Soccer, Baseball
Favorite athlete: Chase Utley
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating William Tennent in baseball last year in the last game to clinch a district spot or beating Springfield in soccer to win the league championships.
Funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: All the jokes and laughs with the boys.
Music on playlist: Drake, Kanye, Eminem, J Cole, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Tom Petty.
Future plans: Magazine, news and digital journalism major at Syracuse University
Words to live by: “When it’s grim, be the grim reaper.” -Andy Reid
One goal before turning 30: To be successful in my career and have a stable income to support my family.
One thing people don’t know about me: My favorite TV show is Seinfeld
By Ed Morrone
Like anybody about to start a brand new job, Mike Guido was unsure of his surroundings and probably a little nervous.
As soon as Guido, the first-year head baseball coach at Lower Moreland, checked his newly set up school email inbox this past December, he noticed a message from one of his players who he hadn’t even met in person yet.
“I saw that an Aiden Stepansky had emailed me when he found out I was going to be the new head coach,” Guido recalled. “He was the first to reach out and introduce himself. He told me congratulations on the job, said what positions he played and that he couldn’t wait to get started.
“I’ve learned that it’s kind of who he is. He’s so excited to play baseball all the time, and he stops by my room in between periods to talk. The kid can’t get enough baseball, and he’s always asking questions trying to learn and coming up with suggestions for me to implement.
“When we started our winter workouts, Aiden was always the first to show up and the last one out. He even brought some drills on his own, and I could tell right away this kid was a captain and quiet leader. It was evident the first day I met him. I couldn’t have asked to have a better kid as I transitioned into my first year.”
Stepansky also played soccer at Lower Moreland and was a valuable member of that program (more on this later), but at the end of the day, he is a baseball junkie. Stepansky is absolutely passionate about the game and can talk about and watch it all day long. Considering how much he loves the game, Stepansky had no problem stepping up as a leader; he may be naturally introverted, but when it comes to his favorite sport, he just wanted to help behind the scenes as much as he could.
The Lower Moreland baseball program means that much to Stepansky, who as a senior now serves as the Lions’ leadoff hitter, where he has become a menace on the basepaths in the season’s early chapters, as well as its starting shortstop who is also more than capable of playing second and third, which he has done in his time in the program.
“It kind of happened organically,” Stepansky said on his rising status as a team leader. “We had heard rumors our coach might leave, but we were still a little surprised and bummed. I wasn’t sure what to expect when they picked Coach Guido, but I knew of him since he’s also the varsity golf coach at Lower Moreland. A captain on the baseball team also played golf, and he said the new coach was a really cool guy. I just wasn’t sure how much he knew about baseball.
“I was interested, so I emailed him and said, ‘Listen, we only have myself and two other seniors, so this is up to us, it’s our team.’ (We) and the juniors had been in the program longer than anyone, and I wanted the new coach to hear from me. I was hopeful that he was someone who would trust us, so I reached out just to tell him about myself as a player. He answered back right away, and I could tell he was excited to get to know us. He was completely open to our ideas, willing to give them a try and trust our word and experience in the program.”
*****
Stepansky grew up playing baseball and soccer in Northeast Philadelphia before moving to the Lower Moreland Township School District in fourth grade. He continued playing both sports in his new home, whether it was in-house, travel or American Legion baseball. Stepansky, a back line defender on the soccer field, said it was probably a 50-50 split until high school in terms of which sport he favored. Baseball eventually won out, but he still cared deeply about soccer, even if he wasn’t rushing home to watch any of those games on television.
Stepansky spent most of his freshman season with Lower Moreland’s jayvee baseball squad, though he said he did get to play in a few games with the varsity group. He was ready for an elevated varsity role as a sophomore, and to hear Stepansky recount it, he and the team were on the bus heading to Abington for a scrimmage in March 2020. Seeing that date, it’s no surprise to anyone what happened next.
“On the way to the game is when everything started to shut down,” he said of the incoming COVID-19 pandemic. “That was tough, because we weren’t given a lot of information. We were originally told it would be a two-week shutdown, but we weren’t even allowed to go to the field and practice together. Obviously, we ended up not playing at all that year, and my summer American Legion season got canceled too. It sucked, but I at least had soccer to look forward to in the fall.”
By the time junior baseball season returned, it was the first time Stepansky had seen live pitching in two years, and the pitching he had seen wasn’t at the varsity level. So, he struggled, and the adjustment was tough, but Stepansky acknowledged he was in the same boat as many others.
While his bat struggled, Stepansky’s defensive versatility kept him in the lineup, often batting at the bottom of it. Stepansky estimated he played the first eight games in right field, then the next 10 at second base when the Lions’ infield defense began to crack. Then, for good measure, he started the final five at third base; those are three entirely different positions, and Stepansky handled them with aplomb. He was a key contributor on a team that qualified for districts after beating Tennent on the final day of the regular season.
“As long as I have a glove and keep fielding well, I’m going to play,” he said. “Going from right to second to third in a month and a half, I just trusted my glove and all the work I had put in.”
Stepansky called his offensive game “weak in comparison” to his defense, but he’s also made tremendous strides as a hitter and adapted to the challenging role of leadoff hitter. No coach is going to install a hitter in that spot if the player can’t get on base, and Guido is no exception. The coach credited Stepansky’s approach, his willingness to take more pitches until he finds the right one to get himself on base, whether that’s via walk, bunt or spraying the ball to all fields in the outfield. If Stepansky finds a gap, odds are he’s ending up on third base. While not the fastest baserunner, Guido said it’s Stepansky’s intelligence that makes him lethal stealing bags, knowing exactly when to pick his spots and go.
“He knows how to get a good jump and read a pitcher,” Guido said. “When he’s on base, he has the green light to go. He might even lead the SOL in steals so far. He does whatever I ask him to do.”
The Lions are off to a 2-3 start this season, including a 1-3 mark in SOL Freedom play. Guido is trying to establish a new Lower Moreland baseball culture in his first year, one that demands accountability of its players. As one of the few seniors on the team, it’s fallen on Stepansky to lead by example, something he’s never had a problem doing.
“It’s been natural, because I watched the older kids when I was an underclassman,” he said. “I know what works and what doesn’t, what’s right for the program. When he (Guido) told the upperclassmen that he wants accountability, I kind of took it on as my thing to help do what he wants. I lead by example through my actions, because I want the younger kids to see it so that when they’re older, they follow and do the same thing.
“Last year was our first year in SOL, and I could tell we were kind of overmatched early. As the season went on, we found our footing and went 4-1 in our final five league games. So, I believe we can compete with anyone. In districts last year, we barely snuck in, so our goal now is to get to the top of our league. If we’re going to win enough games, then I know I have to play at a high level as our leadoff hitter and shortstop. I have to get on base and make plays in the field.”
Just like in baseball, Stepansky had a cup of coffee with the varsity soccer team as a freshman, but mostly played jayvee and got to be a leader on that team. He didn’t start at first as a sophomore, but injuries changed that, and once he got in the lineup, Stepansky stuck. He said he started every game as a junior, and probably expected to as a senior as well.
However, the plan changed when Lower Moreland head coach Bob Barnhart, who didn’t coach the team Stepansky’s junior year due to COVID concerns, returned to the sideline and switched the Lions’ typical four-back defense to three, opting for an extra body up top. So, as a senior, Stepansky lost his starting spot, which could be a bruise to the ego of any young student-athlete.
But Stepansky?
“He would play five minutes one game and 75 the next, and he never complained,” Barnhart said. “Even though he didn’t get as many minutes as a senior, he was fully engaged during the game, talking to my assistant and asking questions. He became known as the Brad Lidge of our team, because I’d put him in the last 15 to 20 minutes of a game when we needed to shut down an offensive threat. He really embraced his role wholeheartedly. He provided an extra layer of support, someone we relied on to close out 2-1 or 1-0 games. He made sacrifices to play soccer, and even when he wasn’t getting a ton of minutes, there were no hard feelings. Aiden always had a positive outlook.”
The Lions won the league for the first time since 2004 last fall, going 14-3-2 with a 12-2-2 league mark. Stepansky had no sour grapes. He understood what was being asked of him and was cognizant that it helped the team, even if it required him to sit on the bench more. With two games left in the regular season, Lower Moreland was one point up on Springfield in the standings. The team won a 2-0 home night game against Springfield, clinching the first league title in almost 20 years.
“Everybody was so amped up,” Stepansky said. “To actually win something of significance and get a year on the banner in our gym that will be there forever is pretty awesome.”
*****
From Lower Moreland, Stepansky will be bound for upstate New York, heading to Syracuse University to major in magazine, news and digital journalism. Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Public Communications is widely known as the undisputed best of its kind, with countless journalism luminaries having graduated from there. Stepansky said he figured out around seventh or eighth grade that he wanted to be a baseball writer; after all, he loves the sport so much, so why not? It just made sense to him.
Once he got to Lower Moreland, he joined the school newspaper and wrote sports articles, mainly about the Lions basketball team, and also handled sports assignments for the yearbook.
“‘Step’ has been one of the most consistent contributors to our school newspaper over the last three years,” said Rob Dominick, Lower Moreland’s school newspaper advisor as well as its interim athletic director. “He’s written about national and local sports news with an eye for detail that hints at a bright future in the field of sports journalism.”
Stepansky said he checked out several highly-regarded journalism schools on the East Coast, with Maryland, Penn State and Temple among them. But once he visited Syracuse and gained admittance into Newhouse (no easy feat, just ask this writer), the decision was a no-brainer.
“Newhouse is one of the best, and when I saw the names of the alumni and how successful some of them are, it made my decision easy,” he said. “I’m lucky to have gotten in there.”
The major of magazine, news and digital journalism will allow Stepansky different paths to explore over the next four years, but if you ask a baseball-obsessed kid his dream writing job, the answer is expected.
“I hope to narrow it down as I get more experience writing, but Phillies beat writer for a newspaper or website,” he said.
When asked about what he likes to do when he’s off the clock and can just be a kid his age, Stepansky rattled off more baseball interests: he loves spending countless hours watching games, baseball documentaries and playing the MLB: The Show video game. His favorite TV show is Seinfeld (How many teenagers in 2022 can say that?), and even with that series his favorite episodes are the ones where George Costanza works for the New York Yankees and former owner George Steinbrenner, hilariously played by co-creator Larry David.
Stepansky has one final baseball season and a senior year to complete, but he already knows he’s going to dearly miss Lower Moreland, a place that allowed him to forge his identity as both a student-athlete and burgeoning sports journalist.
“There’s so much academic opportunity,” he said. “I took a lot of AP classes this year, including Language Composition, which will help me going into the field of journalism. Having the ability to take classes like that will only help prepare me for the challenges ahead. I’ll miss all of the little things the most. Showing up to soccer or baseball practice and getting to hang out with my best friends while still having fun. After practice going to Wing Night with the guys, the little things like that are what I’m going to miss the most.”
