While she’s not excelling on the soccer field, Courtney Fritz is in the newsroom, kicking around a career in broadcasting.
Freshman forward Courtney Fritz (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn High School) is a standout women’s soccer player with dreams of becoming a sports broadcaster.
And with friends like Action News’ weekend sports anchor/reporter Phil Andrews to help her out, her dreams may come to fruition.
Fritz met Andrews at one of her high school sports banquets where she introduced herself and asked him to help her with her graduation project.
Andrews was more than happy to make the assist, and soon the two hit it off.
“I went down to the studio for two days and got to go behind the scenes while they did the news,” Fritz explained.
“I got to meet a lot of people, like Cecily Tynan, Rob Jennings, and Gary Papa. We just got along real well so I still visit him occasionally. He’s a really nice guy; he’s down to earth.”
“He sent me a video [as a lead in] for my project. It was like the regular news. It even had the music and everything! And he sent me a Channel 6 microphone to keep!”
When Fritz isn’t rubbing elbows with local news anchors, she’s out on the field giving her all to support the team.
In the Owls’ victory over Siena earlier this season, it was Fritz’ overtime goal that won the game, 2-1.
Freshman defender Trish Dalton was credited with the assist.
Fritz’s performance in that game made her the Atlantic-10 Co-Rookie of the Week for the week ending Sept. 15.
Fritz began her soccer career at the age of five, and then at the age of eight began playing club ball.
She continued playing club ball through high school, and became captain of her high school team.
Field hockey, track and “powderpuff” football were among some of her other activities.
A sports enthusiast, Fritz recently attended the Eagles-Texans game and is a big fan of the Philadelphia Flyers.
She’s not sure how they’ll do this season, but is eagerly anticipating the return of her idol, John LeClair.
Aggressive on the field, Fritz attributes her competitive spirit to her upbringing.
“People say that I walk like a jock. But what can you do,” Fritz jokes.
“That’s just the way I was raised,” she said. “My family’s really competitive.
When it came down to a board game or anything competitive, I just had to win.”
But no self-respecting jock would ever be caught in a newsroom or at a student government meeting, right?
Wrong.
Fritz was involved in both, writing sports articles for her high school paper, The Knight Crier.
She was also a member of the National Honor Society. Currently, she is enrolled in Temple’s JPRA program.
During her off time, Fritz enjoys watching the latest episode of “Friends,” and going shopping.
“I love to shop,” Fritz said. “I’m obsessed with shoes and clothes.
Every time I go home I keep bringing back more clothes.”
Perhaps a bit superstitious, Fritz always has to end a pre-game shootout with a good shot.
“I won’t go into the team huddle until I hit at least one good shot,” Fritz says.
Recently, however, Fritz’s season was put on hold when she suffered a mysterious knee injury a couple of weeks ago.
Her knee swelled up and had to be drained, and continues to be sore.
Head coach Seamus McWilliams will take no chances and will keep Fritz on the bench until she is ready to play.
“We’ll protect her first,” McWilliams explains.
“We’ll make sure that when she goes out there she’s 100 percent ready to go.
There’s no need to take risk, not with any athlete.”
McWilliams especially did not want her to play the Owls’ away game at St. Joseph’s University, where they played on a turf field.
“We play on the rug maybe twice a year out of twenty games. [Turf] is unforgiving. It changes the game to a point where it’s distracting,” McWilliams said.
He still had words of encouragement for his team, despite the 2-1 loss.
“I think we played better on that field than they did,” he said.
“There were a number of moments in each half where we were in controlled the area and were in control of the ball.”
On a side note, congratulations to coach Seamus McWilliams as he celebrated his 30th wedding anniversary on Oct. 2, with his wife, Sandy.
Steve Papurt can be reached at Baby.gerald@verizon.net.
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