Thanks to our continued partnership with Univest Financial, SuburbanOneSports.com will once again recognize a male and female featured athlete each week. The recognition is given to seniors of high character who are students in good standing that have made significant contributions to their teams or who have overcome adversity. Selections are based on nominations received from coaches, athletic directors and administrators.
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Female Athlete (Week of Jan. 10, 2024)
Marissa Perez never saw it coming. The Plymouth Whitemarsh senior had absolutely no intention of trying out for basketball after three years away from the sport. And why would she? The all-state shortstop was committed to continue her softball career at East Stroudsburg and already had a packed schedule. Adding basketball was not a consideration. At least that’s what Perez thought. “I hadn’t touched a basketball since eighth grade,” she said. “Throughout high school, I obviously stopped playing. It was a running joke in my family – ‘Oh, maybe she’ll come back for a year.’ I never thought that would be true. Even at the beginning of the year, if you had told me I’d be playing basketball, I never would have believed you. It all started with my sister (sophomore Joslyn Perez). She was like, ‘We don’t have many girls trying out. You should come out.’ I was like, ‘No, no, no.’”
When she was asked by coach Dan Dougherty and assistant TJ DeLucia to meet with them, Perez felt she owed them the courtesy. “I decided to hear them out,” she said. The coaches had a simple message. “We had just graduated everybody from that phenomenal (state title) run we had,” said Dougherty, whose team had no returning seniors. “We needed someone that could be a senior leader, a mature adult in the locker room. We said, ‘Listen, we’re not going to throw anything at you like – ‘You’re letting the team down, this revolves around you.’ We just wanted a veteran presence on the team, and Marissa is a good athlete. We were like, ‘Please, please come play with us,’ and her sister was saying it too.” Several days later, Perez found herself trying out for the team. “I think tryouts were maybe four days later, so I had been to three or four optional workouts they were doing, but tryouts were early on in my return to the sport,” Perez said. “I walked into the gym the first day – I was so intimidated. It felt so awkward. I don’t think I made a single basket my first practice. I’m the oldest one in the gym, but I have no idea what I’m doing. I remember I was stuck by my sister’s side the entire practice. It was such a surreal feeling being back there.”
Fast forward to Jan. 4, a month into the basketball season. Marissa and Joslyn are both on the court with time winding down in overtime at New Hope-Solebury, and the Colonials are trailing by one. As time was about to expire, Joslyn hit nothing but net on a corner 3-pointer, giving PW the win and setting off an emotional celebration. “That was the coolest experience ever,” Marissa said. “Just to see the work she puts in every day in the gym pay off in that moment in a big game – I have never been so proud of anyone. To be there and experience it with her was so cool and so special. It was such an unreal moment.” It was an unreal moment that wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t opted to return to basketball, and perhaps no one appreciated it more than her softball coach – who also happens to be her father. “That was just an amazing moment,” Mike Perez said. “We’ve watched that video over and over again – as soon as Joslyn makes the shot, she looks at her sister, and you can see Marissa cheering her on, and they run to each other. That was an awesome moment.”
Support is something her father (and mother) have given Perez plenty of since she made the decision to play basketball. “As a coach, it’s exciting,” Mike Perez said. “I like to have well-rounded athletes. A lot of girls play multiple sports, and I try to encourage that. This is icing on the cake for Marissa, and that’s what she said when she was going back and forth with it. A lot of students look back with regret for what they didn’t do. She wasn’t going to let that happen. She was like – it’s my final year, let’s do it.” Perez has been a key contributor on a young Colonials’ squad. “Marissa is an athlete that knows how to play sports and be competitive,” Dougherty said. “I try not to say it too much, but I do catch myself saying at practice, ‘Boy, Marissa, I wish we had you all four years.’ I’m so glad we have her – I don’t think we’d win without her.”
Off the court and diamond, Perez – who boasts a 4.67 GPA – is a member of the National Honor Society as well as the Business Honor Society, and she is part of PW’s International Baccalaureate program, but it is her involvement with Best Buddies that is a personal highlight. She is vice president of the club that encourages members to develop friendships with students who have intellectual and developmental disabilities.
To read Perez’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/marissa-perez-00110576.
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Jan. 10, 2024)
The sky is the limit. It’s a common cliché, especially in sports, but there are times when the truth of it is hard to deny. A case in point is Cheltenham senior wrestler Corey Bradley, whose arrow is pointing way up as a 172-pounder to watch. “I think he finally believes how good he can be, which is exciting,” said Cheltenham coach Rob Weneck. “As coaches, we can talk him up all we want and try him give him confidence. Still, and even though he is an outstanding kid, he has to be able to prove it to himself. I think the sky is the limit for him this year.”
Like many seniors across the entire scholastic sports landscape, Bradley’s freshman year was lost to COVID restrictions. Just as he was about to make up for the lost time, there was an unexpected detour. Bradley broke his ankle days before the start of his sophomore campaign. He made his way back to the mat by January but went .500. “I was excited coming into the season, and that ankle injury kind of set me back,” said Bradley. “I came back in January, but I never really hit my stride. I didn’t have a great year. It was disappointing to me.” Last year, as a junior, Weneck began to see Bradley realize his vast potential, and he made it as far as regionals. “He’s one of those guys who, you know, I already miss,” said Weneck of his two-year captain. “He’s already a senior, and I feel cheated. His ninthgrade year, we were on hiatus with COVID. His 10th grade year didn’t start until January due to an ankle injury. His full high school career will only be 2 ½ seasons. Last year, he just exploded. He was 32-8. He went to regionals and wrestled well there. He made a lot of tournament finals. He was a medalist everywhere. He really came into his own.”
So far, this season, the upward trend has included a recent 5-0 showing at a tournament at the Academy of the New Church and also reaching the finals at the Wetzel Classic at Hatboro-Horsham. “He took second in a 32-man bracket,” said Weneck of the Wetzel Classic. “He lost 5-4 in the last 20 seconds to a kid that was ranked fifth in the state. He was beating him for a portion of the match.” Bradley respects all opponents but fears none. He didn’t go into the match with Pottsville’s Terrell McFarland just hoping for a moral victory. “Going into the match, I definitely expected to win,” he said. “I didn’t do a whole ton of research on who I was wrestling. I was pretty confident. I knew it was winnable. Going through the match, I felt pretty good. He was hard to score on. He was definitely hard to score on. After the match, I was talking to my coaches. They said, ‘He’s a top-tier wrestler and you were hanging right in there with him.’ It definitely gave me a ton of confidence going forward. It’s one of those things that excites me and fires me up because it was such a close match.”
According to his coach, though, it won’t be long until the word gets out throughout the wrestling community. For example, he was hearing from other coaches after his strong showing at the Wetzel Classic. “I just think Corey is under the radar,” said Weneck. “He’s at Cheltenham. Our reputation is not strong. We haven’t done too much as a program in recent memory. Plus, he lost a year-and-a-half of his career. He just had the one year, last year, but he really didn’t win any tournaments. He just kind of flew under the radar.”
A year ago, based on his success on the mat and in the classroom, Bradley earned PWAC All-State All-Academic recognition. The requirements were winning 60 percent of his matches and having a GPA of at least 3.0. He easily eclipsed both, winning 80 percent of his matches and earning a GPA in the 3.4 range. “The success of last year kind of opened my eyes to the idea of wrestling in college,” he said. “I see the doorway of qualifying for states and maybe even placing in states. I really would have regretted playing baseball and not qualifying for states or placing at states. I would rather put all of my energy into that and have no regrets. Even if I don’t place or qualify for states, I’ll know I did my best and tried my hardest.”
Bradley is currently earning interest from the likes of Elizabethtown, Misericordia, McDaniel (Md.), Millersville and Elmhurst (IL). While his current coach would also prefer to see Bradley have the decision in his rearview mirror, he thinks he is handling it all with maturity. “His style is going to translate well to the collegiate level, and I base that off of 40 years of experience,” Weneck said. “He is just the type of kid you are looking for to mature into a young man at the collegiate level.”
To read Bradley’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/corey-bradley-00110577.
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