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 Oct. 14, 2024)
Julia Blair is passionate about field hockey. Nothing unusual about that. But talk to the Souderton senior, and it’s clear – she doesn’t see the sport through quite the same lens as most. “I’ve been around field hockey as long as I can remember,” Blair said. “Even when I’m on the field or I’m watching the JV game, I like to study it, so I view it less as a sport and more as a cause and reaction - an equal opposite reaction. It’s something we’re doing in physics right now actually, and it just makes sense. And just watching it so much, you start to understand where people are going to move, and you understand your teammates in a way that you really jell together. I see it as an academic thing almost. It happens because of this, and it works this way because of that. It’s always been interesting to me. I love academics.”
So, while seniors with enough credits to graduate sometimes choose to coast through their final year of high school, Blair has taken the opposite approach, packing her schedule with five AP classes and two dual enrollment classes through Montgomery County Community College. All of this in preparation for a double major of computer science and physics when she enrolls at Colgate University where she will continue her field hockey career at the Division 1 level. “I always knew I wanted to play field hockey in college, but academics was a really big thing for me,” Blair said. “It was – I want to play field hockey in college, but academics comes first.” When it came time to choose a college, Colgate and Johns Hopkins were her two finalists. “I was going back and forth between the two because they are both academically rigorous, but ultimately, Colgate – the campus and the people – they had my heart,” said Blair, who committed last spring.
The fact that the four-year varsity player set high goals and then achieved them is no surprise to her field hockey coach. “She just has an amazing work ethic” Souderton coach Sue Casciato said. “And she’s very smart. She’s usually on the sideline between games or on the bus with her laptop open, and the other day she was tutoring a bunch of people in physics - other kids had their homework out, and she was talking them through it. She works really hard at everything. I’m assuming she’s naturally an athlete, I’m assuming she’s naturally a good student, but even if she wasn’t either of those things, she would have made herself those things.”
Just as she excels on the hockey field, Blair also excels in the classroom where she boasts a 5.0 GPA. She credits her interest in computer science to her computer programming teacher, Michael Olenick. “He kind of developed this passion for it in me where I was able to solve things with code, and I was able to create things that were my own,” Blair said. “I’m taking AP Physics this year, and I think the two marry together really well because my goal is to go into the innovation field.”
Blair is a member of Souderton’s athletic leadership council. She is also involved with Souderton’s Interact Club, a community service/outreach club. She takes special pride in being part of the Teach Girls Tech Club. Blair is coming down the home stretch of her final high school hockey season. “I’ve really gotten to bond with a lot of my teammates, and it’s so bittersweet coming to the end,” she said. “I’m really proud of what this team’s been able to do this past season, which makes it a little bit easier because we’re going to be leaving here hopefully with no regrets. If we put everything we have out on the field, although it will be difficult to say good-bye to the team, I think I’ll be able to say good-bye because we put everything on the field. And because I’m very excited about moving to college hockey, but I will miss what I’m leaving behind.”
Blair – according to Souderton athletic director Dennis Stanton - will be difficult to replace. “Julia embodies the ideals and characteristics of an incredible student-athlete,” the Souderton AD said. “Her work ethic is outstanding, and she has earned all the positive recognition that she has received. Julia really committed herself to the process of self-improvement, and it has truly paid off. We will definitely miss her next year, but I am excited to see her continued success at Colgate University.”
To read the complete Blair’s story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/julia-blair-00115496
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Oct. 14, 2024).
If it seems like Central Bucks senior Patrick O’Brien is more mature than most of his peers, it is not by happenstance. His family has been confronted with major adversity, as his younger brother, Dawson, suffers from a rare disorder, MHE (Multiple Hereditary Exostoses), which affects just one in 50,000 people. He was diagnosed on his third birthday. Dawson basically grows extra bones and tumors that need to be removed. He is now 11, and the brothers - sons of Jackie and Chris - share a special bond as the family battles the adversity of surgeries. Said O’Brien: “We go down (to Florida) every summer for surgeries for him. Some of them are minor, and some are major surgeries.” The most recent surgery left Dawson in a wheelchair for three months.
It’s hardly a surprise that CB East golf coach Matt Wolf has become emotionally invested in the situation. “That dedication and support of his brother has given Patrick a level of maturity that most students and young people his age don’t have unless they have to deal with something like that,” Wolf said. “I can tell how passionate he is about helping his brother out.” The relationship between Wolf and O’Brien went back to O’Brien’s sophomore year, which is when he transferred in from Plumstead Christian. He showed promise on the golf team as a sophomore, riding the seesaw from JV to varsity, and he began to blossom as a junior, but a knee injury playing ice hockey limited what O’Brien could truly do as a senior.
However, there was more to O’Brien than shooting for par on the golf course. In an individual sport, O’Brien was the ultimate team player. “What separated him in the three years he was in our program wasn’t so much the golf accolades,” said Wolf. “It was more the character and the integrity and the type of person that he is that really impacted our program the most. His contributions to the team went beyond the golf course with the leadership that he brought. I feel like we are going to feel the impact of Patrick being on the team long beyond his graduation. The underclassmen will now know the way to do it because Patrick has provided such a good model. Seeing the way he carries himself on and off the golf course has given them a template to emulate and follow.”
A leader by example as a sophomore, Wolf said O’Brien became more vocal as a junior and an inspiration as he wrapped up his high school career this fall. “This year, as a senior – even though we knew he wouldn’t be able to contribute the kind of scores he is capable of because of the injury – we knew that he would still be an asset to the team,” said Wolf. “Even with the hardship of having the injury, it never brought him down. He always had a positive outlook. Just the hard work he exhibited throughout the season to try and overcome the injury and do everything he could to help the team was just huge.”
While he plans to hit the ice again this season, he is unsure about the collegiate level. Academics are the primary concern, but he would consider club level hockey at the right school – while continuing golf as a lifelong recreational pursuit. O’Brien is listed on IR until Jan. 1 with the prestigious Black Bear National Academy, which is a Tier 1 AAA club ice hockey program. The East senior has put himself in position to end up a top-notch college because he has done well in the classroom. He is taking three AP courses this year and has always taken honors classes and maintained a weighted GPA in the 3.8-3.9 range. “I switched over (to CB East) more for academics,” said O’Brien. “I loved Plumstead and everything about it. The teachers and the whole community were awesome there. It was just that, academically, I wanted to pursue business courses. There are business electives (at East).”
It also didn’t hurt that CB East had ice hockey and golf teams, which Plumstead did not. While going from a small private school to a large public school could be a culture shock, it was not for O’Brien, who is in the ski club and is also active in Pulse Ministries at Calvary Chapel Central Bucks. “I went to Buckingham Elementary, so I knew a lot of the kids at East,” he said. “I already had friends and relationships established before I went to East. Going there, I met a lot of new kids. Everybody is really nice and inviting. I love it. I wouldn’t change what I did at all.”
To read O’Brien’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/patrick-obrien-00115489
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