Softball
Favorite athlete: Patrick Mahomes
Favorite team: Pittsburgh Steelers
Favorite memory while competing in sports: Hitting my first over the fence home run!
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that happened while competing in sports: One time when I was 12 or 13, I was batting and hit a foul ball. When I looked back at my bat, I saw that it was broken in half with the barrel at third base and the bottom half in my hand.
Music on playlist: Country Music
Future plans: I will be attending the University of South Carolina's Honors College and will major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Words to live by: “Everything happens for a reason.”
One goal before turning 30: A goal of mine is to finish graduate school and have a good job working in my field.
One thing people don’t know about me: I like to draw and paint in my free time.
By Mary Jane Souder
Sarah Stofik’s career path promises to be an interesting one.
The Quakertown senior will be attending the University of South Carolina’s Honors College where she will major in biochemistry and molecular biology.
Her goal after graduate school?
“I’m not sure yet, but I definitely could see myself somewhere in the future working with medications, focusing on medications for the heart,” Stofik said. “I’ve always been interested in that aspect.
“I took chemistry, and I really enjoyed it, seeing how applicable it is to all these different things in life.”
Stofik’s underlying motivation to work with the development of heart medications is far more personal than just her enjoyment of chemistry.
“When I was younger, my grandfather was in the hospital,” she said. “He had a major heart attack and major complications. Seeing that drew me in to be more interested in heart medications.”
Stofik’s grandfather recovered from his heart complications, but it inspired Quakertown’s Class of 2020 valedictorian. Those who know her best have no doubt she will be doing something special.
“As a person, you know you’re talking to a very smart kid who’s going to do very big things in the future,” Quakertown softball coach David Scott said. “Talking to her is just like talking to a 30-year-old sometimes. She’s just a great, great all-around kid.”
Stofik was a key piece of the varsity softball team for the past four years. The all-league second baseman was 26 hits shy of the coveted 100-hit milestone, but she never had the opportunity to pursue that milestone since the entire season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Senior year is the year everyone looks forward to,” Stofik said. “It’s the last time to play with the people you’ve played with for a long time, and it’s just really exciting.
“Our team has had the same people for the past four years pretty much, so I think we had a pretty good shot of getting to the (district) playoffs and going pretty far, and it was disappointing that we couldn’t see how we would have done because I think we could have done really well this season.”
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Stofik got an early start in sports, going through the gamut at the YMCA, but two sports at opposite ends of the spectrum stuck – softball and figure skating. She was around five when she started both.
Softball is a popular choice for youngsters, but figure skating, which morphed into synchronized skating – not so much.
“I took lessons, and once I decided I really liked it, I joined one of the synchronized skating teams,” said Stofik, who skated at Hatfield Ice. “I would compete with the team, and we would go to different competitions in the Northeast. It was fun.”
Skating consumed a considerable amount of time and included Saturday morning practices with her team.
“A couple times during the week I would have to go practice on my own, and I’d do lessons,” Stofik said. “Competitions would be a weekend thing even though you only skated one time.”
Combining skating with softball turned out to be challenge. In sixth grade, Stofik opted to go the travel softball route and gave up skating.
“Really, I had to decide at that point because there was a lot of overlap and conflicts between softball and figure skating, so I had to decide which one I wanted to stick with more,” she said. “It was just mainly time management, and I decided to stick with softball, which I really enjoyed.
“I haven’t skated in a couple of years, but I would love to go skating again just to see what I could do.”
Scott, for one, is certainly glad Stofik chose softball. A fixture in the varsity lineup since she was a freshman, she boasted a .453 batting average last year with a dazzling 1.187 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage). She led the team with 20 RBIs and three home runs.
“For kind of a quiet kid, she was very much always in the attack mode and was very aggressive in her approach at the plate,” Scott said. “She was a line drive hitter. She really bought into the concept of right field approach that we were trying to teach all last year, and I think it really helped get her average up there. She did really well with that.”
Defensively, Stofik was a rock at second base and finished her junior season with a .943 fielding percentage, committing just five miscues on 88 opportunities.
“She was really, really solid – she was a really consistent fielder,” Scott said. “As a player, she’s one of those kids that shows up for every workout, every practice, every game.
“She doesn’t say a whole lot, she’s not a real vocal kid. She is one of the hardest working and works without complaint. She does whatever you ask her to do. She’s very laidback and just a great kid to coach.”
Stofik, a member of the Doylestown Mustangs travel team, is hoping to have one final go-round with softball this summer.
Away from the softball diamond, Stofik was president of Quakertown’s Mini-THON Committee and was in charge of the events committee. Work on the Mini-THON – scheduled for April 24-25 (7 p.m. to 7 a.m.) - began at the start of the school year with monthly fundraisers such as a Pura Vida bracelet sales, holiday trivia night and an Applebee’s pancake breakfast. Stofik’s area of focus was the events schedule for each hour.
“This would have been the sixth annual Mini-THON event,” she said. “Our goal was $32,000, but unfortunately, we did not reach that due to the event being cancelled (because of the pandemic).”
Stofik is also a member of National Honor Society. Finishing number one in her class of 430 was never on Stofik’s bucket list, but it is the result of a dazzling high school resume that included 14 AP classes.
“I don’t know if it ever really came to me,” Stofik said of being named valedictorian. “I really focused on my academics as well as my extra-curriculars.
“I think my strong work ethic and making sure I kept up my grades because those were always important to me – it just fell into place.”
Stofik has already walked across the stage in her cap and gown and moved her tassel. It will be part of a video that will be compiled of all the graduating seniors. The virtual graduation video will be shown the night of the school’s scheduled commencement – June 16.
Academics will be in the forefront when Stofik arrives at South Carolina this fall, and although her competitive softball days will be over, she wouldn’t have wanted to miss the experiences she shared with her softball team.
“Softball was something fun I could do after school,” she said. “Being a spring sport athlete, spring was one of my favorite times of the year. School was ending, and there was always softball to look forward to. It just made the days go quicker.
“It was also a good way to make friends and meet new people in other grade levels that you normally wouldn’t be around. That was always fun.”
