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 March 23, 2016)
There’s a family photo of Irisa Ye bouncing a beach ball as a toddler. The North Penn senior has always had basketball in her blood, and she credits the sport for shaping her into the person she is today. And who Ye has become is the quintessential student-athlete. A first team All-SOL Continental selection, Ye is ranked 29th in a senior class of 1,066. An impressive combination, but there’s more to the senior tri-captain than just smarts and basketball talent. “She’s a good teammate,” coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “If the younger kids don’t know plays, she’ll spend time before practice going over stuff with them. She’ll work with them on ball handling. If someone is having trouble with their foul shots or just with shooting in general, she would help any kid with that, and she would be the one to initiate it with the younger kids.”
The self-assured senior bears little resemblance to the timid player that earned a spot on the varsity as a freshman for a Knight squad that captured the program’s first district title. “She was so quiet, painfully quiet,” deMarteleire recalls. “You just didn’t really know how she was going to progress.” The four-year varsity player elevated her game each year, finishing just 47 points shy of the 1,000-point milestone. “She was always good on defense, and she really did diversify her offensive game,” deMarteleire said. “Her freshman year she was pretty much attacking the basket, but then she added a pull-up jumper and then the three-point shot. I feel like she felt more comfortable being in the spotlight this year. I just think she played with more confidence.”
While basketball is Ye’s passion, a vastly different sport – table tennis – was a close second when she was a youngster. “Both my parents played ping pong when they were in China,” she said. “It’s a national sport over there, and practically everyone knows how to play. My dad saw that I had it in me for athletics and that I really liked doing sports. We had a ping pong table at home. He taught me himself.” When she was in first grade, Ye traveled to China – where she has a lot of relatives - for ping pong training camp and estimates she took at least four trips to her parents’ homeland. “They just wanted the opportunity for me to have access to better training,” she said. Ye competed in local tournaments in Philadelphia and traveled to Baltimore for a team competition, but by seventh grade, basketball was her sport of choice.”
Ye has signed a letter of intent to play basketball at the University of the Sciences where she will be a pre-med major with the goal of one day becoming a doctor. A member of the National Honor Society, Ye is also a member of the Ping Pong Club, the Chinese Cultural Club and the Future Health Occupations Club.
To read Ye’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/irisa-ye-0068694
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of March 23, 2016)
When thinking of “team” sports, the likes of football and basketball and soccer come readily to mind. And while there are team aspects to cross country and track and field, they don’t quite hold up to the average observer. But that might change if they spent some time in the orbit of Central Bucks West senior Alec Hofer, who manages to be as much of a “team player” in a generally individualized sport as possible. “Alec Hofer is a team-first young man,” confirmed his year-round coach, Greg Wetzel. “It’s funny, because he has never been the star of the show, and I admire that he doesn’t need to be the star to be his best.”
Through his sophomore to senior campaigns, Hofer played a key role in the West cross country team winning the league title and placing in the top three in the district and top nine in the state. “Alec always finds a way to be involved in the top five scorers in cross country or the top relay within his event group at a given meet,” Wetzel continued. “And these are truths – but saying only that he always successfully directly contributes to something special still isn’t enough. It’s more like – these successes that he always successfully directed contributes to might not happen without his countless indirect contributions along the very long way.” That is where his leadership comes into the picture. “It’s a different kind of leadership,” Hofer said. “It’s more like making sure everyone is doing the right thing on any given day.”
Part of Hofer’s wisdom beyond his years may come from life experience as he has battled back from an iron deficiency early in his career and then a stress fracture that led him to take it easier than he would have preferred during the break between his junior and senior seasons. From Wetzel’s point of view, Hofer’s efforts – as a runner and a leader – are much appreciated. “At practice daily, Alec is a leader,” said the Bucks’ coach. “He is always doing what is expected without us needing to ask – and he is actively asking it of his teammates.”
Hofer was the third leg of the all-state 4x800 relay this winter that posted the third best time in the United States and also anchored the distance medley relay that was fourth in the state. His resume as a runner – along with strong academic achievements with a course load of AP and honors classes – have positioned him to run at the next level. Hofer, a pending business major, has narrowed his college choices to Ithaca, Dickinson, Susquehanna and Ursinus. Heading into the spring outdoor season, Hofer has his sights on advancing to districts in the mile and is hoping the 4x800 team is golden.
To read Hofer’s compete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/alec-hofer-0068704
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