School: Central Bucks East
Cross Country, Track
Favorite athlete: Kara Goucher
Favorite team: New York Mets
Favorite memory competing in sports: The BBQ after the district cross country meet.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Last year, my teammate fell in her first track race ever – the 200. She got up to finish but tripped again over her untied shoelaces.
Music on iPod: Regina Spektor, The Beatles, The Shins, Coldplay, Radiohead
Future plans: College and probably graduate school
Words to live by: “Carpe Diem”
One goal before turning 30: To go sky diving.
One thing people don’t know about me: I used to rock climb.
During a recent conversation, Matt Catinella and the father of Jenny Guidera were talking about the Central Bucks East senior. They settled on one word to describe her.
Unique.
But even that word doesn’t adequately describe the talented Guidera whose interests cover a broad spectrum.
“She’s gifted in so many areas of her life,” said Catinella, who coached Guidera in cross country at East.
Guidera excels in cross country, recently finishing 11th and medaling at the PIAA Class AAA State Championship. She also ran a lifetime best of 17:59 at the SOL championships, placing second and propelling the Patriots to a Continental Conference title.
Academically, Guidera is a National Honor Society student who takes AP classes and boasts a college list that is headed by Princeton, Yale, Columbia and Brown.
An accomplished pianist who picked up the guitar four years ago, Guidera has recently added songwriting to her long list of passions. In addition to regularly winning the talent contest at her team’s summer running camp in Vermont, she has performed in various venues in Doylestown and last year formed her own organization called Music for the Soul.
Guidera’s dazzling resume aside, ask Catinella to describe his standout runner as a person, and he points to her character, sincerity, zest for life and love of others as the traits that stand out about a student-athlete who seems to do it all.
“Maturity-wise she really has a genuine concern for others, which is very refreshing,” Catinella said. “She’s very humble, and she’s a very sincere person.”
But according to the Patriots’ coach, it is the character Guidera displayed during a very difficult time in her life this fall that sets her apart from the rest.
On Saturday, Oct. 2, Guidera – after a workout with her cross country team - was taken to the train station by her mother for her eagerly anticipated official visit to Yale University.
“It was very exciting for my mom too because Yale is her alma mater,” Guidera said. “She never consciously pushed me toward Yale, but subconsciously, I know she wants me to go there. She was really excited, and it was going to be a great weekend.”
As she rode the train to New Haven, Guidera tried to call her mother but to no avail. Something didn’t feel right, and Guidera received word that her mother had been involved in an accident and had suffered a serious head injury.
She returned home immediately.
“When I remember that day, it’s kind of surreal,” Guidera said. “One event just went into the other. I wasn’t really thinking much about what was going on. I was just thinking – I need to see her.
“It’s two months later, and she’s still in rehab. I didn’t expect the injury to be that bad.”
The day after the accident, Guidera joined her cross country teammates for their long run at Tyler State Park. Running would prove to be her salvation during the days and weeks that followed.
“Running has really helped me get through the tough times,” she said. “It’s a constant in my life that I know is always there. It never changes.
“It’s also really great to have the support of my teammates and my coach. It was tough.”
Through it all, Guidera never missed a day of practice.
“Jenny has shown incredible courage and depth of character,” Catinella said. “She continued to be a leader and support her teammates.
“She continued her academic and athletic success, all the while being present for her family and mother. She had the cross country season of her life.”
Guidera’s mother, meanwhile, slowly improved.
“We’re hoping to have her back home soon,” Guidera said. “I didn’t really know the extent of the injury because it was a neuro-injury, and they didn’t know what kind of damage was done. I only found out several weeks after the accident that the recovery would be multiple months, and it will probably be years before she returns to her normal state. That realization came slowly.
“Running was almost like a crutch for me at that time. It was very helpful in just keeping my mind clear and keeping me doing what I love to do.”
Running became a passion for Guidera from the moment she took her first distance run with the cross country team in ninth grade.
“I hadn’t run before, but I loved it,” she said. “I fell in love with it right away.
“People think of cross country as an individual sport, but cross country definitely has the team aspect to it.”
She was the Patriots’ top runner as a freshman, and by the time she was a sophomore, Guidera – a junior black belt – had given up karate to focus on running. As a junior, however, she had doubts about whether she wanted to continue running.
“It was more of a stress last year than a release,” she said. “I don’t know exactly why. I think it was hard for me when my teammate, Katie Kinkead, got so good.
“She was suddenly running a minute faster than me in the 5K, so that was definitely frustrating. Once I let that push me and I accepted it – running returned to the way it was my freshman and sophomore years. I loved it again, and I totally looked forward to practice and workouts.”
These days Guidera attributes her success, in part, to the presence of Kinkead.
“I can’t even tell you how lucky I am to have had her on my team pushing me,” she said. “I wouldn’t be where I am now without her.”
She also credits her coaches.
“Coach Cat is an incredible coach, and he’s one of the coolest people I’ve ever met,” said Guidera, who wrote her college essay about her coach. “He’s so inspiring, and he’s so patient. His nature and his character are so admirable, and it’s not a façade. It’s so just him.
“When I think about role models, I really just think about my two coaches – coach Cat and coach Loserelli.”
Guidera describes coach Sam Losorelli as ‘generous and kind-hearted.’
“All year he sent us postcards from Hershey, pretending they were anonymous,” she said. “He’s so supportive and thoughtful.
“When I think of one adjective to describe him – I think of thoughtful.”
Under Catinella and Loserlli, Guidera has shown steady improvement.
“As a freshman, she ran about 20:02 at Lehigh,” Catinella said. “As a senior she ran 17:59.
“A lot of that is talent, and a lot of that is she’s very disciplined and takes her training very seriously. It’s rare to see a high school kid as methodical as she is with her training. She’s extremely coachable. I can tell her to do something and know for a fact whether I’m looking or not – I know she’s going to do it.
“Her focus is unbelievable for a 17 or 18-year-old kid.”
Music has been another source of comfort to Guidera, who enjoys writing her own songs.
“Songwriting came pretty naturally,” she said. “I never really thought ‘Oh, I want to be a songwriter.’ It just happened.
“Now it’s such a release. Just like running, it’s so cathartic at times, and it’s a great way for me to figure out problems in my life and who I am.”
Guidera laughs when she recalls her first original song.
“I’m not sure why I wrote it,” she said. “It was full of clichés – it was about seizing the day, finding the key. It was really cheesy, but it was my first song, so I’ll always hold it dear, but oh my gosh, I would never think of playing it in front of anyone. It was pretty hokey.”
She is more than willing to unveil her most recent work and has performed at the World Café Live on open mic night. She has lent her talents to a fundraiser for Catinella’s church youth group that was raising funds for a missions trip to an Indian reservation in South Dakota.
Guidera performs locally through C.B. Cares and also performs almost every weekend in local nursing homes through the organization she started, Music for the Soul.
“I thought – what audience would be most impacted by music, what audience would appreciate it most,” she said of taking her music to the nursing homes.
Just as she throws herself into her running and her music, Guidera also is committed to her school work.
“I would definitely classify myself as a nerd because I love to learn,” she said. “I just love every subject. I really haven’t taken a class I have not enjoyed.”
With such diverse interests, it’s hardly a surprise to hear that she has not chosen a major.
“I’ve been thinking about neuro-science, especially with my mom’s injury,” Guidera said. “It’s such a new field, and there’s so much progress being made.
“I also really enjoyed economics this year, so I’m considering that, but I really don’t know.”
What Guidera does know is that she will undoubtedly end up at an Ivy League school.
“I’m so blessed to have been able to visit some really great schools with great running programs and great academics,” she said. “That’s really making my decision hard, but in a good way.”
Guidera hopes to make her decision within the next month. The school she chooses, according to her coach, will be inheriting a unique and special student-athlete.
“Just to see her progress as a human being the past couple of years – she’s been an absolute thrill to coach,” Catinella said.
