School: Council Rock South
Volleyball, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Kerry Walsh and Misty May
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: “The Force (my AAU team) winning in double overtime again the Comets to win our bracket at Penn State.”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “Last year at practice, we were all laughing really hard at one of our teammates, and everyone was crying. Then we turned around and our other teammate goes running out because she wet herself. She will never live it down!”
Music on iPod: “Everything”
Future plans: Major in nursing at Bloomsburg or Penn State
Words to live by: “Respect”
One goal before turning 30: “Travel to Ireland”
One thing people don’t know about me: “My goal in life was to be an Irish dancer, and I even got to dance at Disney World for it.”
Monica Young smiles when she recalls her first open gym as the new head coach of the Council Rock South basketball squad last spring.
Only one player – Ann Silverthorn – showed up.
“I’m like, ‘You’re not leaving. You’re staying. We’re not going to waste this time,’” Young recalled. “So two coaches and I worked with her for an hour.
“Most kids would be like, ‘I’m leaving,’ but she stayed.”
Young knew she’d found a player she could build her program around.
She was right.
Silverthorn is the leading scorer on a basketball team that has already surpassed its win total of all of last season, but the senior shooting guard is much more than that.
She is first and foremost a leader.
“She was voted captain unanimously by her teammates,” Young said. “She a very hard worker, and she’s a really nice kid.
“It makes my job a lot easier because it’s someone I know I can depend on, someone who is reliable. I don’t even have to tell her to do things. It’s a pleasure.”
Young derived special pleasure from seeing Silverthorn revel in the almost unexpected success of a Golden Hawk squad that captured its division of the Wildwood Boardwalk Classic over the holiday break.
“At the end of the (championship) game against Egg Harbor, she said, ‘Coach Young, you don’t understand. This is the first trophy we ever got,’” Rock South’s first-year coach said. “I’m like, ‘Okay, well, expect more.’
“She’s just unbelievable.”
Silverthorn admits she wasn’t real sure how things would go this season after that first open gym.
“That was a little iffy,” she said with a laugh. “After I told everyone about the coaches, it opened everyone’s eyes to see how much fun basketball could be.”
Still, could Silverthorn have seen a 7-3 start and a tournament championship in her team’s future this season?
“No,” she said. “I was hoping for the best, but from last year to this year, it’s just been incredible. It’s more relaxed.
“Last year I was so stressed out about every little thing. This year it just flows.”
For a Golden Hawk squad that is playing for its third coach in four years, the team’s early-season success and the stability Young has brought to the program has been especially welcome.
“It’s been hard switching coaches every year, and in the beginning, I was nervous about this year – it was my last year and my third coach, but this year has been so much fun,” Silverthorn said. “It’s probably the best year I have had for basketball.”
The difference between this year and previous years, according to the senior captain, is pronounced.
“Our mentality last year was just to be in a game,” Silverthorn said. “This year it’s – we have to win the game. Last year, we just showed up, and this year we’re showing up to play hard.
“I think it’s more organized, there’s more team stuff, and we get everything done in practice.”
Silverthorn actually grew up playing soccer, and it was her sport of choice until eighth grade when basketball began taking precedence. Volleyball entered the picture in junior high when she began playing for Holland Middle School.
As a freshman, Silverthorn served for the varsity volleyball squad, and she went on to become an all-league outside hitter for the Golden Hawks.
A four-year varsity player in basketball as well, Silverthorn plays year-round and has been involved in the AAU circuit, most recently playing with archrival Council Rock North girls on the Upper Makefield basketball squad.
This season, Silverthorn has averaged 13 points a game.
“She’s a good shooter, and she’s not afraid of contact,” Young said. “She also can go to the basket, and she plays pretty good defense.”
It was Silverthorn who hit the game winner with 3.4 seconds remaining in Rock South’s 51-49 win over a Pennridge squad that took a 5-0 record into the game.
“The play wasn’t really designed to go to her, but she had the ball, and I’m like ‘You’ve got to go to the basket,’” Young said. “She went to the basket and hit the shot.”
Silverthorn, a member of the National Honor Society, also excels in the classroom. She has received offers to play collegiate basketball, but she will more than likely pass on those offers, opting to instead focus on her nursing major while competing in basketball at the club or intramural level.
For Silverthorn, the Golden Hawks’ storybook season is the perfect ending to her high school athletic career.
“It’s a great feeling to end like this,” she said. “Our last three years have been a struggle to make .500, and not reaching that last year was such a disappointment to everyone.
“In volleyball, we were supposed to go kind of far, but we didn’t go as far as we wanted to, so right now, it’s a great feeling to have something end good.”
While the ending is yet to be determined, if the beginning is any indication, it’s bound to be a good one for Silverthorn and her Golden Hawk teammates.
