By Scott Brinton
More than 400 pounds of circular weights hang from the machine's sides.
The 17-year-old lifts his muscled legs up to a big steel pedal. His fingers, clutching two handholds at his waist, suddenly tense up, and his skin turns bright red. "Rrrrrrrgh!" O'Sullivan grunts, his primal yell echoing through the expansive cinder block room as he thrusts the weights upward. After 10 repetitions, the Calhoun senior releases pressure on the machine, and it slams down with a metallic thwack.
O'Sullivan is the last member of the Calhoun track and field team in the weight room this day. He began practice at 2:30 p.m., hurling 12-pound shots across a dusty corner of his North Merrick high school. Then he hit the gym. Long past the point when others went home, O'Sullivan kept lifting. Then he, too, went home -- to run for 45 minutes and jump rope before sitting down to two hours of homework.
O'Sullivan is working hard to build the strength and stamina he will need to play Division I-AA football at Dartmouth College in September. He was one of only three Long Island football players chosen by Ivy League schools this year, said Joe Bianca, Calhoun's head football coach.
O'Sullivan, who moved to Merrick from Long Beach at age 7, has been a co-captain of Calhoun's varsity football and track squads, and achieved All-Conference, All-County and All-State status as a shot-putter. At the same time, he is a nearly straight-A student, with seven Advanced Placement classes to his credit. (He ended his high school career with the A.P. calculus exam.) He is a member of the National Honor Society, Athletes Helping Athletes, the World of Difference Club and the orchestra. He played three seasons of lacrosse for Calhoun. And, his coaches and teachers say, he's just a nice, polite guy.
O'Sullivan's solid academic résumé combined with his athletic prowess earned him a spot at Dartmouth. Other schools that were looking to recruit him included Yale and the University of Pennsylvania. If there's an Ivy League institution at which to play football, though, Dartmouth is it. Since 1954, the Big Green has won 15 Ivy League championships, more than any of the seven other schools in the conference.
"It's a privilege to turn out a guy out like that," Bianca said of his dominating offensive and defensive lineman. "He's going to be a hard guy to replace on and off the field. ... He's big, he's fast and he's smart. I love the kid. It's fun to coach a kid like that."
Bianca nominated O'Sullivan for the Roy Kessenich Scholarship, which goes to a Nassau County athlete who has played sports every season for four years of high school while maintaining an excellent grade point average. O'Sullivan, whom Bianca called "the best lineman I have ever had the pleasure of coaching," recently became the first Calhoun student to win the honor. Two were previously finalists.
Subhed: A born leader
Calhoun Principal David Seinfeld said O'Sullivan "is bigger than life. You have to look up to him, no matter what. He's gentle and he's strong. Kids respect him. Teachers respect him. He's a quiet leader."
David Hendler, the varsity track coach, described O'Sullivan as a mentor. "He takes the younger kids under his belt," Hendler said. "He leads by example. He'll teach the freshmen the proper work ethic." The coach said his star shot-putter tells squad members that they must get to events on time, treat opponents with respect, never curse and always try their best. At a recent practice, a group of younger athletes was fooling around in the gym. A simple hand gesture from O'Sullivan quickly calmed them down.
That same day, Tim Downey, a 10th-grade shot-putter, was spotting O'Sullivan as he bench-pressed 215 pounds. Downey clearly likes his team captain. "It's just the way he talks to everybody," Downey said in between O'Sullivan's repetitions. "He's never negative. He's just a cool guy to hang out with."
Subhed: Breaking a stereotype
Ed Tumminelli, Calhoun's orchestra director, said that on rare occasions he has had a football player in his string section, but never has he had the team captain. Often, he said, students have trouble juggling athletics, academics and music. "A lot of kids will choose between the music and the team, and he maintained both," Tumminelli said. O'Sullivan, whose violin looks like a toy when resting in his thick arms, was recently inducted into the Tri-M Music Honor Society. He plays in the orchestra's first violin section.
No doubt, O'Sullivan is breaking a long-held stereotype that football players just don't do orchestra. He never announced to his teammates that he plays violin. He took some good-natured razzes when they found out last fall, but nothing hurtful. And anyway, O'Sullivan said, "I don't care what people think. I try to change people's opinions. At the risk of sounding clichéd, don't judge a book by its cover. You never know what someone's all about until you get to know them."
O'Sullivan started playing the violin at age 2, said his mother, Debbie, a nurse who retired to stay home with her three children. (Patrick, 15, and Meghan, 13, are both exceptional athletes and students in their own right.) Their Irish-born grandfather played the fiddle and passed his love of the instrument on to John.
Subhed: The importance of family
Seinfeld said that O'Sullivan's upbringing gave him the mindset and skills to succeed in life. His father, John Sr., a retired Long Beach police officer, said that he and his wife signed all three of their children up for "lots of sports" from the earliest ages. And, he said, they were "consistent" in their discipline and were "always there" for their kids.
As a family, the O'Sullivans kayak off Montauk or the bays around East Rockaway, or they ski upstate. Debbie calls their trips "little adventures." John Jr. also baby-sits for neighbors' children, and since age 14 he has worked part-time at the local Associated supermarket.
O'Sullivan hopes to become an orthopedist. "The body," he said, "is a really cool thing the way it works." He interned in pediatric cardiology at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn last summer, but found the experience overwhelmingly sad, watching children suffer through debilitating, potentially deadly diseases.
"John O'Sullivan," Bianca said, "is one of those rare students who you come across in your coaching and teaching career who you feel blessed to have known."
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
