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 (Week of Nov. 14, 2013)
Paige Marcinkowski, according to her coach, might well be one of the most underrated goalkeepers in the area. “You look at our record,” said Central Bucks East coach Paul Eisold, whose soccer team advanced to the state semifinals. “The bottom line is – without Paige, we don’t get where we are today.” Marcinkowski’s performances speak for themselves. With the senior captain in goal, the Patriots, who finished second to Pennridge in the Continental Conference, did not allow a goal in 12 of 14 conference games. They finished the season with 16 shutouts. “The best thing about her as a goalkeeper is her desire to play the game,” Eisold said. “She’s a competitor, and things kind of came natural to Paige. She’s very good technically, and she has leadership qualities.”
Making Marcinkowski’s accomplishments even more impressive is the fact that she played her entire senior season on a completely ruptured ACL, an injury that occurred in March while playing basketball. She went through a month and a half of physical therapy to strengthen the muscles around her anterior cruciate ligament and made daily trips to the gym to strengthen her leg. Her determination to return was driven by her love of the game and also the fact that she had been elected a captain by her peers last November. “It was a hard decision to make whether or not to come back,” she said. “I figured – test it out, strengthen it and see if I could handle it. I didn’t want to let my team down, and that was basically the thing – I had to decide if I was going to play to make sure I wasn’t a disadvantage to the team.” Marcinkowski was anything but a disadvantage, making contributions on and off the field.
A four-year varsity starter, Marcinkowski didn’t start every game her junior year, a decision Eisold made to “change things around.” “I spoke with Paige and explained to her the whys and hows,” the East coach said. “I told her I was always behind her, and she smiled and said, ‘Whatever you need me to do coach.’ She handled it like a champ, and she persevered. She handled it maturely, she handled it with respect.” For Marcinkowski, it was simply a matter of staying strong. “It was just a matter of what was best for the team,” she said. “It didn’t bother me other than I wanted to be on the field playing.”
Now that the season is over, Marcinkowski will undergo surgery to repair her torn ACL, and whether or not she plays in college will depend on her recovery. An excellent student, she plans to major in pre-med with her sights set on becoming a pediatrician. Penn State, Delaware, Temple, Pitt and James Madison are on her college list.
To read Marcinkowski’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/paige-marcinkowski-0039408
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Nov. 14, 2013)
Alex Eppinger had plenty of reasons to walk away from football. The North Penn senior, after missing a good portion of his junior jayvee season with a broken wrist, was penciled in to start on the offensive line for the Knights this fall. Things didn’t exactly go as planned, however, as Eppinger was diagnosed with mononucleosis just before football camp began in August. “No one really looks forward to camp, but everyone knows how important it is,” Eppinger said. “It’s what starts your whole season. It’s everything for you. It’s what gets you in shape. It’s what gets you motivated for the rest of the season. The first couple of days it felt nice because I knew how hard camp was, and it felt good that I wasn’t doing it. The third or fourth day, I realized – wow, this is really going to set me back, and once I’m cleared I’m really going to have to work to get back to where my teammates are.” No thought was given to quitting, and there is not a trace of bitterness or anger. Just the simple realization that he would have to work harder to get playing time.
After five weeks of missed practices, Eppinger was cleared to play. By the Knights’ fifth game of the season against Quakertown, Eppinger had worked himself into a backup role but was beginning to feel some frustration and volunteered to play in the jayvee game to get some reps. Coach Dick Beck had a much better idea. “He came walking by me in the weight room, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘I’ve got to believe we’ve got to put this kid on the field somewhere,’” the Knights’ coach said. So Beck decided to give Eppinger a shot at tight end. “I said to him, ‘If you can show me that you can learn tight end and make a difference there, I’ll start you there.’ I told him he had two days, and by Thursday, I was convinced he was the guy at tight end. He goes out against CB South (in the next game), and we rushed for over 400 yards. He won the lineman of the game for his blocking. The next week he was lineman of the game again. I think the difference in our running game has been what he’s given us at the tight end position.”
Eppinger was part of a remarkable comeback that saw the Knights rebound from an 0-3 start to reel off seven wins in a row en route to a Continental Conference crown. “Here’s a kid that doesn’t even practice the first five weeks of his senior year when he was looking to start, and then he sits on the bench for three straight games and is probably saying to himself, ‘All this work for this?’ and it probably went through his head – is it worth it?” Beck said. “But he stuck with it and kept working hard. He’s one of our most important linemen and really does a good job at tight end. I find it to be an amazing story.”
Next fall, Eppinger will attend college with an interest in pursuing a career in engineering or as a physician’s assistant.
To view Eppinger’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/alex-eppinger-0039443
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