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 Jan. 31, 2024)
When you are an excellent all-around athlete at a small school like New Hope-Solebury, word travels fast, and there are few places to hide. Already a standout on the soccer and track teams, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Nina Meixler was sought out to give basketball a try. “People were asking me to come out for basketball,” she recalled. “People were, like, ‘Oh, you’re athletic. You’ll pick it up. You’ll probably be good at defense.’ I was, like, ‘Ok,’ and I gave it a shot.” The only problem was - as per usual - it was not as easy as the sales pitch. Picking up basketball on the run as a sophomore was kind of like trying to play ice hockey without knowing how to skate. “I came to the first practice, and I wasn’t even sure if I was going to like it,” said Meixler. “Every practice, we try two-ball dribbling and I couldn’t do it. The coach said to just use one ball, and I still couldn’t do it. They do pound dribbles, you do crossovers, and I still couldn’t do it. I usually try a sport, and I’m fine at it. With basketball, I was just horrible. The first couple of weeks, my shots wouldn’t fall. Nothing would happen. It was so frustrating.”
However, instead of going back to indoor track as her winter athletic endeavor, Meixler only became more determined. “That’s what made me want to work at it more,” said Meixler. “(The coaches) pulled me aside at practices to help me find my shot and find my form. They helped me with ballhandling.” For head coach Steve Polinsky, it was well worth the training. “New Hope is a very small school,” said the fifth-year coach who recently picked up his 100th career win. “We have 488 students. Getting basketball players out for the team who aren’t yet basketball players is challenging, to say the very least. She had a friend on the team who said she was going to come out. Right away, I could tell she had the athleticism and quickness.”
A center-midfielder in soccer and part of the 4x800 District One winning relay team that will return intact this spring, Meixler soon found that she was more hooked on hoops than her other sports. It even began to consume her free time. “I watched a lot of college basketball,” said Meixler. “I just became infatuated with it. I fell in love, like I never had for a sport before. I cared so much about it. Every night, I’d do my homework. If I had extra time, I’d just throw on a game. There are always college games on.” Fast forward to the present, and the daughter of Michael and Sharon Meixler plays a key role for the Lions as a defensive stopper and senior leader. “She was late to the dance, but she really picked it up,” said Polinsky. “To have a role like that, and to trust her to guard the best player on the opposite team says a lot about how much she has improved as a player.”
Meixler comes from a family where academics are stressed above all else, particularly by her mother, a native of Ghana who was one of three siblings descended from tribal royalty and educated in the U.S. While Meixler’s two older brothers never advanced beyond tee ball, she has been a revelation to her academic parents. “It’s really more my mom,” said Meixler, who practices Judaism, her father’s faith. “Sports were never really her thing. Her dad was super strict. He went to Stanford. He has always been about education and getting degrees. She was always supposed to go to school here in America, because that’s what my grandfather wanted. That is what was embedded in her mind. She has always been focused on me doing my homework and that school comes first. She still supports me and comes to my games and stuff, but it’s not really about sports for them. It’s about academics.”
Therefore, if Meixler wants to compete in sports, she is expected to hit the books as if they were a punching bag. No problem there, as she has a 4.1 GPA while taking mostly honors or AP classes. While there have been some initial talks with Division III coaches, Meixler has decided that she will go to college – likely down South (Georgia, Florida State, etc.) or possibly Penn State – and probably major in finance with the goal of owning her own business one day. Polinsky, for one, has no doubts that Meixler will be successful at whatever she puts her mind to trying in the game of life. “She came out for the team very raw,” he said. “She is just a great kid who has gotten better and better every year. Her work ethic is incredible. I’m just so proud of her starting point with basketball and with where she has ended up. It has really been incredible to watch.”
To read Meixler’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/nina-meixler-00111046
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Jan. 31, 2024)
Emeer Coombs had himself quite a week late in the regular season just completed. To open the week the Neshaminy senior point guard provided an extraordinary effort at the end of a remarkable come-from-behind non-league victory over Conestoga. Trailing by 5 with just 15 seconds left in regulation, Coombs sank a deep 3-pointer from just in front of the Neshaminy bench. Nate Townsend came up with a steal on the inbounds when Conestoga threw it deep and immediately got it to Coombs, who was fouled for a side-out with 0.6 seconds left on the clock. The inbounds pass went to Coombs, and the two-year captain calmly (but quickly) sank a deep 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Redskins a stunning 49-48 victory.
Four days later, Coombs finished his week standing at the foul line with 1.6 ticks left and Neshaminy trailing Council Rock North by a single point. With ice in his veins, Coombs hit both shots from the charity stripe to lift Neshaminy to a 60-59 win. The positive energy he gets from his teammates, and those moments in the locker room after a huge win - that’s what Coombs loves the most about basketball. “When the game is close and there’s a lot of pressure on the line, I just try to block out the noise,” Coombs said. "I've put work into my game, and I’ve had a lot of people help me develop my game to get to where I am. I definitely want to be that guy with the ball in my hands. I’m confident when I’ve got the ball in my hands. Even if you don’t succeed every time, you can still learn from those situations.”
Coming up big time and again is nothing new for Coombs. It’s almost become the norm. “The two kids we look at all the time, Emeer and Nate, they’ve both stepped up, do what we need them to do at the end of the game, and they always come up clutch for us,” said Neshaminy coach Mark Tingle. “Emeer has had those moments throughout career, he always comes up big for us.” But Coombs—a three-year starter—doesn’t just step up when the game is on the line. He’s giving nothing less than 100 percent from the opening jump, and often in ways that don’t appear on the scoresheets. Because as prolific and talented a shooter as Coombs is, he takes just as much pride in his defensive game as he does in his offense. As one of four senior captains, that’s something that Coombs preaches to the younger players—not everyone can be the leading scorer, and not everyone makes the game-winning shot, but everyone has a part to play, and everyone can contribute to the success of the team. And the team took that message to heart. After stumbling out of the gate to a 1-3 start, the Redskins improved to 6-6 before winning 9 of their next 10 games, including their last six to end the regular season.
Being there for the younger players is important to Coombs. He remembers starting as a sophomore, and said his relationships with the then-captains— Kade Benjamin, Nunzio Zydzik, and especially Evan Esposito—helped him with his confidence and made him feel like he belonged. Of course, those who watched him as a sophomore never had a doubt that Coombs deserved his spot. “We knew from early on that Emeer had the basketball IQ to play at the varsity level early,” Tingle said. “It was an easy choice to bring him up as a sophomore and let him play. Even as a sophomore, he had that court IQ, but he also had no fear, which is something I look for when you’re going to move up to the varsity level. He had no fear playing against older guys, was never fearful of the big moments. And even from the beginning, he loved to play defense. Not every kid wants to play defense, and he’s always been very good at it. And he plays the game calmly, with very few real highs and lows. He’s very consistent.”
The importance of academics was instilled in Coombs from an early age, but much like on the hardwood, he’s worked hard to better himself and get to where he is now. “It’s always important to find that balance between academics and sports,” said Coombs, who is a member of the school’s National Honor Society. “At a young age, my parents explained to me how academics is important, and that got me to believe it as well.” Coombs is still undecided on his next step. He plans on playing basketball in college and is looking at several schools in the Northeast. Wherever he chooses, he expects to enter with an undecided major, though he said he’s considering something along the lines of kinesiology. “Wherever Emeer may go, he’s going to be successful,” Tingle said. “Wherever he ends up, they’re going to gain a great person, a really good, humble kid, and when he gets on court, he’s a guy who’s going to give you 100 percent all the time, at both ends of the court, and who never wants to come out of the game.”
To read Coombs’ complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/emeer-coombs-00111064
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