Thanks to our continued partnership with Univest Financial, SuburbanOneSports.com will once again recognize 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 Jan. 11, 2023)
Jenna McCartin was ready and all but counting the days until the start of her final high school basketball season. After patiently biding her time, the Central Bucks South senior was ready to step into the varsity lineup and contribute. And with the graduation of five seniors from last year’s squad, McCartin – a swing player and captain of the JV as a junior - knew the opportunity was there to be a significant contributor. It wasn’t a spot she would lay claim to simply because she was a senior but because she had done the work. “I already knew last season that this season would be a big season for me - that I would be able to start and get a lot more playing time,” McCartin said. “Over the summer, we were lifting twice a week, I was working out on my own, and I was playing basketball on my own. I was going to outdoor parks at 9 a.m. in 90-degree weather, shooting on my own. Then our preseason started, and we were still lifting a couple of times a week and having open gyms.”
Things couldn’t have been going any better. “Jenna is a well-rounded player,” CB South basketball coach Beth Mattern said. “She can knock down an open three or take the ball to the hoop. Most importantly, she doesn’t try to do too much and is a reliable teammate on the court. She wants to play basketball, and she has a great attitude. She’s the ultimate team player, and she’s the kind of kid you’re really excited for because you know now it’s her opportunity. Knowing this was going to be her last season, honestly, she has done everything asked of her plus more to prepare for this season to do what she can.”
Unfortunately, life doesn’t always follow the planned script. On Oct. 12, McCartin’s hopes and dreams for her final high school season came crashing down with one small move during a drill at open gym. “I felt my knee pop,” McCartin said. “I fell on the ground, and my knee was stuck in a bent position, and I don’t know if I was screaming in pain, but I remember coach Mattern coming over to me. I held her hand and didn’t let her go. It was a lot of pain.” Mattern – who’d watched senior Alyssa D’Orazio go down with a torn ACL late in the regular season last year – knew immediately that this could very well mark the end of McCartin’s season before it even began. “It was awful – to me, it’s just heartbreaking,” the Titans’ coach said. “This year we’re starting open gyms, and another senior tears her ACL. It was just like a punch in the gut because we all kind of stopped and stared at each other. It changed the whole mood of the gym that day.”
Five days after going down, McCartin received the official diagnosis – a torn ACL in her left knee. She had surgery on Nov. 9, and although undergoing intense rehab, she has remained with her team and was named a captain. “She is absolutely probably everyone’s favorite on the team,” Mattern said. “She always has a smile on her face, and her temperament is always positive. She really has worked to make connections with everyone in the program.” McCartin, it turns out, hasn’t forgotten what it was like being an underclassman. “In years past, our team has always been really close, but there’s been certain people who are a lot closer than others, so this year I was really trying to get everyone involved with each other,” the senior captain said. “I know that personally when I was a freshman and sophomore – I had no confidence in myself going against all the older girls, so especially this year, I really wanted to help the younger girls feel more confident.”
Away from the basketball court, McCartin is an excellent student who is actively involved in school life. She is part of South’s Athletes Helping Athletes program as well as Titans Connect. She is undecided on a college, but her top two schools are the University of South Carolina and Clemson. She is planning to major in education or exercise science with the goal of becoming an elementary or special education teacher or something in physical or occupational therapy. As for basketball, McCartin has not closed the book on it. “I was considering playing club or somehow still getting involved, and I still think I’m going to,” she said. The senior captain takes with her a valuable lesson she learned through a sport she loves. “To definitely not take anything for granted because you never know when it’s going to be your last time doing something,” McCartin said.
To read McCartin’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/jenna-mccartin-00104606
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Jan. 11, 2023)
After middle school, Jack Becker had grown weary of soccer, the sport he had pretty much played since he could walk. As a freshman at Lower Moreland High School, he decided to give running – cross-country and track – a shot. Little did he know that he’d hit the bull’s eye. Now a senior, Becker is a district champion in cross-country and will be continuing his career as a distance runner at East Stroudsburg University. “If you asked him two years ago, he would have never believed he was going to be a district champion,” said coach Greg Green, who has coached Becker in cross-country the last two years and in winter and spring track the last four. “He worked hard and kept learning the sport, and he got better at it.”
Green’s assessment that Becker never would have predicted the level of progressive success, which continued recently when he broke the school record in the 3000 meters (ranked 13th in the state) at an indoor meet at Penn State, is accurate. Becker would not have believed it either. “Absolutely not,” said Becker. “It was more like just giving it a shot to see what would happen. I’m still thinking, ‘Wow, this is how far I came,’ when I look back on my freshman year. Then, when I start to think of all the work I put it, I know that I deserve to be here.” Green can confirm this self-assessment. “This is just a young man that really worked hard,” he said. “He had talent, but his hard work is what made him successful. It’s his commitment to the sport and the sacrifices that he makes. He’s just such a coachable kid. He has really listened well and learned a lot about the sport.”
Green calls it the “The Bug,” and once a runner gets it, there really is no known cure. Such was the case with Becker. “They’re the best to coach,” said Green. “I love those types of kids. Running is a hard sport, mentally and physically. Half of the battle is convincing the kids to get out and do the work. Once they catch that bug, which is what I call it, then it becomes so much easier to coach them. That’s what he did. He caught the bug. Once you do, you are going to be successful.” While it’s hard to nail down exactly when the bug hit, Becker has a pretty good idea. “It was probably going into my sophomore year,” he said. “In my freshman year, when everything shut down for two weeks (due to COVID), I trained pretty hard for a month. I was getting up and getting all of my runs in. I would get up at like 5:20-5:30 and do eight miles of work and go for another three or four in the afternoon.”
From there, Becker’s steady ascension began. “I’ve watched him really develop over the years,” said Green. “He went from an average, or even below average, runner to someone who is now one of the best in the state. He has progressed steadily because of his training. He is just consistent. He doesn’t miss a beat. He doesn’t have excuses. I try to teach the kids that, if you just put the work in, you are going to be good at it. You just have to put the work in, and he put the work in.” That symbiotic relationship was never more in play than at the District One cross-country championship meet, when Becker out-maneuvered primary rival Kieran Chambers of Holy Ghost Prep to pull away with a final kick.
While his intense training leaves little time for school activities, Becker maintains a 3.73 GPA. “Track takes up so much of my time,” he said. “When I’m home, I just make sure to get all of my work done and make sure I’m on top of all of my grades.” Becker looks to emerge from East Stroudsburg, which he chose in a tough call over Bloomsburg, trained to be a math teacher. “I really didn’t want a big school like Penn State,” he explained. “I asked myself, ‘If I wasn’t running in college, would I still want to go there?’ I just really liked the campus, the atmosphere.
To read Becker’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/jack-becker-00104605
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