University of New England Athletics

Nowadays, college athletics sometimes bare a close resemblance to big business.  Seven-digit salaries for many of the Division 1 head basketball and football coaches.  Shoe contracts.  TV and radio shows.  Mid-week road trips lasting three or four days.  The list goes on and on.  These factors are precisely why many believe Division 3 is the only pure form of collegiate athletics.

Enter recently-graduated University of New England student-athlete Michaela O’Rourke ’07.  O’Rourke is the perfect example of what is all right with collegiate athletics.

At first glance you might not be able to readily identify this impressive young lady in a crowd.  Her determination, upbeat personality and intellectual prowess might not come across in your initial conversation with her.  But get to know her, observe her make a presentation of how AMP-activated protein kinase affects temperature tolerance in the rock crab, or watch her race around the bases of a softball field, and you will certainly know O’Rourke is one of a kind.

A native of Franklin, N.H., O’Rourke saw her four years at UNE breeze by.  During that time she crammed as much into her college days as possible.  She served as a research assistant at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory.  She was a teaching assistant in the area of organic chemistry.  Throw in some community service, some tutoring and a work-study job, and it is easy to see why the time passed so quickly.  Oh yeah – O’Rourke found the time to attain a 3.93 cumulative grade point average, which led to her selection as the recipient of the Jacques Downs Award for Academic Excellence—given annually to the top student in the senior class.

One of her professors, Markus Frederich, Ph.D., was so impressed with her performance in his class that he recruited her to work at his research lab on Mount Desert Island.

“I could not have made a better choice with having her in my lab that summer,” said Dr. Frederich. “When I saw her checking on an ongoing experiment at 11:00 p.m., I knew she was not just working on a job like many other students, but was really excited about the project.”

On the softball field O’Rourke was no slacker, as well.  A four-year starter for the Nor’easters, her career culminated with a first team all-Commonwealth Coast Conference selection.  She was twice voted the team’s Coach’s Award winner.  The left-handed throwing center fielder played the game with reckless abandon—hustling, sliding and diving.  Her teammates knew what they had, as she twice earned their collective vote as team captain.

Head Softball Coach Joan Howard also knows what an asset O’Rourke was to the program. 
“There comes a time in a coach's career when they become "lucky" and a very special student-athlete arrives at the first tryout session with determination, exuberance, a great work ethic and the most positive attitude a coach could ask for,” said Howard.

“From the first day I saw Michaela, I knew that she would become a very important part of UNE's softball program for the next four years. Her quiet style spoke volumes to her teammates of what an athlete needs to do to compete at the Division III level.”

Certainly never at a loss for things to do while at UNE, it all paid off in the end as O’Rourke recognizes the lessons she learned while being a student-athlete. 

“Being involved in both academic and athletic arenas has greatly influenced the well-rounded individual I have become,” reflects O’Rourke.  “Through my experience, I developed relationships with professors and coaches who extensively supported and encouraged scholar athletes in various measures.  Personally, I was encouraged to participate in academic affairs and ceremonies by coaches and teammates, while being supported in athletic endeavors by UNE faculty.  I believe it is UNE’s strong sense of community that allows positive relationships between academics and athletics to flourish.”

Well-said by the ideal example of a true “student-athlete.”