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 6, 2016)
The campus of McGill University, set against the foot of Mount Royal in the heart of Montreal, is considered among the most picturesque in the world. When Quakertown senior soccer standout Victoria Sturgess saw the campus for the first time while in Montreal for the Women’s World Cup in 2015, she pretty much made up her mind. She was awestruck. McGill is the place she had to be. For most, it would just be a pipedream. McGill, in addition to its overwhelming presence, ranks among the top institutions of higher learning on the planet and has just about 3,500 students enrolled there from a worldwide pool. But the daughter of Mike and Annie Sturgess is not like most aspiring student-athletes. Tied for first in her senior class at Quakertown, she had what it took to make it happen. After making contact with McGill women’s soccer coach Jose-Luis Valdes, wheels were set in the motion for what she hopes will be the journey of her life.
The incoming bioengineering major firmly believes she needed to keep soccer in her life to continue to achieve the balance that got her this far, and recently saw her named the Lehigh Valley Soccer Scholar Athlete out of a pool of more than 100 high schools. Sturgess has been successful juggling school and soccer – while also trying to work around nagging injuries to run track – and not doing so would be more of a culture shock than attending school out of the country. “I feel like if I didn’t have soccer, my academic grades would suffer,” Sturgess said. The timing could not have been more perfect as McGill only recently added bioengineering as a graduate program – it was strictly a graduate-only course of study before – putting her in historic company. Beyond McGill, Sturgess realizes she will need to continue her education. This is where her status as a dual citizen of the US and the UK will come in handy. “I’d love to go for my doctorate,” she said. “I eventually want to live in London. I have a lot of family over there, and I have always thought of it as my home. I just received (dual citizenship) as of a few weeks ago.”
What McGill will be getting in Sturgess is an athlete dedicated to the craft of the sport she loved ever since seeing a game at age six with her British-born dad, who indoctrinated her into being a Chelsea F.C. fanatic when they watched their favorite team battle A.C. Milan. “Vic worked very hard at become an outstanding player,” said coach Mike Koch, who has coached Sturgess from her youth days at Deep Run all the way through high school. “She committed herself to train technically, tactically and trained hard physically to become a top athlete. She has perseverance and willpower, and that has allowed her to battle through any ups and downs. She has always put the team first.”
To read Sturgess complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/victoria-sturgess-0069156
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of April 6, 2016)
Nick Marino was born to be a pole vaulter. Forget the fact that for close to eight years he devoted himself to gymnastics, practicing four hours a day every day. Pole vaulting was in his blood. His grandfather, Joseph Spieker, was a state champion for then Hatboro High School and went on to earn a conference championship during a collegiate career at West Chester University. "I'd always hear stories from him and my mom talking about pole vault and everything," said Marino, whose mother and father also competed in pole vault. "I always thought it was cool, but I was doing gymnastics at the time. I basically didn't have enough time for it until I grew out of gymnastics. I saw my brother (Ryan Lomont) doing his throws at the track, and Joe Berry was doing his jumping and setting records. That's when I decided I really wanted to do it." The summer before his freshman year, Marino got a taste of pole vaulting at Ambler Olympic Club under the tutelage of coaches Peter Hishman and former Hatters' coach Bob Ayton, who coached Berry. He was hooked.
These days the 5-11 Marino is mentioned in the same breath with Berry, who went on to win five SEC titles at the University of Tennessee - three outdoor and two indoor. Marino shattered the school's indoor record of 15-2, successfully clearing 16 feet during the indoor season and also capturing the indoor state title. "The kid has crazy core strength - I don't know if I've ever had an athlete with the core strength he has," HH coach Michael Harmon said. "You can be really good at anything you do if you have good core strength. He works very hard at what he does. He puts in a lot of practice. I would say he probably eats, sleeps and breathes pole vault. That's what he does."
There's no denying the magnitude of Marino's accomplishments, and he still has his final outdoor season to add to his already impressive resume. Yet, talk to Harmon, and he's equally impressed with the leadership his senior captain brings to the team. "He's really become a tremendous team kid in the last couple of years," the Hatters' coach said. "He's always been trying to push his teammates, trying to make them better even though he might not be doing the things they're doing, but he's helping them get better"
Marino, who will be taking his talents to Bucknell University, credits his coaches as well as his mother Tammy Lamont. "She helped me climb the heights," he said. "She's almost always the one who can see my problems if no one else can." An honors student, Marino chose Bucknell over the U.S. Naval Academy. He plans to major in something in the science field, but first he has some unfinished business to take care of at Hatboro-Horsham.
To read Marino’s compete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/nick-marino-0069214
- Log in to post comments
