Football, Basketball, Baseball
Favorite athlete: Jim Thorpe
Favorite team: Philadelphia Flyers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Going down to Disney every year with my high school baseball team
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: During my sophomore year on the football team, we were watching film on our first scrimmage and my teammate Ryan Epps, a defensive lineman who was playing in his first ever football game, lined up in a four-point stance 20 yards in the secondary next to the strong safety. It was his first ever play, and he didn’t know what to do. This year, he was named Suburban One National First Team Defensive Lineman.
Music on iPod: A lot of Bruce Spingsteen, Mumford & Sons, and Christmas music
Future plans: Have fun living life
Words to live by: ‘Dig the well before you are thirsty.’
One goal before turning 30: Run a marathon
One thing people don’t know about me: My favorite thing to watch on TV is the Game Show Network.
Three varsity sports. Six Advanced Placement classes. After-school and evening practices and games. Homework that can occasionally last deep into the night.
Abington senior Chris Ruhl admits that his daily workload can become fairly staggering sometimes. He wouldn't have it any other way.
"I'm having way too much fun playing three sports to even let it cross my mind to give one up," Ruhl said. "I'm often overwhelmed, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I really love playing three sports."
The simple fact is … for a guy who carries a 4.5 GPA and is among the top students in his class, there are two words Ruhl simply doesn't allow into his vocabulary -- "quit" and "fail."
"I strive for perfection, whether it's in the classroom or on the field," Ruhl said. "I owe that to the coaches, all three coaches. I made a commitment to these teams, and I'm aware that I have to live up to that commitment each and every day."
A major part of that commitment involves excelling in the classroom. And Ruhl tackles his schoolwork with the same tenacity and dedication that he's shown the past three years as a member of the Galloping Ghosts' football, basketball and baseball teams. Where some students may be cruising through their senior years, Ruhl is working as hard as ever.
"This year has definitely been the hardest year," he said. "I'm enrolled in six AP courses, and some of them are the hardest classes I've ever taken. But as long as you do what you're supposed to do, you do your homework, you follow what you're supposed to follow in class, then it's really not as hard as it seems.
"Refusing to fail in the classroom, I think, is what really gets me the grades I get. I don't accept anything less than an A on any test or any assignment."
His efforts -- both academically and athletically -- have not gone unnoticed by his coaches.
"His competitiveness drives him to be an excellent player not just in football but in the other two sports, and it also drives him to be an excellent student," football coach Tim Sorber said. "That's the thing that I admire about him the most -- he's able to compete in three sports and do extremely well in academics. That's something to be admired.
"His work ethic and his commitment were extremely evident by his fellow seniors and the underclassmen. I use Chris a lot as an example of how you can balance academics and athletics. He never made excuses. He never missed workouts. He works extremely hard in the weight room and in our strength and conditioning program. The kids see and respect that type of effort."
Ruhl credits his family, especially his two older brothers, for instilling in him that work ethic and competitive edge. While he may be following in the footsteps of his brothers Michael (Class of 2007) and Nick (Class of 2011), he's also out to one-up them wherever possible.
"They laid a path for me to follow," Ruhl said. "They always taught me to do everything I can do and do it well."
They also helped their sibling set his personal goals. Anything his brothers could do, he wanted to do better.
"Chris knew of the legacy of his two brothers," Sorber said. "He played with Nick, and he knew how his brothers excelled in football. There's a part of Chris that wanted to be known as the best Ruhl to play Abington football. I think if you ask him that, he'd say, absolutely, he wanted to do that."
"There's a lot of competition in our family where I'm not going to let my brothers do anything better than what I can do," Ruhl said. "You can call it sibling rivalry or a love to compete, but we all want to do everything better than the other."
One thing that the youngest Ruhl has over his brothers is a pair of National Conference titles. The Ghosts finished 6-1 in league play in each of the past two seasons to earn a share of the conference title.
A second team tight end and third team defensive lineman, Ruhl has been a tremendous part of the Ghosts' success on the field.
"We knew he was going to be one of our better players his senior year, but his toughness and desire really helped propel us to a conference championship," Sorber said. "He became more of a vocal leader also, which is not really his personality, but at times he really took leadership in regards to getting his teammates inspired.
"If you talk to coaches in the Suburban One League, they'll talk about Chris Ruhl being a tough football player. He's an extremely physical kid who really plays with a lot of toughness and does the little things that it takes to be successful."
Even if that little thing is something as simple as running a passing route. Because as satisfying as a bone-jarring sack or a pancake block can be, Ruhl is truly in his element when he has a chance to get off the line and wreak havoc.
"That's one of my favorite parts of the game," he said. "Even if I'm not getting the ball, it's good to know I'm someone the defense has to worry about. We had a lot of plays this year where I didn’t touch the ball but we still had a big play because the defense had to get a man underneath on me and it opened up someone else for the big play."
For his efforts on the gridiron, Ruhl was recently named a recipient of a Mini Maxwell Award, presented annually by the Maxwell Football Club to players in the Greater Philadelphia and South Jersey areas who combine athletic prowess, academic excellence and community service. He was one of 48 high school players recognized, and the honor also puts him into consideration for the club's Jim Henry Award as the Regional Player of the Year.
And while personal glory always takes a backseat to team success, Ruhl admits he definitely wanted the Mini Maxwell Award … for good reason.
"My brother Nick won it last year," he said. "That put it in the back of my head, 'If my brother won this, I'd better be in the running for this next year to have a chance to even that out.' So that's another thing I can check off the list of matching up to him with."
The Ghosts posted an impressive 10-2 overall record this season, capping the year with a Thanksgiving Day win over Cheltenham, 42-7. It did, however, fall short of its playoff goal, dropping a District One opening-round game to league rival Pennsbury.
But while the end may have been bitter, the rest of the season was oh so sweet.
"Coming into the season, we set our goals really high," he said. "We weren't going to step down from a championship season we had the year before, so that was our number one goal. Once we achieved that, we set our next goal as the district championships. Unfortunately, we were not able to achieve that. But I'm so proud of the way my teammates played. We were by far the smallest team size-wise in the league. But we were so disciplined and played so hard that we made up for anything we lacked in size, we really made the best of what we had on our team."
Ruhl, who felt before the season that baseball would be his ticket to college, now believes football will help get him into a prestigious academic school with a quality engineering program. He is in the process of talking with and visiting numerous schools, mostly in the Patriot League and Ivy League.
Although his football career at Abington has come to a close, he's not shedding any tears. He's got too many other things on his plate.
"It really hit me hard the day we lost to Pennsbury, the morning after and the day after that," Ruhl said. "Then I jumped right into basketball. I definitely haven't forgotten about it, but it's almost like I haven't had time to dwell on it."
Unlike the Ghost football program, the basketball and baseball teams are coming off losing seasons. Ruhl hopes to lend a hand in changing that.
First up … basketball.
"I'm just going to do whatever the coach needs me to do," he said. "I might not be the guy who goes out there and scores 20 points a game, but whatever the coach needs me to do, whether that's grab rebounds, whether that's play defense, that's what I'll do.
"We have a lot of players returning that saw a decent amount of varsity time last year. I think everybody's going to step up this year. I think the goal is definitely a playoff berth."
And once the bitter temperatures and snow give way to blooming flowers and warm afternoons, Ruhl will head to the baseball diamond.
"A lot of people are expecting us to have a really good year, especially with all the players we get back," he said. "We're only losing four seniors, and they're great players, but we have a lot of people ready to step up to fill positions. Our entire infield is returning, our catcher is returning, our pitching staff was phenomenal last year and I think they're going to be even better this year."
Come June, Ruhl will graduate Abington High School, leaving a legacy that won't be easy to match. He's still got plenty he'd like to accomplish before then. Not surprisingly, all his goals are lofty. And not surprisingly … his highest priority is in the classroom.
"At the top of my checklist -- my brother finished second in his class overall," Ruhl said. "I don't know if I'm going to reach that … it's definitely a goal I would love to reach. But I'm really proud of where I am.
"Athletically, nothing short of a playoff berth in both basketball and baseball, and I don't hesitate to say I'd like a really deep run in the playoffs in both sports. We can really prove to some of the people who think Abington basketball has been gone the past 10 years, who think Abington baseball has been gone the past few years. Just like we did for football the past two years, I think it's time to do that with basketball and baseball."
