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 May 13, 2024)
Fearless. It’s a word those who know Alyssa Tooley best use often to describe the Hatboro-Horsham senior as an athlete.“She leads by the way she carries herself, and she has no fear,” Hatters’ basketball coach Eric Glemser said. “She’d be like ‘Coach, let me play the best girl.’ Even though the girl would go by her four or five times, she would eventually figure it out. She’s just a tough kid. She’s one of those kids - whatever game I want to play – horseshoes, darts, she’s someone you want on your team because you know she’ll be there at the end and not quit. She’s a competitor.”
It’s important to understand that basketball is not Tooley’s best sport. As a matter of fact, it’s probably third of the three sports she’s played for four years of high school, but that doesn’t keep her from giving it everything she’s got. “She plays so hard,” Glemser said. “She would go so hard and miss the layup. There was a game this year - there’s a video where the girl just grabbed her and threw her down, and nothing was called. As soon as that girl threw her to the ground, it was like someone just put a nitrous balloon in her body. She was so intense. The diving for the ball, that kind of thing – the prima donnas are never going to do that, but that’s contagious for the younger kids that have ability.”
Softball is Tooley’s undeniable passion, and she will be taking her talents to West Chester University this fall. Despite her commitment to her sport, she never stopped playing soccer every fall, and this past fall, she was the second team All-SOL Liberty Division goalie. No small feat, for sure.
Kelsey Daley had a front row seat to Tooley’s high school career as the former varsity soccer coach. “Fearless is the perfect word to describe her,” Daley said. “She was never afraid of anything and always put her body on the line to make an insane save, and she would always get right back up after she did. They don’t make many kids like that anymore.”
Tooley brings those same characteristics to the softball diamond where she is a hard-nosed player and will do whatever it takes. “She’s all heart, no matter what sport,” said Hatters’ coach Jen Tooley, who also happens to be her mother. “Bruised knees, you name it. She really has no fear. She was a soccer goalie for travel and varsity soccer. No-fear attitude. Basketball same thing. Basketball wasn’t really her sport, but she played it. She’s just grit on the field and on the court. She helps any team she’s part of with her grit and her drive.”
Ask Tooley to characterize herself as a player, and it’s almost as if she’d asked her coaches to speak on her behalf. “Give it my all type of thing,” she said. “I know for soccer, for example, being a goalie, you get beat up a lot. Literally putting my body on the line, sliding into things, giving everything. Really aggressive but not malicious.” In other words, a player every coach would want on their team.
When it comes to softball, Jen Tooley – a former softball player herself - has coached Alyssa from the outset, beginning with t-ball and including travel and high school. Coaching Alyssa in high school was an unexpected opportunity when the job opened the fall of 2022. “Alyssa came to me and said, ‘Will you coach?’” Jen recalled. “I wasn’t going to put my name in without her permission, so she’s the one who requested it, so I applied for it. For Alyssa, there was never a question – she wanted the program to have a good coach. “The best part is – yes, she’s my coach, but she’s also my mom, so she gets to see me playing my senior year and all that,” Alyssa said. Tooley – who is also involved in LINK Crew at school - will graduate in June with at least eight varsity letters after playing three sports for the duration of her high school career. “I wanted to be involved when I got to high school, and they’re all different seasons,” she said. With the fall rapidly approaching, there’s the reality that the mother/daughter duo is coming down the home stretch on the softball diamond. “There are times where it’s been rough – obviously stressful,” Jen said. “It’s her senior year, so this will be it. I’ll coach her this summer, so I’ll be there with her there as well, but that will officially be my last season of her and I together. All the way through – it’s been special.”
To read Tooley’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/alyssa-tooley-00112874
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of May 13, 2024)
For Lower Moreland senior Drew Dorval, it has been as much about the journey as the destination. As a sophomore, he made the varsity baseball squad, and with no pressure hitting from the bottom of the order, he produced. “It was his hustle,” said head coach Mike Guido. “He could also play any position. The appeal to me for him was that he could play anywhere and play it the right way. He is just a ‘baseball’ guy. He knows the ins and outs of baseball. Any time you have that type of kid, you can use him anywhere.” Junior year, though, Dorval had a … sophomore jinx. Although baseball season is technically in the spring, trying get yourself right amid inconsistent weather, mainly in April, can create a ghastly snowball effect for a struggling hitter. “I just did not have a good season,” said Dorval, who felt like he was beginning each at-bat with two strikes. “It was mentally disappointing. I thought I had a good sophomore year, and I thought I was in the right place to build on it last year, but it was hard to just reset and figure everything out. Halfway through the season, I was in and out of the lineup. Not getting consistent at-bats didn’t help much, either.” A lost swing led to lost confidence and a loss of a steady place on Guido’s lineup card.
This season, after grinding on his own – with the guidance of assistant coach Stu Drossner – Dorval has reinvented himself.“He works with Stu Drossner in the offseason, he works with him after practice,” Guido said. “They will go to the cage and work. I’ll find out the next day that he was in the cage until 9 p.m. His hitting has really, really improved this year.” Dorval knew there was no way around just putting in the hard work to break out of his funk. “ Dorval has found his swing and found his stride. After playing every position but catcher and first base earlier in his career (one pitching stint was rather forgettable but easy to laugh off), he is now stationed at second base. “He plays a real strong defense,” said Guido. “He had gone all over earlier in his career – third base, some outfield and shortstop when we needed it. While he has been all over the place, he has really settled in this year for us at second base.” And the name Dorval is written in indelible ink at No. 2 in the lineup. “He is a slap hitter,” said Guido. “He slaps the ball around the field. He likes to run. He likes to steal bases. Honestly, he has really surprised me with how much he has improved this year. He has really just embraced being a senior and a captain. He has stepped up, and his on-the-field play has shown that as well.”
While Dorval has played baseball all his life, even winning a 12U Little League title, he gave golf a go and took to it well enough to finish up strong. As a senior this past fall, the Philadelphia sports enthusiast was not only team captain but All-League Honorable Mention. Guido, as fate would have it, is also the golf coach and has had Dorval serve as captain of both teams. As is the case with baseball, Dorval put in the work necessary to get better at golf. “He has made huge improvements in golf since his sophomore year,” said Guido. “There is a league tournament at the end of the year, and he was able to qualify and make that.”
Dorval could have sought out a small school to continue his ascending baseball career, but he considers academics too important. “I always assumed that I just wasn’t good enough to play in college,” said Dorval, who has a 5.0 weighted GPA, by virtue of a schedule heavy in AP and honors classes, and he is involved in the National Honor Society. “I was not super interested and never thought it would be a possibility, especially since I do take my academics pretty seriously. I valued taking that more seriously, rather than going to a smaller school to play a sport.” That is why he eventually chose Penn State main campus to study finance. When it came this important decision, Dorval knew he had to do what was best and block out the background noise. It is part of a larger philosophy. “A lot of important decisions you make come down to making other people happy, and not being focused on yourself,” he said. “I feel like I noticed it a lot recently. I think it’s important to stick to your own values and not just do things for other people.”
To read Dorval’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/drew-dorval-00112873
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