School: Pennsbury
Cross Country, Soccer
Favorite athlete: Iker Casillas (Spain’s soccer goalie)
Favorite team: Italian National Soccer team and the beach volleyball team of Misty May and Kerri Walsh
Favorite memory competing in sports: “During the Pennsbury volleyball season this year, our first game was against Council Rock North. In prior scrimmages leading up to the game, we struggled and failed to achieve successful results. However, the team stepped it up during this game and pulled out a huge win. We care so much for each other off the court, but this game finally showed our love and chemistry with one another on the court.”
Funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “During tryouts this year, this girl was walking under the volleyball net and got her hair caught in the antenna. She then had to ask a freshman that she did not even know yet to help her out because she got stuck.”
Music on my iPod: Rascal Flatts, Akon, Miley Cyrus, Ying Yang Twins, Jordin Sparks, Nickelback
Future plans: “My future plans are to attend college and major in biology, so that I can later go on to major in sports medicine. I also plan to play soccer in college.”
Words to live by: “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
One goal before turning 30: “To get a dog, preferably a Siberian Husky with baby blue eyes. I have grown up always having cats and never had the opportunity to get a dog.”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I am really bad at drawing, but enjoy coloring, especially in Care Bears coloring books .” J
Kaitlin Wylie is a gifted soccer player with a collegiate future in the sport. That hasn’t kept the Pennsbury senior from excelling on the volleyball court as well.
In August, Wylie returned from a torn anterior cruciate ligament just in time to play setter for the Falcons’ volleyball squad. Last week she received clearance to begin playing soccer.
For coach Tim Paulson, simply having Wylie on the team was a bonus of sorts.
“I didn’t want to put any pressure on her to play volleyball because I think kids have way too much pressure on them to do too many things already,” the Falcons’ coach said. “She said, ‘I want to play because I have fun playing volleyball.’”
Wylie’s decision to play volleyball prevented her from being cleared earlier to play soccer, but she wouldn’t have wanted to miss the experience of playing her final high school season.
“I figured it was my last year to play volleyball since I’m playing soccer in college, and I enjoyed playing the years before,” she said. “Everyone is really close, and Paulson is a really good coach. He actually cares about us as people, not just as players.”
Wylie’s competitive athletic career began when, as a five-year-old, she became involved with the community soccer program in Middletown, following in the footsteps of her two older brothers and older sister. By the time she was eight, Wyle was playing travel soccer. She’s never stopped and continues to play for the Yardley-Makefield club soccer team.
A center midfielder, Wylie plays soccer year round, but she still found time to play volleyball. Her involvement began innocently enough when she was a freshman.
“I tried out because my sister played, and she liked it,” she said of older sister Stacey.
Wylie – like her teammates – didn’t have a designated position as a freshman, but when she came out her sophomore year, she was looking forward to being a defensive specialist.
Paulson, in his first year at the helm, had other ideas.
“I did physical testing of the girls the first day, and she was by far the best athlete we had – the fastest, most agile, best leaper, and I told her that day, ‘We’re going to make you into a setter,’” the Falcons’ coach recalled. “She worked really, really hard as a sophomore, got competent and good at it.”
Wylie admits she found a home at setter.
“I enjoy it because I get to do everything – pass, dump and block,” she said.
Wylie set for the junior varsity her sophomore year and the following year was battling it out with a senior to earn the varsity starting setter position when she suffered a knee injury playing soccer.
“I just jumped up, and when I landed, my knee popped out of place,” she said. “It varies with people whether it hurts or not, but it didn’t hurt on me, but I saw it come out.
“I basically knew it was an ACL, but I didn’t want to tell myself that. I was hoping it was the MCL of meniscus or something like that, but when it happens, you know.”
Wylie, it turns out, had more than a little knowledge about torn anterior cruciate ligaments. Her older sister had suffered through the injury twice, and both of her brothers had torn their ACLs as well.
“It was really upsetting, considering it was my junior year, and that’s when colleges look at you,” she said.
Wylie had surgery on Nov. 1, 2007, and then came the grueling rehab.
“I went to Novacare for 60 days, and then I had to go 60 days more because I was still having trouble,” she said. “After the initial therapy, I still wasn’t ready to come back, so I went to Transcend, a fitness center, and they’ve worked with me since then.
“I still can’t straighten it – I’m close, but it’s still a few degrees off.”
According to Wylie, sitting out on her entire junior soccer season was not easy.
“It was pretty tough,” she said. “My life revolves pretty much around sports – I’d go to school, go to sports, come home and then go back to sports, and weekends I would have soccer.
“You don’t think it will happen to you until it actually does.”
This past fall, Wylie was back on the volleyball court where she was captain of a Falcon squad that captured the SOL National Conference crown.
“She’s not a real vocal, in-your-face kind of captain,” Paulson said. “She leads by example. She’s out there busting her butt as hard as anybody.
“Because of her athleticism, she’s a really good blocker, and to be an attacker at the net really puts opposing defenses on edge because every time she jump sets, she’s a threat to attack the ball. They have to worry about a lot more things, and it gives some defenders fits that aren’t used to it. You don’t see a lot of setters who are that athletic.”
Wylie’s injury played a profound role in her career choice. She is planning to major in biology with her sights set on working in sports medicine.
“At first I wanted to be a teacher,” she said. “But going to therapy, I found it interesting.”
Wylie is considering Rider but has not made a final decision. Wherever she ends up, she’ll be playing soccer, and academics will be a high priority for the Pennsbury honors student.
“She’s a wonderful kid,” Paulson said. “She’s a hard worker and would do anything you ask. She’s a positive, upbeat, happy kid.”
The kind of play any coach would want on their team.
