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 Feb. 11, 2016)
Coach Moran Funsten preaches a ‘next play’ philosophy to his players. Allison Chernow not only gets it, the Upper Dublin senior lives it. In this year’s SOL Tournament semifinal game against Central Bucks West, the American Conference champion Flying Cardinals suffered the kind of loss that tests a team’s character. They not only watched a late lead slip away, they couldn’t buy a basket. Chernow, a senior captain, was as upset as everyone else on Upper Dublin’s sidelines after the heartbreaking loss, but she chose to look ahead in a conversation with her coach. “It was a – hey, we’re going to be all right kind of conversation,” Funsten said. “The line we use in our program is ‘next play.’ You can’t let a previous play affect the next play. You have to worry about the next play. Allison was already on to the next play. She was already on ‘we’ve got to get ready for the playoffs.’ It really helps to have your leader on the same page with you, and to have that mindset that soon after a really ugly loss like that really says a lot about her maturity.”
Chernow is the point guard and undisputed leader of a Flying Cardinal squad that captured its fourth consecutive SOL American Conference title. It’s a role she has held since her sophomore year when she was thrust into the position after a pair of devastating setbacks. Within a span of one year and 15 days, the senior captain twice tore her ACL. Chernow not only came back from the torn ACL in each knee to play but made an immediate impact. “Once and someone’s unlucky, but when they get the second one, you start thinking – maybe that’s it. Maybe they shouldn’t continue to do what they’re doing,” Funsten said. “She’s been so proactive. I remember saying to her sophomore year – ‘The best thing about you is you have a desire to be great.’ No one works harder at her game than Allison.”
Chernow’s attention to detail – as well as a willingness to accept criticism – is what sets the senior captain apart. “That’s what makes her so much fun to coach,” Funsten said. “Sometimes you can’t be completely honestly with a player because you’d crush their confidence, but you can shoot it straight to Allison. She takes it, she processes it, she’ll maybe ask you a question about it and then she works on it. That’s what has kind of helped mold her into the player she is now because she’s open to improve. Her game from sophomore year to now has just elevated so much.” The senior captain is five assists away from Curtrena Goff’s mark of 127 assists.
When it came time to choose a collage, academics came first for the honors student. Emory University will giver her the best of both worlds – an excellent education and the opportunity to play basketball. Chernow, a member of the National Honor Society, is undecided on a major.
To read Chernow’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/allison-chernow-0059703
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Feb. 11, 2016)
After Old Man Winter releases his wrath upon us, most people are aching for lovely spring days by the end of March and early April. But North Penn High’s Alex Peterson is not most people. An elite ice hockey player who dedicates himself to the sport on an almost year-round basis, Peterson still relishes his place as a key contributor on the defending state champion Knights’ baseball squad coached by Kevin Manero. But he is admittedly not quite in synch to work the different muscle groups required for baseball when spring arrives. Hence the rain dances. “It gives you extra time to get ready,” said Peterson, who not only plays ice hockey for North Penn (usually one or two games a week) but for the Little Flyers (one or two games on weekeneds) and at all-star showcases that take him out of the region. “The high school (baseball) team has been having workouts in the morning since, like September or October,” he said. “I try to get there when I can, I’ve gotten used to it, but when baseball starts, I’m rusty. I’m lucky my coach works that all out.”
Manero “works it all out” because he knows the type of person he is dealing with, and it goes beyond pure skill. There is a level of maturity. “Alex is a two-sport star who really defines the term ‘multi-sport athlete’ in terms of how smoothly he transitions from one sport to the other,” Manero said. “He is naturally focused and plays baseball with the same intense focus it takes to follow and pursue a puck around the ice. Alex is a quiet kid who leads by example. His consistently tough at bats, his ability to track down balls in the outfield and his dogged intensity make him a player who needs to say very few words. His approach, his intelligence on the field and his coachability all speak volumes.”
Peterson, who plans to study engineering in college, would love to attend Penn State, which now boasts a Division I hockey program, but he would not go directly to State College or any other campus, whether it has a Division I or III program. His next step would be to play junior hockey for a hitch of 2-3 years in the NAHL or the USHL. Peterson finds himself at showcases, like the one he attended recently in Minnesota, where scouts can evaluate the nation’s best on the same rink. This is big-time stuff, and it was not by accident that Peterson found himself on a North American select team that played games in Sweden where he got to use his finesse skills on Olympic-sized rinks. Peterson was in his element.
While he doesn’t possess great size – he is 5-9, 165 – Peterson’s skill level, including a wicked shot that strikes fear in opposing goaltenders, is his ace in the hole. A four-year varsity player, he was the Player of the Year for the Suburban High School Hockey League as a junior. “Alex is an extremely talented player that works extremely hard on the ice,” coach Kevin Vaitis said. “He knows the game very well while having tremendous hockey sense. He has an incredible shot which makes him a very dangerous hockey player.”
To read Peterson’s compete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/alex-peterson-0059697
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