Cross Country, Track
Favorite athlete: Hope Solo
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: All the unforgettable times with my teammates who are not only the most extraordinary and unpredictable group of people, but true friends who I will miss more than anything.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: During the first day of preseason last year, we were doing a grass hill workout around the school athletic fields. We were on relay teams, and I was the first person to run down the hill. I was also the first to find out how muddy it was. I tripped and rolled down the entire hill. One of my teammates even caught it on video! We all could not stop laughing and still laugh about it today.
Music on iPod: All different music
Future plans: I plan to attend college next fall and study biology, possibly premed. I also plan to continue running track and cross country.
Words to live by: ‘Live life with no regrets.’
One goal before turning 30: To compete in an Olympic-distance triathlon
One thing people don’t know about me: I actually love skiing in the winter and wish I lived closer to go more often!
By Alex Frazier
Some kids are great athletes.
Some kids excel in the classroom.
And some kids become leaders in extracurricular activities.
It is the extraordinary individual who finds success in all three areas.
Upper Merion’s Amber McAteer is one of that rare breed.
In her first year of cross country as a sophomore, McAteer won the American Conference.
“It was a great surprise,” said her coach Matt Collins. “She’s a gifted athlete.”
“I didn’t know what to expect coming into our league,” said McAteer. “It was a good way to start off my cross country running career.”
To prove it was no fluke, she did it again last year.
“I had more experience going into races, and I could feel more confident knowing different courses that I had been on the previous year,” she said. “Overall it was challenging. It’s always mentally challenging.”
Particularly if you start comparing times on the same course.
Last week, for example, McAteer finished second at the C.B. East Invitational, which in itself was a great accomplishment, but her time was a bit slower than last year.
“It was OK,” she said. “I was expecting a little more competition. I wasn’t too happy with my time.”
Until 10th grade, McAteer had been playing field hockey in the fall as well as club soccer. She had some experience running track, which she began in fifth grade, with her church’s CYO team.
“My mom knew the coach, and we tried it and it was really fun,” said McAteer.
In the spring track season of her freshman year, her coach convinced her to run cross country, and now she is a year round runner.
In the winter, she runs the 800, mile, and some shorter events as well.
“I love our cross country and track teams,” she said. “It’s a mixture of random kids from our school, but we all get along and everyone’s so nice and everyone loves being there.”
McAteer has been appointed captain of the team for a second time this year. Collins said that even if her teammates voted for captain, she would have been their choice too.
That’s because McAteer is such a team player.
“After she finishes a race, she’s the first one to try to get back on the course and root on her teammates that finish later,” said Collins.
McAteer also takes the lead in organizing the team. Following the end of school last year and before informal team practices began, McAteer arranged for runs at Valley Forge Park.
“She’s a very team-oriented person,” said Collins. “I’m positive that if there was a way for her to have less success and the team more, she would want the team to have more.”
As a student, McAteer takes a course load that would boggle the brightest of minds. This year she is taking five Advanced Placement courses—government/politics, biology, physics, statistics, and calculus 2, not to mention French 5, which she wasn’t sure was AP, and health.
In addition, she had signed up for AP English, but was wisely convinced by her coaches that maybe it was a bit too much.
“I did all the summer work and reading, but after talking to my coaches, I decided I couldn’t take everything,” she said.
Her statistics teacher this year is her coach, who also taught her pre-calculus two years ago.
“She’s very academic,” said Collins. “She was born with some ability, but she works very hard in everything she does, which is what’s so impressive about her. Whether it’s calculus class or running extra laps, she’s very determined.”
McAteer carries a 4.0 grade point average and thinks she’s in the top 10 percent of her class (those figures aren’t available yet).
A course load like that would send most kids to their rooms for hours and consume most of their waking time.
Not McAteer.
She also finds time to be involved in numerous clubs at school.
The leadership she has demonstrated in cross country is also apparent in her extracurricular activities.
Besides being class secretary and a member of the student council, she is vice president of the French club, and is a member of the National Honor Society, the community service club, the model UN and the ecology club.
“I’ve always been busy and I’ve always had a busy schedule,” she said. “I like being involved and organizing activities.”
Oh, and during the summer she lifeguards at a local pool, and year round she is a hostess at a restaurant.
“She has a lot of facets to her life and she’s successful in all of them; that’s what stands out for me,” said Collins. “Amber's a first-rate person who is well respected by her classmates, teammates, teachers, and coaches alike.”
You’d think with all the activities she’s involved in she would have little time for a social life. But many of her friends are also involved in the same activities.
“I love going out with my friends,” she said. “A lot of my friends are just as involved as I am.”
McAteer would like to continue running in college. She’s just beginning to explore her opportunities. At this point Towson, American, James Madison and Johns Hopkins are schools she’s considering.
She wants to major in science, possibly biology.
“I’m definitely considering pre-med,” she said. “I’ve gone to leadership conferences on medicine.”
While McAteer has won the American Conference for the past two years, she has yet to make the next step to states.
That’s No. 1 on this year’s agenda.
“That’s always a goal,” she said. “In the past years, it never ended the way me and my coaches expected. My workload in school all came down to that week in districts, and I never improved as much as I was supposed to or wanted to. Hopefully this year will be different.”
If not, McAteer has nothing to be ashamed of.
“As a teacher, you like to see kids who make the most of their high school experience, and she’s one of those kids,” said Collins. “She’s a great kid. It’s going to be rough to see her go.”
