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 May 2, 2024)
Megan Klein was born to play softball. And the Bensalem senior has literally been involved in the sport for as long as she can remember, initially tagging along to her sister Jessica’s game (Jess is now playing at Caldwell University) and then playing herself. Blessed with speed, the diminutive Klein creates havoc on the base paths and is the consummate leadoff batter, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. “She’s fast as heck, but she’s also a triple threat,” Bensalem coach Erin Smith said. “She can drop down a bunt, she can slap, she can swing for power. She does all three, so her ability to use her speed and read the defense makes her phenomenal.” Originally a catcher before moving to shortstop when she entered high school, Klein also has a cannon for an arm. It’s hardly a surprise that Klein – a member of Nightmare 18U Gold - was on the wish list of numerous colleges before ultimately signing a letter of intent to play softball at the Division 1 level for Siena College, which competes in the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference).
The script was going exactly as planned until, that is, Klein was diagnosed with pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS) in the beginning of March. A second team all-state selection last spring, Klein was primed for yet another big season for the Owls when she began to experience double vision in early March. “The first day - it felt like I was going cross-eyed,” Klein said. “At that point, I wasn’t seeing double. I asked my friends, ‘Guys, do I look cross-eyed?’ They promised me, ‘No.’ Later that night before I go to bed, I look at the ceiling and I see two lights, and I’m like – ‘I need to go to bed.’ The next morning, I woke up, and I was seeing two of everything, and it was super scary. I was like, ‘Oh crap, I don’t know how I’m going to drive to school.’ Thankfully, my parents didn’t let me.”
Instead, Klein was taken to the emergency room of a local hospital. She received no diagnosis at the hospital but was told if it got worse to return to the hospital and to have a follow-up appointment with neurology at CHOP. Believing it would clear up on its own, Klein travelled to Florida on March 8, two days after her visit to the ER, to see her sister play softball. “It was pretty crazy,” she said. “I just taped my one eye closed so I could see normal, but when I did that, it gave me a headache. I made sunglasses so they were patched on one side, and I was thinking I was going to have to play softball with a patch on my eye so I could see straight. But my double vision just kept getting worse. I started getting headaches. We came back early from the trip and my parents took me right to CHOP.”
For eight days, Klein went through a series of tests. She received five days of steroids and two days of antibodies intravenously. “I kept asking what it was,” Klein said. “I would be like, ‘So what are you guys thinking?’ They couldn’t give me an answer.” Klein’s release from the hospital was twice pushed back a day. “I was bummed out at that point,” she said. “It was the last day, and I said, ‘Before I go, I need to know what is wrong. What are you guys getting at?’ That’s when a neurologist came in and told me – ‘We came up with a diagnosis of MS.’” Klein’s response? “What is that and can I play softball?” she said. Klein received immediate assurance that she could indeed play softball. “They said I should be okay, and when the rest of the labs came back, then I would have to get a treatment plan,” she said. “I just went to my doctor’s visit. I’m going to have to get an infusion every six months for a couple years, basically until I’m done college. Then they’ll keep going from there.”
Klein wasted no time before going back on the softball diamond. “I took two days off from school when I got home from the hospital because I still get super bad headaches,” she said. “I would have to lay down, I couldn’t focus on anything. I didn’t play, but I went to see the girls my third or fourth day back. I tried to throw a ball – it didn’t work out well, it didn’t go anywhere. It was crazy. My throw was not the same at all – my hand was so skinny, so weak, and where the IV was in my hand was swollen and huge. Other than that, I was so skinny, so I tried to gain weight back. I made my mom buy me some protein shakes.” And what used to feel so natural, so easy suddenly wasn’t. “At first, it was super rough,” Klein said. “I was like – ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t know how to play.’ My first game back – it’s basically like I forgot how to hit. It’s just really mental because I feel like I’m supposed to be the person that’s leading the team, and here I am.”
Klein has no restrictions, and Sienna College’s coaches are offering their full support. She has been tearing it up on the diamond and recently became the program’s all-time hit leader with 126 career hits, breaking the 1990 record of Karen Sock, who had 125. One fact is very clear - Klein refuses to use MS as an excuse. “Absolutely not, and no one would blame her if she did, but she won’t allow it,” Smith said. “She’s quiet – she racks up the hits, she does what she needs to do.”
To read Klein's compete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/megan-klein-00112648
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of May 2, 2024)
Nothing binds fathers and sons like sports. After an NFL draft that saw the sons of several former NFL players drafted – including Jeremiah Trotter, Jr., the son of former Eagles’ standout Jeremiah Trotter, Sr. – one can’t help but think of all the words of wisdom that did not fall on deaf ears. For Central Bucks South senior John Henson, a standout in both lacrosse and football, his father’s advice of “go hard or go home” was always a guiding light. “My dad has been telling me that since I was little,” said Henson. “It has always been, like, if you are going to quit, just go home. Keep trying. Always keep going as hard as you can and don’t give up. It has kind of stuck with me all the way through high school. For lacrosse, to just get on the field, I had to work my butt off to get that starting position in my sophomore year. I put the same kind of energy into football the following summer and did the same thing.”
There was a moment of adversity year around this time when that was put the test. What seemed like a routine play against Council Rock North turned into a worst-case scenario. “There was a guy who was trying to cut into the middle of the lane,” Henson recalled. “I threw him a shoulder to try and not to let him make a clear shot. I just felt my wrist break. It was one of those things where it was, like, ‘Oh no.’ I knew what was happening. I just felt it. It was devastating for me.” This adversity could have meant turning his back on the team – i.e. going home after going hard – but that’s just not how he is made. Already a team captain, Henson pledged to still live up to that role. “Once I went down, the defense didn’t really have a leader out there to keep them going,” he said. “It was just kind of a struggle. I tried my best to help from the sideline.”
While head coach Mike Strayline believes the Titans would have made the playoffs with a healthy Henson on the field, he was impressed with the level of maturity Henson showed by remaining engaged with the process. “As a defensive player, he was the leader of our defense last year,” he said. “Although we had a few seniors, John was really vocal and made sure we were doing the right things. He broke his wrist and us out from the sidelines. He understands his role as a leader and makes sure guys are doing the right things and not messing around. He’s just a really good kid. A lot of kids get hurt and just kind of retreat and don’t get involved. For him to be as involved as he was, it says a lot for a kid like that. You don’t get many kids who have that personality. He is great kid who is very good with structure. He started out a sophomore with us and played the whole year at varsity. His junior year came around, he was one of those guys with the personality and leadership and he became a captain for us last year. He really showed it in the weight room and with getting the guys together, talking to them and being positive and keeping them on the right path.”
Henson started playing youth football around second grade, for Lenape Valley and then Warrington, before entering middle school. Still, Henson had to work his way up in coach Tom Hetrick’s program. “I did not see the field my sophomore year,” said Henson. “I was just a sideline guy.” Initially, as junior, Henson was playing a bit more off the bench but was a permanent starter by season’s end. “He did great things for us, not only in his senior year, but in his junior year,” said Hetrick. “He came to us as a sophomore. I knew he was a lacrosse guy first, but he also loved playing football. In his junior year, he kind of worked his way into a starting role and never gave up the starting job. He just has those instincts that athletes have, and he’s a good enough athlete to be able to excel at two varsity sports at this level. That certainly says something about his abilities.”
In football, he is less vocal but leads by example. “He’s a really hard worker and an outstanding person,” said Hetrick. “He’s the kind of kid you root for. We call him ‘Crash,’ because he seemingly has no fear – or the right amount of no fear to play the game of football. He is just a joy to have, and I’m proud of what he has accomplished. I’m excited for him to move on to college and further his lacrosse career. We are just really thankful that he included the football thing in his career.”
Henson has parlayed his academic efforts into an opportunity to play collegiate lacrosse at Holy Family. Henson plans to major in education with the goal of being a history teacher at the high school level.
To read Henson’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/john-henson-00112649
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