Field-Hockey, Softball
Favorite athlete: Pat Burrell
Favorite team: LSU Tigers’ softball
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating Neshaminy my sophomore year at their own field for the first time in years.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: During a game against Bristol, I went into my motion to throw a pitch, and my cleat got stuck so I tripped and fell. I was so embarrassed – I couldn’t stop laughing.
Music on iPod: A little bit of everything from Florida Georgia Line, Beyonce, Jeremiah, J Cole, Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood.
Future plans: To attend and play softball at Stockton University and major in physical therapy.
Favorite motto: “You only get what you put in.”
One goal before turning 30: To travel and explore Europe.
One thing people don’t know me: I play the clarinet and was in the marching band.
By Mary Jane Souder
Ask Maria Dea how she manages a schedule that includes playing two varsity sports as well as travel softball, carrying a course load with three AP classes while also holding down a part-time job, and the Harry S Truman senior has an immediate answer.
“Great time management skills,” Dea said. “I actually have a list and I have times – when to do homework, when to go to practice, when to go to work – everything.”
Dea’s packed schedule was underscored recently when the starting time of her team’s softball game at Bensalem was moved back to 5 p.m. to accommodate the fact that she was taking her AP Italian exam. Dea – the team’s starting pitcher – completed the exam at 4 p.m. and immediately boarded the bus to Bensalem. She not only earned the win in the circle – the Tigers won 4-2 - but was 4-for-4 at the plate.
“Maria is the epitome of a student-athlete,” coach Kyle Hoffman said. “She is every coach’s dream of a well-rounded team leader.”
Dea, a workhorse in the circle for the Tigers, started all 19 games this season, completing all except three. She was the team’s number five hitter and was in the top three in hits, home runs and on-base percentage.
“She improved as the season progressed,” Hoffman said. “As well as Maria has done on the field, her off the field accomplishments are even more eye catching.”
Dea is ranked fifth in Truman’s Class of 2016 with a 4.2 GPA, and she is secretary of the National Honor Society. She admits that her love of competition has served her well on the softball diamond and in the classroom.
“When I was a freshman, I was like ‘I’m graduating in the top 10 in my class, I’m graduating in single digits,’” Dea said. “Even in elementary school, I was always that girl who had to hand in her work first.
“I’m always so determined and competitive that I have to be done first, be the best.”
Dea recently was awarded a $7,000 Dean’s Scholarship toward her tuition at Stockton University where she will continue her softball career.
“I was actually considering the University of Scranton because I’m majoring in physical therapy, so I really wanted to try and find a school that had the graduate program because not a lot of schools do,” Dea said. “I actually wasn’t interested in Stockton at all.”
A visit to the school changed her perspective in a hurry.
“When I met with the coach – she was the reason that made me want to go there,” Dea said. “I did my overnight in February, and once I met the team – that’s when I fell in love and knew I wanted to go there.”
*****
Dea’s journey to playing collegiate softball had an unlikely beginning.
“Softball is actually one of the last sports I played,” she said. “I was really into dancing and gymnastics.”
At the encouragement of her friends, she reluctantly gave softball a try.
“I didn’t really want to because I played t-ball and I hated it,” Dea said. “I played one year of t-ball and I was like ‘Never again. I don’t want to do this.’
“I was so bored standing around the whole time. I played with the grass, I didn’t know what to do.”
But at the age of 11, Dea found herself back on the softball diamond.
“It was the first year of majors in little league,” she said. “My dad was like, ‘Oh, why don’t you start pitching’ because I had a pretty good arm.
“I started and I just loved it. I was like ‘This is what I want to do.’ We were winning and I thought, ‘This is awesome, this is my sport.’ I also played basketball and soccer and I thought – ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ I just wanted to play softball.”
Dance also began to take a backseat to softball.
“I would go from softball to dance,” Dea said. “I was taking four dance classes, and I was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’
“It was hard to give it up in the beginning, but in softball, I was having so much fun so I wasn’t really losing anything.”
One year after her re-introduction to the sport, Dea joined the travel circuit, playing for the Lower Bucks Lady Lions, and a year later, she moved to Lower South Liberty. She is now playing for Philadelphia Spirit Gold.
Field hockey entered the picture in eighth grade.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Dea said. “My group of friends – we play both field hockey and softball.
“Somehow I got to play goalie. The coach said ‘We don’t have a goalie,’ and I’m like ‘I’ll try it.’ I don’t know – I just liked the pressure.”
For four years, Dea played goalie, earning all-league honors as both as sophomore and junior.
“Maria is the type of player who was the first to arrive to practice and the last to leave,” coach Kayla Kowalick said. “She is truly a dedicated leader and was able to create positive team chemistry.
“As a four-year varsity starter in goal, Maria proved that dedication and hard work pays off.”
Dea brought that same work ethic to the softball field where Hoffman – who didn’t have captains – counted on her veteran pitcher to provide leadership.
“If I needed something done, she was the first person I would go to,” the Tigers’ coach said. “When we had faculty meetings, Maria would be the person I’d give my keys to and tell her what we needed for practice. She’d get the equipment out, and they’d be warmed up and ready to go when I got there.
“I never had to question whether she was going to be at a practice, at a game or if she was going to be ready.”
Proof of that came in the season’s final weeks that saw the Tigers play four games in four days. Dea was on the mound for all four.
“I asked her ‘How do you feel?’ And she said ‘Good,’” Hoffman said. “‘Do you want to answer me honestly?’ She said, ‘I’m a little tight, but I’m pitching.’”
According to Hoffman, Dea is her own toughest critic.
“We lost our first three games by two runs each, and she was so frustrated – not because we were losing but because she wasn’t hitting, and she wasn’t contributing on that side of the ball,” the Tigers’ coach said. “She was up in the lineup, and she felt if she would have been hitting that we would have been able to put up a couple more runs.
“Even though she’s taking the mound every day, she wants to play all around. The dedication with everything she has going on with school – there would be days she would wait for me in the hallway between classes just to remind me she had something to do after school and she’d be late to practice. She’s 100 percent into everything.”
Dea aspires to study abroad as part of her college experience. Italy might be a natural choice.
“My mom is 100 percent Italian, so in eighth grade when you had to pick a language – everyone took Spanish, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to take Spanish. I want to take Italian. Maybe I’ll be able to learn some of my culture,’” she said.
So passionate were Dea and her classmates about Italian, they sought – and received – approval to add AP Italian to the curriculum.
Dea is also a member of Truman’s varsity club, open to two-year varsity letter winners who have a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Her interest in pursuing a career in physical therapy was confirmed when she sprained her ankle and was sidelined her junior softball season.
“I was in a boot for two months, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ll never be able to pitch again. I won’t be able to go to college and play softball,’” Dea said. “When I went to physical therapy, after a month, I was able to run again, I was able to pitch again.
“I was like, ‘This is definitely what I want to do.’”
Dea walks away from her playing days at Truman with fond memories.
“I’ve been with the same group of girls, for the most part, since elementary school, so building those experiences and having all the same memories as each other – growing into adulthood and seeing where we’ve been and how we’ve grown – I think that’s been the best part,” she said.
