Lacrosse, Soccer, Basketball
Favorite athlete: DeVonta Smith. He is so much fun to watch
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating Garnet Valley to get the states for the first time in 13 years. The game was down to the wire, and my friend Erin Darcy made the game winning save with seconds left on the clock.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When my teammate’s hair fell out mid-game.
Music on playlist: I like all music! Anything that my friends and I can sing to.
Future plans: Playing lacrosse at the University of Florida. My major is still undecided
Words to live by: “You can’t be great at something you don’t have fun doing it.”
One goal before turning 30: To be living by the beach or somewhere warm
One thing people don’t know about me: I love to cook!
By Mary Jane Souder
Three-sport athletes are becoming something of a rarity in high school sports. And it’s especially unusual for athletes who will be competing in their sport at the highest collegiate level.
Anna DiMartile is on the short list of exceptions.
The Upper Dublin senior will be taking her considerable talents on the lacrosse field to the University of Florida, fourth in the latest NCAA Division 1 rankings, DiMartile committed to the Big 12 power in October of her junior year. 
That, however, did not prevent her from continuing her rigorous schedule of competing on the soccer team in the fall, the swim team in winter and then the lacrosse team in the spring.
As a senior, DiMartile played soccer in the fall but opted to walk away from swimming in the winter to play basketball, a sport she had not played since she was a youngster.
If that seems like an unusual choice, DiMartile acknowledges it was.
“I know it’s kind of crazy for my senior year, but I wanted to stay in lacrosse shape, and I feel like swimming – I was in shape, but I wasn’t in running shape,” she said. “So, I wanted to try basketball because my younger sister (Bridget) plays.
“I obviously couldn’t shoot or dribble too well, but I could play defense, and it kept me in shape for lacrosse, and the team was really fun.”
DiMartile – a first team All-SOL lacrosse player every year since she was a freshman – played for the JV as a senior on the basketball team.
“I got made fun of a little bit for that – I won’t even lie,” she said with a laugh. “Everyone’s like – ‘You’re a senior on JV?’
“But the point of me doing it was so I could stay in shape for lacrosse and so I could get exercise out of it, so there was no point in my playing basketball if I was just going to sit on the varsity bench. In the two-hour-a-day practices, we did a lot of conditioning, and I think it was really helpful and transferred onto the lacrosse field really well.”
DiMartile and her teammates on the lacrosse team are having themselves quite a season this spring, and coach Dee Cross lauded her senior standout’s decision to play basketball.
“That is another thing that makes Anna truly unique,” the UD coach said. “She played soccer for four years, she swam for three years and decided this year – you know what? I want to play basketball.
“She played JV this year as a senior. She was on the practice squad for varsity and made them better. If you talk to (coach) Morgan Funsten, he’ll tell you. She had a blast. I’m in awe of the fact that as a senior she decided to do it, and she had a great time doing it. She loved it.”
Funston acknowledged having DiMartile on the team was a win-win.
“We were so happy to have her,” the UD coach said. “She took a lot of pride in improving as a basketball player, and at the end of the season, I was close to putting her in during some important moments in the game when we needed a rebound or some good defense because she brought a level of physicality to the program that was really, really special, and I’m just so happy she made the decision to play.”
The journey
Listening to DiMartile tell it – she played just about every sport as a youngster.
“I tried ballet at one point,” she said. “I played basketball for a year and then I quit. I did soccer and lacrosse, and I swam. I played tennis in the summer.”
Lacrosse emerged as a clear favorite although soccer was a close second.
“For the longest time, I thought I was going to be a soccer player in college,” she said. “Then COVID hit, and the club team that I played for went to a different level. Club soccer gets really intense, and they basically told me – if you want to keep playing soccer, you really can’t play other sports.
“Lacrosse coaches and college coaches love multi-sport athletes., so I thought that would be the best route for me.”
With siblings who competed at a high collegiate level – her brother Jake swam at Wisconsin, and her sister Meghan is swimming at the University of Texas, it was a no-brainer that DiMartile would follow a similar path.
“Growing up in such a competitive household, with my brother and sister both committing to play sports at a high level, I feel like people just kind of looked at me and were like, ‘Oh, you’re next,’” she said. “I never really felt any pressure, but it was almost like I wanted to because of them. Seeing how much that helped them with college and what being a student athlete is like in college - that inspired me to want to play, be as great as them, and that’s kind of what I strive to be because of them.”
DiMartile originally chose to swim as a freshman in high school since Meghan was a senior at the time.
“I wanted to do something with her,” DiMartile said. “I wasn’t bad at swimming, but I just wanted to be with her for her senior year, and then I really liked the team. I liked the discipline swimming required. I know people kind of hate on swimming because you’ve got to wake up early, and it’s long hours, but a part of me really
liked that, and I feel like I needed that to prepare for college lacrosse, so I stuck with it until my junior year.”
Walking away from soccer in high school would have been an equally difficult decision.
“I love soccer almost like lacrosse, and soccer basically was equal up until middle school,” DiMartile said. “I made the decision that I thought lacrosse was going to be what I wanted to play in college, so I stayed on a club team for lacrosse, but I just didn’t want to quit soccer yet. It was the first sport that I ever loved. I wanted to keep soccer in my life a little bit longer.
“I love my friends from the soccer team, and I love just the fall with soccer games and football games and all that, and I think the beginning of the school year with soccer is just always a great time.”
Basketball: a new sport in the equation
The idea of DiMartile playing basketball her senior year surprised even Funsten.
“I’d see her in hallway every once in a while,” the UD basketball coach said. “I thought she was kind of joking around because it was her senior year that she was going to come out and play.
“I said, ‘Hey, listen, if you come out, I can’t guarantee you’re going to be on the team, but we’ll see our numbers.’ And she said something like – ‘If I make cookies, can I get on the team?’ I said, ‘We’ll see who tries out.’”
Funsten realized DiMartile wasn’t joking when she showed up for tryouts, and although he didn’t bite on the cookie bribe, the UD coach did see enough reasons to keep her on the squad.
“Sometimes girls will take a year or two off from a sport and come back and play, but she hadn’t played since second grade, so she had quite a bit of time to make up for,” Funsten said. “There were certain fundamental basketball things that she wasn’t really able to do or understand, but from day one, she could rebound at the varsity level because of her athleticism, and she knew how to compete like no other, and that’s such a valuable thing.
“For someone to be able to do that, bring that to the table – she definitely earned and deserved a spot on the team this year.”
DiMartile improved as the season progressed, and she was unfazed by her critics.
“A lot of people were like, ‘You went from being one of the best on the lacrosse team to being one of the worst on the basketball team, and I honestly didn’t mind it at all,” she said.
DiMartile capped a memorable senior basketball season by burying a 3-pointer and scoring four points in the varsity’s Senior Night game.
“She took a lot of kidding for doing it, but you don’t have to care if you’re going to the University of Florida,” Funsten said. “From a leadership standpoint, she was such a great example for the younger girls and really all the girls in our program. Because she brings a high level of maturity and obviously a high level of athleticism.
“To be humble enough to ask to play JV, to kind of demand – ‘Listen, if I’m going to do this, I want to play in games’ and just have no shame and see the big picture – she loves being part of a team, and she loves to compete.”
“Basketball is not something you can just dabble in. It’s something you kind of have to fully immerse yourself in, and she did that for those four or five months, and I think we are a better program as a result.”
Lacrosse a clear winner
A member of the highly competitive HHH Lacrosse club team, DiMartile caught the eye of a long list of Division 1 programs. In the end, it came down to Pitt, Colorado and Florida.
“Lacrosse and warm weather,” she said of her reasons for choosing Florida. “It’s really good for women’s lacrosse and just the way that the University of Florida takes care of their athletes - I think that was the best fit
for me.”
DiMartile established she was a special talent on the lacrosse field when she joined the program as a freshman.
“She’s not flashy, but she’s a workhorse,” Cross said. “She’s a true defender, and she’s going to Florida to play defense. But we need her to be a midfielder.
“We could basically play her anywhere, and that’s what made our team better over the last three years and brought us back in competition for a league championship. We went through a really long period that we didn’t, and Anna and now Bridget (DiMartile) and the other girls on the team have really brought us back to that level, which is really exciting.”
DiMartile, according to her coach, has a clear understanding of what is required to compete at a high level.
“She will listen, and she’ll know the challenge that we put out before them,” Cross said. “Now we’re down at the end of our season, and every game will be a challenge to get to where we want to go.
“In our game against PW, she remembered that, and at one point, she scored two goals in a row to get us the momentum. And then she’d get a draw control, and then she’d get a call. She’s just that player that we know will take it upon herself to bring everybody with her to get them on the same page.”
DiMartile, according to Cross, brings more than just talent to the lacrosse team.
“She’s just really one of a kind with what she brings to the team and her personality,” the UD coach said. “She will do anything for the team and anything we ask of her, but she also asks questions.
“She’s got a dry sense of humor, so she’s always keeping you on your toes, and you can tell her heart is in everything she does. She wants to make the team better. I can say something to her, and she will not only do it - she will try to do it better than anybody. She wants to be good, but she wants everyone around her to be good too.”
Away from the athletic arena, DiMartile has been involved in CYO volleyball. At Upper Dublin, she was involved in mock trial, and she also helps run the student section account for the Bird Gang, UD’s active fan group.
“I try to get involved in as many things as I can with the time I have,” she said.
As for a college major, DiMartile is uncertain.
“I know that I want to be up on my feet, I want to be moving and interacting with people, but I’m not entirely sure what that will be,” she said.
DiMartile is coming down the home stretch of her final high school lacrosse season, which is also her final go-round as teammates with her younger sister Bridget.
“We talk about it all the time,” she said. “We share a room, so I’m with her 24-7, and I’m happy to say that I don’t really ever get sick of her.
“Playing with my sisters is one of the coolest things. My parents love watching me and my sister play, but I love playing with my sister because I know how she plays, and I know what she’s thinking. I’m hoping maybe there’s a chance we could play in college because I don’t want that to end. I think it’s pretty special.”
There’s no mistaking, DiMartile will be leaving her mark at Upper Dublin.
“I never had a senior play on JV – and one of the best athletes in the school, by the way,” Funsten said. “You’re talking about a Division 1 athlete who is humble enough to say, ‘I want to play, I want to compete,’ and you know it’s kind of what her family does best.
“That family knows how to compete, and they’re so mentally tough, and this wasn’t going to bother her if people were questioning why she was a senior on the JV team. I think it worked out great. We were happy to have her.
“She has just been so fun to coach over these four years,” Cross said. “It’s the intangibles that really make her stand out and make her different. I’m really going to miss her and what she brings to the team – she’s just a great kid.”
