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 (Week of Nov. 12, 2014)
Gigi Tutoni will never be accused of being one-dimensional. The Council Rock North senior quite literally does it all. Tutoni is equally comfortable on the hockey field or in the science lab. She enjoys the complexity of a math equation and the challenge of snowboarding down a black diamond trail. A highly intelligent student, Tutoni scored a 780 out of 800 on the math portion of the SAT, but she is hardly a math geek. In fact, she’s pretty much the life of the party. “I have never seen her mad in my life,” Rock North field hockey coach Heather Whalin said. “It’s funny because people might think she’s goofy and doesn’t have the brains. She’s a mathematical genius.”
Tutoni’s ability to keep things light, according to Whalin, was key in the Indians’ run to a share of the SOL National Conference title and a berth in the state tournament. “She was enthusiastic all the time,” the Indians’ coach said. “When we didn’t feel like practicing, she would make everyone laugh. If we’re having a really tense moment, she would lighten the mood by cracking a joke or doing something silly, and it really helped us stay loose. She helped this team, and I think that’s why we were successful this year because they were loose. They weren’t stressed.” Unanimously voted captain by her teammates, Tutoni contributed more than just welcome levity to the team. A first team all-league selection, she was the team MVP as a junior. “She’s so fast, and she can actually maintain that speed with the ball, which is very rare,” Whalin said. “She sees the field, she knows where to put the ball, she’s a great distributor. If you need her to get you a goal, she’ll get you a goal.”
Tutoni is a member of the National Honor Society and Science Honor Society, and when it came time to choose a college, academics came first. “Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a scientist,” said the Rock North senior, who is considering a chemistry, biology or biochemistry major. “When recruiting time came, I was always looking for the schools that would offer me the best opportunities in life and becoming what I want to be.” Tutoni will continue field hockey career at Tufts. “I love field hockey,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine going another four years without it, but I also need time to do my homework and get good grades. Tina McDavitt (Mattera), the Tufts coach, is the nicest, funniest woman. When your coach is Heather Whalin, you need a really good coach because she is going to be one of the people I miss most.” The feeling is mutual. “I’ve coached her since she was in seventh grade,” said Whalin, who coached Tutoni on the Mystx club circuit. “The way she is in life – that’s the way she is on the field. She’s going to be impossible to replace.”
To read Tutoni’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/gigi-tutoni-0048592
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Nov. 12, 2014)
This year, District One was the best district in the state, and Central Bucks West’s Ian Davies was one of the best runners in the district. At the District One Class AAAA championships, Davies placed 15th and helped the Bucks finish third in the team standings. Three factors played a major role in Davies’ ascent to excellence in the sport – running in his brother’s footsteps, learning to love Belmont Plateau and having the fortitude to come back from what could have been a career-ending injury. “I started running when I was in kindergarten,” said Davies. “I watched my brother C.J. run. I wanted to be like him so I wanted to run too. He would take me out on runs with him.” Davies’ brother, a 2008 Central Bucks West grad, was an elite runner who went on to run at the United States Naval Academy.
Davies began to show his potential as his freshman season progressed, but the following year at the SOL Championships, he ran the entire race with a full fracture in his right hip. “I had a stress fracture a few weeks before, but I have a high pain tolerance, so I didn’t feel it very much,” Davies said. “Then at leagues, the pain got worse as the race went on. Still, I kept going until I finished the race. After I crossed the finish line, I went to the medical tent. They asked me if I was okay to walk, and I said ‘Not really.’ I couldn’t walk. They took me to my dad’s car in a golf cart and told me to get X-rays.” X-rays revealed he had a broken hip. Several days later, Davies underwent surgery.
The surgery was a complete success. “What kept me positive was that they told me I would be able to run again,” he said. Coach Greg Wetzel admits he wasn’t sure Davies would be able to come back. “We were kind of shaken by the experience because there were no outward signs it was going to happen,” the Bucks’ coach said. The story had a happy ending, and by the following summer, Davies was back on the course. “It was definitely baby steps – first walking and then taking little runs,” he said. “By the end of August, I was up to running 40-50 miles a week. It wasn’t my best season because I had to remain cautious.”
This fall, Davies finished sixth at leagues and had a new PR. That was followed by a 15th place in districts. “The neat thing about Ian is that he fractured his hip and never gave up,” Wetzel said. “He cut back a lot of his other activities and put more eggs in the cross country basket. He was our second runner at leagues this year and was a big reason we were able to qualify for states as a team.”
Davies is also a top-flight academic student. He has been on West’s student council the last three years and was junior class president. He is also a member of CB West’s Select Ensemble Chamber Choir. He has taken numerous AP classes. Davies is looking at a number of colleges with plans to major in English and the goal of one day teaching high school English.
To view Davies’ complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/ian-davies-0048593
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