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 Sept. 15, 2025)
In the movie version of her rise to water polo stardom, Springfield senior goalkeeper Gretchen Linn will take to the sport like a fish to water and at the urging of her older sister, Anya. The reality is a little bit different. While it’s true she volunteered to play the often thankless role of being the last line of defense, it was not an easy transition. “I wanted to be a goalie because goalies are tall and I’m pretty tall,” said the 6-0 Linn, who had previous experience sacrificing her body as a softball catcher. “But, with the confidence part, I didn’t grasp it at first. It’s like being a baseball pitcher. Everyone is watching you when the ball gets to you. The basic stuff, I got. The fine-tuning stuff, though, took a couple of tries.”
The first few days were almost like being under fire on a battlefield. “It was terrible,” she recalled. “The first day, I got a nosebleed. I threw up every day. I think I got nose bleeds for like three weeks straight.” While she
jokes that her nose has gotten a little more crooked each year, the nose bleeds were likely for another reason. “I think it was from the amount of physical activity,” said Linn. “I had never moved that much ever in my life at once. It was crazy, but I just kept on coming back.”
And it also took a while for her older sister to come around to the idea of the siblings, three years apart, being teammates.Now a senior, Linn reflected: “It was one of those things where I was kind of interested in it and she said, ‘You can’t do it. It’s my thing. It’s my sport. Go play something else. Go play your (musical) instruments.’ Then, when preseason started, she said, ‘Go get a bathing suit, you’re coming with me.’ I said, ‘No, I’m not.’ Now, here I am, three years later.”
Linn is one of four captains on a team that is currently undefeated and on a path to the state fray after placing fourth a year ago. While water polo is a team game, the Spartans wouldn’t be enjoying their current rarified air without Linn in goal.
“In women’s water polo, having a good goalie solves about 60 to 70 percent of your problems,” said Spartans’ coach Jason Boles. “She’s like the spine of our team. If I didn’t have Gretchen on my team, being a captain and being a starting goalie, we wouldn’t be in the position that we’re in without her. She’s just amazing. She fell into that unique role as our goalie three years ago. She found herself stepping into a varsity goalie starting role very young.”
Outside of the pool, Linn has carved out her own unique path through welding, as she goes to technical school – Eastern Center for Arts and Technology in Willow Grove -- in the morning and then back to Springfield in the afternoon. Linn began the routine as a junior and had found it satisfying in many ways, although she is unable to take many AP classes. Still, with a heavy honors course load, she maintains a 4.0 GPA and hopes to major in mechanical engineering in college.
Linn has applied to Temple, Delaware, Scranton, Rutgers and Penn State. She is now waiting to hear back and focusing on being a brick wall and being in the moment with the Spartans. Since none of the colleges she is looking at has water polo above the club level, Linn knows this could be her last hurrah. “It was hard, but I think I have accepted it now,” she said, adding that there always adult leagues to seek out down the road. “Last year, when I was thinking about it, I was a little bit upset. It’s a big part of my life and a big part of who I am now.”
To read Linn’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/gretchen-linn-00120770
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Sept. 15, 2025)
Soccer has been something of a family affair for Andrew Rodgers. Or at least it has been for the Central Bucks East senior and his father. The middle of three boys, Andrew – who has been playing since he was three – could never get enough of the sport. Interestingly, neither of his brothers shared his passion for soccer and never played. So, while some youngsters grow up dreaming of one day playing football in the NFL or baseball in the Major Leagues, Rodgers had a decidedly more modest goal when – as a youngster - he regularly accompanied his father to Central Bucks East soccer games. “We would always go watch games because it was something to do, and it was super entertaining,” Rodgers said. “I always hoped that one day that would be me.”
Rodgers – in second grade at the time – was there when the Patriots won the PIAA 4A state championship in Hershey. “He comes from a great family, and he and his family’s devotion to the program is simply amazing,”
East coach Josh Isaacsohn said. “They’ve been closely following and attending CB East soccer events for at least the last 10 years when they didn’t even have a son on the team.” Andrew tried a lot of sports – football, basketball, tennis, baseball, but it was always soccer.
When he reached high school, Rodgers was a member of the freshman team and – as a sophomore – the junior varsity. As a junior, he earned a spot on the varsity, and the script was going as planned. Until a preseason practice. “I was set up in a wall for a free kick, and I got hit in the head,” Rodgers recalled. “I didn’t feel good – I felt dizzy, and eventually, I went to the doctors, and I was concussed.” In the blink of an eye, Rodgers went from the high of making the varsity to the low of sitting on the sidelines with a concussion for four weeks.
Fast forward to this fall when a healthy Rodgers went to tryouts. “This year I was concussed again,” he said. Once again, Rodgers was sidelined four weeks and just recently received the green light to resume playing. “The way he dealt with his injuries – he’s just a very, very mature young man,” Isaacsohn said. “He does everything right, gets himself back, and each time he is on the road to recovery, he experiences another setback. But he is a stand-up young man and athlete who has taken any adversity thrown his way and turned it into good for the team. He’s quiet and can be soft-spoken, and he’s just doing what he needs to do to help the team, and he’s just always been the kid who does that.”
An excellent student, Rodgers – who is enrolled in honors and AP classes - will major in biology on the pre-med track. He is uncertain of his college choice but is looking at large schools like Penn State, Pitt, Virginia among others. “My ultimate goal is to be able to get a Ph.D and hopefully at some time in the future work in the medical field and hopefully play soccer on the side,” he said. At East, Rodgers is a member of the Neuroscience Club and last year was involved in STEM research. This winter, he plans to join the ski club. Outside of school, he is involved in a volunteer group that packs food and distributes it to the homeless.
As for soccer, Rodgers is hoping to play some form of club sports. Listening to his coach tell it – any team would be fortunate to have him. “When he plays, he just gives it his all,” Isaacsohn said. “There’s nothing tentative about his play. He’s just all about his teammates and East soccer. We have a saying, ‘E over me,’ and he is the epitome of that saying. He is an amazing kid off the field. I have kids that I teach now – they talk about him and look up to him. He is just naturally a great, great kid.”
To read Rodgers’ complete story, please click on the following link: https://suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/andrew-rodgers-00120771
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