Jennifer O’Neill grew up only knowing one thing: hard work.
Her mother, Maritza Robles, was a single mom, working multiple jobs to make ends meet as she raised her family in the shadows of Yankee Stadium. She was a police officer, sent to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Later, she was a firefighter.
O’Neill never knew her father, Eddie, who went to jail before she was born for dealing drugs. All she knew was what her mother did to provide for her three children.
“She was on her grind trying to do everything for us, so we could have everything she didn’t have growing up,” O’Neill said.
O’Neill took the principles she learned from her mother and applied them. She took the ball – literally – and ran with it. O’Neill, a senior at St. Michael Academy in Manhattan, went from being a bench warmer early in her high school career to a superstar. Last Thursday, she was named to the McDonald’s All-American Game, the most prestigious honor for a high school basketball player.
“For me, it was about giving them the tools they needed to succeed in life,” Robles said. “Sometimes I thought she might have been working too hard, but she said, ‘Mom, basketball is like my job.’”
O’Neill’s emergence was unexpected. She wasn’t one of these highly touted New York City ball players who are known already when they’re in the seventh or eighth grade. Coach Apache Paschall has had other great players at St. Mike’s. Kia Vaughn, now with the New York Liberty, was a McDonald’s All-American. Anjale Barrett (Maryland) and Shenneika Smith (St. John’s) would have been if not for injuries their senior year.
“But all of those kids were projected in the eighth grade as top-50 players,” said Paschall, who also coaches O’Neill with the Exodus travel program. “If you’re projected as a top-50 player in the eighth grade, your chances [to be an All-American] increase. Jen was projected to be Spanish.”
Joking aside, Paschall didn’t think O’Neill – who is Puerto Rican and Irish, “but with a black soul,” she says – would be able to start at St. Mike’s until her senior year. Last year, as a junior, she led the Eagles to their first New York State Federation Class AA title. In the fall, O’Neill, a 5-foot-6 combo guard, signed with the University of Kentucky.
“We think she has a chance to be a real difference maker,” Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell said.
O’Neill’s improvement has been a lesson in drive and desire. Before her sophomore year, she moved in part time with renowned Long Island trainer Jerry Powell, who lists NBA stars Ron Artest, Rajon Rondo and Christopher Douglas-Roberts among his clients. Powell and his wife and two daughters have become a surrogate family for O’Neill, who calls Powell ‘Dad’ often.
“Every time I needed help, he was there,” O’Neill said. “I could call on him, I knew I could count on him. … Without him, I wouldn’t be a McDonald’s All-American. People wouldn’t know my name. I would still be a scrub.”
Powell said the thing that separates O’Neill from most players is her motivation.
“She loves the discipline,” he said. “She wants you to discipline her. She’s a special kid.”
O’Neill says she would be lost without basketball, perhaps getting into trouble on the streets of the South Bronx. Paschall calls her now “a poster kid. You want that kid representing your school, your organization.”
“People don’t realize when you’re an athlete that you’re not a normal student,” O’Neill said. “You can’t do things that everyone else does. I have friends that don’t play ball. They’re able to go to the movies. They’re able to go hang out with their boyfriends or they’re able to even spend a lot of time with their families. I’m not able to do that, because I have a commitment to basketball – period.”
It’s a job, like the multiple her mother has worked through the years. But it’s also one she loves.
“I had never had a problem putting work in, because I wanted to be better,” O’Neill said. “I always wanted to be on top of my game. Not that I wanted to be known, but I wanted people to know that I come from nothing, but I’ll make something of myself.”
