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 Jan. 14, 2016)
Coaches spend a lot of time talking about the importance of intangibles, and if anyone ever had the corner of the market on the intangibles coaches covet, it might well be Central Bucks West senior Emily Halderson. As an all-league defender, Halderson boasts her share of talent and will continue her field hockey career at the Division One level. While talent can be replaced, the type of leadership the Bucks’ senior captain provided – according to coach Courtney Lepping – will be hard to duplicate. “On a team with a bunch of starts, a bunch of really great players, she had the ability to make everyone feel more confident,” the West coach said. “So whether you were the great player that was having a bad day or the player that was filling a role and wasn’t sure if they could do it, she had the ability to make you feel like ‘I can do this.’ She just has this confidence in her approach with you. She’s just very good at handling and talking to people in a way that encourages them and tells them – you can do this. Even when our good players weren’t having good days, she could still talk to them and bring out the best in them. That’s a skill I can’t teach.”
There’s no mistaking this year’s West squad – which won the program’s first conference title in 16 years and advanced to the state tournament – was blessed with talent, but Halderson played a key role in pulling it all together and, more importantly, keeping it all together. “She’s someone who’s learned over the course of time how to treat people and how to be open to them,” Lepping said. “Emily was someone that players would say ‘I went to Emily. I feel better, I’m good.’ It was really amazing she had that kind of ability, and I don’t know how to bottle it up.” Halderson said she learned from those who went before her and credits the senior captains when she was a freshman – Heather Zezzo and Ginny Moore – for modeling leadership qualities she would later emulate. “When I was a freshman, the seniors were absolutely incredible,” Halderson said. “They really made us feel like we were part of the team, so I think that was my inspiration for this season.”
Halderson’s contributions went beyond her leadership, she anchored the Bucks defense at center back. She recently signed a letter of intent to take her hockey talents to Fairfield University where she plans major in speech therapy. At West, she is a member of Class Council and is an ambassador for the Cooking for the Homeless Club. An excellent student, her course load includes AP macro as well as honors classes. Halderson has gotten her money’s worth out of her high school experience, but it wouldn’t have been the same without field hockey. “As much as I hate for it to be over, it’s just an incredible year to end with, especially with the group of people and how close-knit our team was,” she said. “It really made it a special senior year and a special high school journey.”
To read Halderson’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/emily-halderson-0058993
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Jan. 14, 2016)
Mike Stock Jr. was surrounded by the world of sports and introduced to exceptional student-athletes from an early age. That’s what happens when your father is a high school athletic director and basketball coach. For Stock, one athlete in particular stood out. “I remember growing up watching Tyrone Lewis at Truman,” Stock said of the former Tigers’ standout basketball player. “My dad coached him. I remember watching him, wanting to be like him.” Much has changed in the 10 years since a young Stock last watched Lewis play for Truman. For one, while Stock has continued to play basketball, he has gravitated toward football and plans to play on the gridiron in college. And while Lewis was a dynamic, record-setting performer for the Tigers, Stock has become known for doing the little things that don’t appear in the scorebooks or grab the headlines. But he’s no less important to the Council Rock South boys’ basketball team than Lewis was to the Tigers in his heyday. “Mike is not a guy who’s consistently scoring a lot of points or getting those stats you see in the newspaper,” said Hawks’ coach John Easterly. “He does all the intangible stuff, the stuff people that don’t know basketball might not notice. He’s our leading rebounder this year, he gets assists, he leads and directs our defense. On the offensive end, he calms us down. He’s turned out to be a very consistent, stable, reliable player out on the floor for us. I can always count on him to guard the other team’s best big man. And if we don’t put him on the other team’s best player, he ends up helping everyone out guarding their own guys. He’s a very unselfish defensive player.”
Stock is also smart and fearless on the court. He came off the bench early in his sophomore season before earning his place as a starter later in the year. Nonetheless, he set a school single-season record by drawing 18 charges. As a junior, he upped that total with 19 charges drawn. Halfway through his senior season, Stock has already equaled that mark. It’s a role that’s echoed on the football field where Stock plays the unglamorous position of fullback on the offensive side of the ball. “He’s the consummate team player,” coach Vince Bedesem said. “(He’s) always team first. Mike played linebacker – both inside and outside – defensive end, fullback. Wherever you asked Mike to play, he would accept the challenge and be the best he could be on the field.”
Stock is a member of the school’s Athletes Helping Athletes club that works with special needs kids and introduces and teaches them sports. It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’ve been doing things like that since elementary school. It’s been my love.” Stock – an excellent student –plans to pursue a degree in special education. “Wherever he ends up playing athletics in college, they’re going to get a kid who’s going to give a full-on effort every time he steps on the field,” Easterly said. “They’re going to get a kid that’s dedicated to their program, a kid that’s going to work on his academics and be a good student as well as a good citizen. You want kids in your program that are good people as well as strong in the classroom and also strong on the field. Mike’s going to bring that to wherever he decides to go.”
To read Stock’s compete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/mike-stock-0058994
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