School: North Penn
Water Polo, Swimming
Favorite athlete: David Ortiz
Favorite team: Boston Red Sox
Favorite memory competing in sports: Scoring the first goal in the Wilson game at States this year
Music on iPod: Blink 182 and Yellowcard. I like all music
Future plans: Getting my degree at Penn State in Forensic Science
Words to live by: 'Never give up, you can do anything you set your mind to.'
One goal before turning 30: Owning a house and starting my career.
One thing people don't know about me: My favorite place to be is at my lakehouse.
By Alex Frazier
You have to respect someone who stands up for his values.
North Penn swim coach Brian Daly put some pressure on Jacob Sisko to miss a church retreat last weekend.
Daly reasoned that Sisko, who is a captain of the team, was needed at practice with the biggest meet of the year against Emmaus coming up on Tuesday.
But credit to Sisko, who opted instead to attend a church retreat that he had been going to for the past three years. Since his parents were away, he was also responsible for driving his sister Amelia to the retreat.
“He sticks to his guns,” said Daly. “He has real clear values.”
But Daly couldn’t have been too upset. After all, “I think it might have been the second practice he’s missed all year. He’s clearly struck a balance. He has his priorities in line. He’s a kid who has his head on his shoulders and is headed in the right direction.”
Sisko has been involved in sports since he was six when he started playing soccer. A year later he began swimming for the Towamencin Swim Club.
Soccer became his all-year endeavor until 10th grade when he was cut from the North Penn squad. With nothing to do in the fall, he tried out for water polo.
“My sister did it and I saw some of the games and thought it was a cool sport,” he said. “I never had the chance to play it, so it was something to try.”
Having been a swimmer, it was an easy transition.
As a driver this year, he led the team in assists with 41 and steals with 70. He also scored 67 goals.
When the winter season rolled around, he no longer had indoor soccer, so he naturally gravitated to swimming.
“I didn’t have anything planned for the winter,” he said. “I decided to do swimming because I did it in the summer and I was already in swim shape and a lot of the same kids do it as well.”
Despite not having been training for swimming over the years, he qualified for districts in the 100 backstroke, which turned out to be his favorite event.
“It was always the event that I did the best in,” said Sisko, “and I liked doing it.”
He led off the B 200 medley relay and swam on the B 4x100 relay.
By his junior year he was swimming the 50 and 100 freestyle qualifying for districts in the 100 back and the 50 free events and went to states on the medley relay.
So far this year, he has made the district cut in the backstroke, 50 and 100 freestyles and all three relays.
“He’s really a team player,” said Daly. “I think he enjoys the relays most of all. That’s where he’s thrived. He seems to pop out some really nice times on the relays.”
Daly said that just recently Sisko has put himself in position for a spot on the 4x100 freestyle relay. At the Quakertown meet, he had a sharp time drop that moved him up to fourth place on the depth chart.
“That’s going to be a challenge for us to see where he can be best used at the district championship,” said Daly. “We have lots of different options for him.”
Daly can only wonder where Sisko would be if he had been a year-round swimmer earlier.
“When he started, you could see a lot of raw talent, a lot of untapped potential,” he said. “He just bought into our program, and steadily kept improving. He’s establishing himself as one of the better athletes on the team.”
“For what I’ve accomplished in three years, I’m pretty happy with what I got out of it and what I’ve done,” said Sisko.
Daly said that Sisko wouldn’t be where he is today without a strong work ethic.
“It’s not worth doing the sport if you’re not going to put in your best effort,” said Sisko. “When you’re second or third in certain events, you just strive to do better. I strive to beat my time.”
Sisko was captain of both the water polo and swim teams this year. Daly said that he sets the tone for the team.
“He has this unique ability to step it up and keep the intensity up and keep the team focused but at the same time keep everybody loose and having fun,” said Daly. “He knows when to dial it in and when to let loose.
“The younger guys really look up to him. He has this easy-going personality, always smiling. Just a real hard worker.”
Sisko found that being a captain not only helped the team, but himself as well.
“I always tried to lead by example,” he said. “It pushed me to always go above the limits and put forth my best effort because people were always watching me. If I slacked off, they would look at me like, ‘My captain slacked off so I can do the same.’”
Sisko also started volleyball in 10th grade. His only prior experience was in gym class. It turned out that one of his physical education substitute teachers was the high school volleyball coach.
“He asked me if I played any sports in the spring, and I said I was going to try volleyball, and he said. ‘I happen to be the coach,’” said Sisko. “He always kept me updated on tryouts and looked forward to me coming out.”
He played jayvee as a sophomore and saw some time on varsity last year. He’s hoping to be a starter this year.
At 6 feet, 4 inches, he’s a natural outside hitter.
For Sisko volleyball was a break in an otherwise demanding physical regimen.
“It was certainly more relaxing,” he said. “Practices aren’t as long, we don’t go mornings and there aren’t Saturday practices either.”
As accomplished as Sisko is in sports, he equally excels in the classroom. He carries an unweighted 3.79 grade point average. His curriculum is mindboggling. He takes honors English, history, calculus and physics besides advanced placement statistics and computer science.
“He is an exemplary student-athlete,” said Daly.
Outside of academia, Sisko is a member of the National Honor Society cabinet, and he is a volunteer at his church. He has helped out with the North Penn Special Olympics and other service projects.
Sisko has already committed to Penn State next year. He realizes that he won’t be able to compete in a Division One swim program, and Penn State’s volleyball team is consistently one of the top programs in the country.
But that won’t keep him entirely out of sports. He plans to play club water polo.
He also plans on majoring in forensic science.
“I always wanted to be an FBI agent and that’s still something I want to pursue,” he said. “I went on websites to see what major would suit me if I went into that career. Forensic science is something that would seem interesting. It’s mostly chemistry.”
And chemistry is something he has in spades.
