Every young athlete dreams of one day playing for a division one college team. For Kailee O’Connor this dream will soon become reality

O’Connor has committed to the University of Pittsburgh to play on their women’s soccer team next fall. Not only will she be playing on a division one team, O’Connor has received a half scholarship to the university.

O’Connor began the sport when she was 3. She says, “because my brothers played I was always there watching them.” She remembers the first time she played, saying “I was tossed into it because I got bored sitting on the sidelines.”

O’Connor is currently playing on the Chicago International club team and she previously played for DGS. This upcoming season she is not sure who she’ll play for, because the teams are very different. She says “[DGS] is everyday and more technical work… with club you just run a lot and we only practice three times a week.”

With either team O’Connor knows she’ll enjoy it because soccer has become her safe place. O’Connor says “you go there and you don’t really have to think about anything that’s going on, you go and make such a bond with your team.” She hopes to find the same connection in this new chapter of her career in Pittsburgh.

O’Connor’s teammates have also become part of the reason she is passionate about the sport. Not only do they make the sport more fun, but they have helped her improve tremendously. When asked about one teammate, O’Connor says “it’s like a competition and we both push each other to get better.”

Not only do her teammates inspire her, O’Connor thanks her current coach for her success as well. O’Connor says “I’ve had him for six years, he’s always pushed me to be better.” She describes his coaching style as filled with many “backhanded compliments, he’ll tell my one thing I did good and many I need to work on.”

For O’Connor, soccer is her whole life. She says, “it takes up all my time” Next year she will have an intense workload for her engineering major and an even more intense soccer schedule. The practice schedule for her new team “depends on the week, sometimes there’s two and sometimes there’s four [practices].”

Although she is excited for this new and exciting time in her life  O’Connor is nervous like many other freshman. She is still  figuring out how she will balance school and athletics saying, “I’m screwed… there will probably be a lot of crying.”