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 Oct. 11, 2021.
Fiona Gooneratne finds herself in some very elite company in the world of high school sports. When the Plymouth Whitemarsh senior graduates next spring, she will have earned 12 varsity letters, the first at PW to earn that distinction since 2018. Not that Gooneratne cares about earning a spot with an impressive list of athletes. She doesn’t. Underscoring just how uncomfortable the PW senior is in the spotlight is something PW soccer coach TJ DeLucia noticed when watching film of his team’s games. “Multiple times she scores and puts her head down immediately,” the PW coach said. “She doesn’t even want to celebrate her own goal. On Monday, she celebrated her game-winner in overtime, so it was fun to see her celebrate, but oftentimes, she doesn’t. She doesn’t want to pump herself up. She really truly wants her teammates to score. Trust me, she’d rather have 10 assists than 10 goals. I’m not going to allow that to happen. I’m forcing her to shoot because she has one of the better shots in the league, especially from deep. We’re forcing her to take on this recognition of being a star athlete because she is, she truly is.”
The senior captain assumes a different role in each of her three sports, and in soccer this fall, Gooneratne, a four-year varsity player, is not only the go-to player, but she also was relied on to keep a young team together during a difficult start. “I could see the potential we have, and I really wanted everyone to know we had the potential, so I tried to reinforce the fact that we’ve just got to keep practicing, keep working hard and things will start to click,” she said. “Our first few games weren’t our best performances, but there were a lot of moments where you could see the potential we had. I’m really proud of the progress we’ve made as a team because you can see how we are becoming more of a family and not just a team.”
The PW senior is not the most gifted athlete to have gone through the ranks, she’s not the fastest or the best, but rarely has a student-athlete been valued more. “She’s amazing,” PW lacrosse coach Ellen Reilly said. “In all my years of coaching, when you look at what kind of student-athlete you want, she is the ideal model because she works so hard, she does everything she can to be the best player she can be, along with leading her teammates and showing them what it takes to be a good player. She encourages them. She shows what it takes in terms of her own actions. Then too, she gets along with everyone. She’s smart enough to know what makes a team a good team. Not too many kids get that.”
It’s pretty much the same story in basketball. “She is everything you want in a player and someone who’s really grown and matured and progressed through her four years of high school and is really coming into her own now that it’s her senior year,” PW basketball coach Dan Dougherty said. “She’s a prime example of someone I would love to see become a coach because she would be a prime role model for young girls to show you that you can be tough and still have fun because boy is she tough, and she’s a wonderful, wonderful kid.”
It's a theme that’s echoed again and again when the name of Fiona Gooneratne comes up in conversation. “She’s a kid you want to coach,” said DeLucia. “You have kids like Fiona, you have kids like Kaitlyn Flanagan (Gooneratne’s co-captain and close friend), you want to show up every day, and you have to bring your best as a coach because she’s doesn’t take anything off. She doesn’t take a drill off, she doesn’t take a class off, she’s doesn’t take a game off. I don’t know how she does it.”
If competing in three varsity sports were Gooneratne’s only activity, her schedule would be full, but she manages to find time to be a class officer – she is treasurer of the Class of 2022 – and she is in the top 10 percent of her class. She is also a member of the National Honor Society and is enrolled in AP Computer Science and AP Calculus BC, which is open only to the top 20 students in the school. She plans to attend Penn State University to major in actuarial science or computer science. Ask Gooneratne what competing in sports has added to her high school experience, and her answer is hardly a surprise. “I’d say it’s really coming back to the friendships,” she said. “The biggest part where you can see it is just bus rides to away games, playing music, everyone talking, just having an amazing time. Those are moments I would never want to ever miss out on because they’re so key to my high school experience.”
To read Gooneratne’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/fiona-gooneratne-0097126
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete for week of Oct. 11, 2021.
Before the start of the current football season, there was a sit down. That’s when Truman’s Makai Jackson stood up. Primarily a defensive back up until that point, it was mutually agreed that that the senior was too electric to keep off the field on offense. “I played defense all the way to this year,” said Jackson. “It was me saying something, and the coaches trusting me. I just wanted to help the team out any way I could.” The results thus far have exceeded all expectations, as Jackson – also a returner – rarely comes off the field. Jackson has had surrealistic games, like exceeding 350 all-purpose yards against rival Pennsbury, and now draws double- and triple-teams from opponents to open up chances for his teammates.
“He’s a three-year starter for us” said Truman coach Ben Johnson. “The first two years, it was more defense and special teams. I sat down and talked with him, and he said, ‘Coach, I’ll do whatever it is you want me to do. I just want to win.’ He has done phenomenal for us. You could see it growing as he matured. The sky is the limit for him. Every year, he has just gotten better – stronger, faster, smarter. We saw, coming into the season, how well-rounded and we could absolutely use him on offense. I felt he could be a weapon. He is a very high character, respectful and a joy to coach. He plays offense, starting safety/cornerback and special teams. Very rarely, does he come off the field.”
The result of the wildly successfully role expansion is that it has also opened the eyes of collegiate programs, such as Lafayette and St. Francis, as Jackson now hopes to follow the trail blazed by his brother, Maurice Jackson, Jr. (now the defensive line coach at Truman) as a collegiate football player.
Jackson (6-0, 185, 4.5 40) is also a combo guard on the basketball team and the center fielder on the baseball team. Truman basketball coach Tyrone Lewis – who had a prolific collegiate basketball career at Niagara – is himself a Truman grad who is the all-time leading scorer in Lower Bucks County history. Ask him about Jackson, and the Tigers’ coach is effusive in his praise. “Makai is a coach’s dream,” Lewis said. “For me personally as his varsity basketball coach the past three years, he has been what you want your star athlete to be. He’s selfless, loyal and a very hard worker. If you watch him on the field and basketball court, you see it. I am very proud of Makai.”
Listening to Truman baseball coach Tim Monaghan talk about his center fielder, it’s pretty clear Jackson could have a future at the next level in baseball as well. “He would have been a four-year guy if not for COVID,” Monaghan said. “He was our center fielder last year and he led off every single game. He’s about as good a center fielder as there is, and I think his skill set translates because he plays free safety for football, and it’s the same skills to play both positions.” Monaghan acknowledged that Jackson is a young man of few words. “He leads by example by the way he approaches school, by the way he approaches working hard in practice and doing things the right way,” the Tigers’ coach said. “He’s a great example – it’s not easy to play three sports and play them at a high level, and Makai’s able to do that and make it look like it’s easy for him even though it’s a very difficult thing to do, and he does it with a smile on his face.”
Johnson, who has seen players come and go in his nearly two decades of coaching, said there is something about Makai Johnson that will not soon be forgotten. “His instincts, football acumen, his work ethic; it’s second to none. It’s something that I wish we could take from him and transplant it into all the kids,” said the coach. “He is definitely one of the top five kids that I have ever coached. I hate to compare kids, but Makai is definitely right up there.” Added Monaghan, “Makia is a great example for other students at Truman to follow. He embodies what it is to be a Tiger. I think his future is very bright, and hopefully, he’ll have opportunities in more than one sport to play at the college level if he wants them. It will be up to him what he wants to pursue. I believe football is his passion. Whatever he’s going to do, he’s going to be great at it because he works hard, he puts his heart and soul into it. He’s just a pleasure to coach, to teach, to be around. I can’t say enough great things about the guy.”
To read Jackson’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/makai-jackson-0097127
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