Boyertown’s Danielle Lentz to play soccer at Mansfield University

By Ric Webb
edwebb@berksmontnews.com

It may be a bit of an understatement, but of the four years that Boyertown senior Danielle Lentz has been a part of the Boyertown High girls’ soccer team, three of them resulted in PAC-10 championships.

In fact, last fall Lentz clinched the championship match by scoring the winning penalty kick, a moment she will always remember.

Now she hopes to have the same kind of success as a member of the Mansfield University women’s soccer team. She recently signed her Letter-Of-Intent to play there next fall.

“I knew nothing about Mansfield when I first started looking for colleges,” said Lentz. “But my club team coach got me started in the process and one of my visits was to Mansfield. Once I saw the campus and met my coaches and some of the players, I knew that was my first choice. Any school I visited after that I compared to Mansfield.”

Her first visit to the school was in July. She made the choice in November, happy to get that worry out of the way.

“It was a big relief,” said Lentz. “I wanted to get it out of the way so I could concentrate on my last year of high school and not have to worry about which college I’ll be going to next year.”

Lentz will be going to a team that struggled last season with just one win in the PSAC. She has played mostly midfield for the Bears, but thinks more defensively than offensively. She prefers to hang back rather than attack the goal.

She should be a big help to the Manfield team, and was told by Head Coach Tim Dempsey that she will have a good chance of not only playing next year, but starting many of the games. She feels that she’s ready to start her college career tomorrow.

“I’m a little nervous about playing at the college level, but not much,” said Lentz. “When I visited the players on the team, they made me feel real comfortable around them, so if I do get a chance to play as a freshman, I feel that I’ll be ready.”

Lentz is a defensive-minded player, but she did score six goals this past fall. In fact, she scored nine goals as a freshman on the team. But she feels that her time on the Boyertown team has been a very positive experience.

“Since I was a freshman, I’ve grown up a lot in my game. My coaches have really helped me with every part of my game, so I feel I’m ready to play at the college level.”

She will have a chance to prove just how ready she is next fall when she starts her college soccer career.