Football
Favorite athlete: Reggie White/The Minister of Defense
Favorite team: Chicago Bears
Favorite memory competing in sports: My favorite sports memory was from my sophomore year in the game against CB West. I recognized their line splits from films that week. I knew right where the ball was going, so I shot the gap hard and tackled the quarterback and running back together right at the hand-off and caused a fumble.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: My freshman year in my first varsity start at Hatboro-Horsham, we were just transitioning into defense after a punt. Coach yelled at me to get out there, and I was so nervous and excited at the same time that I didn’t even see the officials moving the chains, and I tripped over them and slid face down in the mud.
Music on iPod: Zac Brown Band
Future plans: Attend Villanova University and play nose guard for the football team while studying Business
Words to live by: “Do today what others won’t, so you can do tomorrow what others can’t.”
One goal before turning 30: Graduate with a Business degree from Villanova University, play a few years in the NFL, use my degree to get a good job.
One thing people don’t know about me: I really like art, so much so I have taken Clay Studio 1, 2, and 3.
By Mary Jane Souder
Ricky Young possesses a work ethic that’s as rare as it is special.
Listen only to his high school coach talk about the Souderton senior.
“Words don’t describe his work ethic, both on and off the field,” Souderton football coach Ed Gallagher said. “He has one of the best work ethics I’ve ever seen in all my years of coaching.
“He came up and played varsity as a freshman, and he’s out before practice, flipping tractor tires. After practice, he’s out blocking a sled by himself. He’s doing his own thing and working and bringing kids along with him. He’s such a unique individual just because of what he brings from a work ethic standpoint.
“I fill out evaluation forms – good, above average, in the top 10 percentile, and there’s that little column for ‘one of the best I’ve ever encountered.’ That was him. He fits that column. He’s the true definition of a character kid. He’s a wonderful young man.”
Young is reaping the rewards for his hard work on the gridiron and in the classroom. He recently signed a letter of intent to play collegiate football at Villanova University.
Quite an impressive accomplishment for someone who didn’t play football until middle school and even more impressive when taking into account that Young has a learning disability.
“I’m dyslexic,” he said. “This school has been absolutely amazing with it.”
Amazing might not cover it. Young boasts a grade point average of 3.818.
“A lot of it is due to the fact that the school has been so willing to help me,” he said. “At one point during the recruiting, I was getting recruited by Ivy League schools.
“A kid with learning disabilities – they wouldn’t have thought would be going to an Ivy League school. That was awesome.”
Make no mistake about it - Young is an extraordinary football player. Listen only to Tony Cipriano, the Indians’ long-time assistant who works with the defensive line.
“First of all, he has an extremely good work ethic,” Cipriano said. “For a guy his size in high school, he’s probably one of the best nose guards I’ve ever coached.
“He’s a two-gap player which is what they’re looking for in college. He has real good feet, and he’s really developed his hands. He’s also very good at reading. He can read the head of the blocker and actually react. He could play read defense or he could play a two-gap defense. He’s the ideal defensive college lineman.
“If he would grow an inch and get up to 6-3 or 6-4, if he does well in college, he might be looking at a professional career. I’ve coached a couple of professional players that mainly played on offense, but he’s the best I ever coached on defense.”
How good is he? Consider only that Young was a first team all-SOL selection on both sides of the football as both a sophomore and junior while also earning all-state recognition. He was expected to be even more dominant as a senior, but that never happened. On the third day of two-a-days last August, Young broke his fibula in two places.
Five days later, he had surgery, and a plate and seven screws were needed to put his leg back together. He was lost for the entire season.
“I felt bad for our kids because they lost not just their best player, but they lost their leader,” Gallagher said. “When Ricky was there, they felt invincible, but without him, they felt a little rudderless. They didn’t have that driving force.
“When he had the surgery, he was laid up for awhile, but once he was back, he was encouraging the kids, he was at practices making sure the kids were doing what they were supposed to do. The kids loved seeing him. Even without playing, he brought something to them from a leadership standpoint.”
For his part, Young managed to put a positive spin on the situation.
“The way I looked at it – God’s got a plan for my life, and I figured He was going to use it,” he said. “Getting to see a bunch of other kids get in and play that probably normally wouldn’t have gotten a chance was good.
“It definitely wasn’t what I was expecting, and it wasn’t the desired thing for this year, but everything happens for a reason.”
Young has had an interest in football for as long as he can remember.
“I’m not super good at sitting and watching, but I would go out and play with the neighbor kids,” he said. “With everything inside of me, I just wanted to play. My dad wanted me to wait until I was in middle school to play football, so I played lacrosse for eight years. That was my sport.”
In eighth grade, football entered the picture.
“I just realized I really, really enjoyed the game,” he said. “I wasn’t the best at it, but I went to a camp over the summer called Football University. I went for defensive line because I enjoyed attacking rather than being attacked. They completely taught me what to do.”
There’s a story about Young’s first camp that continues to make its rounds in his family. The then rising freshman – because of his size – was matched up against a rising senior.
“They did one-on-ones, and you would have to drive them back,” Young said. “I drove him back like 10 yards. Everyone kind of stopped and was like, ‘Okay.’
“So they made me do it again to prove it wasn’t a fluke, and I pushed him back seven yards that time. That was what set me on a track to play football.”
Young started out his freshman season on the junior varsity but found himself in the starting lineup by the end of the season.
“I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” Young said. “Coach Cip would say, ‘This is what you need to work on. This is what you need to do.’
“I’d get out early to practice and work on stuff. I’d stay 20-30 minutes after practice. I continued to do that all through my senior year.”
It took no time at all for Young to make an impact, and college coaches took notice.
“I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I can play in college’ because that’s what I wanted,” he said. “Ever since I was a little kid, I was watching the NFL teams. I’m like – I’m going to do that one day.”
Temple, Delaware, the University of Pennsylvania, Lafayette, Lehigh and Buffalo all actively pursued Young, but when Villanova put an offer on the table the end of his junior year, Young opted to bring the recruiting process to an early end.
“Everything just worked out great,” he said. “Villanova had everything I wanted.
“They played a 3-3-5, and I wanted to play nose guard in college. They’re a great academic school and D-1 football.
“It had everything I wanted. When I got hurt, they didn’t even hesitate. They sent me to a good surgeon – they were just behind me 100 percent. You know you’ve made the right decision when someone sticks with you through hard times.”
Young plans to major in business with an interest in pursuing either accounting or marketing.
“He excels in the classroom,” Gallagher said. “It opened up a lot of doors for him.”
Although he did not play as a senior, Young was the recipient of an award from the Souderton-Telford Rotary Club.
“Jim Church described the person they were looking for to present the four-way award, and they described Ricky Young,” Gallagher said. “He’s very coachable. He just a smart kid that works hard, and he has all the intangibles. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him on the field as a freshman. He’s that good.”
