SuburbanOneSports.com recognizes a male and female featured athlete each week. The awards, sponsored by Univest, are given to seniors of good character who are students in good standing that have made significant contributions to their teams. Selections are based on nominations received from coaches, athletic directors and administrators.
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Female Athlete for week of April 8, 2019
Jason Anderson describes Adria Retter as a special athlete. An athlete who asks ‘What do you want me to do now?’ and then goes out and does it. Extremely well. The Quakertown senior is ranked second in the state in discus (136’6”), and her 43-foot throw in shot put at the Panthers’ dual meet against Pennridge recently vaulted her into the top five in that event as well.“To top it off, she said, ‘I’d like to try the long jump,’” Anderson said. “She got second in both of our dual meets against Pennridge and Souderton. Someone said we should look it up to see if there are top 10 throwers in the state who also excel at the long jump. ”A week earlier, Retter rewrote the record books for discus at the PA Track Classic, and for good measure, she easily won the shot put as well.
The Quakertown senior’s accomplishments would be noteworthy under any circumstances, but they become downright jaw dropping when considered in light of an injury that was supposed to mark the end of her throwing career. Her story is an inspirational one, although listening to Retter tell it – it’s safe to say she doesn’t think she did anything out of the ordinary. A gifted athlete, Retter, who plays softball on the travel circuit for the PA Panthers, dislocated the shoulder of her throwing arm while diving back to third base in September of her junior year. Shortly thereafter, she dislocated her shoulder a second time playing tennis in gym class. All of this on the heels of a track season that saw her break all of Quakertown’s sophomore records for the throws and advance to districts in all three events – discus, shot put and javelin. She medaled in discus, finishing eighth, and that summer devoted herself to upping her game.
An MRI prior to dislocating her shoulder had revealed a slight tear of her labrum. “The surgeon I was seeing for the tennis injury said we should just repair it, so they went in, and I think it was worse – they said half of the ring was off the bone, so that’s why it was so unstable,” Retter said. “I was pretty upset because I had all these plans to go to college, to go D1 and all these fancy things. I kind of had to re-evaluate it. There was one point where the surgeon asked if throwing was something I planned to do in college. I told him yes, and he pretty much told me to make other plans that it wasn’t going to work out, so that kind of irritated me. It was such an absolute. I was like, ‘I don’t know about that.’”Retter actually wasn’t buying any of it for a minute. After all, she still had a healthy left arm, and she began practicing throwing left-handed. “It sounds like the craziest idea – how’s that going to work?” Anderson said. “So lo and behold, she practices on her own, which she does very frequently, and she figures out how to do it. She learned to throw with her other hand and does fantastically. It’s as if she’s been doing that her whole life or was able to do it her whole life. She’s throwing discus (left handed), and she makes districts, which is difficult. By the time she gets to districts, she’s healed.” Retter was cleared the end of April, just in time for districts on May 3. She finished third in discus at districts and advanced to states.
Retter will continue her throwing career at Swarthmore College. Not because she couldn’t compete at the Division 1 level but rather because she chose not to. A National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist, she will major in psychology. Retter is a member of the National Honor Society, and she is involved in Quakertown’s Mini-THON and is also active in her church. She teaches a class of four- and five-year-olds on Wednesday nights and is a team leader at a weeklong summer camp put on by her church.
To read complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/adria-retter-0084008
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete for week of April 9, 2019
Bobby Buchys was named Offensive MVP of the 2018 Neshaminy football team, but he didn’t throw for the most touchdown passes, rush for the most yards or haul in the highest number of receptions. Those feats would be accomplished by quarterback Brody McAndrew, 1,000-yard rusher Chris James and lead wideout Cory Joyce, respectively. That being said, Buchys brought something immeasurable to the Redskins, something not tabulated by press box reporters and put on to stat sheets and box scores to be celebrated: an edge, a toughness, and most of all, a reliable, dependable player who could always be counted on to show up and do his job. Buchys was a two-year varsity starter at tight end for Neshaminy, and also played some defensive tackle this past season, his senior campaign. He didn’t earn the respect of his peers because he had the touchdown prowess of Rob Gronkowski or Zach Ertz, the latter being Buchys’ favorite athlete; rather, Buchys was a ferocious blocker, routinely sacrificing his own personal statistical glory for the betterment of the team. He must have been onto something, as Neshaminy went 18-6 overall and 11-1 in SOL National play in Buchys’ two seasons, which included back-to-back conference titles and a pair of district playoff berths.
Even though casual fans may not know Buchys as well as Neshaminy’s quarterback or running back, that doesn’t mean that college coaches didn’t notice his contribution to the team’s success the last two seasons. Several recognized Buchys’ value, and in the end, it was the sterling academic prowess and solid Division-III football program of Franklin & Marshall College that won the Buchys sweepstakes. “Bobby was invaluable as a blocker for us, despite being not the bulkiest guy and a little undersized,” coach Steve Wilmost said. “We could always count on him, game in and game out. He was an unsung hero for us. Without Bobby, Chris James doesn’t rush for 1,000 yards; without Bobby, we can’t establish the kind of running game we did. He just did a phenomenal job blocking for us. ”For his part, even if he is a little biased, Wilmot believes Buchys can step on the field and immediately help Franklin & Marshall as a freshman.“When you talk to him, he’s a quiet and humble kid,” Wilmot said. “The type of kid that is always doing the right thing, even when nobody is watching. He’s not going to win any awards for inspirational speeches, but he’s a leader on the field and in the school, and what he does speaks a lot louder than what comes out of his mouth, which is a good thing.What I’ll miss about coaching Bobby is that he’s the type of kid I never had to worry about because I always knew that whatever he was supposed to be doing, he was doing it the right way. As a player, I would only have to tell him how to do something once; he would process it, try it, and then he just got it to the point where it became automatic. I never had to tell Bobby Buchys the same thing twice, because he always got it right the first time.”
Being a tremendous run blocker on the football field, while valuable, is not enough to gain one admission to a school with an academic reputation as strong as Franklin & Marshall’s. That’s no problem for Buchys, who boasts a GPA above 4.0. He plans on being a pre-medicine major, with his ultimate sights set on attending medical school after Franklin & Marshall. It should be no surprise to hear that Buchys - whose primary function on the Neshaminy football team was to help make the team’s explosive offensive players’ jobs easier - is interested in becoming a doctor because he loves to help people.
To read Buchys’ complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/bobby-buchys-0084004
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