Football
Favorite athlete: Carson Wentz
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning game in overtime against Pennridge sophomore year.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Jumping offsides twice in a game.
Music on mobile device: AC/DC, Future, Lil Wayne
Future plans: Get a degree in business and have a successful job
Words to live by: One word, grit.
One goal before turning 30: Establishing a career
One thing people don’t know about me: I do not believe in dinosaurs.
By Craig Ostroff
Standing at 6-foot-4 and tipping the scales at more than 250 pounds, Central Bucks East senior PJ Szymanski makes for an imposing figure on the offensive line.
It might be hard to believe, but Szymanski’s early days on the football field saw him line up behind his offensive linemen, rather than alongside them.
“I played flag football from age 5 to 7, then at age 8 rolled into 80-pound youth football,” Szymanski said. “For a couple years there, I actually played quarterback. I was a little stronger than most of the other kids, and I could throw the ball pretty well, so I played quarterback for a few years, always making weight by about an ounce or two.
“In middle school, I started getting bigger and putting on weight and someone told me, ‘OK, you’re a lineman.’ ‘Yeah, you’re right.’”
It seems that the only people who would disagree with that move would be the countless defensive linemen who have been pancaked over the years by the East senior.
John Donnelly is more than happy to sing the praises of the two-year captain. The Patriots’ coach can speak on Szymanski’s rare combination of intelligence, power, and skill when he’s in uniform, but he would much rather discuss the young man underneath the helmet.
“PJ is a very charismatic guy, he’s mature beyond his years, he grabs the attention of the kids and the coaches when he speaks,” Donnelly said. “He’s a highly intelligent young man, a great leader and citizen – he’s really the epitome of the student-athlete.
“PJ is the entire package – he’s great with his academics, he has a super GPA. He’s very comfortable talking in front of people, he connects well with people, he’s a great teammate and leader. And on the field, PJ is as tough as they come. He’s as blue collar and physical as we want our guys to be. He sets a high standard for everyone.”
Szymanski garnered Second-Team All-League status as a sophomore and earned First-Team All-League status last season, capping off a stellar year that began with a rare feat at East – being named a captain as a junior.
“We have not had a lot of junior captains – I could probably count them on one hand,” Donnelly said. “It’s takes a special breed to be that guy, to play a position that doesn’t receive a lot of glory and attention, but still to be able to be that kind of a role model for the team, it speaks to how his peers and coaches feel about him.”
“That meant so much to me,” Szymanski said. “It’s a huge honor and I was very humbled by it. At first it was intimidating, because there were seniors on the team who had more experience than I did. At first, it was difficult to figure out my place. But I think I found that balance very quickly, I learned that you’ve got to be a leader no matter if you’re talking to a senior or a freshman. We also had a lot of vocal leaders on the team last year, so I could lead more by example. This year, I’d say I’ve had to speak up more and be a more vocal leader, though I also make sure my play never changed and I’m still able to lead by example on the field as well.”
That example is of an athlete who gives no less than everything he has – on every snap, in every practice, during every offseason weight training session.
“PJ is the best player on the field most days,” Donnelly said. “He works like he has something to prove something, like he’s got a chip on his shoulder, his work ethic is tireless.”
Part of that attitude is simply the reflection of Szymanski’s love for the game. But it is also the aftermath of a torn ACL that kept him relegated to the sidelines his freshman year and the way Donnelly and the rest of the East coaching staff treated him that season.
“When you tear your ACL, those first months were terrible,” said Szymanski, who suffered the injury during a middle school basketball game in eighth grade. “You’re down on yourself, and surgery and the complications that go along with it are never fun, but the minute I got to start running again, I appreciated everything. Offseason practices my sophomore year, I remember it being such a grind to get into shape with that, but I left every day smiling. I don’t think I’ve ever really lost that. It definitely gave me a new appreciation for the game and I celebrated it.
“Even though I wasn’t able to play as a freshman, I’m so grateful to Coach D for letting me be with the varsity team – I got to go to practices and go to games. He never made me feel like I was the waterboy, I always felt like I was part of the team. I loved being next to my brother Blake and seeing him in his senior year, and that taught me a lot about being part of a great team. No one wants to be hurt, but I was really blessed that Coach D let me be on the varsity roster that year.”
Szymanski still has the paper on which he wrote his goals for his sophomore year.
“Coach tells us, ‘Goals are dreams you write down,’” Szymanski said. “My goal my sophomore year, I wanted to start every game that year. Even though we had five or six senior offensive linemen, I wanted to earn myself a spot. And I wanted to earn it every game. I still have that slip of paper I wrote it down on.”
His meteoric rise to become among the top linemen on the team, in the league, in the district, capped off a family legacy stretching back for longer than Szymanski can remember. Among his earliest football memories were games where he sat in the stands and tried to catch the small, plastic footballs tossed into the crowd by the cheerleaders during his cousin Kurt Schneider’s games with the Patriots. After Kurt came Scott Schneider, followed by Szymanski’s older brothers, Bryan and Blake. His parents have been involved with the football booster club for many years as well.
While he played baseball and basketball through middle school, football came first in the Szymanski household, and like his brothers before him, the youngest Szymanski naturally gravitated toward the game.
“East football has really meant the world to us,” Szymanski said. “My family has always been a football family. When we sit down to have a meal, we’re talking football, even if it’s the middle of the offseason. I take a lot of pride to be the last one in the family to go through the program, to close it out with a strong career, I’ve got nothing but pride and joy in my heart for that.
“I never felt pressured to ‘uphold the family name’ or anything like that. I never felt pressured to have a great career, never felt I would have disappointed my family if I wasn’t a starter or didn’t play well. I embraced following in the footsteps of my family, but I also wanted to make a name for myself. I wasn’t the same players my brothers were, nor would I want to be.”
Though his Central Bucks East career didn’t end in an ideal fashion – the Patriots suffered a pair of tough losses to close out the season at 4-6 overall (2-4 SOL Continental) – Szymanski said that with a little bit of time, he knows the setbacks will fade and the good memories are what he’ll take with him.
“It’s obviously a tough way to end the season,” Szymanski said. “It hurts and it’s hard to get over that right now. I love football so much, and it’s a huge part of my life at home and at school, but at end of the day, it is just a game and you’ve got to move on. The sun’s still going to rise the next day.
“In the upcoming weeks I’ll be better able to put it all in perspective and I know I’ll be able to look at my whole career and this season as positive. After our last game, I think I spoke with almost every one of the guys on the roster before I left the building. This has been one of the closest groups I’ve ever been a part of. We really bonded this year. That’s what I’m going to remember the most.”
While his gridiron days at East have come to an end, Szymanski still has several months before he can say the same about high school.
So he’s continuing to work hard in the classroom. Szymanski is carrying two AP classes (macroeconomics and statistics) and a pair of honors-level classes (English and physics) among his courseload. In addition, Szymanski is a member of the Future Business Leaders of America (he placed second in the state in the Job Interview category in the last FBLA Competitive Events Program), Athletes Helping Athletes, the National Honor Society, and Operation Eternal Gratitude, which puts together packages for soldiers and officers stationed overseas.
His hard work on the athletic field and in the classroom, and his commitments to extracurricular activities will serve Szymanski well as he prepares for the next chapter in his life … he’s just not sure exactly where that chapter will be written. Szymanski is looking at Division I-AA colleges, seeking a school that offers a top-notch education while allowing him to play football.
“Of course there’s pressure to narrow it down and select a college,” said Szymanski, who said he will likely pursue a business-related major. “I don’t have a set date on when I want to pick it out. When I know it’s right, I’m going to make a decision, whenever it is. To me, it’s not a big deal where it’s located, but how it fits me. I’m looking for that perfect fit.”
His current coach knows that whatever helmet Szymanski wears next year, whichever college he represents, he’s destined to excel.
“PJ is going to have some great opportunities extending his career academically and athletically,” Donnelly said. “Whoever is going to be smart enough to reach out to him, they’re going to get a great kid and I have no doubt he’ll eventually be a captain and a leader.
“(The season finale was) PJ’s 30th start for us. He missed his freshman year and missed a few games here and there to injury. To start 30 games in Suburban One, that’s big-time football, is a great accomplishment. We’re going to miss him dearly both on the field and in the locker room. He’s such a talented player, so driven and mature and such a great leader. And to have a guy who understands the cerebral part of the game and how to motivate people, that might be where we’ll miss him the most.”
Though the player may be gone, his leadership and lessons will remain with those who will suit up for the 2018 iteration of the Patriots’ football team. Szymanski knows the team is heading in the right direction. And he knows he’s played a part in setting the stage for the future.
“If the guys coming back remember anything that I contributed, I hope they fed off of how much I loved the game. I think they’re in great shape for next year. The junior class is very talented and has more heart than any class I’ve ever seen. I hope they remember some of the things I said, I hope they saw how hard I worked, and realized that I did it to help make the team better, and they continue to work hard like I did. If they continue to do that, I’m confident in their success.”
