Sports: Softball
Favorite athlete: Larry Fitzgerald
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Becoming a 2011 PIAA State Champion
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When I was younger I was so into one of my basketball games that I grabbed the ball and started sprinting down the court. I was stopped at halfcourt by the refs to find out that I was going the wrong way. Then my dad got a picture of me getting yelled at on the bench.
Music on your iPod: A mix of everything
Future plans: Play softball at Seton Hall and get a degree
Words to live by: 'Life’s not about waiting for the storm to pass… It’s about learning to dance in the rain.'
One goal before turning 30: I want to go on an African Safari.
One thing people don’t know about me: Feet gross me out.
Hatboro-Horsham trailed, 3-1, heading into the bottom of the sixth inning in the 2011 State Championship game against Pennsbury. Hatter coach Joe DiFilippo makes perfectly clear how crucial Jackie DiPietro’s baserunning was in the team’s sixth-inning rally.
“In that that big inning, she took second base with a runner on third,” DiFilippo said. “She took off and went to second base and got herself into scoring position. If she’s thrown out, we don’t win the state title. But people respect her so much on the bases that they didn’t even make a play.”
DiPietro would go on to score the game-tying run. The Hatters would add one more to take a 4-3 lead, which would hold up as the final score as the Hatters won the state title.
Though DiPietro doesn’t remember all the specifics of the game, she recalls knowing she absolutely had to get on base at that point.
“I just remember my bunt that I beat out,” DiPietro said. “I just knew that I had to be safe. We were getting toward the end of the game and I knew we had to do something.”
When DiPietro is on base, things happen. The senior second baseman is stepping into the role of the leadoff batter and remains a huge base-stealing threat for the defending state champions.
In other words … there won’t be many easy games this season. There won’t be many easy at-bats. Or stolen bases.
But DiPietro relishes the challenge.
“I love leading off,” she said. “I love getting the whole lineup started because once one person gets it started, we usually just build off of each other. For my travel team, I’ve always been leadoff, I’m used to being in front of the power hitters. I love getting up there knowing I have to get on. I pick my spot where I want to go and just go for it.
“For the team, it’s fun having people target us. Instead of coming and just playing, it’s always going to be a competitive game. Every game, we know we have to play our best. But that’s what you want. You want to come back and protect your title. You come back and everyone is excited to play you and ready to try to beat you. We just have to maintain our composure and keep playing hard.”
They’ve done an admirable job so far in defense of their title. The Hatters are 5-0 on the young season (1-0 in the Suburban One Continental Conference), including a 5-2 come-from-behind victory over. The five-run sixth inning was sparked by … you guessed it … DiPietro.
“Her actions and the way she carries herself, she is a leader on the field,” DiFilippo said. “She pretty much controls how our game goes. If she’s on base, the other kids think we’re scoring, because if she’s on, we will get her around some way.
“In the field, if things get a little shaky, she has no problem calling everyone together to settle things down. She’s just a great kid.”
DiFilippo said DiPietro has transitioned very smoothly into her role as one of the team’s captains.
“She’s always had that leadership streak in her, but this year she has really stepped up and done anything I could ask her or ever want,” he said. “Sometimes at the end of the year, the seniors just want to get going … she wants to win. And she wants to make this team better. She works with the younger kids, helps the younger kids out. She’s great to have around.”
And so far this season, DiPietro has done exactly what’s been expected of her during games. Her speed and range at second base makes her difficult to pop a bloop single past, and nearly impossible to beat with a shot between first and second.
“What I need from Jackie is exactly what I’ve gotten the first (five) games,” he said. “I need her on base and to cause havoc on the baselines, to be a leader defensively, and that’s exactly what I’ve gotten. And I really think, with her, I’ll get it in every game.”
Due to her versatility, she can also be used elsewhere in the field.
“She is the type of person, she will play anywhere you ask her to play,” DiFilippo said. “I told her, ‘I’m going to keep the infield together, but if I ever have to move you, it’s not because you did anything wrong.’ She’s like,
‘Whatever I can do for the team.’ These days you don’t have a lot of kids like that.
“We’ve moved her around over the years. We’ve put her in right field because of her arm, center field because she’s so darned fast, left field, third base, second base. She’d be a great fit for the Phillies with all the injuries they have.”
DiPietro’s success on the softball diamond can be attributed to her patience at the plate, her smart and aggressive baserunning, and her range in the field. But more than anything else, it can be attributed to her sheer desire to help her team succeed.
That drive and determination is something DiPietro takes with her off the field as well. She works hard to maintain high grades in school, where she’s taking one Advanced Placement class and the rest Honors level courses this year. She is involved in Student Council, National Honor Society and Future Business Leaders of America. And in the fall, she will take her athletic and academic talents to Seton Hall University, which she fell in love with from her first visit during the summer before her junior year.
But perhaps nowhere is DiPietro’s heart more evident than in her graduation project, in which she helped in the healing process of the most heartbreaking of tragedies.
DiPietro’s boyfriend, Edward “Eddie” Coombs, along with Robert Nagel – both former Hatboro-Horsham student-athletes – were killed in an automobile accident last summer.
“I wanted to do something for Edward,” DiPietro said. “I worked with Connor Nagel, Robert’s younger brother, and I also worked with Erin Coombs, Edward’s sister. I wanted to include everybody, do something that everyone could participate in. It would be something that everyone could come out to, contribute, and show support.”
With DiPietro leading the way, they organized the Team EC/RN 5K Run/Walk on Oct. 15.
“We figured a walk or run would be good, or people could just show up and hang out,” DiPietro said. “Being a 5K, I was like, ‘This won’t be that bad, I’ll be able to handle it,’ but it was really difficult. I was working on it every single day after school. We started on Aug. 15, the event was Oct. 15, so every single day for two months, after school I would come home with a whole list of things to do.
“But it wasn’t bad at all. It was so easy for me to do because it was something I really wanted to do.”
About 800 people came out on Oct. 15 to show their support, honor and remember Coombs and Nagle, and the event raised $18,000 for the Edward Taylor Coombs Foundation, established by Coombs’ family to provide financial assistance to outstanding student-athletes.
“It was really emotional seeing how many people came out,” DiPietro said. “That day was just amazing. Bringing everybody together, it was definitely part of the healing process for me and for a lot of people. It was something I needed and wanted to do to take the next step. Seeing how supportive everybody was, was really just great.”
And as much as her softball coach likes to talk about DiPietro’s skill and heart on the field, he is even more effusive in praising her character.
“The things she did in the community with her graduation project, that was just amazing to me,” DiFilippo said. “She went way above and beyond the call of duty. She took everything on her shoulders and ran with it and did a phenomenal job, all of those kids did. That was a big loss, to go through something like that, and to try to turn it into a positive, they did a phenomenal job with it.
“She is just a great kid all-around.”
