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 for week of Jan. 25, 2021
Paige Malpezzi has always had a love affair with sports. The Lower Moreland senior – like many youngsters - grew up with the dream of one day playing soccer for the U.S. Women’s National Team. “I started with micros soccer when I was three, and I fell in love with it,” Malpezzi said. “I was obsessed with it. My room was full of soccer decorations. I used to be soccer, soccer, soccer, but when I got to high school, I kind of transferred over to – do I like lacrosse better, do I like soccer better? I think lacrosse is my top sport now.” That’s hardly surprising since Malpezzi was something of a star the moment she stepped onto the lacrosse field for the Lions, scoring 50 goals during a dazzling freshman season. Big things were in store for the talented rookie, who entered her sophomore season with the goal of reaching the 100-goal milestone. Malpezzi scored 20 goals in the first four games of her sophomore year when the unthinkable happened. “I’m cradling the ball running down the field and I do a quick cut,” she said. “I just fell to the ground, and right when I did it, I knew it was an ACL again.”
‘Again’ is the key word. It turns out Malpezzi tore the ACL in her right knee playing soccer in seventh grade. This time it was her left. “On the field, I was so mad, more mad than sad,” she said. “I was like, ‘I have to go through this whole process again. I’m going to miss so much,’ but then I kind of accepted it. I was like, ‘Okay, time to work through it and get past it.’” That immediate acceptance of what she could not change speaks volumes about the Lower Moreland senior. Long gone was Malpezzi’s childhood dream of playing for the women’s national soccer team, and also gone was the dream of pursuing lacrosse at the highest level. If missing her sophomore lacrosse season wasn’t enough, Malpezzi – scheduled to return to the lineup – saw her junior season wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “All these things going against her, but she just has a good attitude despite all of that,” LM lacrosse coach Jessica Ashenbrenner said. “Most kids would be angry about their circumstances, and I’m sure she’s bummed and stuff when she thinks about it, but she was just realistic and knows what she wants and reconfigures what she needs to. She was constantly there the entire season, just coaching on the field. I think we even gave her a coach shirt because she was helping out.”
Malpezzi was back on the field this past fall for the soccer team, a mainstay in the Lions’ lineup and a leader on and off the field. “If I could give a profile on Paige – she’s very strong on the ball, she has a pretty good foot, and she’s one of those players that just has that instinct for the goal,” LM coach Matt Gould said. “She did a really good job of creating chances on low quality possessions, and for a team that lost so many seniors to injuries this year, it was really important to have that.” For Malpezzi, sports – and the injuries – have taught her valuable life lessons. “Definitely never to give up,” she said. “I’ve been through two torn ACLs. After the first one, I’m like, ‘I’ll be fine,’ but when the second one happened – life is about getting over those big challenges.”
Malpezzi has no intention of giving up sports and is looking to go the club route at college with the University of Delaware and the University of Connecticut two schools she is seriously considering. She plans to major in exercise science with plans to pursue a career as a physician’s assistant specializing in orthopedics and sports injuries. An honors student, Malpezzi is a member of National Honor Society and the school’s THON committee. “She’s a very high character kid, a good kid,” Gould said. “Her parents are super nice people. It’s just a reflection of what Lower Moreland Township has been producing. It’s not the quality of the athlete but the quality of the kids that are coming out that is very impressive overall as a community.” “Everyone loves this kid,” Ashenbrenner said. “Teachers love her because she’s comfortable, she’s intelligent, she’s respectful. I’m trying to think of the words to do her justice, to show who she is because she’s a naturally awesome person. She’s someone you want to be around. Her teammates, her teachers, her fellow students – she exudes a personality you want to be around. Most of the lacrosse girls I’ve coached are nice, but she brings up the people around her. I think that’s what’s special about her.”
To read Malpezzi’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/paige-malpezzi-0092721
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete for week of Jan. 25, 2021
Play every game as if it is your last has been the battle cry for athletes dating back to the ancient Greeks, if not before. William Tennent senior Michael Scheller has learned, first-hand, that this saying has real-world implications. A two-sport athlete in basketball and baseball, he saw his high school baseball season – and most of his summer season – wiped out last year because of COVID-19. This year, he actually tested positive for the virus himself, temporarily imperiling the Panthers’ whole season, which is now eventually underway with him back in his role as a defensive specialist and rebounding machine. Add in the fact that Scheller is torn between attending a university like Pitt or Penn State or taking his talents as a pitcher/infielder to the Division II or III level, and there is another layer of fog surrounding the unknown. “There is always doubt,” said Scheller, who has been spending his senior year in the alternate universe of going to school mostly virtual, with some hybrid, while practicing each day with the team. “We had to shut it down with basketball because of me. I had COVD back in November. We weren’t sure if we were going to come back or how it was going to work. Everything was shut down for two weeks, then we went on winter break, so we didn’t really get in too many workouts or practices in before then.”
For a while, it seemed like losing to CB East on a buzzer beater in the District One playoffs last season was going to be the final memory, but the basketball season is now underway, and Scheller and company are making the most of every moment, with some games played in empty gyms and others in front of select crowds. “I've known Michael since he was in middle school,” said Tennent basketball coach Robert Mulville. “He has always been a person of character as far as how he treats others and his play on the court. His play on the court settles the team down. He is calm with the ball, he knows where people are supposed to be on the court and he waits for the play to develop. He is the ultimate team player in practice and in games.”
Because of COVID, Tennent had no baseball season last year. Scheller plays for the Philly Bandits, an AAU team that allows for exposure in national tournaments, but that was pretty much shut down early after just a few local tournaments. That, along with the fact that colleges are allowing an extra year of eligibility, has made it difficult to fulfill his longtime dream of playing college baseball. Scheller has receiver a lot of support from his AAU coach David Amaro – yes, the brother of Ruben Amaro – to land a spot on a college roster. Amaro is not only hopeful that it will all work out, but is glad to help. “Michael is a coach’s dream, and he is a hard worker, very talented and a quiet leader that leads by example,” Amaro said. “He is a talented baseball player and he would already be committed to a great college/ baseball program if it weren’t for the NCAA D1 ‘dead recruiting period,’ which prohibits college coaches from recruiting until April 15 of this year. That caused a lot of players to get missed.” Scheller has already been accepted to the likes of Penn State, Pitt, Delaware and West Chester.
As hard as he goes at it with sports, Scheller has always been just as diligent in the classroom. He ranks 36th in the class and has a 3.77 GPA. “I take pride in that. I’m really serious about school. That’s where you really need to be. You want to do the best for yourself. That’s what I’m always thinking: ‘If you’re not doing the best for yourself, why are you are doing it?’ When it comes to my teachers and my peers, I want to show them that I’m serious about what I’m doing.” Added Mulville, who gets a double dose of Scheller: “Michael displays these same characteristics (he displays on the court) in the classroom as I have him in my AP Government class. He is helpful with class discussions in class and interacting with classmates as well as being a very conscientious student.” As if that weren’t enough, he has taken on plenty of leadership challenges at Tennent -- National Honor Society, Business National Honor Society, Athletic Council, Student Government and Black and White leadership. “I’m ready for the future,” he said. “I definitely have a lot of goals and I want to do the best that I can. I’m ready for the next step.”
To read Scheller’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/michael-scheller-0092720
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