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 for week of Sept. 28, 2021
Anna Shirley is a quiet but fierce competitor. The Central Bucks South senior is a captain of her field hockey team and is – according to coach Pat Toner – one of the top 10 smartest players she has coached, high praise indeed from the veteran coach who has been on the sidelines for close to four decades. Just last week Shirley verbally committed to take her hockey talents to Villanova University where she will play at the Division 1 level, but if it seems as though the South senior would be eager to talk about herself, guess again.
“Who’s the most humble player on our team?” Toner asked several of her young players who happened to be within earshot. In unison, they replied, “Anna Shirley.” While Shirley isn’t eager to talk about herself, Toner is happy to do it for her. “Anna sees the field as well as anybody I’ve ever coached,” the Titans’ coach said. “She’s dedicated and focused, she works hard, she is easy to get along with and just does whatever you ask her to do. She’s always very gracious and thankful. She never promotes herself, never talks about herself. She’s the ultimate kid. She not a flashy player, but she always gets the job done.”
Shirley doesn’t seek or want the spotlight. Just ask her about the clinic for Central Bucks schools she attended at CB East when she was in middle school. Running the clinic was Rutger Wiese, the coach of the U.S. Men’s National Field Hockey Team at the time. Shirley – until asked directly about it – does not let on that Wiese named her the outstanding camper out of the approximately 75 campers in attendance. “It was really nice to get that recognition,” Shirley said. “That was one of my first times doing anything with high school field hockey and I was nervous going in, but after playing and enjoying it and seeing that I can hang with the other girls, it made me really excited for my future with CB South field hockey.”
Shirley certainly has not disappointed and has been a contributor to the varsity since she stepped onto the field as a freshman. “She’s just a quiet, hardworking kid,” Toner said. “There’s no drama with Anna. She just always does what she needs to do. We can put her at any position – I’ve had her at forward, mid and back and changed it at different times depending on the game. She is in our offensive corners and our defensive corners, and our overtime team. She’s just an all-around great person and player. Maybe not the flashy player you’d pick out right away but just that solid player every team needs.” Lacrosse coach Janique Craig echoed a similar theme. “She’s fantastic,” the Titans’ coach said. “Anna is a low defender – she was the defender closest to the goalie, and she was the anchor of our team. I put her in that position because I can rely on her. That lowest defender spot is one of the most important positions on the squad because I know at the end of the day – if Anna’s there, I can breathe easy as a coach. I know Anna will step to the plate and help the team out.”
Shirley, who also seriously considered Ursinus College, places a high value on academics and plans to major in mathematics with a possible interest in pursuing actuarial sciences. Off the sporting field, Shirley is involved in OEG (Operation Eternal Gratitude), which raises donations for troops serving overseas in the military. An excellent student, she is enrolled in an AP class this fall with two more on her schedule later this year. Shirley and her classmates have borne the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic with this year as close to normal as any of her three years of high school. “It’s been interesting,” she said. “It’s a lot different, and it’s an adjustment, but in a way, it takes things away from you, but it also gives you opportunities to learn how to be more independent and work on your own.” Add adaptability to the long list of characteristics that make Shirley such a valued student-athlete. “Anna wouldn’t say this about herself, but she’s not just a great athlete in field hockey and lacrosse and a fantastic person, but she is a phenomenal student,” Craig said. “She’s one of the most well-rounded athletes that I’ve had on my team, and that's something to be said. And she’s so humble too. She’s the type of player any coach would want." Added Toner, “She’s a great student. She won’t toot her own horn. She will never promote herself, she just doesn’t do that. She’s what you want in both a daughter and a player.”
To read Shirley’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/anna-shirley-0096789
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete for week of Sept. 28, 2021
Byron Hopkins is a difference maker. And not only because the Upper Moreland senior is blessed with some serious athletic talent. Roll back the calendar to Upper Moreland’s game against Archbishop Ryan earlier this season. The situation looked bleak with the Golden Bears trailing by 14 heading into the fourth quarter and still down by two scores with less than four minutes remaining. Morale was low on the sidelines, and in the middle of that despair was a scene that caught the eye of UM athletic director Sean Feeley. “We’re not playing good football, everything is going wrong,” Feeley said. “On our sideline – they’re down in the dumps, miserable, and Byron is picking kids up, saying ‘This is only a two-score game, get your heads up,’ a positive attitude. It’s a cool moment for me as a coach – those are the things you preach, and to see Byron, he’s really maturing, and he’s just a fantastic young man. I would never tell that kid he can’t do something because he’s going to find a way.”
Hopkins and his teammates did find a way, pulling off a miracle finish to notch a you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it 34-29 victory. “I was confident in what I was telling everybody and what I was going to do,” the senior quarterback said. “We were down, it was the fourth quarter, a lot of people started to look at me, and if I’m pouting and all mad, they’re going to get down, so I have to make sure I keep them up. Seeing from my sophomore year the seniors that were there – Dai-Jahn Dukes, TJ Troxell, all those fellows - and my junior year seeing Jahaire Johnson and Ant Broderick, all the older kids – I’ve had a lot of experience with seeing leaders lead. I know being a quarterback I have to be the vocal leader. I knew my sophomore and junior years they might not need me to say too much, but my senior year I knew I was going to have to be that guy because a lot of people look up to me.”
And with good reason. Hopkins has been the Golden Bears’ starting quarterback since he was a sophomore and gave glimpses early on that he was a fearless field general. “He doesn’t panic,” UM football coach CJ Szydlik said. “There was a play last year where we’re on our one-yard line. The snap to him was low, he picked it up, rolled to his right and threw a 99-yard touchdown pass. He’s just one of those kids that actually in those crazy moments – it’s probably going the slowest for him. He just has that intangible. He’s a competitor. He’ll do anything you ask him to do, play anywhere you ask him to play. Honestly, kids as talented as he is – you don’t get that often. He’ll do whatever you ask him to do.”
It’s pretty much the same story on the basketball court where Hopkins stepped into the starting point guard role early in his freshman season after transferring back to UM from La Salle. “He came in as a sixth man off the bench but found himself in the starting lineup in the first couple of weeks,” UM basketball coach Dan Heiland said. “It’s just a testament to his work ethic and the type of competitor he is. He’s not a kid that I don’t think has ever come off the bench in any role or on any team he’s ever played on. I think that put a little chip on his shoulder – ‘I know I have to show up, and I know I have to put the work in,’ and he’s done that.”
Hopkins has his sights set on playing collegiate football with an interest in possibly pursuing a criminal justice major. Hopkins would like to play quarterback, but that’s not a deal breaker. “I want to make it places, so if they feel I’m best at a different place, I’ll deal with it and do what I have to do for the team,” he said. Listening to his coaches tell it, the school that lands Hopkins will inherit a winner. “No matter where he goes or what he does, he’ll be successful at it,” Szydlik said. “He’s just one of those kids that he’ll rise to the top of whatever he needs to be. We have one of those teams that’s never out of anything, and it’s because of kids like Byron.” Added Feeley, “He’s a great kid. We’re always trying to keep Upper Moreland kids. To talk to Byron about his experience here, he’ll tell you he loves Upper Moreland. He has lifelong friends here. I guarantee you if you polled all his teachers, they’d say the same thing. He is just respectful, he has a radiant smile that lights up the room, and he’ll run through a brick wall for you. He’s just a fantastic young man, a young man who’s going to go places.”
To read Hopkins’ complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/byron-hopkins-0096847
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