Babylon’s Dieterich is a Panther for Many Positions

It’s not news when a high school football player starts on both offense and defense. Most of Long Island’s smaller schools feature numerous two-way players, and Babylon is no different.

But in Greg Dieterich, Panther head coach Rick Punzone has a special situation that he hopes he never has to deal with.

“God forbid if [Dieterich] ever went down, I’d have to replace five positions,” Punzone said.

If you’re attending a Panther football game and looking for Dieterich’s number 44, don’t waste your time looking on the sidelines. Rather, when Babylon has the ball, Dieterich can usually be seen at wide receiver, but also sometimes at tight end.

On defense, he’s in the middle of the field, roaming his linebacker position. On kick offs, you can find him barreling down the field honing in on the ball carrier. And when Babylon is forced to punt, Dieterich is there too, punting.

“I’m not on kick returns,” Dieterich said. “That’s about the only situation I’m not involved with.”

The 6-foot-2-inch, 200-pound senior was called up to varsity during the 2009 playoffs. And true to form, the multi-dimensional Dieterich handled kick-off duties, a job he’s since given up to soccer player-turned place-kicker Alex Malhas.

Of all his positions, Dieterich likes linebacker and wide receiver best, but realizes that with Babylon’s offense, it’s not often his number will be called.

“I know we’re a running team and my main responsibility is to block,” he said. “Whatever is needed to win I’ll do.”

That’s an attitude not lost on his coach.

“He’s one of the nicest kids,” Punzone said. “He works hard, he’s not selfish. He’ll do whatever you need from him.”

And he’s not afraid to question his performance. Evaluating his game after last Friday’s 24 to14 loss to Amityville, Dieterich noted a couple of areas he needs to improve upon.

“In my blocks at tight end, I messed up a few times,” he said, adding that in his linebacker role, there were times when he needed to be sharper calling out defensive sets to match up against the Amityville offense.

But having only given up four first downs the entire game, there weren’t many times Dieterich missed calling the correct defensive sets.

“We went toe-to-toe with them,” Punzone said.