Or does he?
"I had a lot of injuries through high school football," Juisti said. "Broke my hand twice. Had three concussions. It's getting a little old. Not worth it in the long run."
Oh, so he's not going to play football?
"Nah, I still will," he said, smiling. "I just have that love for the game. My parents are fine with it, too. They want to see me play for a couple more years."
Perhaps Juisti's thoughts on that matter explain how he wound up in Wildwood, N.J., on Wednesday, and even stayed overnight, after the Friars fell to Neumann-Goretti, 3-1, in eight innings, on Tuesday for the Catholic League baseball crown.
"I'm still not sure that has hit me," Juisti said. "Coach [Joe] DeBarberie gave us a day off from practice, and we didn't have school, so I thought it just made sense to get away for a little bit.
"It helped. I wasn't thinking about the loss, and I came back rejuvenated."
Juisti spoke Friday at Richie Ashburn Field in South Philly's FDR Park, after Bonner bested Frankford, 7-2, for the Class AAAA City Title.
Batting leadoff, the centerfielder hammered the first pitch he saw for a single down the leftfield line, scored later that inning on a very weird/controversial play, and wound up going 3-for-4 with a triple and one RBI.
Both teams already were assured of spots in the state playoffs, which begin Monday, and these players knew basically nada about each other, so the atmosphere was far from electric, and DeBarberie wasn't even subjected to a postgame dousing with water and/or ice cubes. But it's certainly better to head for states off one win than off two losses.
"Losing to Neumann was upsetting," Juisti said. "But after it's done, what can you really do about it? We knew the season wasn't over and that we had this big game to get ready for.
"All in all, after a tough loss, I'm doing OK. This is a good feeling."
