Univest Featured Athletes (Wk 3-5-14)

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 March 5, 2014)

Ask Lynn Carroll to talk about Hailey Kaunert’s strengths on the basketball court, and the Souderton coach recites a lengthy list. “She was a small forward and could drive to the basket,” Carroll said of the Souderton senior. “Her post moves were really coming along, and so were her moves with her back to the basket. She had decent range from the foul line. She was a great defender, a real workhorse.” Unfortunately for Kaunert and the Indians, she was never really able to put her talents to use on the basketball court. After showing great promise on the varsity at the close of her sophomore year, Kaunert was sidelined for both her junior and senior seasons with torn anterior cruciate ligaments, first in her right knee and then her left.

It would have been hard to blame Kaunert if she had walked away from basketball when she went down with a second torn ACL. As a matter of fact, it would have made a whole lot of sense since basketball is just one small piece of her life. But leaving the team was never a consideration, and according to Carroll, Kaunert, who calls herself ‘the stat girl,’ was an integral part of the team. “She does whatever we need her to do during games,” the Indians’ coach said. “Hailey just adds positive energy when she’s in the room. She’s laughing and smiling, and I think the biggest thing she did – she was a supportive teammate. She was in a difficult situation where she was watching all her friends do what she wanted to be doing. She kept showing up. She was by far the loudest person on the bench. She really, really got into it, and she never stopped being supportive of them, and I know how much that means to them.”

This season, Carroll had Kaunert penciled in as the team’s starting four. “She had really come along,” the Indians’ coach said. “She did everything she was supposed to do. For her to really persevere and want to come back was so impressive, and I think ultimately made it more devastating that the time line didn’t work out for her. I give her so much credit for thinking, ‘I’m going to do this the second time.’ That really speaks to her character and how she was raised.”

An excellent student, Kaunert is a member of the National Honor Society and is active in SAVE and the LINK Crew. She is president of the school’s student council, and as her senior project, she planned and was in charge of the 2014 Region F Conference for students to learn more about leadership skills and also how to better their student council. Next year, Kaunert will attend Penn State University where she will major in business. “She’s an outstanding role model in our program,” Carroll said. “It doesn’t get much better than a kid like Hailey.”

To read Kaunert’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/hailey-kaunert-0042160

Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of March 5, 2014)

When he was in fourth grade, Zach Greenberg moved back to the area after three years in Sacramento and first joined forces with Marc Conran and Kevin Woods on the hardwood. From that point on, the trio dreamed of the day when they would live out their ultimate hoop dreams at Upper Dublin. Their senior season came and went without much to show in terms of hardware. The Cardinals finished 11-11 and out of the PIAA District One playoffs but still built memories for a lifetime. “Marc and Kevin are my best friends off the court,” Greenberg said. “Heading into our senior season, we just wanted to have fun and play together. We got through some hard times just by sticking together. This was the most team-oriented team I ever played on. All the sophomores, all the juniors – they were all great. We all got along. It was easy to take them under our wing.”

Greenberg is most proud of the team’s resiliency that was displayed by their four-game winning streak at the end of the season.  Lesser teams, with less senior leadership from Greenberg and Co., would have folded at 7-11. According to coach Josh Adelman, Greenberg’s value, aside from leadership, was doing the little things. He scored when needed but is more than willing to do the dirty work. “It was hard to take him out of games because he did everything,” said the Cardinals’ coach. “His defense and rebounding were so critical for us to compete on that level. He is just a great kid. He was always a personable, good-natured kid. He is a great teammate. He led by example. They all respected him. I think he is one of the most dedicated and hard-working players I have ever coached. He loves the game of basketball and is an excellent teammate.”

The 6-5 Greenberg will take his talents to Washington College in Maryland. Washington, he said, got involved with him early – initially through a contact with his coaches from the Maccabiah Games. “From the get-go, it just seemed like the right fit,” he said. Greenberg is the first to admit that he is more a self-made player than a natural wunderkind. “I always felt like if I worked hard and played well, the results would shot, and it would be fun.” According to his coach, he improved by “leaps and bounds every year.”

Outside of basketball, Greenberg played an active role in student government. He has been class vice president three times and is active in the Spanish Club.

To view Greenberg’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/zach-greenberg-0042159