Basketball
Favorite athlete: Stephen Curry
Favorite team: Duke
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating CB West in our Coaches vs. Cancer game at home and our fans storming the court.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When I was nine years old, I had a travel baseball game, and it was extremely muddy from a rainstorm the night before. At the end of the game, I thought It would be funny to run and dive headfirst into a huge mud puddle at second base and then have to drive home in my parents’ car all dirty. My parents, who were not happy, decided to punish me by making me strip down to my underwear outside of the car where everyone could see and then proceeded to make me ride all the way in the hatchback.
Music on iPod: Hip Hop/Rap and EM
Future plans: Go on to play basketball at Juniata College and graduate with a degree in Biology.
Words to live by: “Stay positive and always give 100%”
One goal before turning 30: Have a sustaining career and a family.
One thing people don’t know about me: I like to sing in the shower.
By GORDON GLANTZ
Central Bucks South sharpshooter Bryce Dobisch has all but made up his mind about the next chapter of his basketball life.
While admitted to West Chester and James Madison universities, he has decided to accept a guarantee to stay on the hardwood at Juniata College, situated 30 minutes from Penn State.
Since Juniata competes at the Division III level, it may as well be a million miles away from wherever the Division I Final Four is played.
But that doesn’t bother him, not in the least.
When it comes to basketball, Dobisch’s journey is one that has seen him grow increasingly comfortable in his own skin.
He will also be the third generation Dobisch – following a path blazed by his grandfather, Fred, and father, Brian – to play college basketball.
Fred Dobisch, out of Frankford High, was on the Temple squad that reached the Final Four in 1958 and lost by a point in the semifinals to eventual champion Kentucky. The Owls – led by Guy Rodgers and Pickles Kennedy and coached by the legendary Harry Litwack -- bound their broken hearts enough to topple Kansas State to place third in the nation.
Brian Dobisch, after starring at William Tennent, went on to play at King’s College.
Bryce says neither his grandfather nor his father pushed him into the sport, but they have been his biggest supporters and inspirations.
When the Titans’ tri-captain displays his leadership skills, whether it is with a fiery pep talk to the whole squad or lifting the spirits of a younger teammate down on himself, he is channeling his father and grandfather.
“My dad always inspired me,” said Bryce. “Even though he played basketball in high school and college, he never pressured me. But he was always there for me, no matter what I needed. He always practiced with me.
“And my grandfather has been great. He comes to every game. He gets upset when he has a meeting or something and can’t make a game.”
There may not have been external pressure, but Bryce freely admits that he put enough of that on himself after being a big-time scorer at the middle school level.
“When I was younger, I was a hothead,” said Dobisch. “I would just get upset with myself and get down.
“My coaches worked with me. Our assistant coach told me ‘you have to hide your emotions. A mistake is not a big deal.’ I started to take that to heart.”
As a first-year starter, Dobisch is currently connecting for 13 point per game and filling the scoring void left when go-to guy Matt Scamuffo went down with a knee injury that he is still fighting through while trying to make a comeback for the pending postseason.
“I’m not a hothead in basketball anymore,” said Dobisch, a top-notch student who has taken many AP and honors classes early enough that, for all intents and purposes, he could be considered a high school graduate. “I used to get mad at myself. The other players could see it, the referees could see it. It’s just a way to take yourself out of the game, and you can’t do that.
“You have to just play the game.”
The new and improved Bryce Dobisch has caught the eye, and appreciation, of the coaching staff.
“He has grown as a leader, on and off the court,” said head coach Jason Campbell. “From a player who had talent as a shooter coming out of middle school to being a sophomore who found out that playing better defense would be his ticket to earning playing time. The adjustment from being the star player (at Unami Middle School) to figuring out how to adjust and mature in a program with older, more experienced players was a challenge, but over time he learned a lot from it.”
Campbell points to back-to-back games this season when Dobisch drained clutch last-second shots. He buried a three-pointer with 5.6 seconds left against North Penn to give his team a one-point lead, only to watch the Knights come back and win at the buzzer.
Though disappointed, he was more determined to make it right. That chance came the next night in a tense overtime battle with Hatboro-Horsham. This time Dobisch’s last-second shot held up.
“I like taking it,” he said. “I feel confident.”
Does he see himself as Mr. Clutch in the absence of Scamuffo, who was scoring 20 points per game at the time of his dislocated knee.
“I guess you could say that, but I don’t feel the need to take every shot,” he said.
The greater need was stepping up as a leader on a team that lost nine seniors but managed a four-way tie atop the league standings.
“Almost every game, I try to get the team fired up,” he said. “I want them to win as much as I want to win, which is a lot.
“I love winning more than anything.”
The real game he has won was the one within.
“In my opinion, Bryce is a true success story,” said assistant coach Josh Williams, who did a lot of the one-on-one conferencing with Dobisch through his earlier career. “I think it took him some time to see the changes, but he needed to do it himself.
“As a sophomore and even some of his junior year, he carried a lot of frustrations around and some of that frustration came out in his game play on the court. He has passion and determination that are unlike most other players. Bryce has been able to channel his energy in the right direction and has grown from an angry and frustrated kid into a well-respected leader and student athlete. He knows what it takes to get the job done and I am extremely proud of him and his accomplishments on and off the court.
“As coaches, we have looked at Bryce to do a lot for us this year, and he has done nothing but deliver on every level, (doing) anything from a team pep talk to wanting the ball at the end of the game. He really is a true success story and it has been an honor to coach him. He has made his family, his teammates, his teachers, and his coaches all very proud.”
