School: Pennsbury
Soccer, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Ronaldo
Favorite team: Philadelphia Union
Favorite memory competing in sports: In volleyball season, we beat Council Rock North, and the crowd literally stormed the court because it was a huge game, and it was so exciting!
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I was about 12 years old, and I was playing in a soccer game and it was really rainy. I went to throw the ball, and I tripped over these gates that were on the sidelines, and I fell backwards. Everyone from the other team and my team laughed at me, but I was really upset!!!
Music on iPod: Lil Wayne, Drake, Kelly Clarkson, 50 cENT
Future plans: Go to Gettysburg College, play soccer and major in health sciences
Words to live by: “Do what you like, like what you do.”
One goal before turning 30: Go to Barcelona, Spain
One thing people don’t know about me: I love to watch Spongebob.
Molly Phillips is a naturally gifted athlete.
How else could you explain the fact that the Pennsbury senior never played basketball until she was in eighth grade but was a varsity regular two years later? Phillips didn’t pick up a volleyball until she was in ninth grade but as a junior was a middle hitter for a highly-successful Falcon volleyball team.
And those are just her secondary sports.
It is on the soccer field that Phillips truly excels.
A first team all-league selection as a junior, she was a two-year captain for the Falcons. Although she possesses unmistakable star qualities, Phillips is described by her coach as ‘selfless’ and the ‘ultimate team player.’
“She’s one of those people who it’s always a pleasure to coach,” Pennsbury coach Kaitlyn Battiste said. “The girls enjoy being around her. Any one of the girls would be willing to talk about her and compliment her. They’re her biggest fans as well.
“Molly exemplifies the idea of leading by example. She would never ask her teammates to do anything that she couldn’t do herself. She is a phenomenal soccer player and an even better person.”
Battiste recounts a story that captures Phillips’ selfless spirit.
“Last year we were practicing before playoffs, and a woman who lives in the neighborhood behind the high school was walking between the fields with her groceries,” the Falcons’ coach said. “It was during a water break, and Molly said, ‘Coach, can I go see if she needs help?’”
Although the woman turned down Phillips’ offer to help, the story spoke volumes about the Pennsbury senior who is quick to deflect credit to her teammates when she finds herself center stage.
“It’s never about her,” Battiste said. “She doesn’t want the spotlight. She just loves the game.”
A four-year varsity player, Phillips has been a starter since she was a sophomore.
“I was with the jayvee program when she was in ninth grade,” Battiste said. “First of all, she definitely has the physique of a soccer player.
“She has height, she’s strong, and it’s tough for a freshman to make an impact on the soccer field, but she gave the varsity some valuable minutes.”
By the time she was a junior, Phillips was one of the league’s premier players and anchored the Falcons at central midfield.
“The central midfielder is kind of the quarterback,” Battiste said. “She was huge in connecting defense to offense and left to right.
“She’s the kind of person – her speed, her technical skill as well as her decision making – she just has the ability to take over a game.”
Phillips’ value was underscored when she was sidelined with a broken nose the first five weeks of the season. In her absence, the Falcons struggled. With Phillips back in the lineup, the team was 5-1-1 in its final seven league games.
“That was a tough part of the season for us,” Battiste said. “Immediately when she came back, there was a whole different spark to our offense.
“When she was out, the other players took turns saying, ‘I think I had a Molly day today’ when they had a good game. They definitely looked up to her as a player and as a person and friend.”
The accident that kept Phillips out of action occurred in the Falcons’ second scrimmage of the season.
“I collided with a girl, and her forehead hit my nose dead center,” Phillips said.
Phillips was diagnosed with a concussion, and when her headaches didn’t subside, she had a feeling there might be more to it than just a concussion.
“I had an x-ray, and they said, ‘You have a broken nose,’” Phillips said. “I had to have surgery on it. It wasn’t fun.
“I just wanted to play. It was like, ‘Why did this happen to me?’ I tried to do as much as I could because I didn’t want to lose the touch.”
Philllips attended every practice and offered encouragement to her teammates, but that was not what she had in mind for her senior year.
“When I came back, it was like, ‘Wow, I missed this so much,’” Phillips said. “I just loved playing even more because I was back.”
As the Falcons’ central midfielder, Phillips is a superb playmaker.
“That was just fun,” she said. “It’s fun to see the other girls score and know that I had an impact, and I just like being with the girls.”
Phillips has been playing soccer since she was three years old. By the time she was nine, the Falcon senior was competing on the travel circuit. She began playing for FC Bucks club squad when she was 12 years old and has been playing with them ever since.
Phillips – who is 5-10 – began playing basketball and volleyball because she was tall and also had received encouragement from her father and her friends to try both sports.
Her resume is hardly extensive in either sport – Phillips played basketball for the Pennsbury Recreational Basketball League until joining the Lower Bucks Lightening AAU squad after her junior season.
Interestingly, she met her best friend – Steph Gray – on the basketball court.
“It’s just fun,” Phillips said of playing basketball.
Although she played volleyball only three years, Phillips missed not being part of the team this fall.
“I wish my soccer season was in the spring – it kind of stinks,” she said. “I loved my team. They were fun girls, and volleyball was fun too.
“People think volleyball is easy, but it was hard getting used to because I would have to dive on the ground. I didn’t know how to hit the ball, and the footwork was really tough.”
Soccer, however, was always her passion, and Phillips plans to continue playing at the collegiate level.
Blessed with enough talent to compete at the Division One level, Phillips did some soul searching.
“At the start of my junior year, I didn’t know if I wanted to play D-1, D-2 or D-3,” she said. “This past summer I went to the UMass camp, the Messiah camp and the Gettysburg camp.
“UMass was just way too big, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to do D-1.’ It was between Gettysburg and Messiah.”
Phillips chose Gettysburg.
“I just liked Gettysburg better as a whole school and soccer program,” she said.
An excellent student, Phillips is a member of the National Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society. Phillips plans to pursue a health sciences major with her sights on possibly focusing on physical therapy or something in that area.
This spring, Phillips will go back to running track – a sport she competed in during middle school. Taking the spring off was never a consideration for the three-sport standout.
“I enjoyed (playing three sports) a lot,” Phillips said. “It gave me something to do. I like being active. If I wasn’t, I don’t know what I would do.”
It’s a safe bet she’ll excel in track just as she has in every sport she has played during a memorable high school career.
