On the basketball court and the soccer pitch, Ava Byrne doesn’t mess around.
“She will look a competitor in the eye,” said Terry Law, who coached Byrne in soccer at Manheim Township. “She won’t say it, but the message is, ‘I’m going to be here all day. How about you?’ ”
Devonne Pinkard, who coaches Byrne in basketball at Township, said she generates so much disdain from the opposition “because of her passion.’’
Nobody who plays anything likes losing, of course, but Byrne is driven by an utter disgust for it.
When Byrne was an incoming freshman, Township was loaded with veteran, proven soccer players. That summer, she called Law.
“She didn’t have her parents do it,” Law said. “She wanted to know what the varsity program was all about. We talked for probably a half an hour. She asked great questions.
“And she said, ‘I just hate to lose. I hate losing. I’ll do anything that I can do to help the team. Tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it.”
Byrne doesn’t deny or back away from any of that. She’ll live with the hate, if that’s what it takes.
“I’m a totally different person on the court,” she said. “I love being around people, but when I’m playing, I’m dialed in, and I don’t care what it takes.
“If a girl wants to talk to me, I’ll talk right back. If a girl wants to get physical, I’ll get physical right back. I go punch for punch. I do not care.”
To be clear, the hate comes from opponents and their fans. Byrne is the kind of teammate you want in the proverbial foxhole with you.
“Sometimes with younger players, and I’ve had this a lot from top-level players over the years, (Byrne’s) intensity is a lot for them, just because they haven’t had the experience,” Law said.
“But I would say her teammates love her competitiveness. They love her drive.’’
As a first-year coach at Township this winter, Pinkard depended on it.
“Having someone fiery, who wasn’t taking no for an answer … it challenged me, and it showed up on the court,’’ he said.
It’s an approach that, coupled with considerable talent, propelled Byrne to a brilliant four-year, multi-sport high school career and made her one of three finalists for this year’s LNP | LancasterOnline female Athlete of the Year award.
Manheim Twp.'s Ava Byrne works out during girls soccer practice on the first day of fall high school sports practice Monday Aug. 14, 2023.
In soccer, Byrne is one of three players in Township history with 100 career points. The others, Alison Heckman and Liza Suydam, were high school All-Americans. Heckman played at Boston College and as a grad student at St. Mary’s (California).
Suydam is at Monmouth, where she was a conference rookie of the year last fall and made some freshman All-America teams.
Manheim Township’s Ava Byrne (11) scores on a break away against Conestoga Valley during first-half action of an L-L League girls basketball game at Manheim Township High School in Neffsville on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023.
In hoops, Byrne averaged 19.6 points per game last season to lead the Lancaster-Lebanon League in scoring, made third-team All-State and helped the Blue Streaks reach the Class 6A state tournament.
She has thrived in the biggest moments. Byrne scored the winning goal in double overtime in Township’s defeat of Central Dauphin in the 2022 District Three Class 4A championship game.
She scored a game-high 18 in Township’s narrow and epic loss to eventual state champion Lancaster Catholic in this year’s L-L playoffs, and 22 in the Streaks’ comeback defeat of York that locked up the state-tournament berth.
Byrne comes from an athletic family — her mom played tennis and her dad played football at Shippensburg University. She started playing soccer and basketball at age 6, and did the full-blown club-team-plus-high school thing in both, all the way up through the ranks.
“Everyone would tell me, ‘You have to pick, you have to pick.’ ’’ she said. “I was like, ‘I can’t pick. That’s not possible for me.’ ’’
Byrne briefly thought of trying to play both sports in college, but since she will also be a pre-med major, that would have been a big ask.
So ultimately she picked soccer and pre-med at Division II Shepherd University in West Virginia.
“I’ve always wanted to (be a doctor), so, yeah, I’m excited,” she said.
Specifically, an emergency physician.
“I’d like to be in an emergency room or in trauma,” she said. “You know, I love sports, I like the adrenaline. I like action.”
It likes her back.
JEFF REINHART | Sports Writer
