School: Quakertown
Favorite athlete: Brian Dawkins and Troy Polamalu
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Laying a big hit during a football game, one where the whole crowd goes nuts and you know you laid the wood.”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that happened while competing in sports: “Going up against one of our huge linemen in a hitting drill as a sophomore and getting knocked – no joke – 10 feet through the air.”
Future plans: “Apply to West Point Military Academy and eventually go on to serve in the Army. Definitely play football in college if the opportunity is there. I want to graduate college and go into some kind of protection agency so I can help people.”
Words to live by: “Seize the day, and live every moment as if it were your last.”
One goal before turning 30: “I want to have helped people and to have served my country.”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I hold myself to a higher standard.”
Rob Basile has always been a physical player who isn’t afraid of a little contact on the athletic field. It might well be one of the reasons his soccer career was relatively short-lived.
“I was always knocking people over and getting red cards,” the Quakertown junior said. “I was always getting in trouble because soccer wasn’t physical enough.”
In seventh grade, Basile found a home for his physical style of play when he went out for the football team.
“I loved it,” he said. “I never looked back.”
Four years later, Basile, who also wrestles, is the Panthers’ leading tackler. Through nine games, the standout middle linebacker has 71 tackles, and the Panthers – one year removed from a 1-11 season – are 3-2 in SOL play (7-2 overall).
“From a football standpoint, he’s very instinctive,” coach John Donnelly said. “He’s got great leverage, and that goes hand in hand with his wrestling skills.
“He’s got a nose for the ball. Linebackers are supposed to make the majority of the tackles, and he takes it upon himself to be that guy. He’s just a tough, hard-nosed player which is very typical of kids here at Quakertown.”
As ferocious as he is on the football field, Basile is just as mild-mannered off it, and Donnelly describes him as someone who is ‘almost like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.’
“On the football field, he has an edge to him,” the Panthers’ coach said. “He’s a wrestler, so he’s an aggressive kid by nature. Off the field, he’s very mild-mannered.”
The mild-mannered Basile is an honors student. He is a member of the National Honor Society, the Technology Student Association and student council. He is president of the school’s Best Buddies program.
“He’s everything, as a coach, you want your players to be,” Donnelly said. “We talk about it all the time – you’re a student first and an athlete second, and it’s a privilege to play the sport.
“Rob really exemplifies the example that we want our guys to set.”
The Best Buddies program – a student-run organization that helps form friendships with students who have intellectual disabilities – is one of Basile’s pet projects.
“My mom approached me about it because she heard they wanted to start a Best Buddies chapter at Quakertown,” he said. “It’s something that sparked my interest because I know friends are important to me. Basically, it’s a social club. We hang out, form friendships.
“Originally, I thought it would be a good way to get involved, but now that I’m doing it, I realize it’s a lot more. You help kids. I just came from a meeting, and the fact that they all know my name – it really makes me feel good about helping them out.”
Basile was one of a group of players that started as sophomores for a football team that won just one game.
“The things it taught Rob and the other guys that returned this year is to be persistent, to be resilient, to believe in the system and what we’re trying to do, and they did,” Donnelly said. “Guys stayed with the team throughout the course of the year, which was an arduous task for them to keep coming every Monday and working and just believing what we were telling them.”
Basile insists last year was fun despite his team’s struggles simply ‘because it’s football.’
“But it’s tough when you lose that many games,” he said. “As much as you love the sport, it’s not enjoyable getting hammered into the ground 11 times.
“But I think at the end of last year, it put us in a spot where we could only go up. We just made it our goal to totally turn the season around.”
The players have taken to heart the ‘Rising from the Ashes’ theme Donnelly suggested at the beginning of the season.
“Last year we had a lot of adversity,” Basile said. “Our team didn’t click as much as it did this year. We learned from last year.
“One thing this year is the attitude – we’re a lot more motivated. It’s basically the same group of guys as last year, but we’ve come together so much more. We’re all getting bigger, faster, stronger, and we’re just a tighter, better team, and I think that’s huge.”
Friday nights, according to Basile, are a whole lot different this year.
“Last year – the camaraderie and being part of the team was fun, but when you’re winning, the feeling you get after the game lasts the whole weekend,” he said. “All the parents have been tailgating every game this year. It’s just awesome, especially the fact that it’s the same group of guys, and we’re coming together. Out there on the field, when things are clicking the way they have in some games, it’s an awesome feeling.
“We made a vow we were going to get better from last year. We wanted to improve. I think last year was huge in what this year has become. I think where we are right now is justice for the work we put in.”
Hard work is something Basile knows a whole lot about. Last winter, he was a key member of a Panther wrestling team that captured a sectional crown. In the spring, he played for the tennis team.
“Tennis a break from football and wrestling,” he said.
Basile plans to apply to West Point, and his coach, for one, believes the academy would be fortunate to have him.
“He’s a kid who has goals,” Donnelly said. “He’s driven towards those goals, and he knows what he wants.
“He’s an easy kid to coach. He’s just well-liked by everybody. He moves well within all the different circles in the school. He’s not a pretentious kid. He’s very level headed about who he is and what he does on the field and on the wrestling mats. He’s everything we want a Quakertown football player to represent.”
