Field-Hockey, Swimming, Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Alex Morgan or Steph Curry
Favorite team: Anything Philly sports; gotta support your home city!
Favorite memory competing in sports: Swimming 100 breast against my sister and having her come in first with me coming in second was one of the most satisfying feelings I’ve had in my high school swimming career. It made me feel closer to my sister, and we both celebrated together.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: During one of my lacrosse games, my shoe came off and my coach had told me to keep playing without it, so I had to play for five minutes with only one shoe on my foot. Meanwhile, I had to deal with people trampling my feet, and I ended up with a ton of bruises.
Music on iPod: Future, Drake, Bryson Tiller, Partynextdoor
Future plans: Attend either Temple or Pitt and eventually become a CRNA. I hope to meet and happily marry the man of my dreams and live a prosperous life filed with traveling to different places and experiencing different people and cultures.
Words to live by: “Open the door for yourself, they’re not gonna open it for you.” –DJ Khaled
One goal before turning 30: Travel around the world.
One thing people don’t know about me: I love to cook my own food and I am a health nut.
By GORDON GLANTZ
Whether she is in the natatorium, the classroom or out in the world, Norristown Area High School’s Dani Martorella believes she has something a little extra to prove.
“There is a stereotype about Norristown,” she said. “People hear you are from Norristown, and they look at you differently. People look down on you. I don’t think that’s fair. I just feel as though people shouldn’t stereotype.”
The Univest Featured Female Athlete of the Week wouldn’t trade places with any of those doing the judging.
“They judge off of what they see, and there is more to Norristown than what they see,” she continued. “I have had the opportunity to meet different people and experience different cultures at Norristown that they never will.
“I just don’t like being judged.”
Martorella, for her part, has taken care of her own world to prove detractors wrong. A member of the National Honor Society and French Honor Society carrying a course load of all honors and AP classes, she is also the senior captain of the swim team and has also played lacrosse and field hockey for the Eagles.
The scoreboard may not always reflect victory, but there is more than what meets the eye.
At swim meets, the Eagles – out-numbered in terms of bodies – are not always able to fill up all the lanes, but they are able to get the most out of what they have for coach Beth O’Neil.
“Swimming isn’t the most popular sport (at Norristown),” the Eagles’ coach said. “It’s definitely a challenge, with our size, but you can also see how much work we put into our meets.
“We’re not going to win every event, but you can see how cohesive our team is and that is something to be appreciated. We work well with what we have.”
Martorella is a huge part of that, as she not only motivates her teammates and challenges them to get better, but she also participates in multiple events to score as many points as possible.
Even though the 100 breast stroke is her main event, she is a regular in the 200 IM, the butterfly and the freestyle relay.
“Dani is a senior captain and team leader,” said O’Neil. “She has been swimming for four years and has grown, not only in swimming but as a team leader as well. She leads by example and wants everyone to be involved. She works hard in practice and will swim in any event that I place her in for a meet.
“As our season is still young, she has already bettered her times from last year and wants to drop more time by the end of the season. She is working hard on the breaststroke events and swims the 200 individual medley or the 200 free at the beginning of the meets. She is on all the top relays and is a key contributor, scoring points in all of her events so far this season.”
The coach can only imagine life without her, but realizes it was close to being a reality.
“Dani wasn’t sure she wanted to swim in high school but, with some encouragement, she decided to swim alongside her sister, Nicole, and follow the family tradition,” said O’Neil.
Martorella is equally thankful she, literally and figuratively, took the plunge at the high school level. She credits her sister, Nicole, who she calls her “best friend,” for doing the necessary prodding.
“My sister played a huge role,” she said. “She has also been inspirational for me, and I wanted an activity to be with her more. There was also the fun aspect. I was a freshman, and I could meet new people.”
But the doubts were well-founded. Martorella was burned out with swimming competitively.
“When I was younger, I was such a good swimmer,” she said. “I took it so seriously. I stopped in sixth grade because I felt like I was pressured too hard.
“I didn’t want more pressure going into it, and I had my doubts.”
After her freshman year, while vowing just to do it for fun, her heart was not really in it.
“I didn’t have the same passion in ninth grade,” she said. “I had my doubts about returning in 10th grade, but that’s the year I started to appreciate swimming again. As time progressed, I began to care more for the sport again.
“I have come a long way since my freshman year.”
At the same time, Nicole was the unquestioned team leader and standout as senior when Dani was a sophomore.
Admitting she felt she was in Nicole’s shadow when she was younger, Dani was encouraged and inspired by the success her sister was having in high school and wanted to duplicate it.
Martorella said that when Nicole moved on, the biggest void on the team was in leadership.
“There was a void, and I wanted to fill it,” she said. “When my sister left, I took on more responsibility. She was the team captain, and I wanted to follow in her footsteps.”
While swimming is an individualized sport, there is place and space for a captain being a captain.
“For swimming, being a captain – even though it is an individual sport – is being motivational for others,” said Martorella. “It can be difficult to motivate yourself. A lot of people can find swimming boring so, as captain, you need to be able to encourage others, in terms of swimming laps and getting their times down.”
“I have thank our coach, Beth O’Neil, for motivating and encouraging me to be a leader.”
Meanwhile, the willingness to swim in any event equates to leading by example.
“I am able to swim any stroke efficiently,” said Martorella, who works as a lifeguard and swim instructor at the Greater Plymouth Community Center. “I always encourage other members of the team, especially the newer ones, to take on learning new strokes.”
Martorella takes the same motivational approach when she is charged with the responsibility of being the person who introduces toddlers to swimming.
“I enjoy working with kids, but it can be tough at times,” said Martorella. “A lot of parents push their kids. I try to make it be something other than dreadful, like it was for me. I try to keep it fun.”
Martorella, whose career goal is to be a nurse – more specifically a CRNA – (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) and has narrowed her college choices to Pitt and Temple, was selected as one of two seniors to be added to Norristown’s Wall of Champions.
Although she steadily works on chiseling down her breast stroke time to the point where she can be a challenger in the league meet, the honor was a crowning achievement for a career as a student-athlete who is as proud of what she has accomplished as she is of her school where she did it.
That said, she says her swimming days will be officially be over in college. No more following in her sister’s footsteps, as Nicole now swims at Shippensburg.
“I’m going to need to focus on my academics,” said the daughter of Sue and Mario Martorella. “I wanted to be a doctor, but nursing is more economical for my situation. A CRNA is in the surgery room and you play a part alongside the doctors.”
In terms of thanking those who kept her focused, the gratitude does not go far outside the door of the family’s East Norriton home.
“I want to thank my parents for raising me and pushing me to work my hardest, whether it was school or sports or anything else I tried,” she said. “And my sister, who has been my best friend, has encouraged me to do anything I wanted.”
