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BASKETBALL
HANOVER GRAD TRACY LOOKING FOR SECOND CHANCE
PHOTOS BY SHANE DUNLAP/THE EVENING SUN
Soukaina Tracy straps a leg brace on before practicing at the Hanover YMCA on June 24 in Hanover. Tracy, a graduate of Hanover High School, has torn her left ACL twice and wears the leg brace for protection. Tracy had multiple offers to play Division I college basketball before her injuries.
After tearing her ACL twice, she’s trying to show college coaches she can still play game ZACH MILLER ZMILLER@GAMETIMEPA.COM
W
incing in pain and fighting back tears, Soukaina Tracy refused to let anyone help her walk off the court. In her mind, accepting help would’ve meant there was no denying she’d suffered her second anterior cruciate ligament tear in her left knee in 16 months. Maybe if she walked off on her own, she could still play in an upcoming AAU tournament in front of dozens of NCAA Division I college coaches. Maybe if she walked off on her own, she could still play her senior year of high school basketball at Hanover. Maybe if she walked off on her own, she’d run out of the tunnel for a major Division I team her freshman year of college.
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“The sound is traumatizing. It’s a terrible feeling. Not only the sound, but you feel your bones connect and you hear your bones connect. That’s how you know you tore it, when you hear that popping sound of the bones connecting.” SOUKAINA TRACY
Until that day in April 2015, Tracy’s career seemed headed for the big-time college stage. She drove to the basket during a game of one-on-one, leaned forward on her left leg to try to create some separation, and the leg gave out. The ligament and meniscus ripped, and she felt it as she heard a crackling sound. She lay on the court for a while, crying. Her knee hurt, but worse was the feeling that this new injury erased the nine-month rehab from her last ACL tear. It erased her great junior season that had won back all of the college coaches who doubted her after the first injury. It erased two months of going to the Hanover Area YMCA every day at 6 a.m. before school to work on her game. If not for that second injury, Tracy,
HANOVER GRADUATE
See TRACY, Page 2B
Soukaina Tracy practices dribbling basketballs June 24 at the Hanover YMCA.
HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
Scheduling conundrum impacts Brooks stays poised as recruiting more then just 6A programs season heats up BRANDON STONEBURG BSTONEBURG@GAMETIMEPA.COM
Any high school athlete immersed in the college recruiting process is facing more pressure than his or her peers. Their athletic and academic future could take a turn with each performance or interview. How they handle that pressure is unique to each individual. Eli Brooks bounced around the Gallagher Center halls at Philadelphia University on Wednesday joking with teammates and chatting with coaches while waiting for his AAU team’s turn to play. This didn’t look like a 17-year-old kid about to play in front of some of the nation’s top college basketball See BROOKS, Page 4B
BRANDON STONEBURG COLUMNIST
Last week we looked at the local 6A football programs and how their scheduling will be impacted by recent reclassification. Now we’ll take a look at other schools in the region and how they might be effected. What about the six 5A programs that will be competing with 30 5A schools around the district for just eight playoff spots? What kind of record will it take to break into the top-eight out of 30-plus schools? “I don’t know one coach who could be happy with not having the possibility of making the playoffs after going 7-3,” William Penn head coach Russ Stoner said. “It takes most teams four or five weeks to get a rhythm and see what they have. If they go .500 in that stretch, they can be out of the playoffs at that point.”
FILE/ GAMETIMEPA
Biglerville coach Alex Ramos has concerns about the number of teams that can qualify for the District 3 Class 3A playoffs. "There will be a team that goes 9-1 or 8-2 and doesn't make the playoffs and I do not agree with the let’s see what happens if it happens approach," he said.
And what about Dover, a 5A school playing in the YAIAA’s Division II which has five 4A teams and a 3A team? How can
that help their district rating within a point system that weighs wins See STONEBURG, Page 3B
Three nations collaborate on bird report BOB MARCHIO COLUMNIST
CHRIS KNIGHT/FOR GAMETIMEPA.COM
Spring Grove's Eli Brooks took the court for the Jersey Shore Warriors’ AAU team during Wednesday’s Summer Icebreaker showcase at Philadelphia University. A number of coaches from prominent college basketball programs were in attendance to watch Brooks and other top high school players from the region.
Efforts of tens of thousands of bird watchers in three countries have added to “The State of North American Birds 2016,” a report showing the status of all bird species occurring in Canada, the United States and
Mexico. As reported by Pennsylvania eBird and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the report “shows that more than one-third of all North American bird species need urgent conservation action and calls for a renewed, continentwide commitment to saving our shared birds and their habitats. Healthy environments for birds also provide benefits to other wildlife and people, such as clean
air and water, flood and erosion control, and coastal resilience. When bird populations struggle, our natural resources are stressed. “Birds in ocean and tropical forest habitats are in crisis. More than half of the bird species in these ecosystems are on the Watch List, which designates speSee MARCHIO, Page 3B