Field Hockey
Favorite athlete: Simone Biles
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Hearing my name get called my very first varsity game as a freshman for the starting lineup and high fiving all my teammates and coaches as I ran out to the middle of the field.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I have many funny memories in both high school and club because I tend to fall. A lot. Whether that be tripping over a ball, launching over the boards in indoor, or face planting over the goalie, it usually happens at least once a day.
Music on your playlist: The Lumineers, Kings of Leon, J. Cole
Future plans: I plan to attend the Fox School of Business majoring in either finance or risk management.
Words to live by: “Vision without action is just a daydream.”
One goal before you turn 30: Go skiing in Switzerland with my family.
One thing people don’t know about you: I love to bake!
By Mary Jane Souder
Every team needs a Julia Bunch.
That’s the way Central Bucks West field hockey coach Dave DeAngelis tells it, and it’s not simply because Bunch – a first team all-state selection this fall - is highly skilled. Rather, it’s the intangibles.
“The thing that really, really stands out is her willingness and her leadership,” the Bucks’ coach said. “Even though she would do what she needed to do as an individual to rise in skill every year, getting better, stronger, faster, it’s her willingness to do whatever was required or asked of her for the benefit of the team.
“There’s a saying – ‘A rising tide lifts all boats’ – Julia was that kind of player. It was just such a joy to be around because it was all about team for her. When you get to see every training session and see the lead by example, speaking to teammates, encouraging teammates - that’s something you don’t see unless you’re there every day. Every team has that one really special player or they should have. Julia is that person for our team this year.”
For Bunch and her teammates, this past fall was yet another year of transition as DeAngelis – the team’s third coach in four years - took over a struggling program that had won just four games in each of the last two years. The transition was a smooth one, thanks in no small part to the efforts of Bunch and the team’s senior leaders.
“From a leadership perspective, this was about creating a very inclusive yet competitive environment,” DeAngelis said. “Things that I heard coming into this position was that there was never a great connectivity with the freshman team and at times with jayvee. With the way the season rolled out with COVID, Phase One, Phase Two, Phase Three – Julia helped create sub-team families where we intertwined all the underclassmen.
“We integrated and a lot of that had to do with Julia and the other captains (Brooke Golbeski and Caroline Crecca) creating seven teams. In Phase One, they weren’t allowed to be all on the field at the same time, so we had to keep rotating them to different stations. We basically had seven different groups of 10 players showing up every 15 minutes. That was the requirement. I explained to the captains – this is what we need to do, so they created that balance.”
And even in the abbreviated season, the Bucks became a cohesive unit, a fact that was underscored on Senior Night.
“We have the underclassmen line up on the 45 and 45, and the seniors come down the 50-yard line with their parents,” DeAngelis said. “I have never seen so many underclassmen. The whole freshman team, the entire jayvee team – you’re talking 40-some players all spaced out because they felt a part of it, and that’s a direct reflection on student leadership and Julia.”
For Bunch, stepping into a leadership role was made easier by the senior role models she had when she earned a spot on the varsity as a freshman.
“We had a ton of crazy good seniors that year who took me under their wing, which was awesome,” she said. “Taylor Mason was one of the girls that took me under her wing. She would bring me to the turf to help me work on my shots, so that was really cool for me.
“This year I really felt we had great leaders. We had a really talented group of younger girls also, so it was really fun for me to take them under my wing like the seniors did for me when I was a freshman. That was really my focus this year – that they knew what it was like to be part of this program, and they could see what’s to come.”
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Bunch got her first taste of competitive sports in gymnastics when she was four years old.
“My mom had me in the dual ballet/gymnastics class, and then I transitioned into fully gymnastics after preschool,” she said. “That was very time consuming. I was training every day for three hours, but I loved it – it was super fun, but I couldn’t play any other sports while doing that because of the time demands, so I decided to stop (in third grade), and I tried every single sport possible. I played soccer, softball, lacrosse and, of course, field hockey. I was having so much fun playing because I never had gotten to before, but field hockey stuck with me.”
Bunch’s interest in field hockey was sparked at least in part by her mother, who competed in hockey in middle school and high school.
“She was going to play in college until she tore her ACL, so she was really advocating for field hockey,” Bunch said.
Bunch got her start in DAA (Doylestown Athletic Association) field hockey in fourth grade, and two years later, she began playing club for FSC. Ever since then, it’s been nothing but field hockey.
“Honestly, I liked the idea of being part of a team sport like that,” she said. “I’d been competing solo for my whole life before then, and I guess the rush of being part of a team is what I was really drawn to.
“It, of course, took a while for me to catch on to all the rules of field hockey. That was one part I did not like at first. The fact that my mom played – I wanted to follow in her footsteps. I definitely grew into it, but after trying so many different sports, it was the most appealing to me at the time.”
As a freshman, Bunch tried out for the high school team, not only earning a spot on the varsity squad but also in the starting lineup.
“That was such a cool experience for me because I truly had not expected it,” she said. “I walked into the program not knowing anybody, not knowing any of the coaches, so it was definitely a year of growth for me and also realization because I didn’t know that I was capable of doing it.’
Bunch started every game, initially at left wing and then moving to left mid the second half of the season – her first under coach Courtney Lepping and also her last since Lepping opted to step down at the end of the season to devote more time to her family.
“After that, there was a variety of coaching changes,” Bunch said. “My freshman year we were still on that powerhouse wave. It was really tough when the seniors left because my teammates left as well as the coaches.”
Bunch points to her sophomore season as her toughest.
“I had to kind of reprove myself,” she said. “I didn’t know what that was going to be like.
“I was unprepared my freshman year for preseason, and then I felt I was unprepared again, which I did not like walking into another season of unknowns. I still had a few teammates that were seniors my sophomore year, so it really helped to have them to lean on. We could push each other. It was definitely the girls that helped me continue working hard and progressing.”
Bunch – a first team all-league and all-state selection – anchored the Bucks at center mid.
“If you can’t either attack from the center or defend from the center, you’ve got a lot of issues and troubles,” DeAngelis said. “That’s where she was absolutely most valuable to us. She’s just a truly fierce competitor.”
Although the Bucks won just two games last fall in the abbreviated 10-game SOL Colonial Division season, the team was definitely trending up. Five of seven conference teams advanced to districts, including district champion Central Bucks East.
“If you look at us on paper, it’s honestly a trend downward from my freshman year, but I don’t like to look at the numbers or the records,” Bunch said. “I would say since my freshman year I personally have grown so much mentally, physically and my abilities, but I also think my team did too.
“This year we didn’t have the record to back up that, but I can say that the turnaround is starting now, and it felt really good to be part of that new foundation. We did have to start all over again this year, but it was done. The groundwork is there, and I’m excited to see what’s going to happen now that I’m gone.”
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Bunch’s field hockey career is far from over. Next year, the West senior will be taking her talents to the Division 1 level, playing field hockey for Temple University.
“My freshman year I really did not put it together that I had the potential to do that,” she said. “It took a lot of convincing from the people around me, and I needed the confidence to want to pursue that dream.
“The end of freshman year I started looking at schools. I started going to camps and clinics. My sophomore year was a really heavy year for me, doing all that kind of stuff. I didn’t want to start that until I did have the confidence to walk into those clinics to prove myself.”
Bunch committed to Temple last April, choosing the BIG EAST school from a final list that included La Salle and Lehigh. She will be enrolled in the Fox School of Business where she will major in finance or risk management.
An excellent student, Bunch is a member of the National Honor Society, the Computer Science Honor Society, and she was named to the PA High School Coaches Academic All-State squad. She is a member of the Future Business Leaders of America Club as well as Class Council.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the Class Council to be creative.
“We do zoom meetings – it’s been kind of fun,” she said. “We have been doing virtual trivia nights. We organize little things like that to try and bring the class together.”
Bunch also was a junior assistant coach for DAA field hockey, which was forced to cancel its season because of the pandemic. Despite the restrictions, the West senior has maintained a positive mindset.
“I really have been making that my number one priority because I could be sitting here dwelling on all the things I haven’t been able to do my senior year, but instead, I would rather look at the positives, which would be I got to have a hockey season, I’m still going to school, my family is healthy.
“I just like to focus on the positives. Everyone is trying to do that this year, and those who are doing it are the ones who are still succeeding in a year that has been pretty difficult.”
The fact that Bunch is succeeding comes as no surprise to her coach.
“To me, Julia is what defines today’s student athletes,” DeAngelis said. “It wasn’t just on the field, it’s also in the classroom, but it’s also the community. That’s what she’s about.”
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