Univest Featured Athletes (Wk.9-17-14)

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 Sept. 17, 2014)

Talk to Taylor Nearon, and there’s nothing to suggest she has a care in the world. The Upper Merion senior is upbeat and enthusiastic, especially when she talks about soccer. But that’s hardly a surprise. Nearon has had a love affair with the sport since she began playing as a youngster. These days soccer is not just her passion, it’s her outlet, her release for pent up aggression. It’s a chance for normalcy that she does not take for granted. Three years ago, out of the blue, Nearon began having allergic reactions to certain foods. She was diagnosed with FPIES (Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome), a severe response to food protein that typically occurs in infants. “I’m the oldest patient down at the Children’s Hospital with the disease,” she said. “Infants outgrow it by the time they’re six.” Nearon’s diet is limited to 17 foods. It’s a list that includes grass-fed turkey, grass-feed lamb, grass-fed pork, blueberries, bananas, grapes and applesauce (but no apples). In other words, it’s hardly your typical teenager’s diet.

So life altering was the experience that Nearon started taking classes via cyber school in November of her junior year. An excellent student, Nearon attended school for an AP English class last year since AP courses are not available through school. “When I started cyber school, I was missing a lot of school, and I was getting really stressed out,” Nearon said. “I didn’t want to fall behind and get bad grades. Cyber school has really helped – I’m pretty much getting all A’s.” Just when it seemed the FPIES was under control, Nearon had another setback. “The past few months I’ve been randomly going into anaphylactic shock,” she said. Nearon was diagnosed with a mast cell disease. She estimates she has made 10 ER visits since the start of the school year, but remarkably, she has not missed one soccer game. “Wednesday she had an allergic reaction when she was at home,” coach Laura Himler said. “On Thursday, she couldn’t practice, but she was there collecting balls, helping with drills, talking to the players. When she can play, she works her butt off. She’s really aggressive, and she puts her heart into it every single time. She’s a real team player.” Through it all, Nearon has managed to keep a positive attitude. “I have the support of friends and everyone who understands what’s going on and what I’m going through,” she said. “Being able to play soccer and being able to get out aggression on the soccer field also helps.”

Nearon has been chosen to be an educational ambassador for the International FPIES Organization. “They have me share my experiences to give (those with FPIES) peace that they’re going to be okay and they can still live life,” she said. “I tell them I do sports, I’m going to college to show them that even though it might be hard you can get through it.”

Nearon is looking into colleges in Pennsylvania where she plans to major in biology and pursue her career goal of becoming a profusionist. For now, Nearon is busy spreading the word that, despite limitations, life can still be good. “If you saw her on the soccer field, you would never think anything’s wrong with her,” Himler said. “She’s just a normal kid. She’s a starter and plays striker for me. She’s very aggressive, and when she raises the bar, it helps other people raise the bar. She’s a smart kid, and she’s on track to graduate, balancing all of that being in and out of the hospital. Taylor gets along with everybody. She’s a really neat kid.”

To read Nearon’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/taylor-nearon-0046825

 

Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Sept. 17, 2014)

Last season, the Central Bucks West soccer team was blessed with size and experience. This season, it’s a whole new ball game. A case in point is the stopper position – referred to as the “destroyer” role by coach Stefan Szygiel – on the defensive end. Replacing 6-3, 200-pounder Kyle Schechter is Shane Hensel, who is quickly carving out a place for himself as a first-year starter at the varsity level. At minimum, Szygiel would like his line of defense to stand 6-2. “(Hensel) is not 6-2, at most – he is 5-11, but he has to play like he is 6-2,” said Szygiel. To that extent, Hensel has been coming up big for the Bucks as they refine themselves in the 2014 season. “Shane is a big-time ball winner,” said Szygiel. “We can rely on him. He gets it. He’s very smart out there. He processes the game and holds down the fort. We called the position he plays ‘protector’ or ‘destroyer’ and that’s what he does. He protects the back line. He protects, destroys and distributes. He plays that role well.”

That Hensel “gets it” and “holds down the fort” – or plays his role to perfection – should not come as a surprise, particularly to Szygiel. Back when he was a student at Unami Middle School in the last 1990s, Szygiel had a science teacher that helped him “get it” at a crucial point when a lot of students fall through the cracks. That teacher was Brian Hensel, Shane’s father and the head football coach at Central Bucks West. Although Shane is on the CB West football team as a kickoff specialist, he chose soccer over football as a boy, just as he is choosing a military lifestyle over a typical college setting. “It all started when I was a kid,” said Shane, whose older brother Ryan was a slot receiver at CB West and also played second base on the baseball team before moving on to Virginia Tech to major in civil engineering. “I just had a passion for soccer.” His father’s reaction? “I told him that it wasn’t about me, it was about pursing your career and your passions,” said the coach. “He has applied that to all the things he has done. His mother (Dana) and I are so proud of him.”

Asked to describe himself, Hensel doesn’t hesitate. “I’m a very busy kid,” said the CB West senior, who holds down a 3.8 GPA with three AP classes. Hensel is non-stop Monday to Friday with academics and sports. Aside from soccer and football in the fall, there is lacrosse in the spring season. He is a member of the Cadet Civil Air Patrol of the Doylestown Composite Squadron 907, and he is organizing the High School Military Bowl – an event made to honor the fallen and those who are in active duty in US military.

Hensel has already earned academic scholarships to Penn State, Drexel and the University of the Sciences. He says he would enroll in the ROTC program at those schools, but his heart is set on one of the military academies. He is applying to all of the military academies with the Air Force and Naval academies at the top of the list.  “It doesn’t surprise me,” said Szygiel of Hensel’s military aspirations. “That’s the right setting for him. He thrives on structure. He’s mentally and physically tough. Some people are one or the other, but he is both.”

To view Hensel’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/shane-hensel-0046862

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