to go with her abilities in the real world, where very few people go into professional soccer or basketball," Laura said. "It clearly will challenge her more physically