Basketball
Favorite athlete: Coen Carr
Favorite team: Philadelphia eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating PW last year at home
Funniest moment competing in sports: Bus ride to Cumberland Valley last year
Music on playlist: RnB (The Weeknd, Brent Faiyez, Giveon, SZA)
Future plans: Attend college for business
Favorite motto: “Love yourz” -j cole
One goal before turning 30: Have my own apartment or house
One thing people don’t know about me: The first school basketball team I made was JV in 10th grade
By Mary Jane Souder
Declan Doyle won’t find his way into the headlines.
In fact, the Abington senior doesn’t even see action in every game, but coach Dan Marsh cannot overstate Doyle’s value to a basketball team that is at the top of the District 1 6A rankings.
“He’s always there for everybody,” the Ghosts’ coach said. “We were playing at Upper Dublin, and the game was almost over, and he looks at me and was like, ‘Yo, you’ve got to get the birthday boy in.’ He was talking about Daulton – it was his birthday. He’s just a great teammate.”
A ‘great teammate’ might sound cliché – in Doyle’s case, it’s anything but. Turns out Marsh sent out a group text asking his players to name the person they consider the best teammate. Doyle was close to a unanimous choice.
“I think Declan might have been the only one who voted for somebody else,” Marsh said.
That appreciation extends well beyond the team.
“I put him in the game the other day, and the whole student section just went bonkers,” Marsh said. “He’s just one of those dudes that everybody likes.”
And how does it feel to receive such a rousing ovation?
“It feels like I would imagine it makes my teammates feel when I try to lift them up,” Doyle said. “So, when I hear my friends and people I know cheering for me when I go in, it brings me up, and it makes me feel more positive, and then I can pass that energy on to my teammates.”
When called upon, Doyle contributes on the court, but it’s so much more than that.
“He communicates with me, which is what I really want them to do the most,” Marsh said. “We had a player who wasn’t happy, but that player didn’t tell me. How am I supposed to know you’re unhappy unless you tell me?
“Declan is someone who will come to me and say, ‘You know, this kid’s unhappy – or whatever – maybe you should talk to him.’”
Like every athlete, Doyle would love to see more playing time, but he put his situation in perspective long before he became a senior.
“I definitely did have times where I was like – why even play?” he said. “I barely play even as a senior.
“The thing that kept me on the team the longest – and I’m obviously still on the team – I always made a statement to be grateful for even being on the team because every year at tryouts I’d look around, and there is like a hundred kids there, and after every tryout, I am one of the 20-30 people that gets to be on the team. Even if I don’t play, I’m just so grateful to be on the team and able to hang out with my guys in the locker room and at practice and stuff.”
Back to the start
Doyle – who has a younger sister – became involved in sports in first grade.
“My parents kind of just put me in whatever was common for the kids in my neighborhood,” he said. “I live in Glenside so GYAC (Glenside Youth Athletic Club) and Hunter Soccer (Club), so I played soccer, basketball, baseball growing up.
“My favorite sport was hockey. I really wanted to be an ice hockey player, and I always played floor hockey at the arts and rec center.”
Although hockey was Doyle’s favorite, it was the first to fall by the wayside.
“I stopped because there wasn’t a floor hockey thing above elementary school,” Doyle said. “It was all ice hockey after that, and it was just too much for me, so I stopped in fifth grade.”
He played baseball until COVID and played club soccer through 10th grade. Basketball stuck.
“When I was growing up, I had a big on and off with basketball because there were so many times where I liked hockey more or I liked soccer more,” Doyle said. “But basketball is the only sport I’m still playing.
“Something I like about it is the teamwork and just being able to go whenever you can and shoot around or go the park and play pickup. I feel you can’t do that with any other sport, and that’s the kind of thing I love about it - you can play really whenever wherever.”
Doyle played for the ninth grade team and then mainly JV until this year when he contributes in a reserve role. But it’s his contributions from the bench that set Doyle apart.
“Our team has this big tendency to hang our heads and get down on themselves when we face adversity, and (Marsh) always talks about that,” he said. “When I was a sophomore and made JV, I found that there was literally no one on our team that really picks each other up constantly.
“So, I kind of tried to be that guy that picks people up, no matter what. Even if I don’t play good or don’t play at all. Every time someone subs out of the game, I yell, ‘Stand up’ for everyone to high five them or be the first person to pick someone up if they hit the ground. I think when our team has good energy going, we play the best by far when we’re all positive. I just try to bring positivity to help my team play better.”
Doyle is one of nine seniors on this year’s squad.
“He’s just a good dude who works hard,” Marsh said. “He’s 6-2, 6-3, and he’s one of those kids where I tell him – if he wasn’t at Abington, he’d probably be a starter or contributor at most schools.
“He can shoot, he can defend, but we’re guard strong. He handles it really well. He never complains. He never missed an offseason workout unless he has work, and even then, he communicates. He always asks me - what’s the schedule.”
As one of the team’s senior captains, Doyle is, according to his coach, a positive leader.
“He’s always looking out for other people, and that’s what we need now,” Marsh said. “He’s a good student, and he helps people with grades and things like that. He does it all unselfishly.”
Listening to Doyle tell it, he’s not doing anything special.
“People will text our group chats and be like – anyone know anything to do with this or that, and it’s not just me,” he said. “My teammates help each other out too.”
Looking ahead
Off the court, Doyle is a strong student.
“Obviously, everyone says ‘student-athlete,’ and student comes first,” he said. “I actually do think it’s important – it’s not just something coaches say.
“I’m not playing college basketball, and there are a lot of people on my team who won’t. Being smart will take you farther than basketball ever can. I just made sure to keep that a high focus because I know it’s going to take me far in life if I keep working at it.”
Doyle, who is involved in Abington’s Mini-THON and Link Crew, plans to major in business management.
His criteria for choosing a college is simple.
“I want a college that feels homey and just feels natural and fun too, but obviously somewhere that will have good academics and set me up with a job right out of college,” Doyle said. “I’m not one of those kids who’s like – I wanted to go here ever since I was a little kid. I don’t even have a front runner. I’m just waiting for whatever feels right.”
In the meantime, Doyle – who works part-time at O’Neill’s Food Market – is enjoying his final high school season which he hopes is far from over.
“We had practice three times a week all summer and all spring, so especially after two early losses in the playoffs the past two years, I’m just really excited and have a lot of anticipation about this year,” he said. “With positivity and energy and holding each other high - I think we can be great.”
As for the importance of Doyle’s role in this year’s success story, Marsh sums it up.
“It’s invaluable,” the Ghosts’ coach said. “Keeping a team together when playing time is sparse is extremely difficult, and having a guy like Declan to keep everyone focused on the team instead of individual goals is invaluable.”
