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 March 12, 2013)
Shannon McVicar is her own person. The Bensalem senior, who is never without a smile, is not bound by convention, and since she is on leave from her job during softball season, McVicar is taking advantage of her freedom of expression to dye the ends of her hair blue, but don’t be fooled, coach Dan Schram warns. “You don’t want to make assumptions until you know,” the Owls’ coach said. “Then you find out this is a topnotch student, a kid who carries a job. She is always respectful of adults, never backs down on a commitment or challenge. She’s a very accepting kid, nice to everyone around her.”
Schram, an assistant coach at the time, admits he misread McVicar when she joined the softball program as a freshman. “She’s the kind of kid who always laughs, always smiles, and sometimes you don’t know where someone is coming from when they’re always so lighthearted,” he said. “I would sometimes mistake her as not serious, but it turns out she just has a really good disposition about everything she did.”
That good disposition certainly came in handy when as a freshman, McVicar, despite her limited experienced, found herself pitching for a varsity that struggled. The following year, with Schram at the helm, McVicar found herself bouncing back and forth from jayvee to varsity, and it was the same story at the beginning of her junior year until Schram needed a catcher, and McVicar stepped in to fill the spot. She excelled. “Here comes Shannon McVicar catches and doesn’t make a single error behind the plate, bats .400 and executes small ball plays and we go 7-3 with her to finish the season,” Schram said. “I realized that lighthearted sense of humor and that practicality was what was really helping us compete. She also brought out the best in my pitcher, Jackie Morell. She’s the girl that saved our season.” This year McVicar is penciled in to start at second base. “It’s a success story,” Schram said. “She had a point where she was ready to bale out because she couldn’t get a spot on varsity. When I gave her the spot, it was tremendous. Now I’m grateful to her.”
Off the softball diamond, McVicar is a student assistant in Schram’s 11th grade government class. “I trust her as much as I’ve trusted anyone,” he said. “She’s a really, really special kid. She’s worldly, and you can talk about things with her. Everything about her is wholesome and true. I’ve never seen anyone so nice to other people. She never tells a lie, she never has a bad word to say about people.”
McVicar has her sights set on attending East Stroudsburg where she hopes to continue her softball career. An honor roll student, McVicar is considering athletic training as a major.
To read McVicar’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/shannon-mcvicar-0032863
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of March125, 2013)
Zach Fuentes earned a silver medal in the toughest weight class in the state recently. Talk to some, and they’ll argue that the 113-pound bracket at the PIAA State Class AAA Wrestling Championships could well be the toughest in the country. While that’s an undeniably impressive accomplishment, it’s even more remarkable considering the journey the Norristown senior took to get there. After capturing the District One Central title, Fuentes, ranked 13th in the nation, had his sights set on the Southeast Regional Tournament and a coveted spot in states, but what he couldn’t have anticipated was that he would be forced to wrestle to keep his high school career alive while decidedly under the weather. Fuentes hung on to win Friday’s opening round match 9-6 but was immediately sent home with his father. “I felt terrible the whole match, and even after the match, I was throwing up,” he said. “I was honestly considering…not giving up, but I was considering pretty much calling it a day. My body ached, and I thought of all the hard work throughout the year, and it could just come to an end because of my sickness. I went home that night and thought about it and decided I was going to go out fighting.”
Fuentes returned the next morning and gutted out a 2-1 decision over Council Rock South’s Dan Martoccio. That would have been more than enough for some wrestlers but not for Fuentes, who returned for the title match against Pennridge’s Scott Parker, another nationally ranked wrestler at 113. Fuentes earned a 3-1 decision in overtime, and the hard-earned gold medal was his. “Zack was 100 percent for the final,” coach Mark Harner said. “Friday night he was really hurting. He was inconsolable. He saw 12, 13 years of wrestling go up in (smoke).” For Fuentes, getting to state wasn’t the ultimate goal. Winning a gold medal was, but the bracket was a minefield with six wrestlers ranked in the top 20 nationally. In an impressive showing, Fuentes captured a silver medal. He closed out his senior year with a 46-5 record and earned an invitation to compete in the prestigious Dapper Dan Tournament in Pittsburgh.
Fuentes, who plans to take his talents to the collegiate level, is considering Pitt, Kent State, Lock Haven and Drexel. An honor roll student, Fuentes is undecided on a major but is leaning toward accounting. As impressive as Fuentes is on the mat, he is equally impressive off it. So well liked is he that he was elected the Homecoming King for the Class of 2013. “Usually that is reserved for a football player,” Harner said. “He’s a super nice kid. This isn’t just coach speak – you’re not going to find anybody that says a bad thing about him. He’s just the nicest kid.”
To view Fuentes’ complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/zack-fuentes-0032852
- Log in to post comments
