Football, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Brian Dawkins
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: When I blocked the game-winning field goal against CB West this past season and we won in overtime.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Every once in a while I completely forget what the play call was so I had to make something up to run and hope that it worked.
Music on mobile device: Any music by Meek Mill
Future plans: To pursue a career in Business and continue my football career.
Words to live by: “The test of a man’s will is not how hard he can hit, but how hard he can get hit and keep moving forward.”
One goal before turning 30: To have a home and a family beginning to grow.
One thing people don’t know about me: When I have free time, I love to spend it fishing.
By Mary Jane Souder
Friday nights were unusually nerveracking for Tim Brown this fall. The Souderton basketball coach cringed every time quarterback Andrew Vince took a hit as he led the Indians to an 8-3 season. Brown’s concern was understandable. After all, Vince was not only a team captain of the basketball team as a junior but also was the Indians’ leading scorer and rebounder.
“It was a long football season - I probably doubled the amount of prayers that I typically say on Friday nights to make sure he stayed healthy,” Brown said. “He’s in good shape, he’s ready to go, and we’re pumped about that.”
While Vince’s points and rebounds are undeniably significant, his most important contribution to the team will not be either of those but rather the leadership he will provide.
Granted, leadership is a word that’s thrown around a lot in the world of competitive sports, but in the case of Andrew Vince, it is not used loosely. As a junior, the veteran quarterback threw for over a thousand yards, but entering the 2019 season, Souderton coach Ed Gallagher never mentioned any stats when asked about his senior captain.
“You talk about a character kid – very rarely do you get a junior captain in any of the major sports, but Andrew Vince was a junior captain in football and a junior captain in basketball,” the Indians football coach said. “That just speaks volumes.
“When the coaches came in to recruit him in the spring, I didn’t really need to say anything else. That piece of information should be plenty if you know his coaches and peers are electing him as a captain as a junior.”
In the season just completed, Vince threw for 1,198 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also ran for 247 yards and five touchdowns. There’s no mistaking those numbers were impressive as is the fact that he earned all-league recognition on both sides of the ball, but all of that is secondary to the leadership Vince provided.
“Andrew has been the glue that has held our team together all season – he is an outstanding leader on and off the field,” Gallagher said. “A lot of people point to leadership and say he leads by example because most people do lead by example and it’s hard to be vocal, but most people use that phrase as – they doing the right things and they’re a very good player, thus their hard work and their talent is the example they’re setting.
“That is the case for Andrew, but it also goes deeper. Not only does he do those things, but when there are a couple of sophomores off by themselves, he’s the one who’s reaching out to them, making sure they feel involved. He does so many little things that keep everyone together, making them feel like they’re important, and that’s a huge part of a team sport. A huge part of why we were successful this year was the way he was able to incorporate more of our younger guys to buy in to what we were trying to get done.”
Vince - a three-year varsity player in both football and basketball – caught the eye of the upperclassmen on the basketball team early in his career, and he earned a rare distinction.
“They’ve always handed down the number zero (uniform) through our program, and usually, they pass it down to a kid a year younger, but Mike Bealer handed it all the way down to Andrew Vince (at the end of his freshman year) because I think he saw just being around him for those four months that this kid was going to be something special,” Brown said. “Honestly, it did have to do partly with his talent. We all knew he was going to grow his skills over time, but it had to do with his work ethic, it had to do with his personality, his leadership skills, his ability to be a great teammate and just the guy that he is.”
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Vince got an early start in football as a youngster growing up in the Springfield-Delco School District.
“When I was four, my brother (Bret Vincent) who is at Widener, signed up to play, and, of course, I wanted to sign up and play and do everything he did, but I was too young,” Vince said. “My dad – who helped coach - talked to the organization, and he was able to get me on the team. I just right off the bat knew I really loved the sport.”
When he was five, Vince’s family moved to Schwenksville.
“Football was the first thing I did,” he said. “I played flag football for three years – two years with my brother.
“I always played basketball, and I picked up baseball later, so those three sports have been what I’ve always done up until middle school when I stopped playing baseball. There was never a time where I took a year off from football. I always played, I always had that love for the sport throughout my years.”
Vince began playing quarterback when he was eight years old and found a home behind center. As for the leadership piece, that came all but naturally to Vince, who also happened to be one of the better players on both the hardwood and gridiron.
“I have always made sure I led by example and tried to do those things right,” Vince said. “The vocal part came after that as I became more comfortable in my high school career.
“I had a good sophomore year in football, and I knew I had to step up since we went 3-and-something and 8-and-something in basketball. It was just a feeling something had to change.”
The Indians won four games in football the following fall, and that still wasn’t good enough. Stinging from a disappointing finish that saw the Indians drop their final two games and drop out of the district playoff picture, Vince entered his final high school season with the firm resolve that things would be different this time around, and they were.
The Indians pulled off a double overtime win over previously undefeated Central Bucks West in the second last game of the regular season. Only a win over Central Bucks South separated the Indians from a share of the SOL Continental title. That win didn’t happen.
Souderton earned a District One 6A berth but – as a result of its loss to South – ended up traveling to Coatesville for a date with the defending district champions. They saw their season end with a lopsided loss to the Red Raiders.
“We were on such a high after that West game,” Vince said. “Once we beat West it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we really have a chance to win the league.’ It was almost like we jumped the gun a little bit, just thinking we have this in the bag, this is ours for the taking.
“Losing to CB South – they played a great game, but it really kind of took the air out of the team. It was just really hard. Obviously, playing Coatesville in the first round – it was a difficult seeding sequence. South was ahead of us all of a sudden. It was hard to see that. You do all you can to keep the guys focused throughout the week, but it was a really difficult thing, and it was a hard hit to our team.”
Despite the disappointing ending, there’s no mistaking this was a memorable season that captured the imagination of a community that turned out in force to support the team.
“This season has been head and shoulders better than the past two seasons I’ve had,” Vince said. “You just felt the sense of community.
“We saw where the Souderton football program should be. The coaches that have been there when Souderton has been successful – you saw a different light in their eyes just because they knew this is where we should be and it was nice to finally produce and give that to the community.”
Ask Vince what he’ll remember most about competing in high school sports, and it’s not a specific game.
“Having sports in my life has always been a given,” he said. “I’ve always had sports to forget about everything else that’s going on in my life and just really focus on an overall goal with my teammates.
“I think just that overall feeling of having those friends that will always have your back – that’s really the most special feeling about sports and what it brings into my life.”
Vince – who also played safety for the Indians – plans to play football at the collegiate level and is narrowing down his options. He plans to pursue a business major.
“Andrew has a very bright future at whichever school is lucky enough to land him,” Gallagher said. “They will be getting a hard worker with a tremendous upside.
“You don’t get kids like him that often. He’s the best quarterback I’ve had here, and I’ve had some good ones. We’ve had some good ones come through that have thrown for a lot, but from a leadership standpoint and an ability standpoint, he’s the whole package.”
A member of Souderton’s Athletic Leadership Council, Vince is gearing up for his final basketball season.
“I definitely have a good feeling about this season because just like the football team we have a lot of seniors, a lot of guys who have been through these past two seasons where we haven’t had great seasons,” Vince said. “I think the overall bond we had in football is why we were successful.
“Going into this basketball season – me and a couple other kids have been playing together since fourth or fifth grade, so there’s definitely a lot of chemistry. I think we’re definitely ready to go. I’m excited about it.”
Brown knows his team is in good hands.
“Andrew wears it on his sleeve how much he cares about the program, how much he cares about the culture we’re creating that he’s a part of,” the Indians’ coach said. “I don’t think he’s actively thinking – ‘I’m creating this culture,’ but I think he realizes how big an impact he has, so every day he strives to make sure we’re setting the bricks and building day by day, and he does an awesome job of it.
“He was made to be part of a team. He just brings so much positive energy to our group, he brings so much accountability. Honestly, he’s a coach’s dream. You couldn’t mold a better kid than Andrew Vince.”
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