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 April 16, 2014)
Kaitlin Suzuki has turned her talents on the lacrosse field into a scholarship to Temple University, but ask the North Penn senior what she enjoys doing in her spare time, and her answer might come as a bit of a surprise. Suzuki, it turns out, volunteers her time at the A.M. Kulp Elementary School library after school. “I love crafting and painting and all kinds of stuff, so I’m the unofficial library beautification committee,” she said. “Whenever they need a sign for their Reading Olympics, I do that. I made some flowers for spring, and they’re around the door. Once school is over and we have night practice, I like to go there. The kids are adorable.” Suzuki also volunteer’s her time to A.M. Kulp’s knitting club. “These kids are really good at knitting,” she said. “There’s an autistic girl there, and she was working on an elephant. She was so frustrated, but she got done with the elephant, and my mom and I are like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’ve got to see this. It’s so great.’ It’s just rewarding to see the kids smile, and I have fun doing it.” For Suzuki, working with children is more than just a pastime, it could well be her life’s work.
When Suzuki isn’t volunteering her time at A.M. Kulp, she will more than likely be found on the lacrosse field where she is playing her way back after a torn ACL ended her season prematurely last year. Her absence left a void on the field when she went down. “We were really on a nice roll,” coach Jami Wilus Behm said. “She was playing some of the best lacrosse I’ve seen from a high school player.” In addition to losing Suzuki’s ability to score goals, the Maidens also missed her calming presence on the field. “People always think leadership is a person who’s yelling and talking,” Behm said. “With Kaitlin, it was never like that. She called our offensive plays. She knew how to read defenses, she knew what we should be doing on the field, and she could bring everyone together and communicate that to them. I think people listen to her because she wasn’t always in their faces, didn’t try to tell them what to do.”
A four-year starter, Suzuki had surgery last May and was given clearance to return to action earlier this month. In many ways, she’s a throwback. “She was the type of girl you don’t see anymore where you’d look out on the field as you were driving by and someone would be shooting,” Behm said. “I would talk to Kaitlin the next day at school and say, ‘Were you out at the field?’ She’d say, ‘Yeah, I took a bucket of balls, and I went out there shooting.’ She just kept improving, and every year she gained a little more confidence.”
That commitment and dedication resulted in a scholarship offer to Temple where she will major in elementary education with a focus on special education.
To read Suzuki’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/kaitlin-suzuki-0043428
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of April 16, 2014)
Things were going according to plan for Cheltenham senior Chris Myarick back in the summer of 2012. He was gearing up for his junior season, fully expecting to break out as a tight end and put himself on the radar of Division One colleges. And then, on one fluke play in a passing league game, everything changed. Myarick extended himself for the ball and landed awkwardly. The diagnosis: a broken collarbone. A bad break – literally and figuratively – at a bad time. Myarick worked religiously at rehabbing and spent the first six games of the season on the sidelines, aching to get on the field but finding other resources, as he came out of his shell and was more vocal. When he did return, the offense was clicking and Myarick didn’t see the field much at tight end, his chosen position, but jumped into the mix at defensive end.
This year, there was no doubt that tight end was Myarick’s to lose. At 6-5 and 225 and possessing the type of hands and athleticism sought at the position, the sky was the limit. Coach Joe Gro saw it quickly when Myarick took a pass and went 80 yards for a touchdown in a scrimmage against a Coatesville team boasting Division I defensive backs. “I always knew he was going to be special, but then he broke his collarbone,” said Gro. “He lost a year of statistics. I was telling people about him, but he didn’t really get on the charts with colleges until this season. Not only did he have around 40 catches and 12 touchdowns, but he wasn’t just a five-yard tight end. We threw it to him down the field.” In addition, he was a clear-cut role mode as the time on the sidelines as a junior helped cultivate the leader within. Myarick, who also plays basketball and volleyball, went on to have a stellar senior season. Aside from the PSAC schools, which he wasn’t dismissing, the only Division One interest was from opposite corners of the state – Pitt and Temple. He chose Temple.
According to Gro, only one aspect of Myarick outshines his athletic ability, and that is his character. “He is just a wonderful boy,” the Panthers’ coach said. “Everything about him is incredible. He is the most unassuming kid, but when it came to playing, he was always the most dominant kid. I have been around a lot of talented kids. The way he handles it, at that age, is amazing. As a tight end, his statistics are off the chart. He is also an excellent defensive end. He is the most humble kid I have ever been around. It’s a rarity, to be honest.”
To view Myarick’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/chris-myarick-0043427
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