Field Hockey
Favorite athlete: My favorite athlete plays hockey. Travis Konecny.
Favorite team: Philadelphia Flyers.
Favorite memory competing in sports: During our warmups before home games, we have a chant we do that includes JV and Varsity. It has been my favorite part of game days because we are all hyping one another up and just getting pumped up for the game all together.
Most embarrassing/ funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: In the beginning of my junior season, I got a concussion. It was not necessarily funny or embarrassing to me at the time. After I learned that right before I got hit, my teammates were talking about how I never get hit when playing post. Playing there, it's likely you will get hit since you are in the spot where people aim to score or to tip in the ball. After (that happened), it became a funny thing that it was such a coincidence.
Music on your playlist: “Life goes on” by Lil Baby
Future plans: Majoring in Nursing, unsure about what school.
Words to live by: “Grow through what you go through.”
One goal before turning 30: I want to be a travel nurse and get to experience different places.
One thing people don’t know about me: Some of my favorite music is 80s rock, like Poison and Guns’ n Roses.
By Mary Jane Souder
Jaclyn Oseredzuk, in many ways, is your typical student-athlete.
A four-year veteran of Neshaminy’s field hockey program, the now senior was a member of the jayvee squad as a freshman and sophomore and the varsity the last two years. Oseredzuk, an excellent student, is not a star, but she is a key reserve for a Redskin squad with high expectations.
“It didn’t matter if it was jayvee or varsity but especially now on the varsity level, she knows what her role is,” Neshaminy field hockey coach Jamie Pinto said. “She always wants to improve, she’s a hard worker, and even if she’s not on the field, she wants the best for the girls. She’s very mature, and she’s a good communicator, which is why I think the girls like her.
“Even as an underclassman, she always had a presence about her. She’s student council president, she’s a gym night captain. She’s just a natural leader.”
Oseredzuk’s maturity may stem, at least in part, from the fact that she was faced with an unimaginable tragedy when her 16-year-old brother, Phillip, drowned in a kayaking accident at the end of his sophomore year. Jaclyn was in eighth grade at the time.
“I think what’s so special about her is when something tragic happens, especially at a young age, people could go down different paths, and she’s just been strong and continued to live her life and helps others when needed,” Pinto said. “Nothing has really slowed her down. She’s motivated.”
To ensure that Phil’s memory would live on and to assist families who have also lost a child, the Oseredzuk family established the Live Like Phil Foundation. Jaclyn has actively worked with the foundation in countless ways since it was established.
The foundation works closely with Hayden’s House of Healing, a retreat house in New Jersey started by a mother who also lost her son. Jaclyn and her mother, Lynn, attended a mother-daughter retreat at Hayden’s House, and this past spring, Jaclyn hosted a retreat for daughters of families who lost a child, planning all the activities and serving as a group leader.
“That has got to be by far – through the foundation and everything I’ve gone through – one of the most mind-changing things I’ve ever done because I wanted to be able to give back what that place gave me,” Jaclyn said. “I’m never going to be able to explain how they helped me in so many ways going to their retreats.
“But being able to see those girls grow and develop through their journey just in three days from being able to have such a great environment around them and me being able to be the person to help them has changed my perspective so much.”
It’s been a remarkable journey for Oseredzuk, who has found a way to move from tragedy to healing to now helping others in a similar situation.
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Oseredzuk got her introduction to competitive sports as a youngster when she was involved in both soccer and gymnastics. She gave up gymnastics in elementary school to focus on travel soccer.
Field hockey entered the picture in fifth grade when she attended Neshaminy’s camp after inheriting field hockey equipment from the daughter of one of her mother’s friends.
“She was graduating, and she had her old sticks, so then I started practicing by myself a little bit just to get a feel for it,” Oseredzuk said. “I didn’t really understand how to play so my mom signed me up for the (Neshaminy) field hockey camps to see if I’d like it.”
Oseredzuk not only liked it, she encouraged her friends to start playing as well. In ninth grade, she was faced with a decision since hockey and soccer were both in the fall. She chose hockey but continued to play soccer outside of high school for her Langhorne travel team, the Blue Lightning.
This year, she is one of a special class of 10 seniors on the field hockey team.
“I’m super excited for this year,” Oseredzuk said. “It does feel different from every other year especially since COVID, which didn’t ruin it but did affect it.
“I also think this year’s team – all grades – we are very good friends. It doesn’t matter which grade we’re in – we’re a very close team. That’s a huge part of why I think we can be very successful because we are so comfortable with each other.”
As for playing time and her role on the team, Oseredzuk has a simple philosophy.
“I’m going to try my hardest and do whatever I can do to be the best player I can be,” she said. “It doesn’t matter to me that I don’t start, as much as I would like to. I do really enjoy myself playing field hockey, and no matter what – I just want to make it a fun place for everyone, including myself.”
Oseredzuk admits she considered walking away from field hockey – but only because of her countless commitments.
“The fall season is my favorite time of the year, and I couldn’t imagine it without playing field hockey,” she said. “Going into high school with everything that happened, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do – if I wanted to take on a fulltime sport like this, but the great group of people I was surrounded by – I just loved it, and I couldn’t imagine myself without it.
“Even though I am so busy and this could be a huge thing taken off my plate, I really couldn’t imagine being in high school without it – without the great group of friends, the relationships I made with the coaches. It’s just awesome.”
Listening to her coach tell it, the senior forward has been an asset to the team.
“She’s first or second off the bench on the forward line,” Pinto said. “I know she wants to be a starter. She continually works hard - I’ve seen the improvement. I know she wants to be out there, and I know being part of Neshaminy field hockey is important to her.”
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Oserezuk’s life was unmistakably shaped by the May 30, 2019, kayaking accident that claimed the life of her brother. She remembers that day all too well.
“It was a school night – and for two days, it had been raining,” she said. “The rain started to clear up, but everything was flooded. My brother is a very outdoorsy person, and his friends were as well.
“The baseball fields at Dairy Delight were completely flooded, so he and his friends went there. They were kayaking along but it wasn’t as adventurous as they’d liked it to be. Mill Creek is in Snowball Gate in Levittown. He and his friends went kayaking in there, and he was the first one to go out. The water was really rough, the kayak flipped over, and he was in the water for a really long time.”
Phil was taken to St. Mary’s and from there to CHOP, but he had been underwater too long.
“There was a little hope for a while,” Jaclyn said. “At first hearing (he didn’t make it), it was like, ‘No, that didn’t happen. That’s not true, there’s no way.’”
The following morning, Phil’s Neshaminy ice hockey team showed up with breakfast and flowers.
“That didn’t even make it real, honestly,” Jaclyn said.
In the fall, Jaclyn entered high school where her brother would have been a junior. Phil was well-known in the community and had more than 50 customers in a landscaping business – Phil’s Landscaping - he’d started when he was just 13 years old, and he was equally well known in school.
“He was a very likable person, so when I went to school, it was a little bit challenging because it was like – ‘Hey, that’s Phil’s sister’ or ‘Hey, how are you?’” Jaclyn said. “It was hard to get away from it. It’s not that I needed to – I just felt like it would be nice at times. All my teachers – it was ‘I’m familiar with your situation.’ It’s not that I didn’t like that, but sometimes it’s like, ‘Okay, I get that.’”
The Oseredzuk family found themselves on the receiving end of an outpouring of support.
“About a week or so after it all happened, we got a basket with a letter and money in it,” Jaclyn said. “It was from the Kind Like Joey Foundation that was started by Marina Edwards who also lost her son in a tragic accident. She decided to raise money for families who have been through child loss to help pay funeral expenses and bills.
“That stuck with my mom for a really long time, and it prompted her to want to start a foundation. She didn’t know where to start, so she got in contact with (Edwards), and she and my mom are friends now. She helped my mom start the foundation for our community. We wanted to give back comfort to other hurting families because we were so kindly given it.”
A Flyers alumni ice hockey game at Grundy with dinner afterwards at the Irish Rover was a major fundraiser for the foundation.
“We’re like a hockey family, and we’re part of a hockey community,” Jaclyn said.
Fundraisers are just a part of the foundation’s work.
“We also make gift baskets,” Jaclyn said. “We host support groups – my mom is the host for other moms around the area that have lost kids. After everything, it’s really important to have a space where you can talk about it with people who understand.
“I led a support group for teens, but then I felt like I needed to still talk about my grief instead of being the person to be talked to, so my mom was able to find someone who was older, and she could host it for us. It’s really nice.”
The foundation has also worked with Kisses for Kyle, a foundation established for kids with childhood cancer.
“We were able to volunteer at their event on the Ocean City boardwalk to give out bags of goodies donated by the foundation with merchandise in it – shirts we made. We made about 140 goodie bags,” Jaclyn said. “They were able to provide a family fun day for families who have kids with cancer or who have kids who have passed away. They had vouchers to get food on the boardwalk. We were just happy to be there.”
Despite a packed schedule, Oseredzuk has a course load that includes honors and AP classes. She plans to major in nursing but is undecided on a college.
“What sparked my interest in nursing is the time I had to spend in the hospital around nurses through my life,” she said. “I was born with a cleft lip and palate, so I always needed to have a strong and nice group of people working with me. This made me want to give back what those nurses gave to me. Make someone feel how they made me feel.”
Wherever Oseredzuk – who has not ruled out competing in sports at the club level – lands next fall, that school will be inheriting a remarkable student-athlete.
“She’s just a great kid,” Pinto said. “She does all this side work – she doesn’t talk about it a lot, and it doesn’t define her, but I know she does it.
“All the money their foundation raise goes to families that are grieving. They reach out to other families, and Jackie is a big part of that. You would never know she does all of this, and that’s one of the most special things about her – it was such a tragedy, and here she is – a high school student, reaching out and helping other families. She’s special in what she does.”
