In a year of transition, the Souderton boys' basketball team maintained its strong roots with its community. The following article is sponsored by the Souderton boys’ basketball booster club.
Souderton players help their community, make new friends, and break in a new coach
By Jarrad Saffren
At some high schools, varsity basketball players are too cool to hang out with special needs students. But at Souderton Area High School, these two typically disparate groups do hang out, in a way.
For three years, Souderton boys basketball players have been volunteering at Firely Pediatric Services, an assisted living facility four minutes down the road from Souderton High. Firely houses and cares for children with muscular dystrophy, partial brain damage, and trachea dependency, among other conditions. Many have trouble talking or walking or both. But they are not orphans.
“It’s usually a situation where parents either can’t take care of them or don’t want to,” said Colleen Sharkey, Firely’s Director of Marketing. “Some have medical problems. Some have situations in their lives. They may be awarded to the county and taken from their parents.”
Souderton’s players got involved with Firely through a team mom, Karen Simsick, whose son Tracy is a senior guard/forward on Souderton.
Karen owns and operates Styles Unlimited Salon & Spa in Harleysville, 11 minutes north of Souderton. She works with MATRIX, a global company that provides hairdressers with a range of products.
Almost three years ago, MATRIX started an initiative called Chairs of Change, which asked salon owners and hairdressers to host a charity event and share the experience on the Chairs website, inspiring other salon owners to do the same.
Simsick wanted her salon’s event to raise money for Tracy’s team.
“We did it for the boys,” Karen said.
One day, Karen was styling the hair of a client who volunteered at Firely.
“She said, ‘Hey, if you’re raising money, why not donate it to Firely?’” Karen said.
Simsick hosted a ladies night at Styles and raised “a few hundred dollars.” She told the boys they had to donate 20 percent of the proceeds to Firely.
A relationship was born.
Later in 2013, Souderton hosted an area-wide shoe drive and donated $500 to Firely. On Christmas Day, they gave gifts and food to the kids who live at Firely.“It was amazing,” Karen said.
The shoe drive and Christmas drive became annual traditions. Souderton’s players also started sponsoring six or seven Firely kids each year, buying them coats, hats, gloves, and toys, and, more importantly, hanging out with them.
Senior guard Ty Salone has developed a special bond with a Firely kid named Brian. Salone plays games and watches television with Brian.
“He can’t talk or do anything, but he always has smile on his face,” Salone said. “That really tells you how good you got it, that a kid like that can always be happy and smiling.”
Some of the high school-age Firely kids attend Souderton. When they see the basketball players in the hallway and when the basketball players see them, they embrace like old friends who have not talked in three long periods.
“It was definitely cool,” junior guard Mike Bealer said. “To know that they knew who you were and you were helping them out. You could tell by the way they looked at you that they appreciate you helping them out.”
“It’s fun,” senior center Austin Eberhart said. “Helping them out and seeing them in school, you become friends with them. It puts a smile on their faces and also puts a smile on our faces.”
Sharkey said the kids love seeing the players, at Firely and in school.
“Oh my God they love them, especially the girls,” Sharkey said. “They don’t ever get to see young kids like that come into the facility.”
In 2015, these charitable efforts also helped Souderton’s players get acclimated to a new coach.
The 2015-16 season has been a season of transition for the Indians. In the offseason, one day before camp started, coach Pete Chimera was let go. Chimera went 43-30 in three seasons, finishing above .500 and making the playoffs each year. But Souderton lost in the first round in 2014 and ’15.
“We weren’t getting the job done,” Simsick said. “It was a really rough time.”
New Souderton athletic director Dennis Stanton, who took over immediately after Chimera was terminated, tapped former Villanova forward Chuck Kornegay to replace Chimera. Kornegay was a big name with some impressive YouTube videos of his overseas playing career.
“We were wowed with him and his resume,” Salone said. “After he got hired, we saw a video of him getting a backdoor cut and dunking on a dude in Turkey or Spain.”
But Kornegay came from outside the program and had never been a head coach. Souderton also lost First Team All-SOL Continental forward Evan Slone to graduation. Combined, the sudden transition and loss of Slone were too much to overcome.
The Indians struggled to a 7-13 record (3-9 SOL Continental Conference), but they are hoping to close out the season strong. After earning a convincing win over Central Bucks South Friday, the Indians extended conference-leading Pennridge to double overtime before falling on Monday.
Despite the team’s struggles, Kornegay and his players have grown close off the court. “Everyone on our team is very giving,” Eberhart said. “It shows with all the charity work we do. Everyone enjoys it.”
Kornegay helped host the team’s annual preseason game against a Special Olympics team and volunteered at the Christmas drive at Firely. When the players saw that Kornegay enjoyed the charity work, they realized that he is more than an impressive leaper who dunked on dudes overseas.
“That showed that he was a perfect coach for us,” Bealer said. “It showed he cared about the community. He’s a great guy. He cares about everybody, not just his team.”
“Even though he’s ginormous, he doesn’t come off as a big, scary dude. He comes off as a big teddy bear.”
Simsick, Salone, and Eberhart are seniors. Bealer is a junior. As a new coach, it’s never easy to walk into a veteran-laden locker room that is used to the coach they grew up with. But community work made the transition easier.
“Tracy leaves this season and I can’t tell you how many parents come up to me and say we want to continue this when you guys leave,” Karen said. “I’ll stay in touch with those parents and make sure they follow up. It’s been an amazing ride.”
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