Thanks to our continued partnership with Univest Financial, SuburbanOneSports.com is once again recognizing a male and female featured athlete each week. The recognition is given to seniors of high character who are students in good standing that have made significant contributions to their teams or who have overcome adversity. Selections are based on nominations received from coaches, athletic directors and administrators.
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Female Athlete (Week of March 3, 2025)
Hunter Barno has a fascinating high school sports resume. The Central Bucks East senior will graduate with eight varsity letters – two in basketball, one in flag football and five in football. Yes, football. Turns out Barno was the manager of East’s football team since she was in seventh grade, and her title of manager should not be confused with those whose responsibilities begin and end with making sure the players are hydrated. “She’s not a water girl at all,” East football coach John Donnelly said. “There’s a lot of different hats you have to wear. To step into that role in middle school and to carry it through was no small chore, and
she did it with flying colors because it’s a big operation. She had a lot of responsibility, and she handled it really well. She was a one-person show, and she did the job that I think a half dozen to a dozen people would do at a high school.”
There is no offseason for Barno, whose winters are filled with basketball. Nothing unusual about that except that some would have walked away after playing JV as a junior and then seeing limited playing time as a senior, something she knew before entering her final high school season that saw the Patriots capture the SOL Colonial Division title and advance to the PIAA 6A State Tournament. “Honestly, people ask me at school – is it difficult?” Barno said. “No, because I’m just so proud of the rest of the girls on the team, I’m so happy for them. Being able to watch them go out there and do their thing, just being able to play my role – my family says this, and coach Liz (Potash) says it too sometimes – control what you can control. Work your hardest and just try to lift everybody else up. They’ve been doing so good, and it’s so much fun to be there.”
Barno is not only a breath of fresh air but also a valued member of the team. “There have been kids I have come across over the years, and Ron (Chiarolanza), my assistant coach, calls them program kids,” East coach Liz Potash said. “But Hunter is our quintessential program kid. She’s just one of these kids that every program would be lucky to have. She works incredibly hard. She is fully dedicated and committed, and she really just has a good sense of what is best for the team even if it’s not necessarily her minutes on the floor. She is supportive, she is literally the epitome of a team player. I don’t know how many kids are like that anymore. I don’t know how many kids put four years into a program and are happy just to be a part of it.”
But there’s more to it than that, according to her coach. “She pushes us at practice every day,” Potash said. “She definitely has nice pieces of her
game, and for us, it’s invaluable to have someone like that because of the impact on the younger kids. Nowadays – kids if they’re not on varsity by sophomore year, they seem to be so upset about it. That was never Hunter. It's incredible. You talk about committed. Her family spends the summers in Florida, and for the last two years, they have flown her up from Florida just so she can work our community basketball camp. I’ve told them numerous time – you don’t have to do that. Her dad’s a football coach, and he also coaches middle school sports. They get it. That’s unbelievable. You don’t get that commitment level all the time, and obviously, she gets that from home but that’s within her too.”
This fall, Barno will be enrolling at Penn State University where she plans to major in communications sciences and disorders. She has not ruled out the possibility of serving as a manager of the school’s powerhouse football team.
“It might be something she looks to do at the next level – there are some opportunities there,” Donnelly said. “We’ll see if she decides to go down that route. We were fortunate to have her here as long as we did. There are big shoes to fill.”
An outstanding student, Barno, who has taken a courseload of honors and numerous AP classes, is a member of the National Honor Society. Away from school, she is a youth ambassador with Bucks for Kids. She also has worked with Penn Athletics as a coach.
“You don’t find kids like Hunter anymore,” Potash said. “I wish there were more of them. I wish we had one on the team every year.”
To read Barno’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/hunter-barno-00117236
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of March 3, 2025)
At face value, swimming is among the most individualized sports in existence. But not in the heart and soul of Council Rock North tri-captain Connor Williams, who will be going to states as part of two relay teams – 200 freestyle and the 400 freestyle – and is a second alternate an individual event, that being the 50 freestyle. In typical fashion, he shook off the disappointment of not making the cut in the 50 free after going to states in that event last year, and he will be looking to cheer on teammates Sean Brush and Sebastian Vradinsky in their individual events. It is just who he is as both a person and student-athlete, who will be
continuing his swimming career with Division II potentate West Chester.
“He is one of our captains this year,” said Rock North coach Brian Johnson. “One of the things that he really does well is connect with the other swimmers, especially the younger swimmers. He immediately takes them under his wing.” This was most evident during the recent postseason, where anxiety can often run high, especially for newbies. “You could see it at our recent district meet,” said Johnson. “For some of the kids, it was their first experience. He just didn’t focus on his race. He was using his experience of having been there before to help them have a good meet. It was cool watching that. He leads by example. They all really look up to him.”
That’s why an official position of leadership seemed like a perfect fit for Williams, who took his captaincy seriously. “I try my best to be a good role model for the other guys on the team,” he said. “Some people, they let it get into their head really easily if they have a bad race. I just try my best to keep everybody calm. It’s not end of the world if you have a bad race.” The other two captains - Luciano Dorenzo and Jack Costello - happen to be among his closest friends. Along with the co-captains of girls’ team, Violet Schroeder and Sophie Bahn, they have built bonding activities outside of the water. “When it gets closer to a big championship meet, it does turn into a more individual sport,” said Williams. “Pretty much the entire season before that, though, you have all the dual meets and almost three months of training. You are all going through these hard practices together. You don’t win without the rest of your team. You all have to work together. It’s just really important everybody stays close. There are no arguments between team members. Everybody is pretty close on our team.”
Another important place outside of the natatorium for Williams and his teammates has been the weight room, where he has completely transformed his body from that of a naturally spindly freshman into a muscled-up senior. “The maturation for a boy over a four-year period - it’s just amazing how much muscle they put on,”
said Johnson, in his 28th year at his alma mater. “He loves it. I think he really just enjoys the comradery and being in the weight room with the guys, just lifting and doing all of that.”
The West Chester swim program has more than 30 PSAC titles to its name, and Williams didn’t really need to think too hard about where he was going to continue his swimming career after meeting with coach Steve Mazurek. A selling point, beyond the tradition of success, was that Mazurek, who has Bucks County roots at Neshaminy, was a lot like his high school coach in demeanor. It turns out that Johnson is a West Chester alum, and Williams is one of several Council Rock North swimmers to have gone there over the years. “It played into my decision a lot,” said Williams. “Their head coach is almost an exact copy of my high school coach.”
For a high school coach, there is no greater compliment than to know your athletes are looking for a similar approach at the college level. “(Connor) said, ‘I feel like I’m going to be coached by you for another four years,’” said Johnson. “He didn’t look at too many other places. From the very first trip, he liked what he heard. I told him a bunch of times that he is just getting started. We have taken him far, but I feel like there is more there that they can give him over the next four-year period at West Chester. We are going to be hearing the results of what he does. I’m not going to be surprised at what he does because I know there is more that they can get out of him.”
To read Williams’ complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/connor-williams-00117235
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