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 Oct. 8, 2015)
Patty Kovacs stops herself in mid-sentence as she’s describing Wissahickon senior Marie Dickson. “I don’t want to say positive again,” the Trojans’ lacrosse coach said. It’s apparently next to impossible to talk about Dickson without overusing that word. “She’s always so positive,” Wissahickon field hockey coach Lucy Gil said. “I think what separates her from everyone else – she’s the nicest person I’ve ever met in my whole life. I’ve never heard a mean thing come out of her mouth, and when she hears a mean thing, she changes the subject. She’s really a quality 
person, and it just oozes out of her so naturally. She doesn’t have to try.” Added Kovacs,” She always has a positive and outgoing personality. She just gets the team going. Last year, she was a junior, so we did have our captains already, but she still helped with the morale and positivity of the team.”
While that’s certainly high praise, there’s so much more. The Wissahickon senior – the very definition of a student-athlete – excels on the hockey and lacrosse field and will be continuing her lacrosse career at the Division One level at Mount St. Mary’s University (Md.). She is an Academic All-American, and outside of the athletic arena, Dickson is the senior class president, the editor of the yearbook and a member of the National German Honor Society. While Dickson boasts a dazzling resume, he coaches keep going back to the intangibles that set her apart. “Her demeanor changes this team,” Gil said. “We’re not that different from last year. We didn’t graduate a million seniors or anything, and yet the whole demeanor of this team is different because of her. I just feel that her influence on the team is more than just that she’s one of the best players. It’s what she brings to the team, how she brings them together to be better.”
A four-year starter on the hockey field, the senior captain is an asset at any position. “She’s a quiet player, but she’s very talented,” Gil said. “She’s very versatile.” On the lacrosse field, Dickson – a varsity player since she set foot on the field as a freshman – has found a home on the defensive end of the field. “She’s a key player,” Kovacs said. “She’s very flexible, she will play in any position, and she’s strong in every position. She’s a leader on the team as well because she is so flexible and can work with anyone.”
Dickson is hoping to continue her career at the club level, and if anyone can manage two sports, Dickson certainly can. She already has mastered the art of juggling a myriad of activities and manages to take time out of her busy schedule to work with special needs children. She is involved in Tennis Buddies and initiated an annual connection for the field hockey team with Athletes Helping Athletes. She plans to pursue a career in special education, a passion that was inspired by two cousins who are autistic. “She’s a wonderful kid,” Kovacs said. “She has it all together.”
To read Dickson’s complete profile, please kick on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/marie-dickson-0056542
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Oct. 8, 2015)
Casey Walsh describes his parents – Melanie and Tim – as the “two hardest working people” he knows. That being said, come Sundays in the fall – and hopefully into the winter – the Walsh household is transformed from work to play. That is, if you consider being fanatical about the Philadelphia Eagles – more than five decades removed from their last NFL championship – a tension-free recreational activity. “We’re big Eagles fans,” said the Hatboro-Horsham senior quarterback. There were no teddy bears that he remembers. Walsh was likely handling a football when he was in diapers. Midnight green diapers. “It’s the truth,” said Walsh, the H-H all-time career passing yardage leader. “Ever since I’ve been alive, it seems like I’ve been playing, watching or thinking about football. I’m just all about it.”
His family’s tradition of following the Eagles has led Walsh to model his game after a player whose Eagles’ career began and ended before he was born. That player is none other than the ultimate weapon, Randall Cunningham. It is the reason he believes a quarterback needs to be a dual threat. It is the reason he wears No. 12. Some of his contemporaries go to YouTube for music videos, but Walsh goes there to watch plays like Cunningham’s 95-yard touchdown pass to Fred Barnett after slipping several would-be Buffalo sackers in his own end zone. Perhaps coach Michael Kapusta was watching old Cunningham clips himself when he decided to turn Walsh completely loose this season. “He’s a weapon running the ball,” said the Hatters’ coach. “We told him that we were going to take the kid gloves off this year. He’s a very tough player. He is extremely quick. It is rare that he gets hit square. He’s just very elusive, very quick.”
While he sees himself as a leader by example, Walsh knows his role has evolved – just like his body has grown from 130 pounds as a sophomore to 165 at present – as a leader. “I know I need to step up, both as a senior and as a quarterback,” he said. “Still, when the bullets are flying, my job is to be poised.” When his idol, Cunningham, entered the NFL, he was still fighting the stigma of African-American quarterbacks making a mark at the highest level. For Walsh, it is the preconceived notion that his size – he is only 5-10, several inches shorter than ideal, regardless of stats and records and will to win – could prevent him from succeeding at the college level. “He will play in college,” Kapusta said. “He is football through and through, for sure. He plays other sports for fun, but any time of year, Casey can be found on the practice field throwing passes to anybody that is willing to catch them. Additionally, Casey has dedicated himself to the weight room and the track to increase his physical power and speed, which has paid off greatly. Even in the beginning, you could see he had an extra something. He’s a gamer. It wasn’t all peaches and cream, but we’re now experiencing some success. This is kind of his story.”
To read Walsh’s compete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/casey-walsh-0056545
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