Lansdale Catholic’s Quigley has no problem staying busy

LANSDALE — Being idle is not for Ryan Quigley.

“I like being busy,” the Lansdale Catholic senior said. “I couldn’t imagine going home after school and just sitting on the couch, doing a little homework at 3 o’clock. I like getting involved.”

Finding something to do has never been an issue for Quigley during his time at Lansdale Catholic. The senior has represented the green and gold on the basketball court and the baseball diamond, but with fall around the corner, Quigley is focused on helping the Crusader football team improve on its five-win campaign for a season ago.

“Ryan’s a special kid because how many schools have three-sport athletes?” LC coach Tom Kirk said. “And it just doesn’t happen. Kids become so specialized these days and here’s Ryan he goes from football to basketball to baseball and he doesn’t miss a beat and he excels in all of them.”

On the gridiron in 2014, Quigley compiled over half of the Crusaders’ total offensive yards as he was named the Philadelphia Catholic League Class AA Division’s Most Valuable Player, earning first team honors at both running back and defensive back.

Quigley paced LC on the ground with 873 yards and eight touchdowns on 117 carries and caught 19 passes for a team-high 226 yards and an additional three scores.

His best performance of last season came in Week 7 against Bishop McDevitt. On just 10 carries, Quigley collected a career-best 226 yards and scored on touchdown runs of 64, 69 and 61 yards. He added another touchdown on a 42-yard interception return in a 36-25 victory over the Lancers.

“Special kids make special plays, but we have very high expectations for Ryan,” Kirk said. “So, he nor we as a staff are going to be satisfied with him coming out and doing what he did last year. He needs to more than he did last year. And he knows that. And he wants to do that.

“He’s a senior now, he’s bigger, he’s stronger, he’s faster. He knows what he has to do.”

Two weeks after the McDevitt win, Quigley finished with 129 yards and two scores on 13 carries as Lansdale Catholic beat Archbishop Carroll 28-7. The win was the Crusaders’ third straight and boosted their record to 5-3, but LC finished the year 5-5 after back-to-back losses to Neumann-Goretti – falling 24-12 in the PCL 2A semifinals the second matchup.

Denied a second consecutive winning season – LC went 6-4 in 2013 – Lansdale Catholic is set on getting back over the .500 mark.

“We’re really working hard to get to our goal this year,” Quigley said. “Tough league, pretty much the same schedule, except (for Penn Charter) down the shore this year. We have (14) out of 22 guys returning (that were) starting (in 2014), so we can make something with what we have this year, we just got work hard at every single practice and bring it every day.”

Preseason camp is where the Crusaders’ hard work is happening at the moment, but Sept. 5 LC heads down to Ocean City, New Jersey for a Week 1 matchup with Inter-Ac side Penn Charter. It is the fourth straight opener at the beach, Lansdale Catholic winning the first two before falling to Simon Gratz in 2013.

Along with the football team, the Crusader boys and girls soccer teams head to OCNJ for games against Penn Charter Sept. 4.

“It’s a good vacation for the whole community before school starts,” Quigley said.