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.
.jpg)
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Female Athlete (Week of Jan. 26, 2017)
Laurel Suchsland remembers it well. The Plymouth Whitemarsh senior – then a freshman – was minding her own business, a swing play on the varsity bench for the very first game of the season. “I didn’t think I was going to go in,” Suchsland said. “All the other girls were bigger and better than me.” But then the unexpected happened. “One of our starters was on the free throw line and shot her first one, and before the second one, the ref said that she had a hair tie on her wrist and made her come out of the game,” Suchsland recalls. “So the coach had to put someone else in who would then have to shoot the free throw. Of all the people on the bench, he put me in, so I went in terrified and shot the free throw. I made it, and I thought I was going to come right back out after that, but I ended up playing two minutes of the game. I was so un-mentally ready, but that’s basketball. You never know what’s going to happen.”
Basketball may have its surprises, but there is one certainty – Suchsland is always ready. And more than willing to do whatever the team might need. A four-year varsity player and three-year starter, Suchsland doesn’t find her way into the headlines. Nor does the two-year captain fill a stat sheet, but the Colonials – undefeated after 17 games – wouldn’t be the same without her. “She’s the kind of kid – people that know basketball see what she does,” coach Daniel Dougherty said. “We have a quote- not everyone gets to be a starring role, but everyone has to be a star in their role.” Suchsland will happily forgo her own stats for the good of a team that finds itself ranked in the top 10 in the state in the latest @PAGirlsHoops rankings. “Any great team needs kids like her to be successful,” Dougherty said. “You need kids like her that just get it. They get it, they embrace it, and it’s more about the team winning than it is about individual stuff.”
Basketball – although significant – is just one part of Suchsland’s busy life. She is a member of the Principal’s Advisory Council, and this spring she will be involved in Benefit for a Friend, a concert held for charity. She is a member of PW’s Anti Defamation League (No Place for Hate), and she still finds time to coach in her church’s CYO third and fourth grade basketball programs. A member of the National Honor Society, Suchsland’s schedule includes three AP classes. She is undecided on a college but plans to major in forensic accounting, combining her love for math with her penchant for mysteries.
To read Suchsland’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/laurel-suchsland-0067717
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Jan. 26, 2017)
It was a scene straight out of an inspirational sports movie. A high school football team about to play a big game. Not in uniform, due to injury, the most vocal of the team’s captains makes an emotional speech. The rest of the script falls into place from there. In the case of Phil Butler, his speech was not of the “win one for the Gipper” variety. It was more about his teammates winning one for themselves. Butler, who played football in ninth grade at Marvin Ridge High School in North Carolina, joined coach Bret Stover’s Cardinals in 10th grade and earned some significant playing time as a sophomore. He became a starter as a junior on a senior-heavy team that won the program’s first ever District One 4A title. He was being counted on heavily in 2016 as the lone returning starting in the secondary.
Butler went into the 2016 campaign as a preseason all-state choice. He had worked hard for his final scholastic season, readying himself both mentally and physically, only to have those best-laid plans derailed by a herniated disc. His message to the team before it took the field on Senior Night against Upper Moreland was clear-cut: Play in and for the moment. Butler, who was able to return for the postseason, told his teammates they needed to go out and play like it was their last game because you truly never know when it will be. “It was emotional for me,” said Stover. “There wasn’t a dry eye. I usually give the pre-game talk, but I didn’t have to say anything. He’s not a run-your-mouth kind of kid. When Phil has something to say, they listen. More than just being an outstanding player, Phil is an outstanding person. He is a true student of the game.”
Butler, who says he has been playing football ever since he could walk, hopes to continue his football career at the collegiate level. He has offers from Division II schools and also from Division III programs. According to Stover, there were some Division 1-AA sniffs that went away after the injury. “Whoever does get him is going to get a steal,” the Cardinals’ coach said. A standout student with 1220 on his two-part SAT and a 3.3 GPA despite a heavy duty of AP and honors classes, Butler carries his leadership skills off the field and is the vice president of Upper Dublin’s Black Student Union and also did what equates to a telecommute internship with Marriott’s main headquarters in Maryland. He plans to study business management and eventually attend law school.
To read Butler’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/phil-butler-0067703
- Log in to post comments
