By Molly Tow
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 8/18/11
Boyertown rising senior midfielder Devyn Heidelbaugh has made a verbal commitment to play Division I lacrosse at the University of Delaware.
Heidelbaugh led Boyertown (19-7) to its eighth straight Pioneer Athletic Conference title and a berth in the state playoffs. She earned First Team PAC-10 honors and had a team-leading 45 ground balls and 38 draw controls, and added 21 goals.
Heidelbaugh, who plays club lacrosse for SEPA, is a High Honor Roll student at Boyertown.
Heidelbaugh, who is interested in studying Nutrition, had Delaware atop her list early on.
“Both of my coaches for SEPA, Deb Sloan and Erin Zimmerman, are Delaware alumni, played lacrosse there and loved it,” said Heidelbaugh. “They’ve always told stories and spoke really highly of it, so it’s always been a school I’ve been interested in from hearing them talk about it.
“I just really loved the school. I did a camp this summer there and I really liked that. I loved the coaches, I got to meet some of the other 2012 recruits and I loved all of those girls.
“I’ve always wanted a small-town feel to a college, and the downtown part of Delaware has the cute little town that I’ve always wanted. I also wanted a bigger school, and for all of those reasons I thought it was the right school for me.”
Heidelbaugh is the first from Boyertown to commit to play college lacrosse. Other rising seniors in the Philadelphia area that have already committed to play lacrosse at Delaware are attack Ali Karwoski (Great Valley), attack McKenzie Rafferty (Downingtown East) and midfielder Abby Wheble (Avon Grove).
Boyertown continued its success into the playoffs this year, as it cruised to the quarterfinals of the 2011 District 1 girls’ lacrosse tournament. There, the Bears suffered a disappointing two-goal loss by Great Valley. Boyertown lost to Archbishop Carroll in the first round.
“Everyone was a little apprehensive because we were a young team, we lost 10 seniors, so we really weren’t sure how we were going to do,” said Heidelbaugh. “We were questioning if we’d even win our league, because we’ve won that eight years in a row now.
“But, we worked hard and we ended up finishing a lot better than we expected. I had a great year, it was a lot of fun, and we made it to states, so I think we were all pleasantly surprised with how we did.”
Heidelbaugh expects the Bears to match, if not surpass, this year’s accomplishments in the 2012 season.
“We want to continue to win the PAC-10, that’s always a big thing, definitely making it into states again, and hopefully making it even farther than we did last year,” said Heidelbaugh. “We didn’t lose many [girls] this year. We have pretty much the same team, and we all get along well and enjoy it, so there’s nothing really stopping us from doing better than we did last season.”
