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 4, 2021
A successful pole vault is among the athletic world’s most remarkable mixtures of speed, power, grace, and impeccable timing. When performed properly, a pole vaulter is able to make it look effortless. Central Bucks West senior Chlöe Timberg is among the best around—indeed, among the best in the country—at clearing the bar. So she knows better than most that no matter how easy she may make it look, the smallest misstep, the slightest movement too early or too late, and the result could be disastrous. So when the pandemic threw athletics, academics, and the rest of the world for a loop, Timberg found a way to make the most out of a bad situation. “It was difficult for a while when all the gyms were shut down, the place I practice indoors (Philadelphia Jumps Club in Conshohocken) was closed,” Timberg said. “It was a frustrating cycle, I knew there were no meets coming up, and it was discouraging to know there was no end in sight. It felt like I was training for nothing almost. It was something I struggled to overcome, but I got it in my head that one day we’re going to have a season, so if I couldn’t jump, this was a time I could use to focus on things I hadn’t had the time to focus on in the past.”
By breaking down the motions, movements, and steps that go into a successful vault, Timberg was able to assess her strengths and weaknesses, and work to improve on the small things that tend to make a big difference. “For the longest time, I thought I needed to go out five days a week and vault every one of those days,” Timberg said. “As you get more experience, you learn that you need rest days. In the pole vault, you need short sprints to build up that speed. Even things like yoga, increasing your flexibility, working on muscle groups like hip flexors. You put it all together and it’s going to help you.” So when restrictions began to lift, Philadelphia Jumps Club reopened, and track events began to appear on the schedule—even though the high school indoor season was cancelled—Timberg found a renewed motivation and intensity, not to mention months and months of adjustments and improvements that she was dying to try out in competition.
Her pole vault coach at Central Bucks West, Scott Sherwood, had no doubts that Timberg would be willing and able to do the work in order to maintain and improve upon past successes. “Chlöe has always been the kind of kid who puts in a lot of time when no one’s watching,” Sherwood said. “When COVID hit, she was heartbroken, but she gathered herself, made a plan, and put in the work. She’s come out of the gate firing.” That’s putting it mildly. Timberg’s personal best before the extended break was 12 feet, 9 inches. In her first competition this winter, the VA Showcase 2021 last month, Timberg cleared 13-4.5. A few weeks later, Timberg cleared 13-6.25 at the East Coast Invitational in Virginia Beach, Va. On Feb. 20, in a home meet at Philadelphia Jumps Club, Timberg soared to the top of the list, becoming the new Pennsylvania state record-holder for girls’ indoor pole vault after clearing 13-10.
As such, count Sherwood among those who believes Timberg can achieve her current pole vault goal – 14 feet. “As a sophomore, she broke the school record, which was 12-0,” Sherwood said. “We were watching her at the league meet pop a 12-footer and Kevin (West girls’ track and field coach Kevin Munnelly) said to me, ‘She’s going to be a 14-footer.’ To this day, no Pennsylvania girl has jumped 14 feet, there are only a handful across the country who have done it. But she’s getting there. The sky is the limit for the outdoor season for her. I think she can break that 14-foot barrier.”
Timberg’s keeping busy her senior year with a handful of AP classes. And next year, she will trade in the black and yellow of Central Bucks West in favor of becoming a Scarlet Knight, taking her academic and athletic abilities to Rutgers University. The Piscataway, NJ, school presented Timberg the opportunity to compete in pole vault at a high level, it’s close to home, and it offers the biotechnology major that she’s strongly considering. But first, there’s still an outdoor track and field season with the Bucks. Having lost out on a senior indoor season, Timberg simply wants to enjoy her final campaign at Central Bucks West with her coaches and teammates … while still keeping an eye on that 14-foot jump.
To read Timberg’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/chloe-timberg-0093288
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete for week of March 4, 2021.
Evan D’Orazio, according to his coach, is just about as good as it gets when it comes to filling the role of captain. “He’s an amazing captain,” the Central Bucks South basketball coach said. “He sees things from a coach’s perspective. He’s accountable for himself and for the team. He knows how to keep things light after a hard loss or a blowout, coming into practice and giving little elbow jabs at guys with what they should have been doing. You laugh at it, but you know it’s right, and he’s delivering it in such a way that you don’t get upset about it. You know he’s telling you the truth, but he’s giving a great delivery. It’s so fun.”
That’s high praise indeed from Campbell, who laughs when he recalls his early memories of D’Orazio. “What I remember most – sophomore year seeing him for the second year, he always had a great sense of humor, a fun personality,” the Titans’ coach said. “Of course, the guys love him, you just gravitate to him, but at that time as a coach when you look at that, you see the charisma that he has, and he didn’t know how to use it. He would pick the wrong moment to say things or do things. It wasn’t the right timing to distract the team. At the end of the season I talked to him about it, and I said, ‘I need you to work on just maturing. I don’t mean this as a personal attack, but I want you to be able to use it in the right way. I was the same type of person. I had to learn it the hard way when I was a little bit older when I was in college where the athletic director put me in my place because I would mess around at the wrong times when people were speaking, and it wasn’t the right moment.’ I walked out of that conversation feeling really good. He took it well, and he was going to work on it, and man, did he work on it.”
D’Orazio, a swing player at the time, hasn’t forgotten that conversation with his coach. “He pretty much just told me that he sees a pretty solid future for me with the program,” the Titans’ senior captain said. “He said, ‘The one thing is you’re probably going to have to mature a little bit.’ At the time, I was still young, and I was a little bit taken aback because my whole life playing travel, then playing in-house and AAU, I was the star of the team and I could do whatever I wanted. I knew if I wanted to be a starter and ultimately keep that position for the rest of my high school career I would have to mature. Like he said – I didn’t know the right time to joke around and when to turn that off and be serious. At the time, I really just wanted to do that because I wanted to be the guy Campbell could lean on and all of that stuff that he has been doing. I knew at that moment I had to mature if I really wanted to play. I think I have definitely matured and grown into what I am now.”
What D’Orazio is now is an exemplary leader that his teammates want to follow. “I’ve complimented him on what a great job he’s done as a captain for us,” Campbell said. “He has tremendous leadership and he knows how to use it now, and it really helped us this season, bouncing back from tough games. We lost to Wissahickon by 20. We gave them the next day off and we came into practice the following day, and Evan’s doing his thing, messing with the guys. He knows when to put his foot up somebody’s butt a little bit to get them to wake up.”
Next fall, D’Orazio plans to attend Temple University and is considering following in the footstep of his parents - both educators - and major in secondary education. Whatever path he chooses, D’Orazio, according to his coach, is bound to be successful. “He’s one of my top 10 captains of all time just because of the way he was able to handle a lot of things, keeping the team together with a couple of seniors quitting and with COVID,” Campbell said. “Even after a loss being able to keep his teammates’ spirits up. The family is tremendous – the mom, the dad. They’re awesome people. Evan’s special, he really is.”
To read D’Orazio’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/evan-dorazio-0093289
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