RIVER HILL HIGH
Clarksville, Md.
DANIEL HOSTETLER
is pursuing his own personal three-peat. In football he was a team captain,
quarterback and all-state defensive back for River Hill High in Clarksville,
Md., leading the Hawks to the Maryland 3A championship game. In basketball he
was a starting forward who helped his team win the state 3A title. Now he's
playing lacrosse, where he is again a captain and a high-scoring attack on a
team that's 5--2 and regarded as a title contender. Is a third championship
appearance in store? "I'm getting a lot of jokes about it," he says.
"I have to bring it home."
At home Daniel's
success is taken in stride. When he goes to Georgetown next fall on a partial
lacrosse scholarship, he'll become the 16th of the 19 grandchildren of Norman
and Dolores Hostetler who have reached college age to play a college sport. The
generation before Daniel's didn't do badly, either; its four college athletes
included his uncle Jeff, a West Virginia quarterback who started for the New
York Giants in Super Bowl XXV. Does it all trace back to the clan founders?
Norman, 73, a retired Mennonite farmer who was forbidden to play sports as a
young child, defers credit to his late wife, saying, "Their mother was very
competitive."
That spirit shows
in Daniel—who has three older siblings and whose father, Doug, a family wealth
planner, played quarterback and linebacker at Penn State. Lacrosse coach Keith
Gonsouland says Daniel plays as if "he does not like to lose." In
basketball Daniel averaged 10 points but defined his game with all-out play.
"He did all the little things—diving for loose balls, setting screens,
taking a charge," says coach Matt Graves. "I gave him a coach's award
for being an unsung hero."
Even though the
6'2", 195-pound Daniel had football scholarship offers, he chose lacrosse
because, he says, "it's probably the most fun." At Georgetown he'll
team with brother Ben, a sophomore. Daniel says, "We played [together] a
little in high school and those were some of the best times."
�
