Football, Track & Field
Favorite athlete: Joe Frazier
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: My favorite memory is coming out of my slump and PRing (in shot put) my first meet after winter season.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “The funniest thing that happened to me in sports was running the tanker relay for the first time and getting lapped.
Music on playlist: Doors Down, Deftones, Black Sabbath and Local H
Future plans: I plan to either teach history or work in a museum.
Words to live by: “A tree falls the way it leans.”
One goal before turning 30: To own a Firebird
One thing people don’t know about me: I’m good at sewing.
By Mary Jane Souder
Every team needs a Sam Santoli.
The Central Bucks West senior – who competes in football and track and field where shot put is his specialty - isn’t the fastest, the strongest or the best. But talk to Santoli about his experience as a student-athlete, and chances are, you will leave that conversation with a smile on your face.
Not because of anything Santoli has done but because of who he is – a student-athlete who finds joy in the journey. His approach to football – a sport he didn’t play until his junior year – underscores exactly what sets the West senior apart.
While he admits he may have bemoaned tough practices, he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, and he has no regrets for the countless hours he put into football even though his playing time was limited.
“I didn’t start as a defensive lineman, which was my main position,” he said. “But I started on special teams for part of the season. I was on the scout team constantly, and I just loved it.
“I joined (football) late, but that’s where my work ethic shined for those seasons, and by the time I was a senior, I was head over heels with the process. I really love the idea that I could go hard, I could put the hours in, and I would be good. Even though I wasn’t getting minutes, I was enjoying it, and I was enjoying just playing, just practicing. It was great.”
It’s safe to say Santoli enjoyed Friday Night Lights at War Memorial Field as much as anyone, perhaps more.
“Oh, my goodness, even when you’re just there with your brothers and you’re on the sideline, it’s a different feeling,” he said. “I know that as someone who’s been there and done that.”
West football coach Rob Rowan doesn’t need any encouragement at all to talk about Santoli.
“He was just exemplary when it came to practice, when it came to preparation, when it came to the weight room, when it came to his interactions with his teammates,” Rowan said. “He’s what I identify as a program player meaning he’s the type of kid who elevates your program in every capacity.
“You need those guys. He’s not the most talented, he wasn’t one of the guys who could just step out on the field and play because of how talented he was. He had to work for every ounce of what he was going to get. That humble but eager approach was a really healthy approach to growth and success and achievement, which is refreshing in this day and age. He’s not a kid who’s all about himself. He’s very much team first, we-before-me guy.”
In track, a sport Saltoni’s competed in for three years, his coach echoes Rowan’s praise.
“His work ethic is excellent,” West track coach John Mahoney said. “He has that mentality where he just wants to keep improving.
“He’s always the first guy to get to practice and the last kid to leave, and even when practice is over, I’ve seen him at the Y across the street, still working out. Is he the best athlete on the team? No. Is he the best student on the team? No, but he’s still very good, and how he goes about everything is just the right way.”
Back to the beginning
Santoli acknowledges sports weren’t really his thing as a youngster.
“I wasn’t a huge athlete, but my parents (Thomas and Lori Santoli) forced me into it,” he said, acknowledging that the ‘forced’ changed in a hurry when he found a sport he loved. “I bounced around. I played basketball, soccer. I played tennis at one point. I was a wrestler.
“It really stuck with sports when I started combat sports. I started fighting Muay Thai and then I started boxing.”
In the winter of 10th grade, he joined the track team.
“I was a dual athlete with boxing and shot put,” Santoli said. “That’s where I kind of gained a love for it, and I started loving sports.”
It was around that time he began to consider the possibility of playing football – a sport he had only played as a youngster in flag football.
“I was drawn to the hitting,” he said. “That’s kind of why everybody does it, I guess. I really did enjoy it.
“I enjoyed the aspect – you’re a team, you’re working hard, you’re kind of bleeding for your brothers, and even though I did individual sports, I loved team sports.”
His schedule was a rigorous one that spring.
“I would do shot put at practice, I’d go to football for a little bit and then I’d go to boxing at night,” Santoli said. “It was great, but it was stressful. Then shot put ends, and I went through the summer in football. I loved football.
“It was really hard, but it was really enjoyable. That’s where I gained the work ethic if you want to be good at this. This is where I have to put the hours in.”
Santoli saw limited playing time as a junior but was not discouraged.
“I joined late, and I wasn’t the best in the world,” he said. “I realized – hey, I’m pretty good at shot put, and I’m pretty good at lifting., so I started lifting a lot, I started throwing a lot.
“That’s how it went for my winter and spring season in shot put. Then I played football again, that’s where my work ethic shined again.”
And what did playing football add to Santoli’s high school experience?
“I don’t know how to say it, but a lot of people make it complicated,” he said. “But it’s not complicated.
“If you work your butt off and you fight hard, you’re going to do better. You might not be the best, you might not be the greatest, but if you really get in gear and you go hard in the weight room, you’re going to get better than where you started.
“That was really instilled in me by my coaches. I wouldn’t have learned it without Coach Sean (Hall), Coach Jim (Gehringer) and Coach Rowan and the whole coaching staff and also from guys on my football team. They were my age, but I had a lot to learn from them. I watched them, cared about them as my friends and my brothers, and I wanted to be like them. I wanted to work hard, I wanted to fight for it.”
And listening to Rowan tell it, Santoli was a breath of fresh air.
“In high school sports in particular, everything gets lost in accomplishment, and what is accomplishment?” the West coach said. “When you’re talking about the high school level, it’s learning about yourself, it’s learning about how to approach your craft in a really healthy but fulfilling way, and that’s him to a T.
“To me, the stories that need to be talked about more and celebrated more are the young men and women who really embody what high school sports should be about, which is full growth and development, not just what happens on the playing field.
“Sam didn’t step into football like – ‘I’m going to be a starter and I’m going to play Friday nights.’ He stepped into it – ‘I just want to be a part of this thing, and I want to give it my best effort.’ And that was it. That was always what he aspired to do, and any role we asked him to fulfill, it was absolutely 100 percent effort. In everything he did, there was a level of pride that came with it, and it wasn’t always perfect. It’s just a really healthy, humble approach to his craft.”
A leader without a title
Although the track and field team doesn’t name captains, and although the throwers are nowhere near the track athletes at practice, Mahoney points to Santoli as an undisputed leader.
“I would view him as a captain, for sure,” the Bucks’ coach said. “And I would say the kids on the team treat him as a captain. If you asked them who their leaders are on the team, Sam would be one of those guys that leads.
“And it’s tough for him to do that based off where our throwing facility it. We have a hard time getting guys to throw at West because where we throw shot put, discus and javelin is very far outside of our stadium, and they’re away from the rest of the team and what’s going on.”
Santoli is part of a group of perhaps five throwers at the throwing facility while 65 athletes are on the track.
“Sam warms up with the team and then the throwers go and do their thing,” Mahoney said. “Even though he’s not there all the time, he’s still a leader, which is hard, and that speaks to his character. Even though he’s not there, his presence is felt by the rest of his teammates.”
There’s no mistaking Santoli’s love for track.
“I like track because you can get really passionate about it,” he said. “Football’s great because you care about the guy next to you, but track is great because when I get in that circle (to throw), I’m really passionate about it.”
Looking to the future
As a young man who aspires to one day teach history or work in a museum or conservatory, Santoli takes his academics seriously. These days his sports involvement is limited to lifting and throwing.
This fall he will attend Bloomsburg University where he will major in history and minor in political science.
“I’m a big history fan,” he said. “I was always good at it, and then I got into high school, and I discovered that you can learn pretty much whatever you want. If you just ask the right people, they’ll teach you some really amazing things.
“My dad threw shot put, and one of my uncles (Steven Santoli) is an amazing shot put thrower and was a college track and field coach, but he’s also a history teacher. I looked up to him, and I liked the idea of teaching people, the idea of sharing this thing that I love.”
He has not given up on the idea of throwing at the next level.
“I’d love to throw for them, I’d love to work with them, and a second dream of mine – maybe I can do it at the same time - is power lifting,” Santoli said. “I love to power lift.”
Also speaking to Santoli’s character and commitment is the fact that he is a Boy Scout who is close to earning his Eagle Scout designation. His project was building garden beds in the Doylestown Historical Cemetery.
“I’ve been a Scout for a long, long time,” he said. “It’s part of me. I love it.”
Santoli is on the home stretch of high school with the SOL championships in track and field this weekend potentially his final meet.
“He had a back injury earlier in the year, and it’s hard for him to take it easy,” Mahoney said. “We told him ‘Sam, you need your back to heal, you need to take some time off.’
“It’s hard to tell any athlete to stop, but for him, it was really hard because he loves the sport. He’s the kind of guy that you want other kids on the team to look and say – ‘This is how you’re supposed to do this and give this effort. This is how much you’re supposed to care and be passionate about it. This is what it takes to be the best at what you’re trying to do,’ and Sam does that every day. He’s a very well-liked teammate. He’ll have a conversation with anybody. He’s extremely respectful. I can’t say enough good things about Sam”
Rowan echoed similar sentiments.
“He’s so authentic, and it’s not an act,” the Bucks’ coach said. “This is who he really is, and it’s so refreshing.
“We celebrated Sam a tremendous amount. My memories and how I feel about Sam will always be – he’s such a special human.”
*Senior Night photo courtesy of Marge Bullock Photography.
