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 Sept. 17, 2013)
Mention the name Megan McCloskey to Kaitlyn Rauchut, and the William Tennent field hockey coach cannot hide the immense admiration and respect she has for her senior captain. “She’s more than positive,” Rauchut said. “She’s the most gracious, most humble, most selfless person I’ve ever met, and when it comes to her teammates, her confidence and her positive attitude – to say it’s contagious is an understatement. She always leads by example, and I think that’s the most important thing in a leader. No one would know the difficulties and struggles she’s gone through.”
For the past two years, McCloskey has been living with a rare disorder called RSD, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, an amplified pain disorder usually caused by trauma. “I got my wisdom teeth out, and I woke (from the anesthesia) with a massive headache and neck pain,” McCloskey recalled. Since that day, McCloskey has lived with chronic pain that has impacted every area of her life, but it has not kept her off the hockey field. “Her tenacity cannot go unseen on the field,” Rauchut said. “Her impeccably quick stick skills allow her to have wonderful field vision.” McCloskey was the lone sophomore in the starting lineup for a veteran varsity squad. “I think she not only impressed myself, she impressed all of her teammates at a very young age,” Rauchut said.
Just as she excels on the hockey field, McCloskey also excels in the classroom where she takes a full course load of honors and AP classes. She is a member of the National Honor Society and aspires to pursue a career in nursing. She would like to stay in the Philadelphia area with Drexel as her number one school and La Salle also a serious consideration.
McCloskey admits she can’t help wondering how different her life might be if she hadn’t had her wisdom teeth removed on that fateful day in December of 2010, but instead of viewing RSD as a curse, McCloskey has put a positive twist on her situation. “It was the hardest thing, but honestly, it has made me a better person,” she said. “It just gave me so much strength and so much perseverance. It’s weird – it’s just taught me what I want in life and what’s important versus what’s not. If you put your mind to it, you can really get past anything.” McCloskey, who lost her father this past summer, credits her hockey team for helping her through the difficult times. “They’re one of the biggest reasons I can even make it through the school day,” she said. “They were all so supportive when my father died and just through all my pain stuff. They’re the greatest bunch of girls ever.” And it is McCloskey who sets the tone for the team. “No one would know the difficulties and struggles she has gone through,” Rauchut said. “Megan has become an inspiration to her teammates. Her strength and passion for field hockey is contagious. As a player and individual, she goes above and beyond to better herself as a person, to better her teammates and the program.”
To read McCloskey’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/megan-mccloskey-0037495
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Sept. 17, 2013)
Ben Aunins is an advertisement for the value of perseverance. For two years, the Central Bucks West senior lived with constant pain in his left knee, a condition that was eventually diagnosed as Osgood-Schlatter disease as Aunins grew close to seven inches in less than two years. Instead of throwing in the towel as many would have done, Aunins continued to train as much as his knee would allow, and this year he is making important contributions as the seventh runner for a highly competitive West cross country squad. “It was rough going for him his sophomore year until the beginning of his senior year,” coach Greg Wetzel said. “This is the first time he’s been able to run uninhibited and train the way he’d like to. It’s been really cool from a personal standpoint to see a kid that’s invested so much and didn’t give in. A lot of kids might have said, ‘Oh, maybe this isn’t meant to be. This hurts too much.’”
Quitting was never a consideration for Aunins, who received a reprieve from the pain during winter track of his sophomore year, but the following spring the pain returned. Finally, by the end of his junior spring track season, Aunins was relatively pain free. No one is happier to see him back than his coach. “It’s really neat to see a high level student who has also pushed himself and persevered in something that maybe was going to work and maybe wasn’t, but he just kind of believed the whole time,” Wetzel said. “Now he’s cashing in on hanging in there. He’s put in a lot of miles running this summer and has a lot to be proud of from an athletic perspective but even more so from an academic perspective. He’s among our very best students at CB West in our whole school.”
Aunins, whose schedule is loaded with AP classes, boasts a GPA of 4.3034 and is in the top 10 percent of his class. He has earned numerous awards and honors, including first place in the Health/Medicine Category at Delaware Valley Science Fair as well as first place at the PJAS Local Science Fair and earning second place at the state level. With aspirations to one day pursue a career in medicine, Aunins is the co-president of the Future Doctors’ Club of America. “I really like helping people,” he said. Aunins got a taste for helping other volunteering with AMICA Lose the Training Wheels Bike Camp where he taught children with autism how to ride bikes.
Aunins plans to major in engineering and is leaning toward biomedical or mechanical engineering. He has a lengthy and impressive list of potential colleges. “Academics really comes first for me,” he said. “That’s how I’m going to pick my school.” Whether he competes in cross country at the collegiate level depends on where he winds up, but running at some level will undoubtedly be part of his future
To view Aunins’ complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/ben-aunins-0037544
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