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 April 16, 2015)
Caroline Pape is coming down the home stretch of a three-sport high school career filled with more good memories than the Springfield senior can count. “I just love being able to go through each season playing with all my friends,” she said. “It’s different in each individual sport, but being with them and working together is what I love about sports.” Pape admits she might have taken the whole experience for granted if she hadn’t spent her freshman year at Gwynedd Mercy Academy where she played just two sports – soccer and lacrosse. She opted to return to Springfield as a sophomore. “It’s the best decision I could have made both academically and athletically,” Pape said. “If I hadn’t made that decision, I probably wouldn’t be playing sports in college, and I probably wouldn’t have had as good a career as I’ve had. I have no regrets. I don’t even regret going to Gwynedd my freshman year. I think I appreciate sports and Springfield more.”
For the past three years, Pape – who will take her lacrosse talents to Fairleigh Dickinson – has competed in soccer, basketball and lacrosse. She was welcomed back to the soccer team with open arms. “What a win for us,” said coach Suzette Wolf. “Caroline started and played in every varsity game from her sophomore year on. She never came off the field. She was such a dominant force for us that I’m not really sure how we will ever replace some of her strengths. Caroline is a team player. She gets along with everyone and played her heart out for the team.”
Although she excelled in soccer, Pape’s passion is lacrosse, and according to her coach, she is the consummate team player. “She’s so selfless in the way she plays,” coach Maggie Canavan said. “You can just tell without even speaking to her that she would rather see a teammate succeed and do great with her in the background, enabling a teammate to do something amazing. You can’t coach that. She’s a team player, no matter what.”
The senior captain models a work ethic Canavan hopes her younger players will emulate. “I have always said she is our team’s workhorse, and usually the workhorse goes unnoticed for every sport and every team,” the Spartans’ coach said. “Whenever our team succeeds, whether scoring off transition or coming up with a defensive stop, Caroline always seems to have done the dirty work to come up with the beautiful play. She wears her heart on her sleeve and always gives 110 percent in both practice and games.”
Pape, who says she has tried every sport, was eager to return to the basketball court after a year away her freshman year. She flourished this winter as a captain and valued reserve.
A member of the National Honor Society, Pape, who is enrolled in three AP classes, plans to pursue a degree in education, but for now, she is enjoying the final chapter in her high school career. “Caroline is an all-around amazing athlete that truly represents our team and our school as to what a Spartan is,” Canavan said. “She is the type of athlete every coach wants on their team.”
To read Pape’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/caroline-pape-0052511
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of April 16, 2015)
When Dillon Kelly is on the field for the Central Bucks South lacrosse team, the advice of his father, Tim, rings in his ears. “My dad is always reminding me that hustle is the most important element in sports and that he’s happy with me as long as I hustle and work hard,” said Kelly, an attackman on the only unblemished team remaining in the Suburban One League. “Kind of cliché, but it’s the truth.” And for Kelly, it carries over to his myriad of other endeavors outside of lacrosse - whether it is as the Class of 2015’s delegate to the Keystone Boys State Leadership Conference, a three-year liaison to the Travis Manion 911 Hero’s Run, two years in the First Link Club (devoted to developing servant leadership) and serving in the Model United National as a member of the World Affairs Club. “That comes from my dad and my older brother, Ryan (now at the Naval Academy where he is a goalie on the lacrosse team),” said the Penn State-bound Kelly, who was accepted to many other prestigious programs at various schools (Lafayette, Lehigh, Maryland, Clemson). “If you do something, you may as well do it right. It’s a metaphor, and it translates over to the business world – with hustling and always working hard. It translates into real life.”
The Kelly work ethic – the willingness to hustle – can be substantiated by the way Kelly, as a 13-year-old entrepreneur, went about the task of making some extra money by mowing lawns. At present, he has 30-plus clients and has a trailer to reach his jobs on Saturdays when he takes advantage of no lacrosse games or practice and works from dawn to dusk to keep the client base satisfied with mowing and mulching. Monday to Friday, it’s back to the grind of practice-game-practice in a physically demanding sport. “Dillon is an extremely motivated student, athlete and entrepreneur,” said coach Mike Sharman. “He amazes me in how he balances work, school and sports and accepts only excellence in whatever he does. Dillon is a great all-around person, and I am convinced he will be successful in whatever path he chooses after college.”
After playing goalie because the team had a need, Kelly wanted to go out playing his original position and assist on and score goals instead of trying to stop them. Sharman laid down the gauntlet, explaining: “I told him he needed to get faster. Dillon lost 20 pounds and worked hard to improve his speed and agility.” Now he is reunited on a line with Brendan McGrath and Chris Tanner and several other seniors, creating a full-circle effect. “The team has come together,” Kelly said. “Right now, we’re playing together 100 percent as a team, and it is really showing.”
Before lacrosse and the landscaping worlds conspired to collide, Kelly also spent around 10 hours per week as a volunteer intern at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County-Natural Products Discovery Institute where he helped market the natural products developed for cures and treatments while working with molecular research scientists.
To view Kelly’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/dillon-kelly-0052512
- Log in to post comments
