School: Upper Moreland
Soccer, Wrestling
Stefan Muller calls Julien Dinerstien ‘a phenomenal kid.’
It’s not the kind of phrase the Upper Moreland coach throws around lightly when describing one of his wrestlers, but Dinerstien is hardly your typical student-athlete.
To say that his interests are diversified would be an understatement. Dinerstien quite simply does it all.
Consider only that he leaves wrestling practices to attend play practices. Dinerstien has a role in Upper Moreland’s spring musical “Will Rogers Follies.”
And that’s just the beginning.
A National Honor Society student, Dinerstien is ranked third in his class. He is editor of the school newspaper and is involved in other clubs as well. He also played varsity soccer in the fall and still finds time to be involved in community service.
“He’s one of those kids who does everything right,” Muller said. “He’s got a good sense of humor, a good personality. He knows when to joke and when to be serious, but he never does anything wrong. He does everything right.
“I always have teachers come up to me and give me reports on certain kids, and usually they’re not the best of reports, but he’s a kid – I’ve had three or four teachers come up to me and say, ‘Julien Dinerstien is just a great kid.’ He really is.”
Need additional proof?
When Dinerstien’s older brother, Alexi, was doing his graduation project at a retirement home, Julien accompanied him.
“He went every time his brother went because he liked doing it,” Muller said. “He enjoyed it.
“You don’t see it that often. The kid’s a sophomore in high school, and he voluntarily went on his own. The list just goes on and on with things he does.”
If it sounds as though Dinerstien might be motivated by a desire to pad his resume, guess again.
“He’s not the type of kid that joins Key Club just to put it on his resume,” Muller said. “I know when I was in high school, there were a few clubs I did just to put them on my resume for colleges.
“Just from talking to him, you know he doesn’t do it to look good for colleges. He does it because he truly wants to make a difference.”
Does he ever consider narrowing his list of interests?
“I enjoy all the things I do,” Dinerstien said. “I don’t really mind doing them.
“I don’t really do anything I don’t enjoy doing. The thing about me is I enjoy a lot of different things. I don’t really have a single passion that I spend a lot of time doing. I like switching to different things.”
Wrestling is one of the things Dinerstien enjoys.
The Golden Bear senior isn’t one of the top wrestlers on a Golden Bear squad that is in the hunt for an American Conference crown, but that’s not because he doesn’t work hard at his sport.
He does.
“He’s the first to practice and the last to leave,” Muller said. “He’s always asking after practice what he can do or asking to drill a little longer. He asks questions, and he never quits.”
Dinerstien’s contributions to his squad are not measured by wins and losses.
“He’s not the guy who has the 100 career wins, he’s not the guy that has 30 wins in a season, and he’s not the guy who’s going to regionals or states, but he has leadership qualities,” Muller said. “Leadership qualities are hard to find.
“We might have a guy who’s really good and a state qualifier, and kids might look up to him because he’s a great wrestler, but that doesn’t make a leader. That doesn’t mean you have leadership qualities.”
Dinerstien, according to Muller, has those qualities.
“He’s a guy who can get other guys to work harder,” the Golden Bears’ coach said. “When he works out after practice, he generally pulls someone else from the room and says, ‘Hey, can we drill?’
“He’s not the get-in-your-face guy who’s going to scare you to do something, but everyone knows if Julien is doing something, he’s doing it to get better. He’s always working hard. He’s a guy who never lets down, and it rubs off to other kids in the room, and it’s a great thing to have.”
Interestingly, Dinerstien - who grew up playing soccer and was a member of Upper Moreland’s varsity - became a wrestler almost by default when he was a freshman.
“I wasn’t really planning on wrestling, but since the program needed people, and my brother was on the team, I joined a few weeks into the season,” he said. “I kind of planned on wrestling in middle school, but I just never got around to joining the team.”
A new coaching regime was in place when Dinerstien came out for the team as a ninth grader.
“They were just trying to build a program,” Dinerstien said. “I just tried it out. Everyone was nice, but the first two years, I did it more out of obligation.”
That changed when he was a junior and began wrestling with the varsity.
“I really started enjoying it,” he said. “Maybe it was because I’ve gotten better – not winningwise, but it enabled me to enjoy it more instead of just always pretty much getting pinned every time.”
As for the discipline wrestling requires, Dinerstien doesn’t mind it a bit.
“I enjoy working hard and going to practice,” he said. “Just the exertion and seeing how hard you can push yourself and things like that.”
A whole lot has changed since Dinerstien went out for wrestling simply to provide a body for a team hurting for members. These days, the Golden Bears have their sights set on capturing their first ever league title.
“My freshman year we ended up with nine people, and we were a joke,” Dinerstien said. “Now we’re on the brink of maybe winning the first league championship, and I was there from the beginning pretty much.
“It’s pretty cool to be part of that.”
Dinerstien has not decided on a college but is awaiting word from several top-tier schools. With so many interests, it’s hardly a surprise to discover he is undecided on a major and will be undeclared his first year.
Wherever he goes, Dinerstien, according to his coach, will be successful.
“It’s unfortunate he doesn’t have those 100 career wins, those 30 wins in a season, but I’ve said since day one when I started coaching – I’m not coaching to just focus on wrestling,” Muller said. “I love working with the kids. It’s just a great relationship working with kids after school and then dealing with them in the classroom, but it’s more about developing young men. I think most coaches will say that. It’s more than just wins and losses, and he kind of epitomizes that. He’s just a great kid, and he always works hard.
“He just has those intangibles that are tough to find.”
