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 for week of March 24, 2020
The athletes who truly stand out from the crowd are those who perform the best when the pressure is the highest, those who exceed expectations when they and their teams need it the most. It’s almost unfair to include Aly Breslin in this category, as her coaches and teammates will attest that the Upper Dublin senior always performs at the highest level, whether in practice, in a dual meet, or in the postseason. Still, it’s impossible to deny that Breslin surpassed even her own lofty standards and played a critical role in giving the Cardinals a kick start en route to claiming a share of the PIAA Class AAA State Championship, the team’s first state title in 26 years. In the first event of the finals, Breslin—the only senior on the Cardinals’ 200-yard medley relay squad—swam breaststroke as the second leg of the quartet that would earn the gold medal by more than 0.6 seconds. She then pulled off a most remarkable feat by swimming in the very next event, where she dominated her way to her first individual state gold medal by winning the 200 freestyle by nearly three full seconds.
“I don’t know what else you could ask for in a leader,” said Cardinals’ coach Pat Redican. “She swims in back-to-back events in the state championship meet and wins gold in both. She volunteered to swim the 200 free knowing she was also going to swim in the medley relay in the first event. So she finishes the medley, jumps in the water to warm down, then gets herself ready again and throws down her best time by second-and-a-half in the 200 free. It’s the first two events of the state championships, and we’re in first place primarily due to her influence. The medley broke the state record, Aly was the fastest breaststroker in the event in the state, best split time. Which is not to diminish anyone else on the relay. Everyone swam well, they had to, but Aly’s leg was key. That’s Aly. That’s what she does for the team.”
While an individual gold was on her To Do List, as recently as a year ago, Breslin probably couldn’t have expected that it would come in the 200 free. Described by Redican as “the most versatile swimmer I’ve ever coached,” Breslin had competed in the Individual Medley and the breaststroke in previous District and State championship meets. But with the Cardinals losing 200 free state champion Abbie Amdor to graduation—one of many 200 free finalists who had graduated—switching events made sense in terms of helping the Cardinals both during the dual meet season as well as in the postseason. “She’s the hardest worker you can find, there’s never a day where she’s not in the pool with her A game,” Redican said. “She’s always focused, always gives you her best. And yet she continually surprises us. As a coach, if you can hold up a story to show how team success leads to individual success, she wrote it. For Aly, it’s always, ‘What can I do best for the team?’ Not everyone has that versatility to change events, but because we have talented swimmers, the girls start thinking not about ‘What’s best for me,’ but ‘What’s best for the team.’ For Aly, it’s always been, ‘Just put me in and I’ll do my best.’”
Her versatility and work ethic are just two factors that have made Breslin an ideal captain for this year’s team. In the pool, she may be the engine that powers the team, but outside the pool, she’s the mechanic who makes sure all the parts are working together. “Aly is my go-to girl when it comes to pulse of the team,” Redican said. “She knows what’s going on in the locker room, she knows what to say to people, knows how to talk to them. And she’s able to serve as that bridge between the coaches and the team.” With Breslin – who will continue her career at the University of Tennessee - having finished her swimming career at Upper Dublin, the Cardinals lose so much more than just her accomplishments in the pool. “We lose the captain of the ship—there’s no other metaphor that works for me,” Redican said. “Aly sets the direction, she makes sure everyone is pulling in the right direction, and when she has to, she makes it happen herself. A kid like Aly comes along once in a career if you’re lucky.”
To read Breslin’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/aly-breslin-0090134
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete for week of March 24, 2020
For all intents and purposes, Luke Lucerne was born to wrestle. Well, he certainly wasn’t put here to play baseball. “I was definitely the kid kicking up daisies in the outfield,” Lucerne said of his short-lived experiment on the diamond. He also tried soccer growing up, but it was evident pretty early on where the Council Rock North senior’s true passion lied. Lucerne got his first taste of his chosen sport with the Council Rock Wrestling Association (CRWA) when he was just 5 years old, explaining that he was indoctrinated into wrestling by his dad and built-in-coach, who wrestled at Rider University. “What really stuck with me, and what I loved about the sport, is that everything came down to me,” Lucerne said. “It’s a hard thing to get around early on as a kid, because if you lose there’s nobody to blame it on. But eventually, anyone who makes it through the sport embraces that. You take everything into your own control.”
Lucerne, who wrestled at 126 pounds this past season, has been the model of consistency for the Indians. Council Rock North head coach Tom Vivacqua first crossed paths with Lucerne about a decade ago through CRWA, and Vivacqua, who has been coaching wrestling for 35 years, knew instantly that Lucerne was a rare breed. “I was always impressed with Luke, even when he was in middle school,” Vivacqua said. “He was always a very serious, committed kid beyond his years. Even as a young lad, he was super focused and locked in on wanting to be a good wrestler. Coming in, I just said to myself, ‘Wow, this kid is really intense and is really going to work hard and set some high goals for himself.’ It wasn’t just an occupation on the side for him. It was something he really wanted to excel at. Just very mature, and not even just as a wrestler, but you could talk to him about a lot of things that a young middle schooler wouldn’t get or understand. We knew right away that he was pretty special. Not just a regular Joe…he was going to shine.”
Lucerne entered the varsity lineup right away as a freshman and responded by posting a 36-8 overall record. His inaugural season culminated with the first of four trips to the state tournament in Hershey, where Lucerne ultimately placed sixth. Lucerne went 33-11 as a sophomore, and though it was his only season where he didn’t place at Hershey, Lucerne was already serving as a team captain. He was universally respected by teammates due to the unwavering time, commitment and work ethic that he brought to the table. Lucerne posted a 35-10 record last season as a junior, finishing fourth in Hershey, and this past year went 31-4 and placed third. As a team, the Indians placed fifth in the state. It was an utterly remarkable culmination in the careers of Lucerne and fellow seniors Cameron Robinson, Dillon Sheehy and Sammy Hayes. Lucerne (135), Robinson (152) and Sheehy (129) all barreled through the 100-win milestone, and Hayes would have likely made it there himself had a broken ankle in January of last season not wiped out the rest of his competition schedule. That quartet posted a career record of 500-141 at Council Rock North, a winning percentage of .780. All four of them will be wrestling at Division-I college programs.
The next step for Lucerne will indeed be a big one at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Going to Navy has been a dream a decade in the making for Lucerne, who said he knew he wanted to go to school there, wrestle and serve his country afterward since he was 9 years old. “Think about it,” Vivacqua said. “How many 9-year-olds are thinking about what they want to do when they are 18? He knew it by the time I met him. Luke had a plan in place. He wanted to serve in the military and wrestle for Navy, and to even understand that concept at that age is impressive. Even to know what it means as a 9-year-old. He’s not a gifted, freak athlete who happened to be good at wrestling; Luke is such a worker and is great because he cared and worked exceedingly hard at it. He is the poster child for the sport of wrestling and what you can achieve if you commit your mind.”
To read Lucerne’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/luke-lucerne-0090135
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