School: Central Bucks West
Football
Favorite athlete: Derek Jeter
Favorite team: New York Yankees
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating CB East 13-12
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Getting caught from behind on the two-yard line against North Penn.
Music on iPod: Christian rock
Future plans: Play football in college
Words to live by: “For nothing is impossible with God.” Luke 1:37
One goal before turning 30: Have a family
One thing people don’t know about me: I’ve been an uncle since I was eight years old
Brian Hensel calls Max Stella a ‘quiet giant.’
At 6-2, 240 pounds, the Central Bucks West senior is an imposing figure on the football field, and he has been a major contributor at tight end and linebacker for a Bucks’ squad that is having its most successful season in recent years.
But don’t expect to hear a whole lot from the Bucks’ senior captain
“Max is not a big rah-rah guy, and he’s not an in-your-face kind of guy,” West football coach Brian Hensel said. “But he’s excellent working with the younger kids that are coming up, talking about things that need to get done and how to get them done.
“I call him a quiet giant because he’s ever-present, and he’s good with the young kids. Some kids aren’t going to do good with someone getting in their face, and that’s not Max’s style. He is someone that’s going to talk to them and say, ‘Here are some things you need to do.’ “
Stella, it turns out, is quietly living out his dream.
As a youngster growing up in the mid 90’s, he dreamed of one day wearing a CB West football uniform.
“When I was seven, eight years old, West was very good,” Stella said. “A lot of kids dream of playing professional football, but for a lot of kids in this area, the dream was to go play football for CB West.
“My dad and I went to every game. Even when they started to downturn a little bit, we were still there at every game. They were huge, and playing for West was most kids’ dreams in this area. That was definitely one of my dreams growing up.”
That dream came true when – as a sophomore - Stella found himself in the starting lineup for West’s season opener against Freedom.
“We didn’t do too well,” Stella said of his team’s 41-7 loss. “But it was a different experience for me to play high school football in that uniform that I always wanted to play in.
“It might have been the only game playing football that I was ever nervous in. It was such a big accomplishment for me because it was such a big dream in this area to play CB West football, and I finally was there.”
The Bucks would win just three games that year and only one last year under first-year coach Brian Hensel, but Stella never considered throwing in the towel on his dream.
“There were a few players that thought about quitting and saying, ‘This isn’t worth it,’ but a lot of the guys had the same dream I had, which was to play football here,” Stella said. “Coming into our senior year, we knew we could be a better team and be the best team CB West has seen in a while.”
It’s hardly a coincidence that Stella – a captain along with Ward Udinski, Joe DiStefano and Tyler Maconaghey – is part of a group of seniors that have been the driving force behind the program’s turnaround under Hensel.
“This senior class has had some tough times,” the Bucks’ coach said. “They have seen one-win seasons, two-win seasons and three-win seasons, and they had to live through it. It wasn’t like they were watching somebody else playing – they were experiencing it firsthand.
“We used that to our advantage in the offseason, and they rallied around each other and said, ‘This is our year. We’re going to make something happen. We’re no longer the young guys on the field. We’re the veterans. Let’s turn this into something positive.’ Having some successes on Friday nights this year, our younger guys are seeing there’s value in hard work.”
Stella and Udinski were named captains at last year’s banquet, and the success of this year’s team – which has won five of its first seven games – began with its offseason training program.
“You win and lose games in the fall, but if you don’t lift, work and run and do everything West teams in the past have done in the spring, you’re not going to win,” Stella said. “It was kind of a no-brainer for me and Ward to get everyone in gear – ‘Look, we want to win. We have the talent. We have to go out and work.’”
“Max and Ward were the ones to show up in the weight room,” Hensel said. “They’re the first ones to arrive and the last to leave.
“When it comes to a practice or a game, those guys are always the last ones out of the locker room because they realize how important their visibility is there.”
Stella and his teammates have a deep appreciation for the success this year’s team is experiencing. None of them have forgotten what it was like to be on the short end of the scores.
“It was tough,” the Bucks’ senior captain said. “It was hard on everybody in the CB West community, and we also knew that everybody in the CB West community wanted us to win, and everybody outside of it wanted us to lose. At some points, I don’t think we knew what to do.
“It’s nice for us just to have Doylestown supporting us again because for a while Doylestown was the hotbed of football in the State of Pennsylvania. We lost it, and it’s nice to have people back in the stands that aren’t just the parents of the players.”
Stella has been in the middle of the turnaround for the Bucks.
“This year we moved Max to linebacker, and he’s really done a nice job with everything we’re doing in all phases of the game,” he said of his former defensive end. “Max is blessed with a good physical body, and he runs well.
“From an offensive perspective as a tight end, he’s just an easy target to find. He catches everything that’s thrown to him. He’s a quarterback’s dream.”
Stella is very involved in his church group and this summer took a trip with his church to New Orleans to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“It’s still very bad down there,” he said. “You wouldn’t think that because it’s been five years since the storm hit.”
While in New Orleans, Stella and his group helped with the construction of a playground at a school.
“It was eye-opening,” he said. “You come back a lot more thankful for what you have. You thank God that you have a house and you have a playground at your school and that you even have a school.”
An excellent student, Stella has his sights set on one day becoming an athletic trainer or physical therapist, an interest that was piqued in middle school.
“I had some injuries over the years in middle school, and I became good at taping myself and other kids,” he said. “In middle school, you don’t really have an athletic trainer. You have athletic tape sitting there, and you have to tape yourself, so you kind of figure it out.”
He also hopes to continue his football career at the collegiate level.
“Max loves the game,” Hensel said. “He loves to share his passion for the game.”
“He’s the kind of kid that epitomizes what you want to have in a high school student. He’s a good player who commits himself, and he makes great choices.
“He’s the kind of kid you want your kid around. I have a son who’s a sophomore on the team, and I like when he hangs out with Max because I know Max is making good decisions.”
That says all you need to know about the players Hensel calls a ‘quiet giant.’
