School: Pennridge
FIELD HOCKEY, SOFTBALL
Favorite athlete: Chase Utley
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Two years ago as a sophomore, I was pitching for my high school team at Pennridge, and we had a home game against Neshaminy. My coach knew it was a big game because they were a really good team, and we hadn’t beaten them in a long time. I pitched the whole game, ending up having three strikeouts and (allowing) only three hits, and we creamed Neshaminy 7-2. It was the first time Pennridge had beaten Neshaminy in nine years.”
Funniest memory while competing in sports: “During preseason this past year, my favorite defender – who has a very artistic edge – decided to use the bright yellow pinnies as a different type of clothing. Every time the defense had to wear pinnies, she would step into the pinny and wear it like a huge diaper around her butt and waist instead. Everyone else on the team liked it so much that when kids drove by our practices, they honked because they liked the way we looked.”
Music on iPod: Carrie Underwood, Sugarland, Chris Brown, Beyonce, and Switchfoot
Future plans: “I would like to be some type of print journalism major and have a column or page in a magazine or newspaper where I can talk about sports or social concerns. (Anything but politics!)”
Words to live by: “Nothing worth getting is ever easy.”
One goal before turning 30: “I want to write for a prestigious publication and have my own column as a successful writer.”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I’m a sucker for a plate of hot wings and Turkey Hill ice cream.”
Kelsey Detweiler is both talented and fiercely competitive.
It’s a combination that has allowed the Pennridge senior to excel in multiple sports.
It doesn’t matter if Detweiler is playing goalie for her field hockey team or pitching for the softball team, one fact is clear – she will do everything in her power to lead her team to victory.
“I think what makes her good is she’s a very intense, very focused individual,” Pennridge hockey coach Jen Wolfe said. “She has a very strong desire to win, which has pretty much been lacking across the board even from some of the decent athletes that I get.”
“Not everybody is as competitive as she is,” Pennridge softball coach Jay Wenger said. “She wants to win every game, no question about it.”
Detweiler doesn’t mind in the least that she’s playing the most demanding positions in both hockey and softball. As a matter of fact, she revels in it, but she’s never quite gotten used to the fact that both programs have struggled in recent years.
“It’s tough,” she said. “I don’t want to say you get used to it because that’s not what you want to do. I didn’t get used to it. I was always the one after games saying, ‘We need to do better.’
“I guess my thing was I tried to make something happen after the game or at the next practice after the loss, putting my two cents in wherever I can. I try to help.”
Detweiler has been competing in sports since her earliest recollections.
“I lived right next to Deep Run (Sports Complex), and it was always like, ‘Hey, let’s go play baseball for my brother. Let’s play softball for me,’” she said. “I’m the kind of person who gets bored really easily.
“I have to keep myself entertained.”
Interestingly, Detweiler came by both positions almost by default, taking up pitching when she was nine years old and her team needed a pitcher.
“One day I said to my dad, ‘Okay, let’s go learn to pitch,’” she said. “I started pitching, and ever since then I’ve gone to pitching coach after pitching coach and learned different ways of pitching.”
Detweiler will be a four-year starter on the diamond this spring. She saw some action on the mound as a freshman, split mound duties as a sophomore and was the Rams’ ace last spring.
She plays outfield for her Sellersville Belles travel team.
Where is she most comfortable?
“Naturally, it would be a pitcher just because that’s what I’ve been doing most of the time,” Detweiler said. “What I like to do most – I have grown very fond of the outfield.
“As I got older, I’ve gotten into much higher competition, and obviously, there have been a lot better pitchers than me. I’m just more of a local pitcher who knows the basic fundamentals. I guess I’m okay, but I’m nothing special.”
But according to her coaches, Detweiler is something special.
“Kelsey is competitive, self-driven, focused and a leader on and off the field,” Wolfe said.
“She’s a very hard worker, and she’s a very good athlete,” Wenger said. “She’s a good hitter, and she knows the game.”
On the hockey field, Detweiler ended up in goal after putting on the goalie equipment as a joke before her middle school team’s first practice when she was in seventh grade.
“It’s kind of a running joke with my friends,” she said. “No one knew our coach, and we were all new to the school.
“We walked up to the field, and there was a big goalie bag there. I’m like, ‘Hey, that would be funny if somebody put this on,’ so I started putting it on as a joke. The coach was like, ‘Alright, go try goalie,’ and I stepped into goal and have been there ever since.”
A natural athlete with cat-like quickness, Detweiler excelled.
“I like it a lot,” she said. “I can see a lot of things, and I can control a lot of things.”
Detweiler has been a stalwart defender in the cage for the varsity the last two years, earning first team all-league honors as a senior.
“(The fact that she’s an athlete) made all the difference in the world,” Wolfe said. “I could focus on my offense. I didn’t have to build from the defense up, which is what you normally want to do, but I didn’t have to do that with her in there.
“She was a rock, she’s solid, and that was definitely a plus.”
Wolfe admits that Detweiler competes at a higher intensity level than most.
“Even though she loves the girls, she gets so frustrated because she wants the same intensity from everyone,” the Rams’ coach said. “She can’t understand how they can walk off the field after a loss, and they’re okay with it.”
Detweiler’s future plans have always included playing softball at the collegiate level. Wolfe believes she has a future playing hockey at the next level as well.
“I talked her into playing in the all-star classic, so she’s good to go,” Wolfe said. “There’s never a time when Kelsey isn’t in control. She’s level headed, she’s quick, she bright, and she picks up everything. She knows everything that’s going on.”
For now, picking a sport has taken a backseat to finding a school that offers her major – communications. The senior standout is a member of National Honor Society and boasts a GPA of 4.12. She is vice president of the executive council for the senior class.
Detweiler hopes to pursue a career in print journalism and is looking into schools known for their journalism programs, including Penn State, Temple, Ithaca and Boston University.
“I always tried to go on the softball aspect, but I realized you need a good school first,” she said. “Basically, the thing I look for is just the communications major.”
That’s not to say Detweiler can imagine life without one or both sports. She can’t and at the very least plans to play club sports if she can’t find a college that offers both her major of choice and an opportunity to compete.
“I’ve always had this picture of having softball practice every day, working out in the gym,” she said. “But now I’m like, ‘Field hockey would be fun too.’”
No matter what the outcome, it’s a safe bet Detweiler will be having fun and competing for all she’s worth.
