Manus McCracken

• Post by: mcalibrary
• January 12, 2024
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RUSS AND LO ANN CESARI SCHOLARSHIP

In what is certainly a first for the Romance Chapter, Manus McCracken has distinguished himself as the first Mount Carmel Area athlete to be awarded two of our scholarships, adding the Russ and Jo Ann Cesari Award. It was his superior efforts in the classroom that propelled him to the Cesari Scholarship. Manus has started 35 games at the linebacker position for Red Tornado football and has posted double digit tackles in 16 of them. His best effort was the 20 tackles in the games against the Danville Ironmen. He has come up big in the biggest of games, having 10 or more tackles twice against Southern, Selinsgrove, Loyalsock, South Williamsport and North Schuylkill.

McCracken led the 2017 Tornadoes with 133 tackles, 77 of them solo. The 77 solo tackles represent the most ever by a Red Tornado, surpassing Vince Yasenchak’s 76 in 1999 and Steve Matura’s 75 in 2002, both accomplished in 15 game seasons. The 133 tackles ranks as the 9th best season ever at MCA making him only the 10th MCA player to record 100 tackles in 2 seasons. Manus’s career total now stands at 332 tackles (7th all-time) with 35 for loss. He has also added 9 QB sacks, 3 Passes defended, 3 fumble recoveries and 5 QB hurries. In addition, he was the fullback who helped pave the way MCA to run for 3000 yards in 2017.

For his efforts, Manus was named to the PA Sportswriters AA First Team as a linebacker, Easter PA Football AA 1st team linebacker, Pennsylvania Football News AA 2nd team linebacker, and capped it off by being named to WNEP TV 16 Dream Team.

McCracken has also earned four letters with the Tornado Matmen and Coach Steve Pesarchick. He has managed to post over 35 wins during his senior campaign and recently earned a hard-fought third place finish in the Southern Sectional Tournament. He followed that up with a 4th place finish in Northeast Regionals, qualifying him to wrestle at the PIAA Championships at Hershey. Manus has also participated as a member of MCA track and field.

Manus is currently ranked 3rd in his class and has a 1480 in his SAT’s. He still finds time to volunteer in his church as an altar server and at the local food pantry, moving food goods and with distribution. He has also worked transforming the Mount Carmel Public Library Reading Garden into a beautiful and thriving flower garden for the citizens of Mount Carmel. Helping his community is important to him now and is part of his plans going further. Manus plans to attend an Ivy League or Patriot League school to major in mathematics or engineering. He is the son of Vivian and Casey McCracken of Mount Carmel.