Soccer, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Lionel Messi
Favorite team: Arsenal
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the national championship with my club soccer team.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When I was nine years old, we were playing in the championship basketball game, and I scored in the wrong basket and was really excited until I realized that all the opposing parents were cheering for me.
Music on iPod: The Script
Future plans: To attend the Air Force Academy and become an officer in the Air Force.
Words to live by: ‘Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.’ – Winston Churchill
One goal before turning 30: Travel as much as possible
One thing people don’t know about me: I love photography.
By Mary Jane Souder
Kristina O’Sullivan is a bona fide star on the soccer field.
With her future in the sport already assured – the Upper Merion senior will be taking her talents to the United States Air Force Academy next fall, it would be easy to understand if she opted to forego her final basketball season.
That was never a consideration.
“I really enjoy it, and I couldn’t see myself not playing,” O’Sullivan said. “I’ll still be playing in the over 30 women’s basketball league.”
A four-year starter at point guard, O’Sullivan has led the team in assists and rebounds every year. This year she is averaging a double-double for a Viking squad that is 5-1, and even more importantly, the senior standout sets the tone for the team with her leadership and mental toughness.
“Basically, since the time she walked in this building, she has helped forge our team’s identity,” coach Tom Schurtz said. “Her soccer program has been accommodating in the sense that they allow her to continue to play basketball. Honestly, if she couldn’t play, it would kill her. She’s just a competitor. She needs to be on the court and have the ball in her hands.
“She’s a very physical player, and one of the things that’s great about her is her willingness to get up off the floor. When you’re willing to go to the basket that often, it’s not easy on your body, and she’s answered the bell time and time again. We’re averaging 31 free throws a game, and she’s a big part of that.”
O’Sullivan does not back down from contact, a trait that she carries onto the soccer field where she has inherited the nickname ‘Bear’ for her aggressive style of play.
“In soccer matches, she is physically dominant on the field with her size and strength along with her technical precision,” Upper Merion coach Ryan Larkin said. “She can often control whatever part of the field she is playing.”
O’Sullivan has been playing soccer and basketball for as long as she can remember.
“When I played community basketball with Whitemarsh, my coach called me a wild horse because I would just run around all over the place,” O’Sullivan said. “I would try and dribble everywhere. My coach said, ‘We’ll just put the ball in her hands and let her work on it,’ and it turned out good for me. I’ve been playing point guard ever since.”
Although she played on the AAU basketball circuit with Fencor for two years, O’Sullivan recognized that her future was in soccer, and she began competing for FC Delco’s U12 team. Today, she is a member of the FC Delco Lightning, and two days each week, she leaves basketball practice and heads directly to soccer practice.
“What sets ‘Sully’ apart as a player and person is her level of commitment to anything and everything she participates in,” Larkin said. “I have never come across a player who practices as hard as she does.
“Sully commits herself fully to the cause of winning and will do whatever it takes to (make) her team better. Simply put, I have never had a player who trains harder on the practice field.
“She does not understand the concept of working below 100 percent during training. Warm-up is at full speed, cool down is at full speed, and everything else in between is even faster.”
Schurtz echoed those sentiments.
“There are drills in practice that I say, ‘You’re not allowed to participate in this because we’re doing it at half speed,’” the Vikings’ coach said. “She doesn’t have a half speed. There’s nothing in her that can go half speed.”
O’Sullivan, it turns out, understands the importance of taking advantage of every opportunity that comes her way, even the smallest of opportunities.
The Upper Merion senior’s inspiration comes from her parents, Pat and Mary O’Sullivan.
“They adopted me when I was three, and they gave such a fight to get me,” said O’Sullivan, who spent the first three years of her life in an orphanage in Russia. “They were supposed to get me at six months old, but the (Russian) government said, ‘No, you can’t have her. It’s not happening.’”
So instead, Pat and Mary adopted an infant boy, but instead of giving up their fight to adopt Kristina, they continued to work towards that end. Two-plus years later, they returned to Russia and received the okay to adopt Kristina.
“Them putting up a fight to get me – they really went for it,” she said. “I was so blessed to get that opportunity to start a new life. My life over there wouldn’t have been as good. I probably would have been kicked out on the streets at age 14 and told, ‘All right, you’ve got to leave. Go figure yourself out.’”
When O’Sullivan’s parents visited the orphanage, they brought candy for the children and were told to throw it out to the group.
“I remember I took the whole candy with the wrapper on and just put it in my mouth and ate it, the wrapper and everything because that never happened,” O’Sullivan said. “Also, I used to bite people - I would bite them, and they’d run away. When I first met my dad, I bit him on the leg. I’m not sure what made them decide they wanted a biting kid.”
O’Sullivan’s parents didn’t see a ‘biting kid’ when they looked at her but rather a young child who needed a loving home.
“When I was adopted, I was malnourished, I was underweight,” she said. “I fit in nine-month clothing when I was three, and I had bald spots.
“Immediately, I ate everything. I loved candy – candy was my thing. It still is.”
O’Sullivan has never taken her new life for granted, and when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law last week that bans Americans from adopting Russian children, the significance of her parents’ sacrifice was underscored yet again.
“I think of it everyday,” O’Sullivan said. “Where would I be if my parents hadn’t fought to adopt me? I can get educated, I can play sports, I can pretty much do anything I want. That possibly could have never happened. I could have been nobody.
“This was life changing. I’m so happy to be here. No matter what I do, I feel like this opportunity probably could not have been here if it weren’t for my parents who I love so much. They’re the best people ever.
“They didn’t say, ‘Oh, we’re going to give up on this.’ They kept going for it. I think that rubs off on me because I have this opportunity now, and I’m going to take it.”
The college recruiting process began early for the senior standout, whose elite FC Delco Lightning squad allowed O’Sullivan to showcase her talents to countless college coaches.
“During my sophomore and junior years, I visited so many colleges because I wanted to know – okay, what’s college like?” O’Sullivan said.
O’Sullivan narrowed her final choices to Alabama and Air Force.
“I loved them both,” she said. “I visited Alabama, and I was like, ‘I could see myself here. It has all the workings of a great college.’ It was a big state school, everyone was nicw, and I loved it so much.
“Then I went to Air Force, and I was like, ‘I could do more here. I want to serve my country as well, and this is where I can do it.’ This country has given me so many opportunities, and that was a place where I could give back to it in some way. This is where I needed to be. I loved the coaches, I loved the soccer. They’re focused on so many levels. It’s academics, athletics and character, and not all colleges focus on that. That really did it for me. I was like, ‘These people are just like me. They have the same goals. This is where I need to be.’”
O’Sullivan made her final decision the beginning of her junior year, and she recently received her congressional nomination, an important step in the arduous application process.
“There was interest by coaches from ACC/SEC schools for Sully to play soccer,” Larkin said. “While she thought long and hard about those offers, she was more committed to something else. She wants to serve her nation.”
For now, O'Sullivan is getting her money’s worth out of her final year of high school. An excellent student, she takes honors and AP classes and is a member of the National Honor Society. She also is a member of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and Upper Merion’s Varsity Club, and she is a senior leader helping to coordinate the school’s upcoming Mini-Thon in March to raise money for pediatric cancer.
O’Sullivan has already left her mark at Upper Merion.
“She is truly a pleasure to have on the team,” Larkin said. “She is a committed and compassionate friend. She always has something fun to offer and seems to brighten the day of all of her teammates.”
“I have coached for a long time, and I’ve had some great players,” Schurtz added. “I would take a team full of Kristina O’Sullivans and never bat an eyelash, just because of her willingness to sacrifice everything – her body, her time and her energy. She’s intelligent, she’s articulate, and she’s truly one of the special kids.”
