Football, Basketball, Baseball
Favorite athlete: Brian Dawkins
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the Continental Conference in football my sophomore year.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Too many things to count.
Music on iPod: All genres
Future plans: Attend college to study nursing or nutrition
Words to live by: “The future is no place for your better days.”
One goal before turning 30: Hike the Appalachian Trail
One thing people don’t know about me: I enjoy concerts and music festivals in my free time.
By GORDON GLANTZ
What does Joe Unangst have in common with pay phones, 24-hour diners, typewriters and the humpback whale?
All are endangered species.
Like Chuck Bednarik, who was the last of the 60-minute men in the NFL, Pennridge’s Unangst – the Univest Featured Male Athlete of the Week – is also among a dying breed.
The senior is a three-sport athlete for the Rams.
And it’s not just in name only.
We’re not talking about a soccer player who doubles as the kicker for the football team and a deep reserve on the baseball team, or a football receiver who then sits at the end of the bench of the basketball team and then runs some track in the spring to stay in shape.
This is a football-basketball-baseball guy, in the limelight, playing a key role on each squad; taking and giving hits in football, taking shots and playing in-your-face defense in basketball and chasing down fly balls in the gap and gunning down baserunners in baseball.
“Exactly,” affirmed football coach Jeff Hollenbach. “You don’t get these types of kids all that often. The respect he gets – from teachers to teammates to opposing players – really tells you all you need to know. People know who he is and respect what he does.
“He’s a game-time player. When the game is on the line, he’s the guy you want out there.”
And maybe that respect will spark a Back To The future movement, at least in the Pennridge athletic community.
“The whole three-sport thing? I love the fact that he does three sports,” continued Hollenbach, who said Unangst was “like a coach on the field” who knew everyone’s assignments when questions arose in the huddle. “That does not happen very often. When I talk to kids who play one or two other sports, I say, ‘What about Joey Unangst? He does it.’ He’s my poster boy in trying to recruit other kids. It’s a doable thing.
“That’s what I did. Football was my main sport, but I wouldn’t have traded my basketball and baseball experiences here for anything. You don’t see it much these days, but he is breaking the mold.”
During the last football season, Unangst rarely came off the field. If he wasn’t carrying the ball, eclipsing the 2,000-yard mark, he was returning it. When the opponent had the ball, he was an active strong safety who was at his best coming downhill, almost played like a linebacker.
After helping to lead the Rams to the postseason and playing a lot of quarterback out of the Wildcat formation against Quakertown on Thanksgiving Day, it was on to the hardwood.
Unangst starts in the backcourt after being the sixth man a year back for a squad that shared the league crown.
Come spring, he will return to the same right field post he has manned since his freshman year.
“He is the prototypical guy you would see back in the fifties, sixties and seventies,” said Pennridge basketball coach Dean Behrens. “It was more common then. You really don’t see it much anymore. Kids rarely do all three (major) sports. In my 17 years, I think he is only the third or fourth kid I’ve had who has done it.”
Three different sports. Three vital roles.
“And three different sets of skills,” said Behrens. “He’s just a great kid.”
“He’s not the biggest kid, but he scraps,” added baseball coach Tom Nuneviller. “He knows all the games he plays well, and he’s a gamer. He does the little things. He’s the kind of kid you love having on your team.”
As for Unangst, he would have it no other way.
“I encourage everyone to play as many sports as they can play, and enjoy every moment they have playing them,” he said, adding that camaraderie with teammates over the years has meant more than winning or losing or statistics.
“The whole experience has been great. That’s been my favorite part, the bonding. When I look back, I think I’ll remember that part of it more than the games or anything. Playing one sport helps another. It helps you be more aware of the situation.”
Immediate Impact
Nuneviller put Unangst in the lineup when the freshman caught his eye in open workouts.
“I knew he was an athlete,” said Nuneviller. “I knew about him, and we didn’t have a whole lot of seniors that year. We actually had some nice weather and we were able to get in some workouts. I thought he was aggressive catching the ball, and he had a nice arm.
“He has been starting in for us the last three years, and this will be his fourth year. It’s hard to believe how fast it has gone by.”
Making an immediate impact was not what Unangst envisioned when Nuneviller asked for a closer look.
“I came in that year expecting to play on the freshman team,” said Unangst. “I was doing drills in open workouts, but I had no (varsity) expectations. But after a couple of workouts, I was on the varsity. It’s been an awesome experience.”
While Unangst’s strength has been defense and contributing mostly from the bottom half of the order, Nuneviller expects him to parlay a strong American Legion season at the plate into a more active role in the Rams’ bat attack this spring.
“He has gotten more and more consistent, swinging the bat,” said Nuneviller. “We lost some key guys, but we have a good group coming back. We expect to him to be a prominent player.”
The road to prominence in football was a little different, as Unangst was behind standout running back Mike Class on the depth chart.
Intent on making his mark, he ran for 2,092 yards and scored 23 touchdowns while averaging 200 all-purpose yards per game this past season.
“He had a breakout year,” said Hollenbach. “He really came out ready to go. The interesting thing about Joe was that he kind of became of health nut. He ended up losing weight, which you don’t see much in football, but he came back quicker.”
‘Little Joe’
Unangst comes from a large, sports-minded family, headed by parents Ray and Dot.
“My parents raised me well,” he said. “I learned positively.
“I just want to thank my parents for everything they have done. They made me the person I am today, and were always supporting me, no matter what sport I played.”
Unangst recalls that from a young age all games with his older siblings were contested with a spirited passion.
Sister, Becky, is the eldest, at 28. Next are older brothers Jake (26), Jesse (23) and Jon (21).
All were athletes. Becky played field hockey at the collegiate level at Gwynedd Mercy University. Jake played football, Jesse soccer and Jon baseball – all at the high school level.
As the youngest, he was anything but coddled.
“He’s the youngest of three brothers, and they all were good athletes,” said Nuneviller. “I don’t think they ever took it easy on ‘Little Joe.’ And you see it now. He’s such a scrappy kid. And he is a good kid, to boot.”
Added Behrens: “He’s not big, but he has never shied away from anything. He has been on all winning teams. When he is on a team, he makes a team better. … He comes from a line of brothers, and he’s the youngest. I’m sure he learned quickly to compete.”
Unangst says there was always “competition in anything we did,” whether it was video games or playing sports outside.
Hollenbach sees it all as a positive.
“There is no way those guys took it easy on him,” he said. “But he is an awesome young man. I know the family well, and he comes from an excellent family.
“There is no way not to be impressed with how he comes across and with who he is.”
That toughness shows up at times like the present. After getting dinged and dented all football season, the transition to basketball is slowly but surely coming around.
For Behrens, it was worth the wait.
“We wanted to have him around, but he came to us pretty banged up,” said the coach. “He was the running back, defensive back and the punt returner and kick returner. He didn’t come out too much. He carried the ball 25-30 times a game, getting hit by people, and then turned around and did the hitting on defense.
“He gets a lot of respect from his teammates. Some of them also play baseball, so they realize how difficult it is.”
Summertime Dues
All three of Unangst’s sports require significant summertime dedication in order to excel.
Football players lift, attend camps and play in passing leagues. Basketball players play in summer leagues and go to the clinics. Baseball players relish the chance to finally play daily, usually after the spring scholastic seasons lack cohesion because of weather, by playing American Legion ball.
What does Unganst do?
He does the best he can.
“I would lift in the mornings with the football team and then have a Legion game at night,” he said, adding that he played for a travel baseball team on weekends as well.
Behrens, according to Unangst, would allow him to come to basketball workouts as time permitted.
“All three coaches have been awesome about it, and I really appreciate it,” he said.
While it doesn’t leave much time for the beach – although he did manage to squeeze in a week -- there was time to deliver food for the Plumnsteadville Inn, work a baseball camp and assist Hollenbach at a summer football camp for boys, ages 7-12, who all found a relatable hero in the process.
“He was at my youth camp this summer, every day, working with the kids,” said Hollenbach. “He would jump right in there with them and do drills, and I had him talk to them about integrity. The kids just loved him. To me, he’s a natural teacher/coach. I hope coaching is in his future.”
East or ‘Wes’?
While his sports future his unclear, it’s likely he is playing his final basketball games – not counting pickup games – and is aware of the situation.
“He is playing every possession like it is his last possession,” said Behrens.
Sounding like someone with zero regrets, Unangst said he is “seeing what happens,” but is prepared to go from a life with all sports at all times to none.
“It wouldn’t matter too much,” he said, explaining he could scratch his competitive spirit with club sports. “If I don’t end up playing sports, I’m fine with that.”
Feeling “blessed” that he has somehow avoided serious injury, he would walk ahead knowing he left it out there – on the football field, basketball court and baseball diamond – for Pennridge.
“It got to the point where I just figured that I knew I was going to regret not playing all three,” he explained. “I just wanted to play as many I can, while I still can.
“It’s been tough at times, but I knew it would all be worth it in the end.”
Unganst is more at peace with the possibility of not playing collegiate sports than some of his coaches, as they know the value he has to a locker room, even if not the star.
It was always presumed that Unangst would try to match up his desired major – something in sports nutrition or nursing -- with a school where he would play baseball.
But after the season he recently had on the gridiron, new opportunities are in the midst of presenting themselves.
“I think he will look back and will be glad he did it,” said Behrens. “He’s going to maybe have an opportunity to play either football or baseball in college.”
Seeing a 5-10, 165-pounder will scare off some football recruiters, but Hollenbach counters that initial reaction by pointing to players like Wes Walker and Julian Edelman as examples of what Unangst could provide at the next level.
“He could play baseball or football, although his size is seen as a drawback in the football world,” said Hollenbach. “The thing about Joe is that he has great hands. He caught about 22-23 passes for us. I really think he can be a real good college-level slot receiver, a Wes Welker type.
“He’s talking to a bunch of schools, and it’s still early, so who knows?”
What Hollenbach does know is that Unangst is a rarity in another area, beyond playing three sports in an era of specialization.
“He had so much fun,” said the coach. “That’s the last thing I said about him at the banquet. I said, ‘He had fun.’ If there is one problem today with sports, it’s that too many people are taking it way too seriously.
“It’s a lot of fun to talk about him, too. But, man, I’m going to miss him.”
