UVA SOFTBALL: O’Leary shines on and off the field

By Jay Jenkins

Published: May 8, 2008

Every time Eileen Schmidt has filled out her lineup card, the Virginia softball coach has had the luxury of scribbling one name right off the top. To say the least, Meghan O’Leary has been justifiably reliable.
Others at Virginia have enjoyed the same above-and-beyond experiences dealing with O’Leary.
In addition to playing softball for four years, the Jefferson Scholar was on the volleyball team, excelled with an internship with the athletic department’s video services team and even found the time to head a relief effort for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Now in her fifth and final year — at least in regards to her eligibility — O’Leary heads into her last ACC Tournament.
Virginia (15-36, 6-15 ACC) faces top-seeded North Carolina (49-9-1, 18-2) today at 3 p.m. in College Park, Md.
“I don’t know if I could have fit anything else in or asked for anything more,” O’Leary said. “School was always important to me, too, but as proud as I am to be a student-athlete at the University of Virginia, I
didn’t want to pocket myself as only that.
“I like to think that I am the supreme multitasker. I may be lucky that I don’t require as much sleep as a lot of people do, but I think it gave me a rush, the adrenaline to do everything that I did. It just kept me going.”
Oddly enough, O’Leary was never recruited as an athlete at Virginia. In fact, the Louisiana native was all but set to remain in state and attend LSU to play softball and volleyball until she had a discussion with the school’s chancellor, a family friend.
“He was like, ‘You need to seek this out. You need to go to Virginia — that is the place for you — and there will always be a place for you back here if you want to come,’” O’Leary recounted. “That was the best thing I could have done. To look back now and think that I was considering passing up to come here for that … I laugh about it.”
O’Leary contacted former UVa volleyball coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton while she was still in high school and was welcomed into the program as a walk-on.
After playing in 17 career matches, former softball coach Cheryl Sprangel sought out O’Leary, who was a four-time all-state pitcher in high school.
“I pitched here and there and it took me while to get back into it — it had been a couple of years — but I pitched in practice and ran on the bases because I was quick,” O’Leary said. “Then there was a coaching change with softball and I saw the opportunity to immediately contribute.
“I spoke with them [in 2006] and decided to come out in the fall and try and establish my place.”
O’Leary landed a full-time role, starting 42 games, most of which came at third base. Last season, she made the transition to another position, starting 32 games in outfield, and led the team with 13 stolen bases.
Despite leaving the volleyball team, O’Leary remained close with her former teammates and served as the program’s public address announcer for home games.
“There was no hard feelings with volleyball and I still loved them,” she said. “I kept up with them and the coaches and that’s how I got involved with the P.A. stuff.
“I still look back and say, ‘What if?’ But if I had kept doing both I would have gone crazy and would haven’t been able to do other things that I have been a part of.”
One of those “other things” was a summer stint in Washington, D.C., working with NBC’s Today Show last year. Her prowess on the diamond landed her an invitation to a softball game in New York City against employees at ABC.
“There is a big softball rivalry with Good Morning America. They found out the D.C. intern — that’s what they called me — played softball and I got to play with them.”
Former Virginia running back Tiki Barber also played in the game, serving as NBC’s starting pitcher.
“I played well and we went into extra innings. I was a mean second baseman. It was a fun time,” O’Leary said. “We beat Good Morning America so we had bragging rights.
“I loved my time with them and I had a neat summer, and that has opened up a lot of doors as far as job opportunities. If you have that kind of experience, it keeps your resume on the table that much longer.”
While the Cavaliers have woefully gone 61-101 over the past three years and finished last again this year in the ACC, O’Leary is hopeful that the team will play well in the tournament.
More importantly, she knows that the ingredients are currently in place for the program to enjoy future success under first-year coach Eileen Schmidt.
“It has been a little bit of a frustrating year because we were good in the fall and we have made improvements if you look at it, but I firmly believe that these are the coaches that are going to turn the program around, and it is already on the upswing,” O’Leary said.
“It is just going to take a little bit of time and someone had to be there when things were bad. It is unfortunate and that’s kind of been my time with the program and if you look at our records this is the time that the program struggled, but at the same time we are building that foundation.
“We are doing the dirty so in five years, I can flip on the TV and see UVa in World Series and I can still say that I was a part of that. Do I wish I had been on a championship team? Yeah, everyone does. But there are very few people that get that opportunity.”
For the season, O’Leary is batting .295, which ranks third on the team, and once again has the most stolen bases (12).
“She has kind of been beat up a little bit this year, but after five years of [volleyball] and softball, usually you don’t feel body-wise as fresh as you did when you came in,” Schmidt said. “But she and the rest of the fourth-year players have put their heart and soul into turning this program around and getting us on the right track, and despite record-wise what we have going, we have certainly made strides and got better.
“It is just a matter of continuing that practice.”
Unfortunately, Schmidt may be filling O’Leary’s name at the top of the batting order for the last two times. But the team’s skipper knows her center fielder has left a lasting impression on the university.
“She is a little over the top as far as the ultimate four-year experience at UVa,” Schmidt chuckled, “but what she has done is take advantage of the opportunities that have been around her and certainly this university affords you those opportunities. She has really blossomed in this environment.”