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 May 15, 2012),
Amanda Assenmacher’s resume is a dazzling one. The Norristown senior is involved in soccer, swimming, DECA, Mock Trial, the school newspaper, German Club, student government, drama club, National Honor Society, the Reading Olympics Team and concert band – just to name a few. “She’s an over-achiever in every sense of the word,” Norristown soccer coach Jared Elias said. “She’s doesn’t know what it means to go halfway. Not many kids can handle what she does.”
Assenmacher was a four-year varsity soccer player, and for the past two years, she played center back. “She’s a natural leader,” Elias said. “She works hard and always gives her all. She was the most reliable and dependable (player).” Assenmacher earned all-league honors last fall. She also lettered in swimming for three years. “She wasn’t one of the girls that scored a whole lot of points, but she was there when we needed her,” swimming coach Beth O’Neill said. “She never questioned what I put her in to swim, and she has a great work ethic. When she decides to do something, it’s not going to be anything less than 100 percent.” Although not one of the top swimmers on the team, Assenmacher showed just what diligence could do by dropping a whopping three seconds in the freestyle and nine seconds in the 100 freestyle to win both her heats at the SOL Championships, which earned her the team’s Best Performance Award.
Assenmacher recently was named the first runner-up for the prestigious 2012 Dannehower Award. She also has won awards for best advocate and witness in statewide mock trial competitions. She has been a member of DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) for four years, serving as vice president her senior year. She has been to nationals for four years and this year made finals at the international competition in Salt Lake City, placing fifth in the world.
Assenmacher is ranked first in her class of 422, and she scored a perfect 800 in her written and math SATs and a 770 in her verbal SAT. She has taken 10 AP courses over the past three years, five this year. In 2011, she was named AP Scholar with Distinction. This year she was a National Merit Scholarship finalist.
When it came time to choose a college, Assenmacher was accepted at nine colleges, including Harvard. She chose the United States Naval Academy. She plans on majoring in political science with a focus on international relations. If possible, she will minor in German and Russian. Her career goal is to pursue international military law as part of the Judge Advocate General Corps.
To view Assenmacher’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/amanda-assenmacher
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of May 15, 2012)
Matt Schulman is a student-athlete who has found a way to do it all. The Wissahickon senior boasts a 5.15 GPA, and he is number one in a class of 364 seniors. That is just one of the reasons he was honored last week as the recipient of the prestigious 2012 William F. Dannehower Award, an award given to a student who represents the Triangle Club’s ideals of sports, scholarship and service to the community. “For the other kids to see and have a role model like this is important,” Wissahickon High School Principal Lyn Fields said. “It lets them know – you might not get to that level, but it’s something you can aim for and know it can be done, but when you have a kid like this, it’s pretty special. He brings a pride, brings a spirit to the school.”
Schulman has taken 10 AP classes and estimated about 16 honors-level courses. He has made Distinguished Honor Roll every marking period of his high school career, and he is a National Merit Finalist, a National Merit Scholar and an AP Scholar with Distinction. He is the co-president of the National Honor Society, vice president of the senior class and editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper. He has received the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Future Community Leader Award and also a first place award in the Junior Academy of Science regional competition.
Schulman has challenged himself on the athletic fields as well. In one of the more unique moves a senior has ever made, he gave up soccer and baseball – two sports he had been playing since his freshman year – and went out for and made the cross country and tennis teams. Schulman’s doubles team played in the District One playoffs and earned first team all-league honors. “He was just like a sponge out there the whole season, absorbing everything,” coach Mark Daniels said.
Schulman also is a member of the school’s Premiere Choir and plays saxophone in the concert and jazz bands.
As a service project with the National Honor Society, Schulman helped organize a can drive that collected about 3,500 cans of food for the Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard. Last summer, Schulman hiked the Appalachian Trail, using the journey as a way to help those less fortunate by raising $2,800 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This summer he will hike the 500-mile El Camino Trail in northern Spain, followed by a 450-mile jaunt through the Swiss, French and Italian Alps, capped off with a 200-mile walk along the John Muir Trail, which runs in conjunction with the Pacific Coast Highway in California.
Schulman has been accepted into the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon completion of the program, he will earn degrees from the Wharton School of Business as well as from the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
To view Schulman’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/matthew-schulman
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