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 3, 2025)
Alexa McCabe – with the ball in her lacrosse stick - is capable of creating something that borders on magic. At least that’s the way it undoubtedly feels to opponents trying to stop the gifted Wissahickon senior, who makes scoring goals look oh so easy. As a freshman, McCabe burst onto the scene and served immediate notice that she was a special talent, scoring 73 goals on a squad that already had a prolific goal scorer in Emma Baker, who had 90 goals that season.
By the time she was a sophomore, McCabe was named a captain, a rare honor given to someone so young. “We recognized early on that she’s a kid other kids will gravitate towards and will feed off her energy,” Wissahickon coach Chuck Wurzbach
said. “When we made the decision to name her a captain, she took to it from the beginning. She is a true leader on the field – she doesn’t have a problem being firm, but she’s also very enthusiastic and positive towards others.”
Ask the three-year captain – who is approaching the 250-goal mark - the secret to her remarkable goal-scoring success, and she has an immediate answer. “I have to credit my teammates,” McCabe said. “My thing is cutting. I’ve always been a cutter. Freshman year – Lex Hopkins and Emma Baker were feeding me the ball non-stop. They had so much trust in me. Freshman year taught me a higher level of lacrosse – how to trust people.”
What is lost in all of McCabe’s remarkable accomplishments is the fact that she did all of this while enduring unimaginable setbacks, twice undergoing knee surgery. The most recent – last June for a torn MPFL - sidelined McCabe for six months. She received clearance to return to action just in time for the start of her final high school season. “The fact that she keeps coming back is a testament to her fortitude but also what the team means to her,” Wurzbach said. “She’s an inspiration to all of us in terms of her pure determination.”
It’s safe to say McCabe would be playing at a high collegiate level had it not been for knee issues that began innocently enough in eighth grade at a birthday party held at an ice skating rink. “My kneecap dislocated on the ice,” she said. “The ambulance had to come, they took me to the hospital, and they relocated it. The first time it happened in lacrosse – I think it was summer after freshman year.” McCabe’s first surgery on her right kneecap was in September of sophomore year.
“After my sophomore year surgery, I was definitely nervous getting back into it,” she said. “Two weeks into my sophomore season, a girl hit me, and it dislocated again.” It didn’t prevent McCabe from scoring 54 goals. Then, last year, she dislocated the kneecap of her left knee. As a junior, McCabe scored 73 goals despite missing the final four of five games of the season. In August of 2024, she had surgery number two and was sidelined until the start of her final high school season. “It was tough,” she said. “It screwed up my whole recruiting process. I definitely wish college scouts could come to high school games, but the reality is – they don’t.” If they did, they would see a gifted player who gives no indication of the setbacks she’s endured. “She still out there, she still hustles up and down the field,” Wurzbach said. “She’s scoring goals, and teams all know who she is, so it’s not like she’s hiding on the field. Sometimes they try to face guard her – it doesn’t work.”
Despite her setbacks, McCabe has not ruled out continuing her lacrosse career at the next level as a walk-on or on the club circuit. Right now, her top two schools are the University of Miami and the University of Georgia with academics her top consideration. Turns out McCabe, who plans to pursue a business major, also excels in the classroom. She scored 1480 on her SATs and boasted a GPA of 4.98 after her junior year, With four AP classes this year, the Wiss senior - an officer in the National Honor Society - is once again in the neighborhood of 5.0.
For now, McCabe’s focus is on her final high school season. “It’s really tough,” Wurzbach said. “Because I know she did have dreams of playing in college, but all of this has made it difficult. She didn’t get recruited then because every time she as going through her recruiting season, she was injured. She’s just a very nice kid, works hard. On the field, she is constantly supporting her teammates, stays positive, comes into the circle and if we’re struggling at something, she’ll talk to the team about it. But she is the rudder of the boat, and the kids see it.”
To read McCabe’s’ complete profile, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/alexa-mccabe-00117979
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of April 3, 2025)
Ask any longtime coach in any sport, and they will be just as proud of their Most Improved Players as they are of their Most Valuable Players. Such is the case for CB East basketball coach Erik Henrysen when it comes to discussing the evolution of quad-captain Shane O’Hara-Jamison, who recently completed his career after a first-round exit from the state tournament. “He actually just won our Most Improved Player award,” said Henrysen. “That was based on his development from freshman year when he was on the freshmen team until senior year when he was really one of our leaders and one of our go-to guys. We saw all of that development, but we also saw him develop into a leader for us.”
O’Hara-Jamison was off to a strong start with the freshmen team, but he found himself not seeing much playing time as a
sophomore on the JV squad. “That was one of the worst feelings ever,” reflected O’Hara-Jamison. “Even through little league and through eighth grade, I was always playing. That was one of the worst things I had to go through. My sophomore year - that was the first time I didn’t play in my whole basketball career. I played my played freshman year on the freshman team. Sophomore year, I was on JV and I barely played. I was upset, but I knew I had to put in the work to get to where I wanted to be.”
Coming from a family of construction workers, O’Hara-Jamison was not afraid to put his nose to the grindstone and do what was needed. “In the offseason, I went crazy,” he said. “I was getting stronger. I was getting faster. I was working on my shot.” Clearly at crossroads, mentally and physically, O’Hara-Jamison also had to rinse the bad taste of his sophomore year out of his mouth with a totally different overall outlook. “A lot of people struggle with what other people think of them,” he said. “If you just have confidence in yourself, you can get through the toughest of times, no matter what other people have to say about you.I struggled a lot with it in my sophomore year. It just affected my confidence as a player. Going into my junior year, I just started working hard going into the summer. I started working on myself and I just started being me.”
While he got physically stronger and found his shooting stroke, O’Hara-Jamison also grew taller, going from around 5-9/5-10 to 6-1. “Coming into my junior year, I had a great offseason with CB East,” he said. “That’s definitely one of the best things that ever happened to me. I got stronger. I got taller. I got faster. I just knew the hard work was going to pay off.” Piggybacking on his junior year, it all came together this past season. O’Hara-Jamison was one of the team captains and was second on the team in scoring with an average of 12 points per game. “It was nice to see somebody stick with it and grind it out,” said Henrysen. “He was able to get through the grind, look back and say, ‘It was all worth it.’”
O’Hara-Jamison, who speaks three languages and can hit a jump shot in any of them, made up for any and all lost time as a senior captain. “He started every game for us this year, and he was one of our leading scorers at 12 points per game,” said Henrysen. “He was second on the team in scoring.” But the seeds, Henrysen believes, were planted earlier.
“His freshman-to-sophomore and sophomore-to-junior jumps were pretty significant,” said Henrysen. “I think that sophomore year really opened up his eyes to some of the things that he really needed to do to be one of the guys that we were going to rely on. It’s a huge credit to him. He put the time in. He put the effort in. And he saw it all pay off.”
Just as he improved as a basketball player, O’Hara-Jamison did the same in the classroom. “I get my work done,” he said. “It’s always going to be there, whether I get it done now or later, so I may as well just get it done. I struggled in the past and I’ve gotten better each year.” With plans of joining the construction company of his father, James Jamison, he hopes to hone his skills at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, Pa., and play basketball there. The interest seems to be mutual from the Wildcats, who compete at the Division III level. “I think it’s a pretty good match for him,” said Henrysen.
To read O’Hara-Jamison’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/shane-ohara-jamison-00117980
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