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 Dec. 5, 2012)
Heather Zezzo does it all and does it all extremely well. “She’s got a whole lot going for her,” Central Bucks West field hockey coach Casey Hughes said. “She’s one of those people that will keep pushing themselves. Her possibilities are endless because of her leadership and the dedication she puts forth in everything she does. She’s going to go places.” In truth, the CB West senior is already going places. She excelled on the hockey field for a squad that capped a remarkable season by earning a berth in the state tournament. Zezzo, a captain, was one of the most dangerous offensive weapons in the league, scoring 25 goals to go along with five assists. “As a hockey player, Heather is just a stud,” Hughes said. “She has very nice poise and control with the ball. She has great stick skills, great passing and shooing skills, and when the ball is in the circle, she could finish.”
A veteran of the elite Mystx Stealth club squad, Zezzo will be taking her talents to Dartmouth University next fall, but hockey is just the tip of the iceberg. Zezzo is the president of West’s student government, and she also excels in the classroom, boasting a 4.29 GPA despite a course load that includes four AP classes. The West senior started her own business in ninth grade called Silver Slippers, a non-profit that teaches senior citizens ballroom dancing. Any gratuities Zezzo receives at the end of the course she donates to the orphanage in China where she spent the first five months of her life until she was adopted.
Zezzo also is a member of the USA Junior National Dragon Boat Team and came home from the 2011 World Championships with three gold medals. Since September, she has been a paid intern at a structural engineering company based in Doylestown. She plans to major in engineering. Zezzo is an accomplished musician, and in 2010, she was a national piano guild winner. She also plays violin and harp and has been a member of the Delaware Valley String Orchestra the past three years. “She’s an awesome kid,” Hughes said. “She does it all, and she’s going to go far in life. She’s one of those people I have no doubt in my mind that down the road will be successful and happy and doing what she likes to do.”
To read Zezzo’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/heather-zezzo-0030254
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Dec. 5, 2012)
Rick Schmidt has a policy of naming only one captain, and the Upper Dublin coach’s criteria for choosing that one player is simple. “I look for the captain to be a role model,” Schmidt said. The Flying Cardinals’ coach didn’t have to look far to find the person he wanted to lead this year’s squad. He chose Tyler Whitehead. “As the lone captain, Tyler is the right arm of the coaching staff,” Schmidt said. “He demonstrated not only outstanding skills as a player but also the qualities that make him an outstanding leader among his peers. He can be trusted to perform calmly and professionally in a manner that befits his position as captain in the most stressful situations, and he demonstrated on many occasions the ability to galvanize other players around him to raise their own performance towards a common team goal. His enthusiasm and commitment to the sport of soccer and his fellow players is unwavering, and he has served as an outstanding role mode for other players.”
Whitehead’s composure served him well as the anchor of the Flying Cardinals’ defense. “If there’s one position on the field that has to play with composure, it’s defense, and he just had that,” Schmidt said. “Tyler has great size and combined that with a level of composure you have to have as a defender.” A three-year starter for the Flying Cardinals, Whitehead was one of the league’s premiere defenders, earning first team honors in each of the last two years and earning his team’s Excellence in Defense award. Whitehead was part of a strong class that left its mark this season, finishing second only to Wissahickon in the SOL American Conference with an 11-1-2 league mark.
Whitehead has made a verbal commitment to take his soccer talents to Shippensburg. He plans to pursue a career in athletic training or sports medicine.
To view Whitehead’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/tyler-whitehead-0030352
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