Thanks to our continued partnership with Univest Financial, SuburbanOneSports.com is once again recognizing a male and female featured athlete each week. The recognition is given to seniors of high character who are students in good standing that have made significant contributions to their teams or who have overcome adversity. Selections are based on nominations received from coaches, athletic directors and administrators.
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Female Athlete (Week of April 23, 2026)
What a difference a year makes. Last year this time, Joslyn Perez was relegated to the role of cheerleader on the sidelines of her Plymouth Whitemarsh softball team. This year, Perez is back in the middle of the action as the starting shortstop for a Colonial squad that owns a share of the SOL Liberty Division’s top spot with the regular season winding down. The PW senior admits she is back with a different perspective after being sidelined through both last year’s basketball and softball seasons with a torn ACL. “Just the whole support aspect,” the PW senior said. “In basketball, I had a teammate that injured herself and missed her entire senior season, so I think showing support for people and showing you are there for them. In softball, it’s very easy to get down on yourself when you make an error. You stress out about those kinds of things. It definitely showed me the importance of having a team culture and having people surround you that are going to show up for you.”
Perez still wears a brace on her right knee that she hopes to shed by the time summer softball rolls around. “I feel good, a hundred percent,” she said. “Which is kind of crazy to say, but we’re pretty far into the
season when you think about it. Looking back and looking at it now, it’s like I barely think about my knee, which is good.” PW softball coach Mike Perez – who also happens to be her father – has had a front row seat to his daughter’s journey both on and off the diamond. “It’s a lot to take a full year off and come back to a game like softball, which has such technical skills that you need as far as the timing and everything,” the Colonials’ coach said. “But she’s working really hard to get back to where she was, for sure.”
A captain, Perez has fallen naturally into the role of leader. “Number one, it’s just her presence,” PW coach Perez said. “She just does everything she can for the team. She’s not a me-first type of player, and I think she’s the type of kid that leads by example. Kids just naturally gravitate towards that and follow her, which is huge. On the field, she played second base the first two years, and she’s moved to shortstop, which is her more natural position. Defensively, she’s just super steady for us out there. She makes all the plays she can, and a lot of the ones that are those plus plays. She brings a nice presence to the offense as well. She’s not the biggest kid, but she’s got some pop in the bat and get timely hits, and she’s a very unselfish player.
There was never a doubt Joslyn was going to play collegiate softball, and she committed to Kutztown University in November of her junior year. A month after committing to Kutztown – five games into her junior basketball season, Perez went down with a knee injury that was eventually diagnosed as a torn ACL. Perez had surgery and was out of action until the final weeks of her senior basketball season. She missed her entire junior softball season and travel ball season last summer but showed up every day for her teams. “I was in the starting lineup for softball and basketball, and that being taken away was very difficult,” Perez said. “But I like to think of myself as a person and teammate that is very supportive of other people. So, I was happily there to watch everybody else succeed, but mentally that’s not something that’s very easy, and you don’t want to show that because I wanted to show my support for everybody else that was out there. Mentally having people that reciprocated the support back and showed that they were there for me.” She returned to the court midway through her final basketball season.
In addition to sports, Perez is part of PW’s International Baccalaureate program, which includes a lot of service activities, including helping with the Philadelphia Marathon every year. As for her future, although she’s not 100 percent certain, Perez is deciding between a career in speech pathology and art therapy.
While there’s no mistaking that Perez’s talents in both sports will be missed, it’s much more “(I) love the person even more (than the player),” PW basketball coach Dan Dougherty said. “She has been a fixture at our summer camp every year. Campers love her. She has had such a positive attitude despite the injury. She is so reliable, responsible – everything you want from a leader. She’s so polite – you’d never know what a fierce competitor she is. I can’t say enough good things about Joslyn - I’m going to miss her so much."
To read Perez’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/joslyn-perez-00124314
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (April 23, 2026)
A truth since the Stone Ages: there are leaders and there are followers. And there is no doubt in which category Council Rock North lacrosse senior captain Owen Rodowicz falls. Not only is he the captain this year, but also as junior. As a sophomore, he captained the JV team. The son of Nicole and Bob Rodowicz, a pair he calls the “most supportive parents he could have asked for,” carries the same persona off the field. Not only has he ascended up the ladder to class president, but he’s played a leadership role around the building – from co-editing the yearbook to serving as an officer for Mini-THON to being a member of the mascot committee as well as the National Business Honor Society while also ascending to management positions at his summer jobs at the Jersey Shore.
“With lacrosse, I was JV captain my sophomore year, even though I ended up not really playing on JV,” Rodowicz said. “The way our captain system works is that the team votes and then the coaches vote. I was the
only junior captain out of the four last year and then I’m one out of four this year. I’m arguably the loudest, so that’s probably one of the major reasons. I’m not afraid to put a kid in his place if he’s not doing the right thing. I’ll always direct drills and stuff like that.”
Head coach John Fitzpatrick is already bracing for the reality of Rodowicz’s absence. “We are going to have a huge leadership hole to fill next year,” he said. “He is a true leader on and off the field, a two-year captain and our leader on defense where he plays against the other team’s best player. Owen is like having another coach on the field. He is highly intelligent and understands our defensive scheme more than any other player. He leads by example. He is the first to shake hands and to pick another player up when down.” Off the field, Rodowicz’s work in the classroom sets an example for his teammates.
Although he is the second of four lacrosse-playing brothers, Rodowicz was the first to be plucked from the baseball diamond as a second grader. “I hated baseball,” he joked. “I was that kid in the outfield picking dandelions. I just did not like it. My parents switched me over. I also had friends playing lacrosse. Second grade, I think, was my first year. I stayed with it all the way until now.” And some of those first teammates – Liam Dudley and Billy McBride – are now North teammates on a team ticketed for the postseason after missing out a year ago. They are looking to go out together on a high note, as North was 7-8 and year ago and has already surpassed that win total with 11 victories in 14 outings. “That was the goal,” he explained. “We said, ‘We have got to get back into the playoffs and win at least one again and maybe even beat the previous record and get into the third round.’ Liam Dudley and Billy McBride - we have been all playing together since second grade. That bond will last a lifetime.”
Rodowicz’s older brother, Tyler, switched over to lacrosse in high school and younger twins, Kellen and Eagan, are on the team now. Baseball’s loss has been lacrosse’s gain. “I coached his older brother, and he has two younger brothers on the team,” said Fitzpatrick. “All are very good lacrosse players.” Although he won’t be playing lacrosse at Penn State, the distinguished honor roll student is ready to write his next chapter at the school’s main campus. An avid traveler, who has been to Europe a few times, he found an ideal fit for a major in hospitality management. “That’s anything from hotel management to restaurant management,” he said. “Penn State is in the Top 5 for that major, which is why I ended up picking it.” Although it will involve putting in the hours, the major should allow Rodowicz a chance to continue to see the world.“That’s 100 percent part of it,” he said. “I don’t know where I’m going to end up yet, and I do have a lot of family around here. It’ll be tough, but I do really like the travel aspect of it. You’re still working, but you are at these awesome places. If that can be my job and I can get paid on top of it, I feel like it’s a win-win.”
To read Rodowicz’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/owen-rodowicz-00124310
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