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 Feb. 23, 2026)
Some athletes are born, and others are made. Hatboro Horsham senior swimmer Megan Luddecke is in the latter group, and she is proud to admit it. “As a freshman, when I first came to the team, I barely made districts,” said Luddecke. “I think I was seeded last or second last.” This year she went into districts seeded first in an event, the 200 freestyle. “It’s crazy,” said Luddecke, who didn’t join the Hatters as a club team superstar, instead coming up through the YMCA system, but she was quickly accepted by her high school teammates.
Now, instead of the Eagles or the Phillies, the Hatters will live forever in her heart as her favorite team. “When I came onto
the team in my freshman year, everyone else on the team already kind of knew each other,” she recalled. “They swam for the same club team, while I swam for the Y. I didn’t really know anyone, but it wasn’t really hard for me to get to know people. Everyone was really friendly, and they became my friends really quickly.” Among Luddecke’s biggest fans is her coach, Kip Emig. “She has been on our team since she was freshman, and she has just blossomed,” he said. “She’s just a hard worker and a good kid. She is one of those kids who you see in sports who just took to the training. She works hard and wants to get better. She puts all of her effort into it and it’s great. It’s been great to watch.”
Luddecke, a captain, has shared her unique work ethic with her teammates. She is generally the first in the pool for the practice and the last out of it. “She’s a leader by example,” said Emig. “She’s not that much of an outspoken kind of a kid. She is quiet and semi-introverted, but her work ethic is just out of sight. She’s always putting the work in, and I think she maybe gets a little bit frustrated when other kids don’t work.” The proof is in several state gold medals in relays to her credit, after first making states in one relay as a freshman. “Everything she has gotten, she has earned for herself, which is kind of cool,” said Emig. “She’s a dedicated swimmer. She was always staying after practice and asking questions and going back in the pool. She was constantly showing up early and staying late. She was really good with that kind of stuff.”
Primarily a backstroke specialist, Luddecke has shown her versatility by adding the 100 and 200 freestyle for the postseason, in addition to a pair of relays. She is geared up for states in the middle of March. “She has gotten that good,” said Emig. “If things go right, she can be an interesting kind of a swimmer. She can do it all. She switched up her events for her senior year. I think she was a little bit nervous about it at first, but we talked about it and she is going to do those two different events – along with the other events. It’s nice to coach a kid who is so versatile. I can put her anywhere in the lineup.”
Luddecke will continue her swimming career at Bloomsburg University. “I knew that I wanted to stay close to home for college,” said Luddecke, who gets solid grades with a lot of honors classes. “I started to reach out to a couple of schools that I could talk to about being on their team. They have a really good program. It is developing nicely and getting better. The team atmosphere and the coaching staff are really great, too. I just felt that was a good place to go.” While he believes Luddecke has Division I talent, Emig likes her future at Bloomsburg. “I’m looking forward to seeing what she does in college,” said Emig. “She is the kind of a kid who is going to go to college and just get even better. She is kind of a late bloomer. She has done some pretty incredible things, but she has really taken off this year. Her times are putting her into that D1 category, so it will be interesting to see what she does at Bloomsburg.” After coaching her for four years, Emig admits that it is going to be a strange feeling not coaching Luddecke next year. “I’m definitely going to miss her,” he said. “She wasn’t the most talented kid growing up. She has earned it all. She has earned my trust over the years, too, and I’m pretty sure that I earned hers.
To read Luddecke’s complete profile, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/megan-luddecke-00123117
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Feb. 23, 2026)
Meet Micah Millis. A student-athlete who gets it right. That might not sound like anything special, but in fact, it is. The Cheltenham senior is a captain and reserve for the Panthers’ SOL Freedom Division basketball team that has punched its ticket to the PIAA 6A State Tournament. In the classroom, Millis excels and aspires to be an aerospace engineer. “I don’t think that kid has seen a B since kindergarten,” Cheltenham basketball coach Patrick Fleury said and then reconsidered. “He probably never saw one.”
In truth, Millis is equally passionate about both sports and academics but recognizes that effort and reward do not necessarily
equate in both – a topic he made the subject of his college essay. “In school, it’s always been easy,” he said. “I obviously still work hard. I do the best of my ability to get good grades. I know if I put in 100 percent in school, I’m going to get a hundred percent on the test. There is really a direct exchange of effort and reward there. When it comes to basketball, you can put in as much as you can and you may not get everything you want out of it. That was really something that stood out to me while I was playing. My parents really tried to make it a point to me that regardless of the way that I work in school, that wasn’t necessarily going to happen in the world of sports. That understanding really helped me to navigate the journey I had through all three teams – freshman, JV and varsity. It really kept me going.”
If success in basketball were measured only by stats and minutes played, Millis might come up short, but there’s much more to it than that. For four years and all three of his teams, Millis was named a captain, and for four years, he was a valued member of the team. It was a success story of a different kind but, according to his coach, so very important. “Micah is just a hard worker, a good teammate, a good person,” Fleury said. “He’s somebody that through good and bad times weathers the storm. He puts the work before the reward. Micah is a four-year player and somebody that we’re very proud of. He has put his imprint on the program way further than any statistics could go.”
Making Milis perspective especially significant is that he was born into a basketball family. His mother and father, Adam and Brandi (Butler) Millis both played basketball at Cheltenham. His mother is one of the girls’ program’s all-time greats. She went on to play Division 1 basketball at the University of Richmond and later professionally in Israel, leaving behind a remarkable legacy. If it seems as though Millis would feel pressure – all kinds of pressure, guess again. “Every time I am in the gym, I look up at her picture and her name on the 1,000-point banner,” Millis said of his mother. “But I think more than anything – it’s just something that inspires me to work harder. I don’t look at it and think, ‘I need to live up to that in any way.’ She did so well that I don’t think there is any living up to that for anyone. I look at it and take it as an opportunity to push myself harder.”
It’s a mindset his parents encourage. “One hundred percent,” Millis said. “My mom is all about that kind of thinking. She was definitely a volume player. She got a lot of minutes – scoring, assists all of that, but I think she really appreciated the hard work aspect of the game. She still wakes up at five a.m. to work out, and I think that’s really carried on to me. I’m really grateful that both my parents really drove into my mind that I’m not going to be the best player on the floor all the time, but I can do everything I can – make the most of my opportunities, and I’m glad to see that.”
As much as he loves basketball, Millis – who can solve the Rubik’s cube in seven seconds - also loves life in the classroom and has taken a courseload of honors and AP classes. He has been accepted at a lengthy list of schools that includes Penn State, Maryland, Drexel, Susquehanna, Lebanon Valley among others. He is waiting to hear back from Princeton.
Millis is a member of the National Honor Society, and he volunteers at a local food pantry. “Micah is more than a basketball player and that’s what we want,” Fleury said. “Everything that is great about him as a person is what it is with basketball. Does that mean he’s going to score 20 points? No, but he’ll give full effort. He’ll learn, he’ll figure it out. He’s a kid that wants it, not just in basketball but overall. He passes the test. He’s just a great kid. “
To read Millis’ complete profile, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/micah-millis-00123116
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