Swimming
Favorite athlete: Missy Franklin
Favorite team: United States National Team (Swimming)
Favorite memory competing in sports: My first race at Districts my freshman year was the 200-yard freestyle, and I was beyond nervous. All throughout the day leading up to the race, my best friend, Emily, did her best to settle me down. She gave me pep talks, assured me of my ability, and smiled when I began to panic. She succeeded. It was one of the best races I’ve ever had. But the best moment was hugging her after I finished.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I have had too many pool-deck-wipeouts to count!
Music on iPod: Feel good music
Future plans: Go to college, study abroad, fulfill my wanderlust, make friends from around the world.
Words to live by: “Enjoy the little things in life for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.”
One goal before turning 30: Be a published writer.
One thing people don’t know about me: I reread my favorite books at least once a year.
By Mary Jane Souder
Roll back the calendar to the fall of 2011.
Casey O’Neill was a newcomer at Upper Dublin High School after attending a private Catholic school in Wyncote for grade school. It could have been a rough transition, but it wasn’t.
“Swimming made the transition so much easier,” the Upper Dublin senior said. “I knew a few people going to the school.
“The first day at lunch Emily Houser saw me walk into the cafeteria alone, and she ran over to me with her friend Joseph and said, ‘Come sit with us,’ and I sat with them the rest of the year.
“The only people I really knew were on the swim team, and that made the transition really easy. I had people to sit with at lunch that took me under their wings. I had people to laugh with after school after not talking to many people during the day for fear I just didn’t know anybody. It was my first comfort level in high school, and I just branched out from there, which was really awesome.”
An impact swimmer from the outset, O’Neill went on to become a leader and is not only a captain of the Cardinals’ swimming team but is also the vice president of her senior class and is an officer in the National Honor Society.
She has been to states in swimming every year since she was a freshman.
“When you come in as a freshman, it’s hard because there’s going to be a natural jealousy, but she was so unobtrusive about it, she was so low key about it,” coach Pat Redican said. “I think that freshman year was critical because she didn’t overwhelm anyone with – ‘Hey, look at me,’ but after two or three weeks of watching her swim – I hate to use a tired image, but she’s like the Energizer bunny.
“She not a big girl, but you just wind her up, and boom, she goes. She swims distance, she swims all four strokes, she’ll swim the IM if we need her to. She’ll do anything we need her to do, and she just goes after it all the time.
“I think the girls saw her and said, ‘She’s the real deal. She’s not only good – she works at it,’ and I think that probably is the big legacy for her that she’s taught our girls what the value of hard work can be.”
O’Neill began swimming competitively for a summer club team when she was eight years old. One thing led to another.
“All my friends on the club team swam in the winter, so I decided I wanted to do that,” she said. “I was about 10 years old at that point.
“That’s when I joined Upper Dublin Aquatic Club. I’ve been here ever since. It’s been awesome. It’s a very special place.”
O’Neill did a very brief stint with softball and also took ballet lessons, but swimming has been her passion.
“I wasn’t a great athlete,” she said. “I couldn’t throw well, I couldn’t catch well, I couldn’t run fast.
“My mom never put me in soccer, and every little kid plays soccer. Not that I would have been an all-star soccer player, but swimming was the main focus of my athleticism.”
As a freshman, O’Neill joined a deep and talented Upper Dublin swim team that went on to capture the district title. She excelled immediately, but she initially felt some discomfort.
“We had a really, really deep team, the deepest team in all my time here,” O’Neill said. “It was great because we were so strong, but that also meant competition within the team, which I was very nervous for because of my friendship to Emily who was a junior.
“She was like my first friend in high school, and I was nervous I was going to take her spot on the 400 free relay because she had missed out on it the year before and that really bummed her out because she had been bumped off. I was really nervous I was going to do that to her again as a freshman, and that would have been really hard.”
O’Neill expressed her concern to Redican.
“Casey was pretty much solidly on the relay, and Emily was fighting for the fourth position in the relay,” the Flying Cardinals’ coach said. “And poor Casey came to me as we got closer to districts in tears and said, ‘I just so much want Emily to be on that relay, but I can’t say anything because it has got to be whoever is the fastest. I just want to help Emily out.’
“I said, ‘You help Emily out by doing what you’re doing. You encourage her.’ That’s the way it was. Emily knew she had to earn it.”
The story had a happy ending, Emily Houser, who went on to swim at Dickinson, earned a spot on a relay team, and the best friends went on to win the gold at districts, advancing on to states.
“It’s my favorite swimming memory – my freshman year districts and going on to states,” said O’Neill, who has been to states in the 200 freestyle as well as the 200 and 400 free relays for three consecutive years. “I’m hoping to make it four this year. I’d also like to get to states in the 500. That’s been my goal since my freshman year.
“I knew I could do it last year, but as luck would have it, I got sick at districts.”
O’Neill, who has already made the automatic times for districts in the 200 and the 500, is a quiet leader for the Flying Cardinals.
“She’s not crazily outspoken,” Redican said. “She won’t give them the big rah, rah.
“Swimming can be a pretty silent sport in a lot of ways because you spend so much time with your face in the water, but the kids just see her, and they see what she does. That’s pretty much it.”
As for her future, O’Neill isn’t sure how swimming will fit into the picture, but she knows it will.
“Whether it entails competing on the collegiate level or on the club level or on the master’s level, I will always be a swimmer, which is a huge comfort,” she said. “No matter where I go, I’ll either be on a team or I’ll swim club.
“It all will depend on finances and comfort level and academics, and then swimming will just always fall into place.”
An outstanding student, O’Neill plans to double major in English and Political Science or – if not English – Journalism with the dream of perhaps one day landing a job as the producer of a news show.
O’Neill’s leadership skills extend beyond the pool. She is a member of the National Honor Society executive board and also is a member of the school’s Student Council in addition to serving as a class officer.
“She’s found her way very nicely at Upper Dublin,” Redican said. “Straight down the line – teachers, coaches, everybody seems to like her.
“It’s hard to say that without some qualification, but I really don’t know of one.”
In her spare time, O’Neill volunteers at Gilda’s Club, a cancer support group. She was chosen to be a member of Upper Dublin’s British Exchange and is partnered with a British student name Euan. He was part of the group that came to visit in late October.
“It’s been the most amazing experience,” she said. “They were with us for about 10 days. We traveled to Washington, DC, New York City and Philadelphia with them.”
In March, O’Neill will travel to England with a group of students from Upper Dublin. The 20-day trip will include traveling to Scotland, London and Bath and spending 10 days with the British students who visited the States.
It’s all part of a journey that began in the fall of 2011 when O’Neill opted to attend Upper Dublin.
“I was very close to not coming to Upper Dublin,” she said. “Most of my classmates from Ancillae (Ancillae-Assumpta Academy) went on to private Catholic all-girls’ schools. I was very close to doing what was expected of me and going to those schools with my friends, and I have no doubt that I would have loved it, but I’m so glad I came to Upper Dublin.
“It’s been really awesome. I’ve met awesome people, I’ve done really great things. If I hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t have met Emily (Houser), I wouldn’t have done the British Exchange, I wouldn’t have met Mr. Redican. I think it’s all about the people you meet, not the place that you are. Not that Upper Dublin isn’t a special place, but it has special people, and I’m really lucky to have met them.”
