Field Hockey, Swimming, Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Jason Kelce. He always has such good energy and is a great role model
Favorite team: Eagles or Phillies. I love watching and supporting our Philly teams
Favorite memory competing in sports: My favorite memory would have to be our field hockey win this year against undefeated Quakertown. With no time left on the clock, we were up by one, but they had a chance to score on a corner. I was the flier and disrupted their shot. The game was a whole team effort, and everyone was so excited for the win.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports” When I whiff in field hockey on my big hits out of the defensive side of the field. In the moment I laugh, but looking back on it, it is really embarrassing.
Music on playlist: “Murder on the Dance Floor” It is such a great hype song, and I listen to it before a swim, in the locker room, and on the bus on the way to games.
Future plans: I plan to study accounting at a big school in the south and play a club sport.
Words to live by: “You dream. You plan. You reach. There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, with belief, with confidence and trust in yourself and those around you, there are no limits” – Michael Phelps
One goal before turning 30: I want to run a marathon.
One thing people don’t know about me: I really enjoy playing golf. It's nice sometimes to play a sport that is not one of my main three.
By Craig Ostroff
The senior class of Upper Dublin swimmers knows all about battling adversity.
As freshmen, the Cardinals saw their season abbreviated and restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As sophomores, the team was faced with practicing and competing exclusively in unfamiliar pools after a tornado caused extensive damage to the natatorium on the first day of the school year.
It was nice to get back to normalcy in their junior season. Then, Districts came. And for Olivia Vitella, so did some unexpected adversity.
“The first day of Districts, I ripped two new tech suits,” Vitella said. “It’s a small rip at first, but they’re really super-tight suits and as you try to get it on more, it rips more. It’s hard to go on with a rip like that, that keeps getting bigger.
“The 200 free is one of the first events. I ended up using one of my teammates’ old tech suits. It was a little worn out, but it was something. But I was freaking out. It took a toll on me mentally, and I didn’t swim well.”
The next day, on the starting blocks of the 500 freestyle, bad luck struck again, as Vitella’s goggles broke. After a scramble to try to fix or replace them, Vitella took her place again on the blocks, and this time delivered a stellar swim, dropping more than 3 seconds off her previous season-best time.
“I had a new mindset the second day,” she said. “After I went through it the first time, I knew how to fix it for the next day and swim well. I knew I had to redeem myself a little from the day before.”
Her ability to overcome setbacks and stay positive while looking ahead to her next chance in the water serves Vitella well this year, as a captain on a Cardinals’ swimming and diving team that finds itself in good position for strong showings at leagues, districts, and states.
“I think you can go back to what happened last year to see how Olivia learns from experience and fights through things,” said Cardinals’ girls’ swimming coach Brandon Pierce. “She learned from what happened the previous day, moved on and said, ‘I have another swim, I have to push that stuff away.’ You learn a lot from situations like that.
“That mindset serves her well as a leader this year. It’s something she can relate to someone else. ‘You might not have had your best swim, but you’ve got another swim, or another meet, and you’ll get your next one.’”
Vitella’s versatility and willingness to swim wherever she is needed has also been one of her strengths throughout her time at Upper Dublin, and provides the younger swimmers with an excellent role model who embodies the team-first spirit.
Having focused on the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM early in her high school career, Vitella shifted to the 200 and 500 free her junior year, swims in relays, and can be used in multiple events in a meet.
“Olivia saw where the team needed her, and was willing to move to those events,” Pierce said. “She is one of our most versatile swimmers on the team. In a dual meet, we know we can put her in another event and we know what we’re going to get from her every time. She can definitely do it all.”
And she’s just as important to the team’s success out of the pool as she is in it. Her positive attitude and sunny disposition is counted upon by the coaching staff to help motivate the rest of the team, especially during those dreary early-morning practices.
“I’ve really noticed with Olivia this season, she’s trying to be the best captain she can be,” Pierce said. “She finishes dry land workouts before anyone else and is there with a high-five as people come in. She’s the one who will come out to practice early and write a couple words the whiteboard – ‘You got this’ or ‘Let’s have a great Tuesday.’ Somebody might just come in and see that and say ‘OK, I got this.’ That positive vibe is something that us coaches appreciate having on the pool deck.
“She realized the fun of being a senior leader, and it’s not just her swims, it’s the team success and camaraderie, so she’s trying to do what she can to make sure everyone is feeling good and everyone is moving in the right direction.”
Making the team into a family is important to Vitella because her family has been a part of Upper Dublin swimming for many years. Vitella’s mother swam for the Cardinals in high school. Older brother Jack graduated last year, and her sister Sophia joined the team as a freshman this year.
“That’s definitely a nice perk to have her on the team,” the senior said of having her frosh sister on the squad. “But it also brings me a lot closer to my sister. We play field hockey together as well as swimming so we’re always together, always able to chat about something. Even with my brother, we had 3 years together on the swim team, so I definitely got closer to him, which is nice. And Pat (Redican) coached the boys’ team when my mom was in high school, so it’s cool to have him as a coach, too.”
And while making the team a family is important to Vitella and her fellow seniors, it’s also important that they make it successful. They’ve reached the point in their respective careers where there aren’t many “next races” and “next times” left.
“I think Olivia and the seniors have upped the intensity a little more, and they understand, ‘This is my last opportunity,’” Pierce said. “Right now she is swimming way faster than she ever has at this part of the season. She’s doing really well, she’s going to be a District qualifier, she has the ability to be on some relays that might qualify for states. We’ll see if she has some big swims to make states in an individual event –she will have to have some incredible swims, but I think she’s got it in her. For her and the seniors, they understand they only have one more try, and they want to leave it all in the pool.”
Vitella also plays lacrosse in the spring and recently completed her senior campaign in field hockey, where she also served as a captain. In her final go-around, Vitella helped lead the Cardinals to a 10-5-1 record (11-7-1 overall) in a stacked Liberty Division, highlighted by handing Quakertown its first league loss of the season and earning a home game in the PIAA District One Tournament. Vitella, who primarily plays defense but also spent time in the midfield, earned All-League honors for the third straight year.
“I definitely don’t think about individual honors during the season, but it’s nice to accomplish that, it’s a nice thing to receive at the end of the season,” Vitella said. “But I’m prouder that we had a better record than previous years, we beat an undefeated team this year, made it to first round of playoffs, and had a home playoff game, which hadn’t been done in a while. It was exciting.”
While Vitella has been a part of a few clubs over the years, being a three-sport athlete takes up most of her time outside of the classroom. Additionally, her courseload includes several AP and honors-level classes this semester.
She’s interested in attending a large college in the south (following the footsteps of her brother, who attends Clemson), and is looking to major in accounting (following in the footsteps of her mother). She may swim or play field hockey or lacrosse at the club level, but that’s a decision she plans on making once she’s arrived on whichever campus she chooses to attend.
And when she’s hung up her goggles for the final time, she will undoubtedly leave a hole that will be difficult for the girls’ swim team to fill. But Pierce prefers to focus not on what the Cardinals will lose, but on what Vitella will leave behind.
“I hope our underclassmen have recognized the leader that she is,” Pierce said. “I hope she leaves a legacy people can look back on as being a great captain and a great leader, and that that’s something they can strive to be, too. They can look at her and see she played three sports, she worked hard in the classroom and she worked hard in the pool and the results speak for themselves. She’s leaving that legacy behind for the rest of the team to pick up.”
