School: Souderton
Football, Wrestling
Joe Stolfi.
Mention the Souderton senior’s name, and his wrestling coach immediately talks about the intelligence and determination of an athlete who finished fourth in his weight class in states last year and is the undisputed leader of his squad.
“He’s always a hard worker,” Souderton wrestling coach Stan Smith said. “He’s a leader as well, and he will get the other kids to tow the line and get them excited.”
His football coach – acknowledging that football was Stolfi’s second sport – points to his senior captain as the glue that held the team together.
In today’s era of specialization, it is rare to find an athlete who is the cornerstone of two programs. Stolfi is one of those rare and special athletes.
“There were moments when I was worried that he would specialize because that seems to be the practice,” Souderton football coach Ed Gallagher said. “People are getting in these kids’ heads and telling them, ‘You have to do this 365 days a year,’ and it’s just not true.
“Let them be a kid, let them enjoy the experience. If they can play more than one sport, play more than one sport. There’s no reason you can’t succeed at both. If Joe’s not our MVP, he’s going to get a lot of votes for MVP when we vote. He’s one of the top two, three, four football players on our team, and he’s the top wrestler on the team. It would have been a shame if he was only playing one sport.”
Stolfi admits he considered focusing on just wrestling this year.
“It was definitely a big decision,” he said. “I’ve been playing with some of the seniors since I was in third grade.
“It was hard not to be there with them. I like hitting and stuff – that was fun, but it was definitely being part of the team that made me want to play more.”
The senior standout recently signed a letter of intent to wrestle at the Division One level for Bucknell, but he has no regrets that he opted to stick with football for his final high school season.
“I have so many good memories from football, not just from this year but every year,” Stolfi said. “I’ll remember all of it.”
Ask him to choose the high point of his high school career, and not surprisingly, he points to his fourth place finish at states in wrestling last year.
“At the same time, it was one of those things where I wasn’t completely satisfied,” Stolfi said. “My goal last year was just to place, and when I got there, I realized I could have made my goal higher.”
From the outset, it was obvious that Stolfi was a special talent on the mat although he tried other sports. Competitive soccer was the first to enter the picture.
“That didn’t last very long,” he said with a laugh. “I was definitely over aggressive.
“When I was little, I played in a co-ed league, and I still hear about how I’d run over people – it didn’t matter if it was a boy or a girl. It didn’t go well. It just wasn’t my sport.”
T-ball and eventually baseball also entered the scene, but wrestling had a special appeal. Stolfi points to his father, himself a wrestler who later coached the sport, as his inspiration.
“I have a picture in my room - my dad coached at the time in New Jersey, and I would come watch practices a lot,” Stolfi said. “I have a picture of me with the team that he coached and then an individual shot of me in a wrestling suit with the team.
“I remember asking him about it, and he would tell me about wrestling. It sounded interesting, and I wanted to wrestle.”
Stolfi got his first taste of wrestling when he was between five and six years old.
“The funny thing is – I really didn’t like it at all for the first month and a half,” he said. “I didn’t think it was fun, and I told my dad I wanted to quit.
“My parents told me I shouldn’t quit, but if I didn’t want to do it, they didn’t want me to do it.”
Things changed in a hurry after Stolfi competed in his first match.
“I just had fun at the match,” he said. “It was a combination of things. I was big into Pokeman when I was little, and everyone had their GameBoy. Before we wrestled, we were playing, and it was fun because all my friends were there.
“I think at that point maybe I liked it more for the people around me than the sport. I made good friends that I’m still lifelong friends with today.”
Stolfi won his first match, and he had found a new passion.
By the time he was in fourth grade, he was wrestling at the varsity level for Souderton’s community program, and he had already traveled to Ohio to compete in a high level tournament. In fifth grade, Stolfi was undefeated.
Success followed Stolfi wherever he went, and it didn’t take Smith long to recognize that he had inherited a special talent.
“I remember as a freshman showing moves and seeing his concentration – he just watched,” Smith recalled. “You could tell he was absorbing it all and thinking about it and was really intense.
“A lot of times you show moves, and you look at a couple of guys, and they’re day dreaming, but almost every time I looked up, he was there. You could tell he was concentrating and envisioning himself probably doing the move, the intricacies of the move and what made it work and all that kind of stuff.”
Stolfi reaped the benefits for his focus to detail and was, according to Smith, ‘better than average’ as a freshman. After reaching states as a sophomore, Stolfi won the district and regional titles as a junior and finished fourth at states.
“Usually when a freshman is better than average, that probably means he’ll be special, particularly if he makes the effort,” Smith said. “There were other seniors that were freshmen when he was that I thought might be physically more talented than him, might have more natural ability, but they didn’t do nearly as good as he has done.”
It was Stolfi’s ability to lead that also made him such a valuable part of Souderton’s football program.
“He’s the kind of kid that’s going to be really hard to replace, more from the leadership standpoint than the football standpoint,” Gallagher said. “Yes, he’s a good football player, but we have other boys who are good football players who are going to come up. We always do.
“It’s hard to replace a good leader, and that would have been the hard thing if he had chosen not to play football. I’m thankful he chose to stick it out and play both sports because I really think that helped our team out tremendously from a leadership standpoint.”
That’s not to say Stolfi didn’t contribute on the field – he did. A standout lineman, he has been a varsity mainstay since he was a sophomore.
“He has that combination of strength, speed and toughness,” Gallagher said. “The same mentality he takes into a wrestling match he takes onto the field. He attacks every play with the same type of intensity that has led him to success in wrestling. He very rarely came off the field for us.
“He’s a very coachable kid. People use the phrase all the time – he’s like a coach on the field. He was definitely our best leader. Our kids looked up to him and listened to him when he said something.”
Just as he has excelled in the athletic arena, Stolfi – who is taking several AP classes - also excelled in the classroom .
“It’s really all about time management,” he said of handling his rigorous schedule. “As long as you don’t waste your time, you’ll get your work done.
“There are nights when I’m up until one, two in the morning doing homework, but it all works out eventually.”
Stolfi chose Bucknell over a final list that included Rutgers and Rider. Rider was eliminated because it didn’t offer his major - engineering, and in the end, Bucknell just felt like a better fit than Rutgers.
“I knew Bucknell was a great school athletically and academically,” Stolfi said. “That really influenced me.
“I liked the coaches, and I really liked the wrestlers. When I was there on my official visit, I got along well with everybody. It was just a good time.”
For now, Stolfi has some unfinished business to take care of.
“I’m going to win states,” he said. “That’s my goal, without a doubt.
“There are definitely some tough wrestlers in my weight class, but I think I have a good opportunity.”
His coach echoed those sentiments.
“There’s no reason that he cannot be a state champion,” Smith said. “That should be his goal this year, and it would be terrific if he does it.”
