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 Dec. 24, 2014)
Keri Salanik should be forgiven if she sometimes has her head in the stars, but with an interest in pursuing an astrophysics major at college next year, the Pennridge senior is – and has always been – interested in the celestial bodies. “I’ve always just been really interested in the stars and sky,” she said. “I took physics my sophomore year and last year I took AP Physics, and physics just clicked for me. I just really enjoyed those classes, and that’s when I realized I could do that for the rest of my life.” With an interest in one day becoming an astronomer and working in research for either NASA or a private university, Salanik had to first find a school that offered her major. She has already been accepted at Villanova University, and Swarthmore is also a top choice. Academics have always come first for Salanik, but the Pennridge senior, who has been swimming competitively since she was eight, wouldn’t mind having the opportunity to continue her swimming career at some level next year as well. “When I first started out, I wasn’t really a big fan of (swimming) at all,” she said. “I would swim at the practices, but I just kept swimming because that’s what I’d always done.”
It was when she began distance swimming her sophomore year that Salanik fell in love with the sport. Her coach is glad that she did. “When she came in as a freshman, she came in with a group of girls that really jelled pretty soon on in their freshman year and now are a senior class that is really a tight-knit class,” coach Ryan Griffiths said. “Keri is a very quiet individual. When she does speak, you kind of listen and need to hear what she says. She speaks few and far between, but when she does, it’s profound.” It’s not what Salanik says that has made her such a valued member of the team, nor is it what she’s accomplished in the pool. Rather, it’s her work ethic. “She sets an example for those around her,” Griffiths said. “She embraces the team concept. We try and teach that even though swimming can be an individualized sport, there’s a huge team component to it. She’s one that has bought into that concept and really does communicate with all of her teammates and really tries to include our incoming freshmen. All those types of things you can’t coach someone to do – she has those qualities.”
A top-flight student, Salanik took three AP classes last year and is taking three more this year. She is the vice president of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), and outside of school, she is active in her youth group. Salanik has worked at the Hatfield pool the past three years as a deck attendant and this past summer was the supervisor of deck attendants. Next summer, she is planning on being a lifeguard.
To read Salanik’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/keri-salanik-0049534
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Dec. 24, 2014)
James Martin is a firm believer in the adage that one can learn as much from losing as winning. A case in point was two seasons ago when the Upper Moreland basketball team held a double-digit lead over potentate Plymouth Whitemarsh in a late regular season game. PW’s Anthony McKie erupted for 20 points in the final quarter, dashing the upset for the Golden Bears, but they came out rightfully believing they could play with anybody. “That game really carried us,” recalled the Upper Moreland senior. “It gave us motivation. Although it was a loss, it helped to propel us.” And what the Bears were propelled to was the PIAA District One AAA title, earned with a win over Pope John Paul II. The only sophomore receiving appreciable playing time, Martin witnessed the type of grit from one of his role models – Matt Kohn – that he also catalogued as a lesson learned. “We were up 10 with about eight minutes left when Matt Kohn broke his wrist,” Martin said. “Even though he was in pain, he stayed in the game and played tough. He made two big free throws with a broken shooting wrist. Seeing (Kohn and Kevin McFall) lead was a good example. Took what I could from them and applied it when it was my time to lead.”
With Kohn and McFall gone, Martin stars in a recurring role as a team captain and spiritual leader. As a player, he has gone from a 3-point specialist to someone who lets others do a lot of the shooting from downtown. Matt Heiland, a longtime assistant and now head coach, appreciates all that Martin brings to the table. “James is very passionate about the game of basketball, and it is an extreme honor to be his coach,” the Golden Bears’ coach said. “He sets the bar high for future basketball players at Upper Moreland for how he has established a solid work ethic. He works hard for everything and never cuts corners. He is often the first person to the gym and the last person to leave, not to mention a great role model for our younger student athletes within the program. For as good of a basketball player James is, he is 10 times a better person and is one of those kids you know will be successful beyond his time at Upper Moreland.”
Martin, an aspiring engineer, has put all the pieces in place for consideration for the U.S. Naval Academy. “That tells you the type of student-athlete he is,” Heiland said. Martin is active in the National Honor Society and is also vice president of student council and actively volunteers at his church. He also holds down a job as a valet at Huntingdon Valley Country Club, even maintaining 15 hours per week there during basketball season. “I like to stay involved,” he said.
To view Martin’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/james-martin-0049532
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