Though just an eighth-grader, Fox Chase’s Ally Paul was an integral part of the Penn Charter girls soccer team, which won second consecutive Inter-Ac league and PAISAA state titles. PHOTO COURTESY OF PENN CHARTER CLASS RECORD
Darci Borski knows what it’s like to rack up accolades and championships as a high school soccer star. Now, thanks to the experience she gained and is now paying forward as a head coach, so too do a new generation of student-athletes at Penn Charter.
Borski is a 1998 graduate of Nazareth Academy, where she was a two-time All-American on the soccer field. At Nazareth, she was named Most Valuable Player of the Catholic Academies League four years in a row, and went on to star at the University of Virginia before playing professionally for the Philadelphia Charge of the now-defunct Women’s United Soccer Association (Borski also played for a pro team overseas in Norway). Now in her second year as assistant athletic director and girls soccer coach at Penn Charter in East Falls, Borski is passing down her breadth of soccer knowledge to a team that has won consecutive league and state championships.
“I treat my team with passion and intensity, because I want to prepare them for life after me,” Borski said. “I’ve played at a high level and I know what it takes. I take it very seriously, and it’s very hard to play for my team. I can draw on my own experience because I walked in their shoes at that age. I tell them what you put into life is what you’ll get out of it, and that effort will warrant success if they trust and buy into what I’m telling them.”
Whatever Borski is selling her team at Penn Charter seems to be working. In two seasons, she’s racked up a 35–6–4 overall record, including two Inter-Ac regular season league titles (the Inter-Ac does not have its own postseason tournament). Penn Charter is an independent school and thusly not a part of the PIAA, but the Quakers do get to participate in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association (PAISAA) state tournament following the regular season, which pits the best soccer teams from independent schools in the state. This 14-team tournament featured other schools in the area such as Friends Central, Germantown Friends and Germantown Academy, as well as schools as far away as Pottstown (The Hill School) and Mercersburg, Franklin County (Mercersburg Academy), 175 miles southwest of Penn Charter.
Penn Charter dispatched Friends Central in penalty kicks in the quarterfinals, routed Germantown Friends in the semis and came from behind to knock off archrival Germantown Academy, 3–1 (the Quakers had broken a 2–2 tie with under two minutes to play to beat the same opponent to win the league title on the final day of the regular season), at Cabrini College. Independent schools like Penn Charter draw their athletic talent from areas all across Philadelphia, its suburbs and even South Jersey, so to win titles in consecutive seasons is not something that arrives with any semblance of ease.
“We started 1–3–1, but halfway through the season we had a major turnaround and won 13 in a row from our only league loss to the state title,” Borski said. “It’s been an amazing year, and to end it the way we did was pretty remarkable.”
Borski said Penn Charter (15–4–3), a co-ed, kindergarten through 12th-grade institution, has students from 105 ZIP codes, and the soccer team was certainly reflective of that diversity. Three of her players — sophomore center back Alexis Hnatkowksy (Bustleton), freshman goalie Mackenzie Listman (Fox Chase) and eighth-grader Ally Paul (also Fox Chase) — were key members of the varsity team, and one of Borski’s assistant coaches, Ashley Maher, is a Northeast resident who starred at St. Hubert and Seton Hall. Paul arrived in sixth grade from St. Cecilia’s grade school, while Hnatkowsky and Listman matriculated in eighth grade from St. Albert the Great and St. Hilary, respectively.
“At first, it was really intimidating to compete at this level, and the school is a totally different environment,” said Paul, who scored two goals and added eight assists during the regular season but was not allowed to play in the PAISAA tournament due to a rule preventing eighth-graders from participating. “But Darci is such a great role model, someone to relate to. She comes from the same background as me, so I knew if I worked hard enough and pushed myself hard enough, I could accomplish good things.”
While Paul was “running up and down the sideline” during the PAISAA final against GA, Listman started in goal and Hnatkowsky led the back line. All three were first-year varsity players, and each one combated the nerves of a new team by modeling themselves after the head coach who had already walked a mile or two in their shoes.
“She’s more like us,” Listman said. “Knowing she’s from the Northeast, we know we could be inspired by her experience and accomplishments.”
Added Hnatkowsky: “Coming from a Catholic school in the Northeast where everyone is the same and knows everyone else, you come here and it’s all these different people from different backgrounds and religions. It opens your eyes to a bigger picture and challenges you to see the world from a different perspective. Darci gives us hope and helps us strive to accomplish anything we want, and she treats everyone the same no matter where you come from. So she gives us someone to relate to and look up to.”
For three young women entering their teenage years, Penn Charter has represented an opportunity to step outside their bubbles. A melting pot of culture and diversity, going to the school and playing for Borski’s soccer team has Hnatkowsky, Paul and Listman striving to accomplish things they never previously imagined, on and off the field.
Injuries and depth issues forced Borski to throw all three into the fire earlier than possibly anticipated, as the Quakers had just two seniors on the roster (though junior Jlon Flippens and her 84 career goals surely helped). The team, much like this trio of local girls, rose to the occasion and believed that no matter what, they could get it done.
“We didn’t want to end on a sour note after all the amazing things we did throughout the season,” Borski said. “We deserved to win, and it was such a great way to end it. Everybody had a phenomenal game, and we finished chances when we had them with a major target on our backs. We had girls all ages and sizes coming from diverse backgrounds; at the end of the day, the work they put in to achieve two championships is what bonded them.”
And with Flippens, the Northeast trio and almost everybody back next season, more titles could be on the horizon.
“I just remember watching us win that last game and thinking about the future,” Paul said. “And how exciting it’s going to be to have this experience again.” ••
Alexis Hnatkowski (left) is a sophomore Penn Charter defender from Bustleton. PHOTO COURTESY OF PENN CHARTER CLASS RECORD
No doubt about it: The Penn Charter girls soccer team, which features two coaches and three players hailing from the Northeast, won its second straight Inter-Ac League and PAISAA state titles. PHOTO COURTESY OF PENN CHARTER CLASS RECORD
