Basketball
Favorite athletes: Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant
Favorite team: Oklahoma City Thunder
Favorite memory competing in sports: Having the opportunity to travel to Disney World and playing at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports with a great group of friends that I will miss when I go off to college.
Most embarrassing thing that has happened while competing in sports: Getting bloody noses almost every game I play in. My coach even makes sure that we have nose plugs for away games because he knows there’s a good chance it will happen again.
Music on iPod: Drake, Meek Mill, Jay-Z, Wale, Chris Brown
Future plans: I plan on going to college for four years and then moving into an apartment somewhere with my best friends until we need to move out in order to keep girlfriends. I want to have a job somewhere in a place like Boston or New York City and then go from there.
Words to live by: ‘Don’t take for granted the things that you love.’
One goal before turning 30: Find out how I can play Kevin Durant one-on-one someday
One thing people don’t know about me: I used to live in Vermont before I came to Doylestown.
Ask coach Erik Henrysen to describe a play that captures the essence of senior Ryan O’Neil, and the Central Bucks East coach doesn’t have to think hard.
“Last year at CB South, he scored the game winner on a follow,” Henrysen said of a shot at the buzzer that gave the Patriots’ a dramatic 50-48 win over the Titans. “That can give you a picture of Ryan – he just doesn’t quit. He has no quit in his game.
“We might miss a shot, but it’s his follow-up. He doesn’t quit on the play. He just continues to fight. That would summarize who he is.”
O’Neil isn’t the tallest player on the court – he measures in at 6-3, but he is one of the hardest workers. Last year he shared the team lead in points scored, averaging 10 a game and earning all-league honors. He is one of the squad’s top rebounders as well.
“We thought we were really going to rely on Ryan and Steven Topley this year just with that experience they gained last year,” Henrysen said. “They’re two players who can impact a game at many levels. We were counting on big things from them. So far so good.”
O’Neil, according to the Patriots’ coach, is a quiet leader.
“Ryan is someone that leads by example,” Henrysen said. “His actions speak a lot louder than his words.
“He’s always working hard. He puts in a full day’s work every day. Whether it’s the day after a practice or the day after a game – he really delivers on the effort side, and he’s seen a lot of that work pay off.”
O’Neil plays small forward for the Patriots.
“His post-up game is really his strength, but he’s not limited to that,” Henrysen said. “He can shoot the three, he has a nice pull-up, and he can drive to the basket. He’s rebounding the ball well, and he blocks shots.
“Now he’s beginning to dedicate himself on the defensive end. We often have him guarding one of the best players on the other team, if not the best, so we’re asking a lot of him.”
O’Neil has been playing basketball since he was five. He also tried soccer, baseball and football, but by the time he was in ninth grade, basketball was his sport of choice. The others had fallen by the wayside.
“I just like playing basketball more,” he said. “There’s something about being close with my friends – we just had a lot of fun with it.”
Back in his early years of competing, O’Neil was one of the big guys since he was taller than many of his peers. At 6-3, he is no longer the tallest, so he has found a home at small forward.
O’Neil, then a member of the junior varsity, was sidelined a month during his sophomore season with a fractured elbow. Last year, under then first-year coach Henrysen, he earned a spot in the Patriots’ starting varsity lineup, and he hasn’t left.
“He really improved over the course of the year,” Henrysen said. “We knew he was talented, but he just kept getting better and better.”
O’Neil helped lead last year’s squad to a berth in the District One AAAA Tournament.
“The high point of playing in high school was making the playoffs last year,” he said. “Even though we lost in the first round, we played a pretty good game against Neshaminy and almost pulled it out.
“Last year was good because East doesn’t win that much in basketball, and we made the playoffs for the first time in a couple of years.
“This year we have a lot of our players coming back, and our goal is to win as many games as possible. We definitely want to get back to districts.”
Although O’Neil is passionate about basketball, he is hardly one-dimensional. He is a good student in the classroom, and he has been actively involved in the school’s annual Coaches vs. Cancer event that last year raised in the neighborhood of $50,000.
It’s cause that is personal to O’Neil, who lost his 19-year-old cousin to the disease in 2006.
“The cancer he died from affected only four out of every million – it was really rare,” O’Neil said. “I was in seventh grade at the time, and I knew about cancer, but it hadn’t touched my life yet.
“When that happened, I didn’t really know what was going on until he started getting chemo. That was a turning point for me, and I wanted to do something because I know it affected my life, and I know it affects other people’s lives as well. We just really take pride in raising money.”
Despite his rigorous schedule with basketball, O’Neil finds time to attend the meetings to help plan an event that encompasses an entire weekend.
“We start raising money on Friday night at the girls and guys East-West game – we go around with buckets,” he said. “We have raffles and baskets people can win. We get donations from different companies.
“Last year at the Saturday event, we had teachers and students play each other in basketball. This year, it’s a 3-on-3 tournament. We’re excited to do that.”
Phil Martelli, the men’s basketball coach at St. Joe’s, is an annual guest speaker. Drexel coach James ‘Bruiser’ Flint also spoke at last year’s event.
“They do an unbelievable job,” Henrysen said. “They really get everybody involved and run a great event. Ryan is a big part of that.”
O’Neil and his teammates also volunteered their time to work at a clinic for autistic children.
“He was definitely on board with that,” Henrysen said. “He’s just one of those guys at our camps that embraces the whole idea of being a role model and working with the kids.”
As for next year, O’Neil is undecided on a college but is interested in pursuing a degree in secondary education or finance with his sights set on one day being a math teacher.
He also plans to continue his basketball career at the collegiate level.
“I made it a goal of mine to be as good as I could because I love basketball so much, and I knew I would miss it too much to not play in college,” O’Neil said.
“He can certainly play at that level,” Henrysen said. “It’s a realistic goal.”
