Thanks to our continued partnership with Univest Financial, SuburbanOneSports.com will once again recognize 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 April 27, 2023)
Maya Hellyer is an advertisement for the value of perseverance and determination. The Quakertown senior, a three-year varsity player, anchors the Panthers’ successful softball team behind the plate and will be taking her talents to Gwynedd Mercy University this fall. It’s an outcome some doubted but never her most loyal fan. “I always would talk to my grandfather about going there and playing softball,” Hellyer said of the late James Santi, who passed away suddenly last July. “My grandfather always said, ‘You’re going to get them, girl, you got it.’ I was finally able to say that I did it a couple days after he passed away sadly. I feel like just hearåing that – I knew that was where I belonged.”
Hellyer, by her own admission, didn’t have an especially good track record when it came to finding her niche in the sports world. “I actually was a dancer for a really long time – I was a ballet dancer,” she admits with a laugh. A “really long time” as a youngster constituted what was a two-year stint in ballet. “I slowly got bored with that and then I went to soccer,” Hellyer said. “That lasted – I want to say – two months. I was a goalie, and I got hit in the face – it did not go well, and then I switched to gymnastics, which lasted about a month.” It would have been understandable if Hellyer had thrown in the towel and given up on her pursuit of finding a sport she enjoyed, but that was never a consideration. “I was always determined to find something that I loved,” she said. “My family was very sports oriented growing up. It was always on the TV, and I wanted to find something cool to do just like everyone else.”
Hellyer had gone through the t-ball ranks in softball, and after gymnastics, she began playing travel ball. According to her high school softball coach, who informally helped with her travel team when she was 10 years old, Hellyer wasn’t a can’t-miss prospect back then. “She has gone from a kid I wasn’t even sure would play high school softball to being a kid who made varsity as a 10th grader and is now going to be playing at Gwynedd Mercy University where she will major in sports management,” Quakertown coach Dave Scott said. “She’s made a remarkable progression. If you would have asked me when she was 10 or 11, I didn’t think there was any way, and here we are. It’s been pretty amazing to watch.”
There were, however, naysayers who to this day have not acknowledged Hellyer’s remarkable journey, including a close family member. “Believe it not, I was actually told I couldn’t do it,” Hellyer said. “My grandfather played a very important part of my life with softball. It was always my grandfather who was there to pick me back up.” Instead of allowing the negative comments to pull her down, Hellyer used them to light a fire. “One hundred percent,” she said, acknowledging she turned the corner when she made the varsity team as a sophomore. “I finally started realizing I could do it, and I did have it in me to do it, and I had to almost tune out everyone around me and focus on who was supporting me versus who wasn’t supporting me.” Committing to play collegiate softball confirmed just how wrong the doubters were. “It felt really good,” Hellyer said. “I feel like it just showed me I could do anything, and I just have to focus on the people that are there for me – my mom, my stepdad and my sister have always been there for me, and I need to focus more on them versus the negatives because in the end, the people that are always there for you will help you achieve what you want.”
The Panthers are off to an impressive start, and Hellyer is a key part of it, but her success in softball didn’t just happen. “During quarantine, I was running with Syd during the week, and we were doing body weight stuff that we could do at home because everything was shut down,” Hellyer said. “Once things started opening up, I started putting the work outside of practice and just committed myself to getting better not only for myself but for my team in general.” That work away from the diamond has paid dividends for Hellyer. “Honestly, she just has a real commitment to being better,” Scott said. “It’s that simple. She’s committed to being a better softball player, she’s committed to working very hard in the gym. She comes to all of our winter weightlifting sessions and has gotten herself very physically fit and strong, and that’s really, really helped her on-the-field performance.”
To read Hellyer’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/maya-hellyer-00106430
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of April 27, 2023)
While Central Bucks South is coming upon just its 20 years of existence, it’s safe to say two-sport senior Will Ratcliffe is a throwback. Examples? Based on highlight reels, Walter Payton - whose life and career ended before Ratcliffe was even born - is his all-time favorite athlete. His favorite sports team was the Eagles (even when Mark Sanchez was the quarterback). He prefers learning in person, in the classroom, as opposed to virtual learning. In lieu of Hawaii or the Bahamas, he’d rather go to Alaska one day. And he battled back from not one, but two, severe knee injuries while playing AC/DC – as opposed to bro-country, hip-hop or rap – as he rehabbed. A self-professed “Star Wars geek,” Ratcliffe reminded himself of the words of ancient and wise Jedi master Yoda: “Do. Or do not. There is no try” during his struggles. For this situation, there is no trying to play,” he explained. “Either I’m playing, or I’m not. That kind of fit with this scenario. I knew that I needed to be either all-in or not in at all.”
At age 18, Ratcliffe is old enough to waive the 9-month rule and return to action this spring for one last hurrah, which he did recently in the lacrosse team’s victory against Hatboro-Horsham. “Will Ratcliffe gave us a huge lift on defense,” said South lacrosse coach Mike Strayline after the game. “He sparked our players, and we beat a very solid Hatboro team.”
While his injuries have caused the incoming freshman at Ursinus College to fly in under the recruiting radar, he was far from an unknown coming into high school. “I’ve known him since he was a real young kid,” said Titans’ football coach Tom Hetrick. “Ever since he was a little guy, he has always been ‘that kid’ when it comes to sports and athletics. As he was transitioning from middle school to high school, he was excited to get his football and lacrosse careers going.”
Any chance of making an impact in either sport as a freshman was wiped out by COVID, but he came back with a vengeance as a sophomore in the fall before sustaining his first severe knee injury in his lacrosse season that spring. Ratcliffe was cleared by February of his junior year and played a solid full season for the lacrosse team. “He had a great year as a junior,” said Strayline. “He was our leading defender and one of the best guys on the field.” Then, midway through this past football season, lightning struck for a second time, only this time to the left knee. He was playing defense – blitzing off the edge from his linebacker position – when the injury occurred. This time, there were no doubts. “I was thinking about what had happened before and I knew right away that I blew out the left one,” Ratcliffe said.
A driving force for Ratcliffe was his goal of playing at the next level. “My hopes were always to play college football anywhere,” he said. “I was hoping there would be a school out there that would take the kid with two surgically repaired knees and just let him play ball.” There was some interest from Widener University and Keystone College in the Scranton area before he threw a Hail Mary pass in the direction of Collegeville to see if Ursinus would respond. “It was like a last-ditch effort to see if they would want to talk to me,” he said. “Luckily, I sent that email. They showed a lot of interest in me and said they had heard about me. I loved the team and loved the campus. I felt like it could be a new home.”
If he scored a touchdown with Ursinus, it was Hetrick helping to pave the way with some devastating lead blocking by explaining the unique case to the Ursinus coaches. Hetrick explained: “I said, ‘Listen, you have to trust me when I say this, but I have a kid who is just an unbelievable kid. A kid who is a just great person and a hard worker, not to mention unbelievable athlete, but he is coming off a knee injury.’ They said, ‘Have him come over and look at Ursinus.’ When they met with Will, they were, like, ‘We need this kid here.’ That’s just the kind of an impression Will gives to people. He’s just a good dude, and he’s the kind of kid anyone would want to have involved in their program. I can’t wait for him to get over there and have the opportunity to play four seasons in a very good football program.”
To read the remainder of Ratcliffe’s story, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/will-ratcliffe-00106431
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