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 Jan. 11, 2021
Mention the name Lindsey O’Brien, and her coaches echo a similar refrain. “Lindsey is the sweetest kid,” Council Rock North field hockey coach Heather Whalin said. “The team adores her. There is not one person on the team that does not love her.” Added Rock North lacrosse coach Denise Noseworthy said. “I call her ‘Smiley’ because she always has a smile on her face and is one of the kindest players on the field.” And just how kind is O’Brien? Noseworthy recounts a lacrosse game when the Rock North senior was a sophomore. “Someone ran her over on the field and she got up to see if they were okay,” the Indians’ lacrosse coach said. “She is truly a class act.”
Heading into the fall season, Whalin wasn’t quite sure how O’Brien’s gentle nature would work when she assumed the role of captain. She needn’t have worried. “I was so happy – she grew into a leader that this team needed,” Whalin said. “She was not afraid to sit the team down and tell them what we were doing wrong as a team. She was the tough one. Sometimes we would come off the field at halftime, and she would say, ‘We’re not playing the way coach teaches us how to play’ and would get on people’s butts, and I loved it because that’s not the kind of kid she was. Last year, she took the backseat and just played. This year she really stepped into that leadership role. We needed that leader to get the young kids to buy into the program, and they really did.” Listening to Whalin tell it, O’Brien brought leadership qualities that were missing last year. “She wasn’t a yeller, so when she was stern about something, the entire team listened to her,” the Indians field hockey coach said. “They knew she was going out and doing just as much as they were. That’s what I loved about her this year.”
O’Brien also has been an integral member of the lacrosse team that did not have a season last spring. A key member of the defense, O’Brien earned high praise from her coach. “She is part of my core four in defense,” Noseworthy said. “She can run sideways and backwards better that anyone I have ever seen. The absence of a season, according to O’Brien, changed everyone’s perspective. “Usually you’re like, ‘Give it your all like there’s no tomorrow,’ and that was it for every single game,” she said. “So everyone had that much more effort, that much more energy, and we were able to work together more because we were all looking to just being able to play and hoping our games would continue and we wanted it to be our best game.”
Next fall, O’Brien will continue her field hockey career at Babson College, one of the nation’s top business schools with an acceptance rate of less than 25 percent. “From the beginning, I wanted to major in business – I was interested in business analytics,” she said. “My cousin recently graduated from Babson, and my dad grew up in Wellesley, so I knew about Babson. First I looked at schools with good business programs and then I saw where I could fit in for field hockey.” An excellent student, O’Brien – who earned PA High School Field Hockey Coaches Association All-Academic recognition last fall - is enrolled in two AP as well as honors classes. She is active in Athletes Helping Athletes and also volunteered at her church pre-COVID. Ask O’Brien what competing in sports has added to her high school experience, and she has an immediate answer. “I think my best memories are the friends I met on the way,” she said. “I feel like I’m not really going to remember my classes or the different things I learned, but I hope I will stay connected with these friends, with my coaches.”
To read O’Brien’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/lindsey-obrien-0092434
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete for week of Jan. 11, 2021
Evan Kutzler had plenty of big moments on the football field last fall. The Souderton senior was quarterback and one of four captains of an Indian squad that capped a storybook season by capturing the program’s first ever District One 6A title. Ask Ed Gallagher about his senior captain, and he makes no mention of any of Kutzler’s clutch plays but rather a moment that went unnoticed by most. “My favorite story remains the game where we were taking a knee at the end, and he asked me if he could take the snap from his brother Ian,” Gallagher said. “Such a cool moment and awesome to see him do something that selfless.” The moment came at the end of the Indians’ 31-8 win over Council Rock North when Kutzler took the snap from his brother, a sophomore center. “That’s an awesome moment that I’ll always remember,” Kutzler said. “It was really special for me because it was the first moment Ian could get into a varsity game, and for it to be with me under center was sweet.” The siblings repeated their end-of-game exchange later in the season against Bensalem, and in a season filled with highlights, that one stood out for both coach and player. It also spoke volumes about a player that Gallagher called a “servant leader.” “He always puts others before himself,” the Indians’ coach said.
According to coach Tim Brown, it’s the same story in basketball this winter with Kutzler the lone captain of a young and inexperienced team. “Ev has done a terrific job of taking these younger guys under his wing and just getting them ready for the varsity game and what they’re going to need mentally and what the speed of the game is going to look like,” the Indians coach said. “We had a bunch of seniors last year that were great leaders. It wasn’t just coming from one person. I think Ev has taken this whole family culture we’ve built and made it his own. Even last year, the seniors did a terrific job, but we didn’t always have the seniors talking with the freshmen. You see Ev every day – he’s coming in and talking with everybody, greeting everybody, asking everybody how they’re doing. He’s created that whole program family dynamic which is special.”
Gallagher pointed to the leadership of Kutzler and his three fellow captains – Jacob Horton, Jalen White and Aonghas Evanick – as key to the team’s historic football season. “They were a really great group,” the Indians’ coach said. “Usually in the spring, we’re doing workouts and then I have the kids apply to be captains, write a letter telling me why they want to be captain, and we interview the kids as well. We weren’t able to do that this year, and they were the kids that stood out in terms of what we were looking for. We didn’t get to hear them say it, we watched them do it.”
Next fall, Kutzler will continue his football career at Lebanon Valley College where he is projected to play free safety. He will study physical therapy. “The big decision for me was being able to get my doctorate in physical therapy in six years, and they have an accelerated program,” he said. “It was also the coaches – I’m super close with them.” The decision to pursue physical therapy had its roots in sports. “Being around people and seeing the impact (physical therapy) has – it’s definitely a big plus in my book,” he said. “I’ll be going to work and loving what I do.” Kutzler also excels in the classroom and is a member of the National Honor Society. He is also a member of the Athletic Leadership Council and LINK Crew. While Kutzler has made important contributions on the gridiron and on the court, the servant leadership he displayed in both sports may have been equally significant. “That was huge,” Gallagher said. “He learned a lot from Andrew Vince last year, and Andrew was a perfect example of that. Evan tried to emulate Andrew as much as he could, and he really did a great job this year, picking up right where Andrew left off.”
To read Kutzler complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/evan-kutzler-0092435
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