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 Jan. 22, 2025)
Roll back the calendar to Dec. 3, 2023. In just the third game of last year’s basketball season, then junior Dani Brusha – the new kid on Lower Moreland’s squad - scored 16 points in the Lions’ close loss to Villa Maria Academy. Despite the outcome, she made quite an impression on her coach. “Dani Brusha was exceptional tonight,” LM coach Rich Becker said after the game. “I think this was the first time her new teammates fully realized how good she is. There were a few plays that she made where the coaches just looked at each other and said ‘wow.’ She is very effective attacking the basket.”
It turns out that performance wasn’t a fluke. Brusha made more than a few ‘wow’ plays over the course of a season that saw the Lions capture the SOL Freedom Division title and the Lions’ newcomer earned first team all-league honors. It’s not an outcome either side could have imagined when Brusha, following in the footsteps of older sister Sam, earned a spot on the varsity as a freshman at Abington. But the family relocated in the spring of Brusha’s sophomore year. “My grandpa was having a lot of health issues, and we needed to move in with him and my grandma,” she said. “Then we found a house that had an in-law suite, so we moved when I was a sophomore, but I finished my year at Abington. Junior year I switched because the house was in a different school district.”
That fall, Brusha found herself at Lower Moreland High School. “It was definitely hard at first,” she said. “It’s a very different school. Abington is so much bigger. I’m the youngest (of four), and my whole family – everyone went through Abington except for me, so it was definitely big change.” A change for Brusha perhaps but quite a gift to Becker. “Yes, it was a huge gift,” the Lions’ coach said. “I also had her in class, and initially she was kind of quiet, coming into a new school. I was just impressed with how quickly she was able to make friends in school and how strong of a student she was.”
****
In the summer after her freshman year, Brusha was forced to narrow her sports to just one when she had surgery for a torn ACL. Brusha had surgery in June and was out of action until the following May, forcing her to watch her entire sophomore season at Abington from the sidelines. “It was really difficult because at first – it’s the physical getting back, but then the mental side is really, really tough, having to sit there and go through a whole season of just watching,” Brusha said. “When you lose, you just wish you were out there, so you could help your team. It’s really lonely at times. You feel like you’re by yourself. You’re not living like normally because you’re not practicing, you’re not playing. It’s a whole different change of your life. It was really hard, but I have a great family, great friends, and with their help, it was easier, but it was still very hard.”
As a junior at Lower Moreland, Brusha returned to action and excelled. This past December, in an early season win over Villa Maria, the Lions rallied from nine down heading into the fourth quarter to earn the come-from-behind win. Brusha, according to her coach, played a starring role in the comeback. “We couldn’t get anything going, and then she just flipped the switch and decided, ‘Okay, I’m going to make sure we don’t lose,’” Becker said. “She pulled up and hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with about a minute to go. She has the ability to kind of – ‘all right, it’s time to take over. Let me do it.’ She loves to compete.”
Brusha’s basketball career is far from over. In October, she committed to continuing her career at Holy Family University. The decision to play collegiate basketball was an easy one for the Lower Moreland senior. “The goal was always to play in college,” she said. “I was kind of trying to figure out which level I was going to be able to play at.”
An excellent student, Brusha has her sights set on a physical therapy major “Every teacher I speak to - she’s a phenomenal student,” Becker said. “One of the teachers in the school said, ‘She’s lowkey really smart.’ She’s not really outspoken in some of the classrooms, but she just consistently performs at a high level. That summarizes her. She never draws attention to herself – she just goes about her business, and she’s happy doing it. She doesn’t need the attention for validation. I have my Mount Rushmore of players I’ve coached and taught, and she’s right up there on that. She’s fantastic.”
To read Brusha’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/dani-brusha-00116757
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Jan. 22, 2025)
If you are looking for the value of Elijah “Eli” Azbill to the Central Bucks East soccer program, the scoresheet is a dead end street. In two seasons on varsity, he was defensive player. And, due to a knee injury that he did his best to play through, he found himself forced to miss time. Nonetheless, he remained at the heart and soul of coach Josh Isaacsohn’s squad. “Eli is just an all-around great soccer player but, even more, just a great all-around kid,” said the coach. “He is a very mature player, on and off the field. This is the kind of team player that you want. He probably didn’t get as much playing time as he would’ve wanted, but he still contributed massively, through the years, on and off the soccer field.”
Proof that Azbill was the ultimate team player was that his favorite memory as a Patriot was - despite being on the sidelines nursing his injured knee - a 5-4 come-from-behind win over Pennridge. “I wasn’t playing in
that game,” the East senior said. “I wasn’t playing a lot my whole senior year. I had a torn meniscus. I was playing on it as much as I could. I was sitting on the bench, and we were down 4-1. At halftime, our coach was just walking us through it. He knew and we knew that we were the better team. We all came together and won it in O.T. It was crazy. We all just ran on the field. It was definitely a happy moment in my career. And even though I wasn’t out there playing, I wanted us to win and see all the guys succeed. I always just tried to be the best person I could be for the team, even when I couldn’t play.”
Azbill admittedly has a natural instinct to help others, whether or not it’s noticed. He has been involved with clubs like OEG (Operation Eternal Gratitude) that supports the military and First Responders, but his spirit of volunteerism has not always been that formal. “A lot of times, people are not really looking at what you are doing,” he said. “Sometimes you need to know what you are doing to make the world a better place. I always aspire to be the best person I can be to help anybody else out that I can. I know that I am very lucky to be where I am in my life right now. I just try and help out other people who aren’t as fortunate as I am.” This approach was definitely noticed within the team structure. “He is a kid who picks up the water, grabs the balls and picks up the cones,” said Isaacsohn. “He has been doing that for four years. He does this very subtly. He never wants attention. He is one of the most stand-up and mature kids on the field, and that has been through all of his time in the CB East program.”
An honors student with a 3.5 GPA, Azbill plans to become a history teacher. “I’m very passionate about history,” he said. “I think it’s really interesting. I think becoming a teacher sounds like a lot of fun. I would like being in an environment where I can help people and teach them things.” Azbill is aware of the built-in stressors of the profession. “Teachers have to do a lot, and I feel like they are underappreciated for what they do,” he said. “You’re dealing with all these kids, and you have to show them what to do. I can imagine that being very stressful, but you just have to do the best that you can and do your job and guide these young people down the right path.”
Azbill has narrowed his list of schools to two – Penn State and Kutztown. At Kutztown, like many other PSAC schools, he can take part in a five-year program and come away with a master’s degree in education. At Penn State, there is the opportunity to be at the epicenter of a full big college experience. No matter where he lands, soccer will be in his future, whether it’s at the intramural or club level. “Definitely,” he said. “I’ve always loved soccer. It’s the one sport that, when you enjoy it, it makes happier as a person. I would always want to be playing it, even when I’m older.”
To read Azbill’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/elijah-azbill-00116756
- Log in to post comments
