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 Dec. 4, 2024)
Avery McCann is living proof that you really can do it all. It’s a capacity the Central Bucks East senior apparently comes by honestly. At her recent college signing, the Central Bucks East senior pointed to her mother as her biggest role model. “My mom works hard and wears so many hats, but flawlessly juggles all of them,” she said of her mother, Allyson McCann. In truth, Avery could just as easily have been describing herself. The East senior wears many hats, and she wears them all very well.
McCann was a captain and first team All-SOL selection for the field hockey squad last fall, and she has turned her talents on the hockey field into a scholarship to continue her career at Slippery Rock University. Since
sophomore year, she has been studying dental science at Middle Bucks Institute of Technology (MBIT) and last year passed her radiology exam. “I’m X-ray certified which pretty much means I can work in any dental office in the State of Pennsylvania and take x-rays and perform all the dental assisting tasks,” McCann said. McCann began working at a local dental office at the beginning of last summer and has continued as part of MBIT’s co-op program. She is president of HOSA at MBIT and finished second in the HOSA state competition in dental science, going on to finish in the top 20 of 180 students in the national/international competition.
A member of the National Honor Society and National Technical Honor Society, McCann takes a courseload of honors classes during her mornings at East. She is a member of the local National Charities League Board, and she also adds the improbable past time of showing cows to her remarkable resume. “She is the most interesting person,” East field hockey coach Emma Rosenthal said. “Every single thing she does – she succeeds. How cool to be a field hockey player, a star dentistry student, who also shows cows.” Ask McCann about her non-stop schedule, and she acknowledges – she wouldn’t want it any other way. “That’s what keeps me going,” she said. “I love being busy and the feeling of accomplishment after completing something and knowing it’s gonna make me successful in the future. Everyone tells me I have a very high work ethic, but I just enjoy being busy and the fulfillment everything brings me.”
McCann’s high school hockey career came to an unexpectedly abrupt end in East’s District 1 3A opener at Neshaminy last fall when she was defending University of Delaware-bound Kasey Rieger, a teammate on her club team. “She pretty much just broke my ankles – she went left and back right,” McCann said. “I tried turning too fast – I feel like I do that turn every game, multiple times a game, and it just happened that one game that I went down.” Down perhaps but not ready to call it a day. “She’s laying on the field, and she was about to prove she could still run,” Rosenthal said. “She
wanted to finish that game out. I saw that same determined person I saw freshman year. She was laying down on the sidelines in searing pain still directing everybody on the field.” The pop McCann heard when she went down turned out to be a torn ACL. She had surgery to repair the tear nearly a month ago. “It’s definitely tough, but my college coaches have been so supportive,” she said. “They pretty much were like – nothing changes. I still have my scholarship. I still have everything. I’ll actually be back to playing around June.” Less than a month removed from surgery, McCann has already found a way to ensure her skills remain sharp. “I’ve still been doing some stickwork,” she said. “I’ve been to the field a couple of times just doing stationary stickwork.”
With her eyes on one day becoming a dentist, McCann will major biology/pre-dental at Slippery Rock and then attend dental school. Listening to Rosenthal tell it, Slippery Rock has landed someone who just might give new meaning to the term student-athlete. “She is so multi-faceted,” the East coach said. “A cool thing that stood out to me – at the signing day, they talk about who was their biggest inspiration, and she said her mom was because she wears so many different hats, and she is so good at everything she does. Avery is the same exact way. She’s incredible on the hockey field, but she’s at MBIT, she is working at a dentist’s office half a day and is going to school the other half. She is working with patients. She was a national finalist for a dental award and is a top dental student. Her other cool thing is she shows cows and horses. She goes up to New York on weekends, she would go to the cow show, she would sleep in her car, and she would drive back and play a game the next day. She’s an absolutely resilient kid, and this (torn ACL) is something she is going to bounce back from. She’s going to be stronger for it. She’s the best.”
To read McCann’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/avery-mccann-00116032
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Dec. 4, 2024)
When Pennridge senior Trevor Fuhs walked off the scholastic gridiron for the final time after a loss to rival Quakertown on Thanksgiving, there was disappointment but zero regret. “I’m proud of the effort my brothers brought in my final game,” he said A young Rams’ team is now positioned for a bright future, and Fuhs can feel good about his role in pointing coach Kyle Beller’s squad in that direction. “I believe our program took a step forward this year,” he said. “I am looking forward to seeing what Coach Beller and the Rams will accomplish in the future.” After battling back from injuries to the same knee as a freshman and a sophomore, he captained the Rams the last two years while recording more than 200 tackles in that span at linebacker. This past year, after just playing defense as a junior, he also played tight end. “In the fourth quarter, when it’s the
last drive, you want him on the field,” said Beller.
And then there are the intangibles. “When you look – as a coach - at players, he’s awesome,” Beller said. “He’s an awesome kid to coach and to be around. In film study, he brings a notebook and takes notes. He helps teammates out. He’s the first one on the field and the last one off.” A few days before the Thanksgiving Day game, Beller was trying not to think about a future without Fuhs. Now, well, it’s time. “It’s going to be weird,” said Beller. “From day one, he has been that leader. You look around and say, ‘Who is going to fill that role?’ I’m going to miss him. Trevor is a great kid. He’s a great student in the classroom. He’s a great young man of the field. He just does things right, from the classroom to the community and representing the school.”
It’s interesting to note that Beller allows the players to elect captains with no coach interference, and it says something about Fuhs that he was tabbed last year as an underclassman and again for this past season. “That’s what his teammates think of him,” said Beller. “They voted him in. This year, he had to reapply for the job, and they voted him in again.” In Fuhs, Beller saw a true captain on multiple fronts. “In the offseason, every day in the weight room, he’s a leader,” said the coach, who just finished his second season with the Rams after coaching in the Lehigh Valley. “He works his tail off. He’s vocal in the offseason in the weight room. When we have a fundraiser, he’s the first one there, helping out. He really checks the boxes for what you are looking for as a young man, on and off the field.” And it is on the field where Fuhs has
earned his reputation. “He’s probably our most vocal guy on the team,” said Beller. “He’s the one who breaks the huddle down. He’s the one who motivates the rest of the team.” On the field, there is his play. He cares, tremendously. He wants to do everything perfectly. You like to see that. He gets upset with himself, but he never gets down. If he makes mistakes, he fixes them. He demands it of himself, and he demands it of his teammates.”
Fuhs, who gave up wrestling and lacrosse to focus on football, also hits the books with the same intensity he does an opposing offensive skill players, carrying a 4.1 GPA. Fuhs, who is the second of Adam and Angela’s brood of four children, will absolutely be playing college football. It’s just a matter of where. He is in some serious talks with several programs at various levels and hopes to have the matter settled sooner than later. While size – 5-11, 215 (albeit with room to grow) – may preclude a scholarship from a large Division I mega program, Fuhs is still keeping his eye on the prize of reaching the NFL. He sees Haason Reddick, who walked on at Temple and became an All-Pro. He sees standout quarterback Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills whose only scholarship offer was from Wyoming. And he sees Nakobe Dean, his favorite active athlete, in the midst of a career year with the Eagles. Dean also overcame injuries and was an undersized linebacker who dropped to the third round of the 2022 draft because of it. Said Fuhs: “Why can’t I be one of those guys? I may not be the perfect size but, if I work my hardest, I know that I at least have a chance. From middle school on, I just started harping on wanting to be the best linebacker in the school and the league and the state and maybe even to the NFL, if I work my tail off.”
While Fuhs isn’t thinking much beyond picking a college program and then making the most out of it, Beller sees a future vocation for his two-time captain. “I’m going to enjoy following his career,” said Beller. “I told him in our exit interview that he is going to make one heck of a coach one day.”
To read Fuhs’ complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/trevor-fuhs-00116033
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