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 May 20, 2024)
Some teens dealing with personal adversity may be prone to act out and engage in self-destructive behaviors. Grades slip and they withdraw from extracurricular activities, sports included. William Tennent senior Ella Mednick chose another path when her home life grew increasingly difficult. The school environment became her salvation, as she challenged herself with several sports – in addition to her primary game of basketball – and in the classroom. “I always loved school,” said Mednick, who took almost all AP and honors classes. “School was always my safe place and something I liked. Most kids would rather be home. Since I would rather not be home, I threw myself into my schooling and my athletics.”
The captain of the girls’ basketball team is now heading to the University of Pittsburgh with the goal of becoming a physician’s assistant. “It is a happy ending to a tough story,” said John Creighton, the athletic director. “This is a young lady who has everything in front of her and had to go through some things that you don’t wish on anyone.” While girls’ basketball coach Laura Whitney will remember Mednick – a senior captain - for smiling through the most difficult times, she knows it wasn’t easy for her to put on a brave face. “The last two years have been tough on her,” said Whitney. “She has had to deal with some personal stuff off the court. As a coach, you always hope you can leave a lasting impression and be a role model for them. But the way she has handled herself with those things that were going on and the way she carried herself, it was just so admirable. She taught me more the last two years, just with the strength that she had and the resiliency.”
In understandable moments of weakness, Mednick would catch her breath and regroup in the athletic office with Creighton and his secretary, Kim Slaninko, providing support and tissues. When Senior Night came around, Creighton and Slaninko gladly and proudly served as Mednick’s escorts. “I don’t have any daughters, I have two sons,” said Creighton. “It really did feel like, on that night, Kim and I were walking out someone who became our daughter in our office the last two years for her Senior Night. I took it as something I would cherish for a very long time.” He is not alone. Mednick said, “I always went to Mr. Creighton and (Slaninko.) They were a mom and dad to me on their own. They always had their office open for me to eat lunch in.”
While Creighton and Slaninko were doing the honors, Mednick’s grandfather, Louis Corisideo, is regarded as an unsung hero. “I would describe him as my moral compass,” said Mednick. “He is the most levelheaded in my family and was the only blood family I could count on to be in the stands of every game. He would always tell me what I did right, what I needed to work on, and how I can improve by the next game. He supports every choice I make, in sports and in life in general, and knows me better than anyone else in my family.”
Creighton felt that Mednick would get as much out of a program called Unified Track as the students with special challenges that she would be helping. Said Creighton: “When she was going through some of these things, it was, like, ‘let’s make sure you are as involved in as much as possible – activities, athletics – so your mind doesn’t go astray with having to deal with everything else you have to deal with as a 17-year-old teenager.’” He wasn’t wrong. Unified Track, run by boys’ basketball coach Robert Mulville, has had a healing effect. “I feel like I have learned so much from that experience,” said Mednick, who is also involved in a similar program, Athletes Helping Athletes, as well as student government and Athletic Council. “It is very rewarding for yourself, but to also see other kids you wouldn’t see normally in honors classes and stuff like that. You get to meet new people and still get exercise in. Winning isn’t the only goal. They are happy to be there.” Mulville believes the program has been enriched by Mednick’s presence. “When she is out on the track, she is able to get the best out of her teammates through her encouragement and energy,” he said. “Ella makes sure to greet her teammates before practice and see how they are doing, and she has a unique ability to make everyone feel involved. She gets people up and moving when they are tired and makes sure everyone is cheering on their teammates during their events. (She is) overall one of the best students a teacher could ask for, and she is the type of person who makes it a joy to coach.”
To read Mednick’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/ella-mednick-00113006
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of May 20, 2024)
200 swings. Every day, every single day. Baseball is Leor Kedar’s passion, and yes, the Council Rock North senior has taken 200 swings every day since he was nine years old. “He’s a real good hitter, one of the better hitters in the area, but he works at it,” Rock North coach Matt Schram said. “I can tell you right now – if there are people who practice as much as he does, then God bless them because he literally hits every day of the year. He does not put his bat down.” Some might say that’s too much, way too much. As a matter of fact, Kedar has heard that more than once, but for the Rock North senior captain, it’s not drudgery, and it’s not too much. “I enjoy it,” he said. “But just like everything – some days I don’t feel like doing it, but those are the days where I get the most work in. No matter how I am feeling that day, I put forward 100 percent effort and try to get one percent better every day. There is always room for work. No one is perfect.”
Kedar hasn’t been in this alone. “My dad (Yinon Kedar) has been a huge part of it – he throws to me every single day, so we will either go to a field, or if it’s raining, we’ll go indoors to the NAC Sports Training Center or EL1 in Huntingdon Valley,” he said. “Unless I’m hurt, there are no days off. If it were not for my dad, I would not be where I am today. He has taken countless hours of his own time to help me become the best player I can be on and off the field.” It’s hardly a surprise that Kedar has been an impact player since he set foot on the diamond as a freshman. “He’s been a four-year starter,” Rock North coach Matt Schram said. “It has been very few and far between in our program that we’ve had four-year starters.”
Scrhram has known Kedar since he was a youngster attending his baseball camp. The two families became close friends. “When I would get sick, his mother, Heather, would make what they call Jewish penicillin, which is really matzo ball soup,” Schram said. “We’ve known them for years. We’ve done dinner with them on the Sabbath on a Friday night. Leor’s grandmother, who’s from Israel, was there. It was just a really neat experience. They’re just a great close-knit family.” And that close-knit family was rocked to its core when Heather – who had twice beaten cancer – was diagnosed for the third time in 2019 when Kedar was in eighth grade. “When I was three years old, she got diagnosed the first time with leukemia,” Kedar said. “Then it went away. When I was five, it came back again. Once you’re five years out, you’re considered cured, so she was out for nine years, and then it came back a third time.” Heather put up a valiant fight but lost her battle with acute myeloid leukemia on Dec. 3, 2020. “The cancer took her in Leor’s freshman year,” Schram said. “The family was so close, but he never missed a game, he never missed a practice. He battled through it. He’s amazing for somebody who is playing with a heavy heart.”
“It was difficult, it was really hard,” Kedar said. “I know she loved coming to my baseball games, so not only was I doing it for myself. She wouldn’t want me to stop just because she’s out of my life now. She would want me to keep playing the sport. I want to do it for me, but I also want to do it in honor of her legacy because I know that’s exactly what she’d want me to do as well. I want to do everything I do in honor of her, so when I don’t do as well as I should or when I don’t put forth as much effort, I feel as though I’ve failed her. She did everything she could. She was on ‘her battlefield.’ She fought, and that’s a hard battle. (Baseball) is easy and having fun. If she could do it, we all should be able to do it.”
As important as baseball is in his life – and it’s very important, academics are even more important, so when it came time to choose a college, Kedar had plenty of options. “I had multiple schools looking at me – D1, D2, D3, but my goal was to go to the best academic school possible,” Kedar said. “I wanted a combination of both academics and baseball.” Swarthmore College – which has an acceptance rate of just 7 percent – fit the bill on both counts for a student-athlete who excels on the diamond and in the classroom. This fall at Swarthmore, Kedar plans to double major in economics and mathematics with the goal of working on Wall Street.
To read Kedar’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/leor-kedar-00113007
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