It didn’t take long for Easton High School senior Ryan O’Connor to realize he was a hot commodity after his stellar 2019 football season ended. The phone starting ringing a lot and he received several letters. Fifteen schools—including Brown, Princeton, and Yale Universities—aggressively recruited the quarterback.
O’Connor, who carries a 4.125 grade-point average, is enjoying all of the attention. “It’s been really fun to talk to different schools and hear what they think about me,” he says. “I definitely want to play somewhere on a big stage and where the fans are really excited about the team.”
The 6-foot-3-inch, 190-pound O’Connor is especially intrigued by the Ivy League schools. “I haven’t always had a goal at playing at an Ivy League school,” he says. “But my uncle (Tom Catena) played at Brown. That’s something I have always thought about because I would get a first-class education, and I would be able to play Division I football. That would be an amazing opportunity.”
O’Connor enjoys talking to all the football coaches and learning how he would fit in with their program. He also has a particular interest in James Madison University and William Jewel College in North Carolina, as well.
“The whole process has been exciting,” he says. “I just want to see what I like and what the schools offer. I want to have that cemented in my head before I make any decisions. It’s finding the right fit for me.”
The 17-year-old O’Connor plans to commit to a school in the fall. He will soon be gearing up for basketball season after that. Then baseball would follow. “Playing sports in high school is something I will never be able to get back,” he says. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world. If you told me four years ago, I would have to concentrate on one sport, I would have never done it. I like the culture, and the town coming out for the games. I like the atmosphere each game brings.”
O’Connor will continue to garner the most attention in football. The Bayside Conference named him its Offensive Player of the Year last season after he threw for 28 touchdown passes and 2,336 yards while rushing for six scores.
He had some eye-catching games. O’Connor passed for five touchdowns and 273 yards and rushed for 85 yards in a rout of Wicomico and threw for 284 yards and three scores while running for two touchdowns in 40-34 overtime win over Cambridge-South Dorchester.
“He has the potential to be a big-time quarterback,” Easton Offensive Coordinator Matt Griffin says of O’Connor, who threw for 24 touchdowns and 2,227 yards in 2018. “He is a playmaker and finds a way to make plays when things go south. He has all the tools. He is a very smart player, has strong arm and good legs and size.”
O’Connor is pretty good in his other sports. The baseball shortstop batted .333, drove in 15 runs and clubbed a team-leading six doubles as a sophomore.
On the basketball court, he earned a spot on the varsity last winter after two solid seasons on the jayvee. The small forward/shooting guard scored a season-high 18 points—including sinking four three pointers in 53-41 triumph over Colonel Richardson.
O’Connor also likes to stay active off-the-field. He served as SGA president as both a sophomore and junior, is a member of the National Honor Society, worked as a leader in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and led a student mission trip last year to Greensboro, North Carolina, for the Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in Easton.
“He takes everything he does very seriously,” Griffin says. “He is a smart kid in the classroom and I think he scored 1,250 on the SATs. I think he can go to an Ivy League school.”
