Sprint to lose unlikely star

Senior Neil Bantiancila emerged for Sprint football four year ago. Neil Batiancila has been one of the leaders of Penn's sprint football team for four years, but he doesn't ask for peanuts in return -- he's allergic to them. He began his football career in seventh grade when he played for the local youth football program. Batiancila may not have been a great player, but he developed a love for the game during those early years. "I loved sports, but this was above and beyond me," the Woodbridge, Conn., native said. "I absolutely sucked." Although the left tackle keeps himself in excellent physical condition during the sprint football season, he apparently used to be somewhat out-of-shape in junior high school, according to Josh Brogadir, who has known him since kindergarten and has been his teammate the past four years. Although he came close to winning two league titles with his Hopkins School squad, his high school team finished in second place during both his sophomore and senior years. His senior year was even more disappointing because he missed the season with a broken leg after training hard all summer in anticipation of his final year of organized football. He thought that the injury marked the end of his football career, but he was wrong. When Batiancila arrived at Penn, he "heard stories about nutty people" that played sprint football, or lightweight football as it was then called. After Batiancila failed to attend the first day of the preseason, Brogadir convinced him to go to practice. Despite the fact that he secretly hoped he would get cut, Batiancila made the team as the starting left tackle, the same position he would play during his four years at Penn. He immediately fell in love with the game, so it was not a big deal for him to lose 18 pounds in two weeks to slide under the 165-pound weight requirement for lightweight football. Batiancila earned second-team all-league honors as a freshman, and was a first-team all-leaguer the past three years. During the Quakers' 1996 championship season, he was also named offensive lineman of the year. "Obviously he's a great player, he's been all-league all four years at Penn," senior teammate Carter Byrnes said. "He really takes the sport seriously." Batiancila finished his football career with a Collegiate Sprint Football League championship this year, as a member of what he describes as the closest team he has played on at Penn. Although offensive linemen don't have concrete statistics, the offensive line helped teammate Tim Ortman break the school record with 1,108 rushing yards for the season. "Every time Tim does well, it's [because of the efforts of] all of us," Batiancila said. Besides sprint football, Batiancila has been successful in many other avenues in life. Dating back to second grade, he has showcased his diverse abilities and talents. According to Brogadir, he did a swell job of portraying Mrs. Dribb in their second grade play, The Young Sherlock Holmes. More recently, Batiancila has been a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and is on the its executive board this year. He is also a member of the executive board of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, a group that deals with the roles of student-athletes at the University. Batiancila also currently coaches kids' basketball in West Philadelphia. The political science major is still unsure about life after graduation. "I'm just like a 21-year-old kid," Batiancila said. "I want to coach football." "One of his goals was to come back and be the coach after [Penn coach Bill Wagner] retired," said Keith Lotman, Batiancila's teammate and fraternity brother. Batiancila is sure of one thing, though. He wants to raise a family as good as his was. "After four years I'm still homesick," he said. He is the son of two hard-working doctors and the brother of 14-year-old twin sisters that he describes as his "favorite." Although his family, especially his parents, are very busy, they do occasionally take time from their schedules to come to his games. His sisters, Lauren and Rachel, both agree that Neil is very nice, and that unlike most siblings, they never fight. "Neil has the biggest heart of anybody I've met," Lotman said. Members of the sprint football team and his fraternity respect Batiancila as a natural leader. He was one of the team's four captains this past season. Batiancila has received many honors and distinctions during his four years at Penn, but his fraternity would like to give him one more. They have unofficially given him the title of "Penn's most eligible bachelor". The honor that has meant the most to Batiancila is debatable, but he knows what has meant the most to him during his sprint football days -- the people he played with and the times they've shared in the locker room.