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 Jan. 28, 2015)
For Elizabeth Miller, swimming wasn’t love at first sight. “My mom started me in swimming when I was younger, and I actually used to hate it,” said Miller, a senior captain for Neshaminy. “I wouldn’t go in the water unless my dad or mom was there and I used to cry all the time.” That changed when she started taking lessons at Neshaminy with former boys’ coach Dan Gallagher. She joined CORE, the age group program at Neshaminy, and took off from there. “Lizzy has been a member of our age group team since she was able to swim competitively,” Neshaminy coach Brian Suter said. “From the beginning, Lizzy has blazed her own path. Her independent personality has afforded her freedom to choose to excel in this sport. She has always been someone on her team who wants to be at practice and wants to compete. Beginning around the age of 12, when others were asking their parents to go on vacation, she was begging her parents to attend summer overnight camp. She attended Penn State and Cornell, to name a few. Her passion for the sport drives her work ethic. She truly loves to swim, and her competitive spirit keeps her searching for ways to improve.”
Older sister Abby also swam for the Redskins, graduating in 2011. She is completing her senior year as a member of the swim team at Lock Haven. “I went to her high school meets and saw what was going on and I watched their practices,” Miller said. “They seemed really hard, like such a huge thing. There were so many people on the high school team, and it seemed crazy. It looked like they were sprinting the entire practice. Once I got there, I realized it wasn’t so bad.” Millr has some lofty goals as she heads down the home stretch of her final high school season. “I’d like to make it to states in the backstroke,” she said. “I think I would have to drop two seconds and that would give me a good chance. That’s my idealistic goal for the season.”
An honors student, Miller, who says swimming will be part of her future, has not made a college choice yet but is leaning toward West Chester or Shippensburg and is considering majoring in marketing with a minor in finance. The Neshaminy senior, who plays several instruments, is involved in Athletes Helping Athletes. She volunteers her time to the Women’s Humane Society and helped organize and run a marathon that is the Humane Society’s major fundraiser.
Suter will miss having Miller on the team next year. “Over the past four years, I have observed her grow in her ability to persevere through challenging practice and meet situations,” he said. “She has learned that failure is an important step on the road to success. As a member of CORE, she has made the transition from a member of the team who looked up to our senior swimmers to a role model and leader of our CORE Program. Last Saturday, at one of her final meets with the team, she broke two meet records. Her impression on our youth at Neshaminy to work hard, swim fast and smile will live on long after she graduates.”
To read Miller’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/elizabeth-miller-0050495
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Jan. 28, 2015)
Dylan Nuttall is not really sure if there remains a height-weight requirement to be a state trooper. The truth of the matter is that if such a prerequisite remained on the books, it would likely be waived for Nuttall. The Harry S Truman senior wrestler may only be 5-4 and weigh 120 pounds, but his combination of smarts and grit and determination – let alone his gargantuan competitive spirit – would likely be enough to wilt any would-be criminal that one day crosses his path. But he is a long way away from stakeouts and speed traps. Nuttall, who has been wrestling since the age of four, made an impact for the Tigers out of the chute as a freshman and now finds himself on the precipice of a memorable senior season. Not only is he about to eclipse the school record of 132 wins held by Sean Edmondson, but he is looking to reach – and make an impact – at the state meet in Hershey come March.
Current head coach Jesse Dunn was an assistant who worked closely with Nuttall when he was an underclassman and sees him as the complete package – a grappler whose best attribute is his level of equanimity. “I have had the pleasure of not only coaching Dylan throughout his high school career but teaching him as well,” Dunn said. “Dylan is, in every capacity, what a student-athlete should represent. He acts as a role model, not only to the members of our high school team but to those wrestling in our youth program as well. Dylan is recognized throughout the school and community as not only a top student-athlete but as a young man of character.”
Nuttall’s older brothers, Ray and Brandon, came through the Truman Rams Youth Wrestling program, and that is where he willingly jumped into the fray before learning his A-B-Cs in kindergarten. He moved from the Rams program to the Truman varsity and promptly posted a 27-6 record as a 106-pounder. He went 33-4 as a 106-pound sophomore and 42-4 as a 113-pound junior. He has already eclipsed 20 wins at 120. Even when he could no longer wrestle for the Rams, he refused to leave the program behind. “Dylan volunteers his time during the evenings to help coach the Truman Rams Youth Wrestling program – the program in which he began his wrestling career,” Dunn said. “Dylan understands the scope and sequence involved with ‘developing’ not only a wrestling program but a community as well. Wanting to see the program and community that has helped shape him into the young many he has become.”
For Nuttall, giving back is just a natural instinct learned from his family – parents Pat and Ray and his brothers – and positive experiences with his coaches. “They kept me into the sport and on the right path with my grades,” said Nuttall, who overcame a broken ankle between his sophomore and junior seasons. “Definitely, for me, it has always been grades first.” And that strict routine has opened doors. He once thought that he would graduate and join the military, but colleges have expressed interest, seeing a student-athlete in the purest sense. He has been accepted to York (Pa.) College and is talking seriously with Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, among others.
To view Nuttall’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/dylan-nuttall-0050496
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