Thanks to our continued partnership with Univest Financial, SuburbanOneSports.com will once again recognize a male and female featured athlete each week. The recognition is given to seniors of high character who are students in good standing that have made significant contributions to their teams or who have overcome adversity. Selections are based on nominations received from coaches, athletic directors and administrators.
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Female Athlete (Week of Feb. 27, 2023)
Karissa Smedley is a gamer. Plain and simple. The Council Rock South senior will without hesitation put her body in harm’s way if it will benefit her team. Late in the first half of her team’s District 1 6A opener against Upper Dublin, Smedley, after coming up with a steal on the defensive end, landed hard at the end of a fastbreak. She picked herself back up and, moments later, was on the floor yet again after being fouled shooting a 3-pointer. This is routine stuff for Smedley. “My athletic trainer makes jokes about it,” she said. “After the game against Upper Dublin (a season-ending loss), I’m crying going into his room to get some ice, and he said, ‘Girl, I think you hit the floor more times than the ball did.’”
That wasn’t far from the truth. “She is someone from the first day she stepped foot in the gym as a freshman gave maximum effort,” Rock South basketball coach Blair Klumpp said. “She sacrificed her body over and over again, diving for loose balls, taking charges, running into water coolers, ball carts, scorer’s tables – it didn’t matter. If it was going to get her team an extra possession, she was going to put her body on the line. Her ‘toughness’ trait is impressive because her mental toughness is as admirable as her physical toughness.” Smedley’s all-out style of play and unwillingness to give in to the bumps and bruises she’s received along the way can be attributed at least in part to the fact that she views sports – and the world - through a different lens than most. A lens that gives her the kind of clarity most never have.
Smedley’s story sounds like many of her peers. She grew up in a sports family. Both of her parents played multiple sports growing up, but that’s where the similarities end. “I have two older brothers – they’re both blind,” she said. Both Michael – five years Karissa’s senior – and Mitchell, 13 months older that Karissa, were born blind with a rare condition known as CRB1-Degenerative Retinal Disease. “They loved sports, they had more vision when they were younger, but it deteriorated, and now it’s gone,” she said. “It honestly opened my eyes, and it made me feel really lucky. It went from three athletes in the house to just me at that point.” It certainly could have been an awkward situation on all sides. It wasn’t. “It’s definitely been an interesting experience growing up with them,” Smedley said. “They could easily be jealous that I have the vision and all, but they’re not.” Michael and Mitchell have not allowed their disability to define them. Michael graduated from Penn State University and is employed at Disney World, and Mitchell is a sophomore at Kutztown University. “My brother, my parents – they’re always going to be my biggest supporters,” Karissa said. “My brothers have taught me so many lessons. I know they’re always going to be there for me.”
After two years away from soccer, Smedley offered to step into goal as a junior when the Hawks were without a goalie. She excelled, earning second team All-SOL Patriot honors as a senior. “Karissa immediately fit into the team- you would have never known she hadn't been a part of the program her first two years,” Rock South coach Nick Heim said. “Her junior season was incredible- I honestly think we would have had five or six less wins if it wasn't for the big plays she made for us. She was named team MVP in her first year. The girls immediately connected with her, and she was voted captain as a senior.” In the spring, Smedley is a two-year captain for the lacrosse team. A stalwart defender, Smedley may find herself in a new position this spring, according to Rock South coach Madison Hurwitz, who was recently informed by a veteran midfielder that she only wanted to play attack. “I said to Karissa, ‘You’re our star on defense, but we might need you to run the midfield,’ and she looked at me and my dad (assistant coach Dave Hurwitz) and said, ‘Whatever you need, coaches,’” the Golden Hawks’ coach said. “You can’t even make up how awesome she is. After a rough day, to be able to coach her, I was like, ‘This is why I do what I do’ for kids like her. This kid is a rock star, she truly is.”
Smedley is committed to continue her basketball and academic career at Georgian Court. Off the basketball court, she is a member of the National Honors Society and the National English Honors Society. “She was a captain in three sports and all-league in three sports - all of this was while maintaining a strong GPA,” Klumpp said. “She’s been a terrific representative of our program on the floor but, as importantly, off the floor and in the community. I can say with certainty she left our program better than she found it, but her impact on the day-to-day and the offseason and the off-the-court stuff is where it’s long lasting. You hope the other girls were taking mental notes and will follow her lead to keep it sustainable. I cannot speak highly enough about her.”
To read the remainder of Smedley’s story, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/karissa-smedley-00105227
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Feb. 27, 2023)
Walk into just about any high school gymnasium, and it’s common to see retired numbers of icons and banners with names of 1,000-point scorers. At Cheltenham, the name of Craig Metcalfe won’t be on the walls or rafters. It doesn’t need to be. After four years in the program under coach/athletic director Patrick Fleury, Metcalfe has helped to create a culture that will last through many incarnations of future rosters. “He was just an all-around pleasure to be around,” said Fleury, who played at Cheltenham himself from 2001-2005. “You don’t maintain a program without kids like that. Our seniors set the tone for the juniors, the sophomores and the freshmen. They set the tone for those that come behind them. We have a 7-to-8-year window, in terms of what their habits and mindset will be. The groundwork that he laid will surely be there for us to reiterate and to hold kids to that standard, and that goes for being more than just a basketball player.”
Metcalfe grew up also playing tennis, which he put aside for basketball but is now considering a return to the competitive level. “Nobody knows that about me,” he said. “I used to be pretty good, and I’m getting back into it.” Metcalfe went to explain that tennis goes back two generations in his family to his grandfather, the original Craig Metcalfe, who ran the Arthur Ashe program that is now known as Legacy.
As for the future, Metcalfe has placed himself in prime position to achieve his goal of becoming an architectural engineer. “I’ve always loved the idea of taking things apart and making projects for myself,” said Metcalfe. “I’ve always loved LEGOs and stuff like that - anything where I could engage my mind in, anything where I could make a floor plan and a design and just do it.” With AP and honors classes, he has a weighted GPA of 4.1 and scholarship offers from many HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities). “Right now, I’m looking at North Carolina A&T, Howard and Hampton,” he said. “Hampton is probably my No. 1 right now.”
“He is well-rounded,” said Fleury. “He had value in basketball, but his value goes way beyond that. I wouldn’t be surprised to look up in 2032 and see him on a ballot. He’s very strong as a person and academically.” The best part about Metcalfe, whose father (Craig II) is the principal at Cedarbrook Middle School, is that there is even more than meets the eye. Metcalfe is proud to be deeply immersed in the school community. The list includes Black Student Union, Black Scholars and National Honor Society. “I put in a lot of hours outside of basketball and school to do those,” said Metcalfe. “I just try to make sure change happens within our school.” Unlike other clubs that are more for the experience and/or the fun, the ability to affect real change at a young age was powerful.
Fleury added that Metcalfe’s presence in the school community, as an active student who is also an athlete, is his greatest attribute. “He is everything that Cheltenham is, on both its good and worst days,” said Fleury. “A kid like Craig is exactly what you want others to emulate. He’s amazing. He’s one of those kids who plays basketball but does not rely solely on basketball. He has a lot of academic scholarships. He’s just a good all-around kid. He’s just a better person than anything; just a pleasure to have.” What Metcalfe added to a younger basketball team this winter went well beyond the stat sheet. “He’s liked amongst his peers,” said Fleury. “He was definitely one of our senior staples this year. He was just the calming presence with a moral compass. He could quickly assess who’s right and who’s wrong. He was more the mediator than anything. This group is so young that he was a more calming presence. He was always honest, whether a mistake was his or somebody else’s. He was just always honest. It’s a characteristic nowadays that is not always there.” And that’s why the coach has no doubt that Metcalfe is headed for building a legacy beyond a retired number or a 1,000-point club. “In 4-5 years, there is no telling what he’ll do or what he’ll be,” said Fleury. “He is invaluable, to be honest. I can’t sing his praises enough. There are statistics and all that, but in terms of a person, he is irreplaceable. He went through our whole program. He’s one of those kids who, whenever they leave, you miss them.”
To read the remainder of Metcalfe’s story, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/craig-metcalfe-00105228
- Log in to post comments
