Soccer Teammates to Posthumously Honor O'Neill-Mullin

will never forget former sophomore soccer player Cameron O’Neill-Mullin.

Starting in the fall, the Gators will posthumously honor O'Neill-Mullin's memory by having her jersey number sewn onto the players' uniforms, according to assistant coach Rosina Ciattei.

O’Neill-Mullin died in a boating accident earlier this month while on a school-sponsored exchange trip in Australia when a speed boat that was pulling O'Neill-Mullin and two others on an inner tube collided with a tree.

As a player, O'Neill-Mullin was an undeniable presence, standing, "all of 6-foot-1," according to her coach, Don Keener, who said that "Cameron was at least as tall as I am, and I'm an inch or so above 6 feet."

Keener recalls how O'Neill-Mullin willingly shifted from her original position as an inside defender to assume the sweeper's duties, not only as a result of an influx of last fall's talented freshmen, but also to take advantage of O'Neill-Mullin's versatility.

"She moved from the center of the field, where she was a focal point as a freshman, to an outside back position," said Keener, who chose O'Neill-Mullin, along with junior defender Natalie Drake, as the "Most Improved Players" at the Gators' year-end awards banquet.

"I moved her as the result of two freshmen, and she didn't see that as a demotion. She wasn't offended by the move," said Keener. "But what she did was to just take it in stride and just say, 'I'm going to be the best outside back that I can be for the better of the team.'"

O'Neill-Mullin's leadership, on a squad that started eight freshman, keyed a turnaround from a 2-8 mark during her ninth-grade season to last year's of 7-6-1.

"Cameron really anchored that corner of the defense down. She could be a hybrid enough to where she could go back and play stopper if we needed to on substitution or injury," said Keener, a second-year head coach.

"Cameron was a welcome presence for any new player. She wasn't afraid to address the freshman, nor was she hesitant to put her arm around a junior or a senior," said Keener. "She had a heart bigger than Texas. She epitomized what being a human being was, let alone a player."

O'Neill-Mullin's crowning achievement on the field, however, was her game-winning overtime goal against Friends, which ended a string of "four or five straight games where we had lost to Friends," Keener said.

"I found out at Cameron's viewing [on April 15] that her comment on the field to the rest of her defensive players was, 'I don't have time for overtime—we have to finish this because I have homework to do,'" said Keener.

"I believe she scored with about a minute and 15 seconds gone into overtime," said Keener. "So the opening possession was the corner kick that Cameron put away. Sarah Hefner held off the goalie and Cameron was able to finish the ball."

O'Neill-Mullin finished her final soccer season with three goals and an assist.

"Cameron was always the tallest girl on the field, so you would look for Cameron on the headers," said Keener. "She would always find a way to be around the ball and would come within inches of scoring goals a number of times."

It was with an equal selflessness that O'Neill-Mullin passed up a chance at a wide-open net, according to Keener, in order to dish the ball off to a 12th-grade teammate on Senior Day against Baltimore Lutheran.

"Cameron had a wide-open shot, but she actually dumped the ball off. She was the primary girl we ran plays off of most of the time, if not as the scorer, then as a decoy," said Keener. "But it didn't really matter who was used, as long as it was to the benefit of the team. That's just the sort of team player that Cameron was."

Keener and O'Neill-Mullin would "make eye contact and we would jump up and back-bump like the NFL players do whenever Cameron scored," which made the triumph over Friends "one of the more memorable ones of our season."

"I don't remember if that was the last time we were able to do it," said Keener. "But that one right there, that was the one that meant the most."

Calling her "the walking wounded," and "a girl who spent hours in the training room for treatment," Keener said that O'Neill-Mullin showed up for practice and games with a smile on her face, despite battling a chronic knee injury.

Beyond the field, O'Neill-Mullin and Ciattei shared a mutual love for music.

"When I was at St. Paul's, I was a part of 7th Avenue, which was that a cappella singing group that Cameron was in. We talked about singing, but we never did it together," said Ciattei, a 2004 St. Paul's graduate who played forward and defender.

"But I do remember that Cameron and I spent a lot of time talking about her love of music," said Ciattei. "We always talked about how she was big on the Jonas Brothers, and I made fun of her for that."

But O'Neill-Mullin surprised Ciattei with her appreciation of Bruce Springsteen.

"I was talking to her parents, because I didn't believe her at first, but Cameron had gone to see Bruce Springsteen something like nine times," said Ciattei.

"I remember that because my dad said that he was really jealous. So as it turned out, we both shared a love of Bruce Springsteen," said Ciattei. "That's how I grew up with my parents and my dad, because I ended up knowing about Bruce Springsteen by the time that I was 6. So I was like, 'Cameron's a lot like me.'"

During down times in practices or at games, O'Neill-Mullin was often seen cuddling with Keener's two young daughters, Karry and Jenna, who are 1 and 3 years old, respectively.

"Whenever I brought my kids around, I became invisible, and Cameron was always among the girls who would lead the charge, grabbing the kids from me or kicking the ball with them," said Keener.

"My daughters will never remember that because of how young they are, but they would have definitely looked up to her as sort of a big sister," said Keener. "That's one of those things that I will let them know about when they get older. I will let them know about Cameron because she's that special of a person."

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