O'Reilly Grows Personally, Professionally over Summer
9/3/2019 10:40:00 AM | Water Polo, Features
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Michigan water polo junior Maddie O'Reilly took two big steps over the summer, gaining valuable experience in water polo and in her career interest.
O'Reilly and a group of nine of her teammates trained throughout spring term to prepare for the USA Water Polo Senior Nationals which took place July 12-14. The team placed 11th overall and picked up three wins in the tournament. O'Reilly was an offensive force for the Wolverines, as she scored 19 goals and added nine assists in only five games.
"This spring term we had a bigger group and training was more intense," said O'Reilly. "We had a group of girls who could swim hard and really pushed each other a lot. I was proud of myself for how I worked with my teammates and was more vocal. As an offensive-dominant player, I was excited to lead the offense but also to improve on my defense."
Not only was O'Reilly a statistical leader in the tournament but she took it upon herself to take on a leadership role as she heads into her third year with the team. She took her experience from 56 career games and wanted to help guide the underclassmen through the spring and summer.
"I tried to take it upon myself to help improve the underclassmen," O'Reilly said. "I knew we would be missing a lot of pieces this year so it was a great opportunity to push ourselves and those who didn't play as much throughout the season had that opportunity to play at opens."
With sophomore Abby Andrews selected to join the Australia national team in a three-month training camp this fall, O'Reilly will be the team's top returning left-handed attacker. She is excited to embrace the opportunity and lead the offense in the fall.
Outside the pool, O'Reilly also took on a professional challenge when she headed to Lima, Peru, to intern at the Pan American Games. She worked in sport operations at the Coliseo Eduardo Dibos, where the basketball games were played.
"The sport management career center sends out emails each month explaining opportunities," said O'Reilly. "Having a chance to work a large international sporting event was always a dream of mine. I saw this as the first step in the process of potentially working at the Olympic Games one day."
O'Reilly was in charge of greeting teams as their buses arrived, hospitality, event setup and maintaining a clean look for television broadcasts. The first week she worked with the 3-on-3 tournament and then the following weeks were men's and women's basketball 5-on-5 games.
"I worked with Team USA a lot for 5-on-5," said O'Reilly. "I was the only fluent English speaker so I worked with them as a translator for about two weeks."
Nine years of Spanish classes helped O'Reilly overcome the language barrier and made her a great asset to the staff in Peru. The biggest challenge for her was developing relationships with others who didn't speak English and being on her own in a foreign country.
"It was hard being alone, but I learned a lot and I'm proud of myself for experiencing it," said O'Reilly. "My main takeaway was I liked working at a large-scale sporting event in sport operations. It is something I see myself doing in the future."
O'Reilly gained valuable professionally, personal and athletic experience this summer. Coming off a year in which she also was a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, she is poised to make the most out of her junior season at the University of Michigan.
