Volleyball, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Casey Patterson
Favorite team: Philadelphia Flyers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning back-to-back District Championships.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: It’s always funny when I fall!
Music on iPod: Vance Joy
Future plans: Attend either York College of PA or Salisbury University and continue to play volleyball.
Words to live by: “The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s the real glory. That’s the essence of it.” –Vince Lombardi
One goal before turning 30: Be successful
One thing people don’t know about me: I play the flute and sing.
By Mary Jane Souder
A future in coaching might not be on Eryn Brady’s radar, but perhaps it should be.
The Upper Merion senior certainly has given every indication she’d be a good one.
“(Former assistant) Laura (Stiansen) and I used to joke about having a third coach, and it was Eryn,” UM volleyball coach Tony Funsten said. “If there was anything that had to be done, she was ready to do it. Eryn just has a certain calmness and maturity that her parents have brought out in her.
“She’s the type of player you would like to coach. She’s affable, she’s smart, she does the right thing, she tries to keep everybody happy, she’s a great captain, and she tries to keep the peace as much as she can with a team of high school girls.”
Brady’s maturity was evident after the Vikings saw their 107-match SOL winning streak snapped by Hatboro-Horsham earlier this season. Players – and Brady includes herself in that number - were quick to point fingers and assess blame on others for the loss, and it didn’t take long for the senior captain to realize the team was heading down a dangerous path.
“We have a volleyball group chat,” Brady said. “And I sent out a long message about how – even though we lost, it doesn’t change a thing about our team or how I feel about our team, and we needed to make sure that from this loss we take away things we can improve upon. I think that’s what we did.
“I think we looked at ourselves, and we were like – we need to improve our communication as a team and our attitude as a team. What can I do to help the team win? And not blame other people. I think we did that after our loss, and you really can’t do that. It carried over and was one of the reasons we lost to Villa Maria the same week because we were still pointing fingers at each other.”
Several weeks later, the Vikings found themselves playing Bishop Shanahan in the District One AAA title game. They dropped the first set.
“I didn’t feel panicked, which was crazy because I usually do,” Brady said. “I looked at our team, and I was like, ‘We can still win this.’
“Even though we lost 25-16, it was all things we could change, and we did. We came back and won 25-9, which was awesome.”
Playing volleyball isn’t just about winning championships for Brady, although she has won plenty as part of an Upper Merion team that has captured eight consecutive SOL titles and five of the last seven district crowns.
“Volleyball really, really helped me learn how to come together with people that you might normally not be friends with,” Brady said. “I’ve made friends in different circles because of volleyball.
“It taught me – they’re different people and they all have different things going, but you can still be friends with them, you can still win championships with them.”
Brady, a lefthander who plays on the right side, has been an important contributor at the net for the Vikings.
“She has come so far as a player and very quickly,” Funsten said. “Her freshman year, I said, ‘Eryn’s pretty tall,’ and I was wondering how it would play out.
“Her sophomore year I thought, ‘Whoa, okay, we can use her. She’s ready.’”
As a sophomore, Brady and fellow sophomore Niki Carpenter shared the position of middle hitter.
“It was intimidating,” Brady said. “There were two seniors that were very good and a junior, Melanie Ingram, who is very good. I remember they were like, ‘We’re going to suck this year.’ We worked very, very hard to be successful.”
The Vikings came up short in their bid to win a district title that year but made up for that setback with an impressive run to the state semifinals.
“We won some games we probably shouldn’t have won,” Brady said. “I think that’s a tribute to the senior leadership we had on the team after they realized maybe we’re good at different things and we could key on those things.”
As a junior, Brady played right outside to start the season, a more natural position for a lefthander, but was switched back to the middle when the Vikings lost their starting middle.
“It’s a very difficult position to play as a lefthander, but I never heard her complain once,” Funsten said. “When we beat Downingtown East in the district final last year and they couldn’t get the ball over the net, it was because Eryn and Niki were blocking incredibly.
“To be good at volleyball, you just have to be good at playing the game, Eryn is very good at playing volleyball. I hope it has a lot to do with what we do at practice.”
Brady has been playing sports for as long as she can remember, and dance was also an important part of her life. She took lessons from kindergarten through eighth grade, beginning with ballet and tap and then moving on to Irish step.
“In second grade, I started to do Irish step because I’m Irish, and I thought that would be cool,” said Brady. “I really fell in love with that.
“It helped me a lot growing up with foot speed because Irish step is a lot of footwork.”
Brady continues to volunteer her time working with the young children at the Upper Merion Area Dance and Gymnastics Center.
Brady got her first taste of volleyball attending clinics as a sixth grader, although many of her peers began playing at a younger age for Mother of Divine Providence CYO.
“I really fell in love with it in sixth grade,” she said. “I knew Upper Merion had a really good team, so I worked really hard to catch up with everybody else.
“It’s very competitive, and I just wanted to make the team. I remember people would leave tryouts crying (after getting cut). It was terrible. Everybody wants to play because they were so good.”
This year’s team – with the approval of the school board - travelled to Penn State for a tournament.
“I think going to that tournament really helped us win the district championship, so we need to thank the school board for that,” Brady said.
In addition to volleyball, Brady also plays basketball – inspired as a ninth grader by the fact that standout setter Cassidy Koenig also played the sport.
“To me, she was the greatest athlete ever,” Brady said. “I thought, ‘You know what – maybe the reason she’s so good at volleyball is because she plays basketball. Maybe I should play basketball.’”
Her coach is certainly glad she did.
“Eryn is the type of player and young woman that makes it easy on the coach,” coach Tom Schurtz said. “Driven, focused, and always willing to put the team first, Eryn views each practice and game as a chance to take a step forward. Having worked her way up through each level of the Upper Merion girls basketball program, Eryn is a hallmark of perseverance. She is an outstanding
student, a great teammate and a pleasure to coach.”
Volleyball will be part of Brady’s future. York College of PA is her top college choice, and her plans are to major business management or human resources.
An excellent student, Brady is the hospitality chair for Upper Merion’s Mini-Thon, the high school version of the Penn State-thon that raises money to fight pediatric cancer.
“I get to reach out to businesses and ask them for donations,” she said. “I really enjoy doing that.
“Last year we visited the hospital that all the money goes to. I loved seeing all the little kids and seeing how the money we raise makes such a difference.”
Brady also is a member of the school’s concert band – she plays flute - and concert choir.
“I really like to sing,” she said. “It’s good because band and choir are in the morning during zero period, so I just go earlier and I don’t miss anything.”
The consummate student-athlete, Brady is a player any coach would love to have on their team.
“I love coaching all different types of kids, but Eryn makes it easier,” Funsten said. “Whether it’s setting up a net, whether it’s talking to the team, whether it’s communicating something from the players to the coach and back to the players, she’s just very, very dependable. As a player, that carries over to what she does on the court.”
