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 Feb. 16, 2017)
Easygoing and mild-mannered. It’s an interesting choice of adjectives by Neshaminy basketball coach Joe Lally to describe a fiercely competitive athlete who – outside the lines – won’t shy away from a healthy argument and aspires to one day become an arbitration lawyer. Perhaps it’s that remarkable combination that has made the Neshaminy senior so successful in every endeavor she has undertaken. Emily Alexis, it seems, is one of those rare student-athletes who has found a way to do it all while maintaining a perspective that is as unique as it is rare. “She’s got great balance,” said Lally. “She’s a good example for all young kids of ‘between the lines.’ Between the lines of field hockey or basketball, she’s going to battle, she’s going to compete, and when the game is over, she’s just an extremely well-balanced, nice person.”
When it came time to present awards at the field hockey team’s year-end banquet, coach Jamie Pinto knew that the traditional awards didn’t encompass what Alexis meant to the team, so she created a new one just for her senior captain called the 3-D Award, representing desire, dedication and determination. “That sums up her four years to us,” Pinto said. For the past four years, Alexis has served as president of her class, a position she uses not to exert authority but rather to get everyone involved. As captain of both her field hockey and basketball teams, she adheres to that same all-inclusive philosophy. “She’s so good with the younger girls in the program,” Lally said. “She instantly makes a connection with kids and makes them feel as though they’re part of the team and equally as important when they’re young and feel that transition where maybe they can play but they’re not real sure socially how they fit in. Emily takes all of that away.” Pinto added, “She gets along with everybody. Em always seems like the go-to person for everyone. She truthfully is the nicest kid. In school, she is somebody the girls could always go to. She’s just an all-around leader.”
A two-time all-state hockey player, Alexis signed a letter of intent to continue her hockey career at Sacred Heart University where she plans to major in business law. Sports is just one facet of Alexis’ busy life. A member of the National Honor Society, she boasts a 4.26 GPA and is in the top 10 percent of her class. Alexis also finds time to volunteer and points to the youth ministry at Langhorne United Methodist as playing a significant role in that aspect. “With her busy schedule, you would think she’s a person who would be on edge at times,” Lally said. “She has fun, she jokes with the kids. She’s great with the younger girls. She’s a team favorite, for sure, with her teammates.”
To read Alexis’ complete profile, please click on the following link: http://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/emily-alexis-0068132
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Feb. 16, 2017)
William Tennent swimmer Tyler Urban did not need the validation of being named a captain this season to step into a leadership role. He was a senior on a squad with a lot of incoming freshmen, and that’s all the information Urban needed to help fill that void. “Tyler has been a leader on the team for years,” said his coach, Meghan Forlini. “As a senior, he has really stepped up his game in being a team player.” While Urban has drastically improved his times in his main event, the 500, the “stepping up” may have been his biggest contribution. “While the captains did a really good job, it was best if all the seniors showed leadership,” he said. “Everyone needed to be supportive. It’s my senior year, and they are all looking up to you.”
In the classroom, Urban has always challenged himself with AP-level classes – even if it meant taking a summer course to prepare, and while he is his own harshest critic, claiming to have been “a little too lazy” as an underclassman, he still has a more than respectable GPA of 3.2. When some of his teammates were struggling while juggling swimming and academics, he again saw the need and stepped up. “Outside of the pool, Tyler excels academically,” said Forlini. “He has gone out of his way to help many of his teammates academically.” Said Urban: “Yes, I have done that a few times. I’m not a part of any official tutoring academic program or anything, but a few times, some people (on the team) were having trouble with chemistry and math and I stepped in to help them.”
If acting just as a captain or a tutor – without official titles – sounds like the honorable thing to do, it is not by accident. Around the same age he hit the pool as a competitive swimmer, Urban followed the trail blazed by his father and two older brothers – Justin and Kyle – and got involved in the Boy Scouts of America. While it is a passing phase for most – as Urban has learned, moving from one troop to the next as numbers dwindle, it has been a lifelong passion that has led him to be elected to the post of Senior Patrol Leader at an annual summer gig in Kunkletown, Pa., at the Trexler Scout Reservation as a swimming instructor. The way he has conducted himself on the Tennent campus as a student-athlete has a direct correlation to the leadership skills he learned as a scout.
With an eye toward a career in marine engineering (designing boats, propellers, submarines, etc.), he has been accepted to the Florida Institute of Technology, SUNY Maritime College and Penn State-Berks.
To read Urban’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/tyler-urban-0068129
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