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 Male Athlete (Week of March 21, 2025)
Hatboro Horsham’s Emmy Erikson was late to the sport. At least in comparison to other competitive swimmers. Once she made the transition from swimming for fun to doing it for sport, her will to win took over. And she has been swimming downstream ever since. That’s why her words to live by -- “It’s not how you start but how you finish” --have also become her words to swim by. “I started swimming when I was going into middle school, like in my seventh grade year,” Erikson said. “When I joined, there were a ton of kids that had been swimming since they were 5-6 years old. I knew how to swim, but I was never on a swim team.”
Taken aback at first, Erikson’s competitive juices started flowing. “I got the hang of it, and now I’m just as good as they were, if not better than the kids who were swimming since they were 5-6 years old,” she said. “I knew how to swim going into it. I have always been kind of competitive, and when I started, I didn’t like the fact that people were better than me. Every single day at practice, I worked to be the best and worked as
hard as I possibly could. If I don’t reach my goal, at least I can say that I worked as hard as I possibly could to get to it. If I know I tried my best, I know I can’t be too mad if I don’t reach my goals. I know that I have done everything that I possibly could have. That motivates me at practice.”
Although she took to competitive swimming like a fish to water, Erikson surprised herself by helping the Hatters to it a state title as a freshman. “It was really exciting,” she said. “It was me and two other friends that were new to the team, and we really didn’t know what to expect in the first year of high school.” Emig will never downplay the impact the newcomers made in the gold rush. “Those girls came in 2022, and they were really the reason we won a state title,” he said. “Emmy has worked her way up to becoming what she is now, and it has been real fun to watch. It’s a credit to her for the constant work she puts in. She does everything we ask her to do. She’s a hard worker, and also very inquisitive. She is always asking questions. She always wants to figure out a way to get better. She is just driven to do better. She focuses on all of it – her nutrition, her sleep, her training. She puts it all together.”
The high school leg of Erikson’s journey ended recently at Bucknell University where she was a key part of a pair relay teams that captured gold and helped to bring the Hatters a third-place team finish in the state that was nearly a second. For her part, Erikson took fourth place in the 200 free and seventh in the 100. She swam legs in the 200 and 400 free relays as well. “Emmy is the perfect sports story,” said Hatboro-Horsham coach Kip Emig. “She was a kid who just liked to swim when she was in sixth grade and seventh grade and didn’t really start until she was about that age. Every year, she just got a little better. She just strives to get better all the time. She is the kind of kid that you want to coach. She just progressed every year that she swam.”
In terms of moving on to the next level, the general feeling is that Towson’s adding of Erikson to the roster will be a heist that certainly other programs will be left kicking themselves for not taking a chance on her. “She wanted to go to a bigger school, to a bigger program, but her times weren’t really quite there yet last year,” said Emig. “They are now. I feel as though she is going to enjoy herself at Towson. She keeps getting better, and I feel like some of those bigger schools are going to regret not taking a bigger chance on her.” How does he know this? Because he has seen it with his own eyes. “Leaving high school, you know she is the kind of a kid who is just going to keep getting better and better,” said Emig. “She’s that kind of a kid, and we are proud of her for that.” Erikson boasts a weighted GPA of 4.5 and is a member of the National Honor Society. This fall at Towson, she plans to major in computer science with a minor in either finance or economics.
To read Erikson’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/emmy-erikson-00117514
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Female Athlete (Week of March 21, 2025)
There’s a story Nolan Watkins likes to tell. It’s not about his successes on the soccer pitch or basketball court, even though there would be a long list of those for the Souderton senior. Beginning with how Watkins was chosen defensive MVP of last fall’s soccer team that advanced to the state tournament for the first time since 2014 or how he was a captain of this winter’s Souderton basketball team that captured the program’s first title in over a decade. Instead, the story would be about his anticipated eighth grade season with his SHYBA travel team, a season that didn’t happen for Watkins. “The cool part of my story, the part I really enjoy talking about– I was cut from the team, which probably not a lot of people know,” he said. “It would have been my last year of travel, and I was cut from the team.”
Not the kind of news anyone saw coming since Watkins had been a member of SHYBA’s travel team the preceding years. “It was kind of a make-or-break point for me,” he said. “I remember getting the email. Me and
my parents were stunned. They talked to me and were like, ‘Hey, we’re not going to force you to continue (playing basketball) if you don’t want to.’” So far, this might not sound like the kind of story most would enjoy telling, but Watkins chose to use his lowest moment in basketball as motivation. “It was hard for me in eighth grade to (swallow), but I decided myself that – you know what, I’m going to use this to motivate me rather than completely take away the game I love, use it as fuel rather than as something to take it away,” Watkins said.
Quitting, he said, was never a consideration. “I always wanted to play the game, so it wasn’t going to stop me,” Watkins said. That perseverance paid off. Undeterred, he joined the Perkasie Knights on the AAU circuit and played for his middle school team that winter. When he arrived in high school, he was on the freshman team, and by his sophomore year, he was a swing player seeing varsity minutes. He went on to become a key starter in each of the last two seasons. “He showed me flashes his sophomore year, and he just worked each year to get better and better,” Souderton coach Okoteh Sackitey said. “He was a captain this year. He’s not the most vocal, but he’s really poised and well spoken when he does speak. Me and him have had good conversations. He’s the first one to support me in a game. He’ll say (to his teammates), ‘Trust coach.’ We’ve been in clutch situations where I made the call for offense or defense. We’ll be in the huddle, and when people are looking around – are we sure this is what we should do, he’ll say, ‘Yes, trust coach.’ I appreciate that. He’s just a good kid.”
It’s safe to say no one was happier to see Watkins at soccer tryouts last fall than coach Frank Demas.“First off, we’re really glad he played soccer as well as basketball,” Demas said. “I know basketball is his primary sport, but he was a very influential player on our team throughout the season.” An outside back, Watkins helped anchor a stingy defense that posted eight shutouts during the regular season and had three straight shutout wins in the District 1 4A Tournament to clinch a state tournament berth. “Our defense was very good this year, and it came together very well in the playoffs, and he was a big part of that,” Demas said. “He played pretty much every second of every game. He’s just an incredibly intelligent athlete. I think he could probably play any sport he wanted to because of his athletic intelligence. He’s very aware of where he needs to be, what he should do. He’s also very well-liked by his peers, and he’s a hardworking kid. Nobody could say anything bad about him. He’s a great kid.”
Away from sports, Watkins excels in the classroom where he takes a course load of honors and AP classes and boasts an impressive 4.2 GPA. He is a member of the National Honor Society as well as Souderton’s Athletic Leadership Council. He is also active in his church youth group. As for his future, Watkins is undecided on a major and a school, but one thing is certain. “I’m trying to go to a school that has higher academic standards because I put education first, no matter what,” he said. With his passion for basketball still very much alive, he plans to play at the next level.
To read Watkins’ complete profile, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/nolan-watkins-00117513
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