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
Chloe Tice established herself as one of the premiere catchers in the area, but interestingly, the Upper Moreland senior actually began her high school career on the other side of the battery. Tice likely could have begun her ninth grade season as a varsity catcher. Instead, Golden Bears’ coach Scott Ludlow asked a very large favor from the then-freshman. “She came into her freshman year as an experienced softball player,” he said. “But I didn’t take her on varsity to start. I said to her, ‘I have no pitchers on jayvee. Can you pitch on jayvee to get me through the year?’ She’d thrown in little league, in travel. She said, ‘Absolutely,’ and she pitched half a season on jayvee until we had an injury and called her up as the varsity starting catcher. That’s a great example of the kind of kid that Chloe is. She will do whatever you ask her to do, and she will always do it with a smile on her face.”
Tice’s call up to varsity effectively ended her pitching career, and she returned to where she was far more comfortable – behind the plate – and immediately made her presence felt. “Chloe ended up having a successful freshman season,” Ludlow said. “She controlled the game from behind the plate. We let her figure things out and call a couple games her freshman year, and starting her sophomore year, she’s called every pitch.” A student of the game and fixture behind the plate, Tice contributed offensively as well, this year batting out of the leadoff spot for the first time. “She’s been an outstanding asset as leadoff hitter,” Ludlow said. “Chloe is the kind of kid who will do anything you ask the best she can, and she works hard not just to get it done but to excel.” As valuable as Tice has been on the field, she’s been just as critical for her knowledge and leadership on this year’s squad. “Chloe is one of those kids that comes along once in a long time,” Ludlow said. “I’ve only had a handful of them in my 18 years of coaching. She has an incredible softball mind, she knows how the game is played and she knows strategy, and she works so hard. She’s a leader on and off the field. She’s always positive, always helping out kids and propping them up.”
Tice is a member of Bear Buddies and is one of the leaders of Athletes Helping Athletes, which supports student in Life Skills classes in high schools around the area. In the fall, Tice will move on to Moravian College where she will have a chance to crack the softball team’s lineup as a freshman. She is leaning toward a chemistry major with a possible minor in public health with the goal of becoming a food chemist.
To read Tice’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/chloe-tice-0078305
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete
With the onset of years, many people look back on their high school days and lament the fact that they didn’t get the most out of the experience. Matt Lista will not be one of those regretful folks. The Souderton senior lacrosse player is restless in his ambition, both on and off the field. On the field, he is a team captain, he has earned four varsity letters and was named to the All-SOL American Conference third team. As someone who plays the position of long stick middie, Lista has worked tirelessly at his craft to become one of the team’s most important defensive players, drawing difficult assignments in every game the team plays.
Lista wasn’t necessarily an impact player for Souderton right away. After being thrust into a starting varsity role as a sophomore, there were some growing pains. “At first, it was trial by error,” coach Mark Princehorn said. “But the potential and talent was there. He just needed the experience, and as he got it, he got better and better each day. As a junior and now as a senior, he turned his difficult struggles into game experience, and he’s shown the younger kids what can happen when that takes over.”
This fall, Lista will be bound for Penn State University to major in international politics with a minor in Spanish. He is set to matriculate into the university’s Schreyer Honors College and has his eventual sights set on law school with a career in politics where he hopes to make a difference and help those who need it most. An experience that dictated his academic direction was last summer when he was part of the Georgetown University Law Institute internship, a weeklong seminar in Washington, D.C., that offered a full 12-hour class schedule and intense exposure to the legal system in America.
Lista’s extra curricular activities read like a grocery list for a family of five. He is involved in Souderton’s student government, is the secretary for the Young Politics Club, participates in Inter-Club Council, the Law Club, serves as president of the Mock Trial Club, is on the principal’s student advisory board and is a member of the National Honor Society. He holds down a ridiculous 4.584 GPA and will graduate in the top five percent of his class.
In addition to his duties as a lacrosse team captain, Lista is a Souderton Lacrosse camp counselor and youth lacrosse coach, as well as a volunteer for the Darren Daulton Foundation and Brothers Helping Brothers charitable organization. “A kid like Matt, he pours so much into everything he does,” Princehorn said. “He’s beyond his years maturity-wise, and I just want him to look back on his time in high school and enjoy it, to stop and smell the roses.”
To read Lista’s complete profile, please click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/matt-lista-0078277
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