Volleyball, Softball
Favorite athlete: José Altuve
Favorite team: The Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: My favorite memory is when I had a softball game after my great-grandmother had abdominal surgery, and it was a rainy day. The energy of that day was dreary, and I thought it was going to be an overall horrible day. My first at bat, I hit a homerun on the first pitch. In that moment, I knew exactly why I loved softball. That’s the day it became my sanctuary from every adversity life had to offer.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: One time during volleyball, we were playing a really good team freshman year on jayvee. My friend was not very good freshman year (she is now), but they put her in the back row because it wasn’t a close game. She wears glasses, and a girl on the other team went up to spike the ball. The girl hit my friend in the face, and we played the ball off of her face while she was trying to find her glasses.
Music on your playlist: Broadway show tunes
Future plans: I intend to become a surgeon and hopefully save a lot of people.
Words to live by: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?”
One goal before turning 30: I have a lot of goals before I turn 30. I hope to have my medical degree, travel more, and be successful wherever I end up.
One thing people don’t know about you: I keep a journal about my life, and I write poems in it.
By Mary Jane Souder
It’s been over three years since Emma LoStracco – then only a freshman - made her debut for Dan Schram’s softball team, but the Bensalem coach remembers it well.
“I was benching the starters for something that had to be addressed in the last game,” the Owls’ softball coach said. “When you bring in the young kids for that, they’re in a really tough spot.
“We were playing at Lansdale Catholic, and she played second base for us. She went for a ball, and she had one of the worst high ankle sprains - wiped her out, but that kid came to every game – not as a spectator, but she would sit and notice when I was calling pitches and counting balls and strikes and what not.
“After a while, Emma starts chiming in – she’s very detail-oriented, and she’s paying attention to all the little things. I’m like, ‘This kid is unique.’”
Not a whole lot has changed since then. Whether it’s in the classroom or in the athletic arena, LoStracco still pays attention to details. It’s a trait that has served her well, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“Emma is very cerebral, she’s very well read, very well spoken, and it’s authentic – she’s not faking it,” Schram said of his senior catcher. “She remembers everything I say and she’ll quote me. She’s listening – it makes you feel special.”
LoStracco, according to Bensalem coach Tim Resh, is the heart and soul of the volleyball team this fall. It doesn’t matter that volleyball is her second sport, the Bensalem senior’s commitment never waivers.
“When we had summer workouts, we only did them two days a week with the whole COVID thing, and she was at every single one,” Resh said. “She’s always trying to be better and she does whatever the team needs.
“A couple years ago, she switched from setter to libero to help the team be better because there was a libero opening. She didn’t mind at all. She’s always positive, and her positivity winds up rubbing off on the rest of the team. The underclassmen look up to her. I joke around with her that she’s the team mom.”
LoStracco has her sights set on one day becoming a surgeon, an interesting career choice for an honors student who was a lawyer – a successful one at that - on Bensalem’s mock trial team that advanced to regionals last year.
“You get the case and you have to pretty much make your own case theory,” she said. “You have to come with directs and crosses for each witness.
“We go to Doylestown courthouse where we do it in front of real judges, and the jury is a bunch of lawyers, so they give you actual feedback.”
So why not pursue a career in law?
“I go back and forth sometimes, but I really want to be a doctor,” said LoStracco. “My dad was injured in a football accident when he was 17. He broke his neck and is a quadriplegic. Being surrounded by that growing up, it made me want to be a doctor and hopefully help people be able to walk.”
And beyond that, save lives.
******
LoStracco inherited her love of sports from her parents – her father (Albert) played baseball in high school, her mother (Heidi) softball
“When I was little, my brother (Jarrod) played baseball, so obviously, going to his games all the time I started playing softball as soon as I could,” she said.
As a youngster, LoStracco watched her mother play volleyball for fun, so upon entering high school, she gave volleyball a try. LoStracco stuck with it. Basketball – a sport she tried because her softball friends were playing – didn’t have staying power.
“I was mentally preparing myself to not play this fall,” LoStracco said of her senior volleyball season. “What I said was – ‘I hope we play, but I’m not going to expect to play’ just because I expected to play softball last spring.
“When they said we were playing, I got really excited, and then (coach Resh) named me captain. It felt like I was getting some of my senior year back.”
Softball has always been number one for LoStracco, who has been playing tournament softball since she was 12 and is on a college showcase team – East Coast Inferno.
“I did some dance growing up, but for some reason, if I had dance and softball the same night, I always chose softball,” she said. “I compare softball to math. For softball, it’s one of those things where when you go up to bat, it’s really rewarding when you get a hit.
“And it’s one of those things – if you get a problem right in math, it’s rewarding, but it’s just a math problem, and it’s just a hit, but it’s that sense of accomplishment.”
As a sophomore, LoStracco – a natural catcher - was the Owls’ shortstop when veteran shortstop Haley Keenan was out with an injury. The Owls earned a district berth.
“Emma brought her catcher’s bag every day and played shortstop every day,” Schram said. “It was ‘just in case you need me, coach,’ and that was really cool. At the end of the season, she played a game or two at catcher because Angelia Micalizzi was hurt, and she was great.”
LoStracco was penciled in to start behind the plate as a junior only to see the season cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was extremely aggravating,” she said. “I like shortstop, but I really like when I’m catching – I feel more in the game.
“My junior year (coach Schram) named me catcher, and I was like, ‘All right, this is my position. I’m comfortable here,’ and then it was like, ‘Just kidding, no season.’ It was definitely hard. Especially because I’m starting to feel like I’m getting to the end and to lose a whole season – it was not fun.”
The pandemic had an impact well beyond softball.
“I realized how much I cling to structure and schedule,” LoStracco said. “I’ve learned to be self disciplined in that area where I create my own schedule and make sure I’m doing the things I need to do every day.
“I’ve also become a lot closer to my family. Me and my mom spend a whole lot more time together. We were really close before, but it’s given me a lot of time to focus on the people that are around me.”
Like LoStracco, Schram is looking forward to a return to the diamond this spring.
“We were growing so much as a program, and she was a big part of that,” the Owls’ coach said. “I look forward to getting out this year because I feel like Emma and the other seniors have the same qualities as the best seniors I have had before.”
Softball will not be part of LoStracco’s future when she leaves Bensalem. Instead, she will focus her energy on a pre-med track at college.
“Whenever we filled out the ‘all about me’ papers in elementary school, they’d always ask what your favorite subject is, and for me, it’s always science just because I ask a lot of questions,” she said. “I have a lot of things where I’m curious. To be in a lab figuring it out was always fun for me.”
Active in school life, LoStracco is a class officer and is involved in the Student Government Association. She is also is part of Bensalem’s Building Bridges, a volunteer program where high school students talk to the middle school students in the district about issues they may be going through.
“We talk about bullying, we talk about illegal substances and how they affect your life, we talk about how to spread kindness to others and things like that,” LoStracco said. “Then you build relationships with them.”
She is also part of the Blue Crew, which works on building bridges with the underclassmen, and she holds down a part-time job at Chick-fil-A. LoStracco, according to her coaches, is a student-athlete who gets it right.
“She legit is one of the nicest kids that you could ever meet,” Resh said. “You talk with her for five minutes, and you love her – she’s great.
“She’s one of those kids you hate to lose. There needs to be more people in the world like her.”
“Emma is a very nice person – she’s also very intelligent, and she’s very mature,” Schram said. “If she was my daughter, I’d be proud of her. She’ll do big things.”
