Thanks to our continued partnership with Univest Financial, SuburbanOneSports.com is once again recognizing 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 Feb. 12, 2025)
Fiona Reckner is a natural leader. Plain and simple. Next year, the Council Rock South senior will enroll in a pre-law track at Franklin & Marshall, and if Nick Heim – her high school soccer coach - ever needs legal advice, it’s a safe bet he will look no further than his former captain. Turns out the Council Rock South girls’ soccer coach is more than a little impressed with Reckner’s leadership and ability to inspire, recalling halftime of the Golden Hawks’ District 1 4A quarterfinal game against Spring-Ford in the fall of 2023. Reckner, then a junior, did not serve in the official role of captain, and soccer is not her primary sport (basketball is). 
“The thing that always comes to mind about her – her junior year we went on that magical run as the 21 seed,” Heim said. “In a week, we beat the 12, 5 and 4 (seeds), and we were playing from behind the last two games. We were down 2-0 to Spring-Ford in the district quarterfinals, and we just played a really poor first half. I was like – ‘Oh man, maybe we’ve just run out of steam.’ It’s the first time in my coaching career that I never said a word to the kids at halftime because as soon as we met in the corner – no one asked her to do it, she didn’t need a title to do it. She just – I don’t want to say laid into them, but she just gave a reality check of where we had been and what we needed to do to get back to our principles. She got done talking after about five minutes. I looked at my assistant, and I said, ‘All right, let’s go.’”
And go the Golden Hawks did, rallying for a double overtime 3-2 win over the favored Rams to earn a spot in the district semifinals. “Depending on what she wants in her career, she’s absolutely going to be a coach,” Heim said. “She just has that mentality. I’m never at a loss for words, so for me to say, ‘Yup, let’s go’ with the season on the line – it’s just the type of kid she is.”
It’s pretty much the same story in basketball where Steve Polinsky took over the program this year, the team’s third coach in three years. It’s the sort of upheaval that is often the recipe for disaster, but it wasn’t, thanks in no small part to Reckner – a captain - and a senior class blessed with leaders. “I think the transition was really good because I had her as one of the seniors with the other girls,” Polinsky said. “You could tell she was really eager to go for her senior year. I wanted to change things with my culture, but I didn’t want to change everything to make it so overwhelming for them. I had a lot of talks with her about it, just trying to figure things out. She definitely stepped up as one of the big leaders of the team – she got it.” And a squad anchored by Reckner and four other seniors, went on to capture the program’s first SOL title in 11 years, making the transition
appear effortless.
A captain on the soccer pitch as a senior, Reckner went on to earn first team All-SOL honors. She’s a smart kid so she sees the field well, she sees the court extremely well,” Heim said. “She just knows where to be and how to use what she does best. In high school, that’s a massive advantage when you consistently get after someone like that. The way she played and inspired the others around her to play the same way – it just worked really, really well for us.” It was a similar scenario on the basketball court. “She’s played the best girl on every team we’ve played basically,” Polinsky said. “When you’re a good player and you get both sides of the ball, you have to concentrate a lot more. She does her homework on the players, and she’s a really good leader.”
Just as Reckner excels in the athletic arena, she does the same in the classroom. She has a course load of honors and AP classes and is a member of the National Honor Society, the Math Honor Society, the English Honor Society and Rho Kappa (Social Studies) Honor Society. She is also a peer mentor at South, and outside of school, she is a youth ambassador for Bucks for Kids, which raise funds for children in foster care. Although she is no longer eligible to play AAU, Reckner and four of her AAU teammates will be coaching a third grade team for the Heat. And basketball will be very much a part of Reckner’s future. She committed to continue her career at F&M last October. According to Polinsky, F&M is inheriting a complete basketball player. “What separates her is she does it on both sides of the ball – it’s not just about offense, it’s defense as well,” the Golden Hawks’ coach said. “She understands the whole picture and how important defense is to our team and what we do. Her leadership is as an example, and she’s just a great kid. I wish I could have coached these (seniors) for four years. I’ve been lucky.”
To read Reckner’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/fiona-reckner-00117080
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Feb. 12, 2025)
Ask Abington senior Jake Manigault if he ever played any sport other than basketball, and he pretty much scoffs at the concept. “Nah, it was always just all basketball,” he said. “I started playing basketball when I was 5, but I’ve always been around it.” In fact, the sport is pretty much woven into the DNA of the combo guard, who plays 12 months a year (summer leagues, AAU and just being a gym rat). It’s deep in the roots of his family tree. “My older brothers, they always played basketball, so I have just always been around it,” he said. “I’m the youngest in my family. Actually, my oldest cousin is in the NBA. He plays for the Knicks.”
The NBA? The Knicks? Yep! That would be none other than Villanova product Mikal Bridges, who is a first cousin. “I’m just trying my best to follow in his footsteps,” said Manigault, whose favorite players are actually Steph Curry (Golden State Warriors) since he was little and now Ja Morant (Memphis Grizzlies). He added: “Since I was little kid, I was always a Warriors’ fan. Steph Curry is the reason why I started watching and started playing basketball. More recently, Ja Morant has kind of been my guy, but Curry is the reason why I started.”
With a 24/7 hoops mentality, Manigault has been someone that coach Dan Marsh, in his second year at the helm after a long and successful stint as the girls’ coach, has leaned on. “He runs the point for me a lot – not exclusively, but a lot,” said Marsh. “He handles the ball a lot in pressure situations. Jake does whatever the team needs him to do. If we need him to score, he’ll score. If we need him to play defense, he’ll play defense. If we need him to do both, he will do both. If we told Jake, ‘We need you to run through this wall to win this game,’ he will do it without any hesitation.’”
Manigault, for his part, has stood out as a two-way player in Marsh’s four-guard offense and has also grown into a leader as a team captain. “I’ve been on varsity since my sophomore year, but this is my first year actually getting valuable minutes,” said Manigault. “I’m really contributing. I’m scoring and being a leader and playing defense.” Being a leader meant taking the reins right after last season ended. “I take being a leader and a captain very seriously,” said Manigault. “When we lost last year in February, we took two weeks off and then we got right back into it in March. We have been going at it since then,
(I’m) just trying to keep their heads up and push them to be the best they can be and push them to their limits. I have been doing a pretty good job of that, I think.”
Marsh absolutely agrees with that assessment. “Jake is a quiet leader,” said the coach. “He leads by example. He is a very, very hard worker. He is a gym rat, and all he wants to do is win. While he is really starting to come into his own as a vocal leader, he is really a quiet killer. He’ll hit a big shot. If we need a big stop, we can put Jake on one of their better players. He is a two-way player.”
A solid citizen off the court, the 6-0 Manigault is currently weighing his college options. There are PSAC schools in the hunt for his services, as well as some at the Division III level. “It’s going pretty well right now,” said Manigault of the recruiting process, adding that Bowie State is also in the picture. “My AD (Charles Grasty) and I were just on the phone with West Chester a couple of days ago, and we are going to send some film over to them.” Because he will need to transform into being a pure point guard, he could get some polishing at the junior college level. “He has some offers on the table,” said Marsh. “He is going to help somebody. We just don’t know where he is going to end up yet. Jake is still learning how to (be a pure point guard). This is only my second year with the boys’ program. It’s my second year with Jake, and we are working with him on it, but he is going to be a valuable asset for whoever he ends up with. That’s just because of his work ethic and him being a multiple threat. He can do multiple things.”
To read Maniigault’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/jake-manigault-00117079
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