‘Don’t put a cap on yourself’: Patrick O’Connell giving encore performance in final run with Montana Grizzlies

MISSOULA — Patrick O’Connell’s journey by school soccer has been well-documented as taking the lengthy street to success.

However now a senior with the Montana Grizzlies, the time has flown by for O’Connell, who simply retains getting higher, and higher.

“It has been a protracted however superior journey, and I am tremendous proud to be right here at Montana and enjoying the place I’m,” O’Connell stated. “It is tremendous humbling to know the place I got here from and know the place I am at now. I really like enjoying with the entire guys that I am with. Received an excellent staff, nice coaches, so there’s not a greater place that I might wish to be personally.”

O’Connell — a Kalispell native and former two-sport athlete at a NCAA Division II college in North Dakota in baseball and soccer — walked on at Montana, cracked the rotation in 2019, and in 2021 was a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award as one of many prime defensive gamers within the FCS.

The trail was winding, however O’Connell made probably the most of it.

“I believe that is what makes it so particular is taking the street much less traveled,” O’Connell stated. “I believe that is why it is so particular trying again at it, figuring out the place I got here from and the place I am at now, it is simply tremendous particular to me and to my household and to the entire folks round me as a result of they know what I’ve put in and what I’ve achieved so it is superior.”

There’s been no drop-off for O’Connell in 2022.

He leads the Massive Sky Convention with 7.5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss, has racked up 50 whole tackles, and has grabbed his first two interceptions of his profession, all stats which might be on par along with his numbers a yr in the past. Final yr by six video games, O’Connell had 52 whole tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss and seven.5 sacks as effectively.

Every year he is improved, however O’Connell stated that development is all the time the objective.

“I used to be making an attempt to drown the final season as a result of personally I wish to get higher each single day, and the following day I wish to concentrate on getting higher and higher and higher,” O’Connell stated. “It is cliché to say you wish to get 1% higher however that is what I attempt to concentrate on, and I attempt to get my teammates higher as effectively. However to drown the final season and concentrate on every day going ahead and getting higher, that is crucial factor going ahead, and that is all you are able to do.”

That success additionally led to O’Connell being voted a staff captain earlier than the season started.

“It was an honor for me as a result of I am with these guys each single day and to be voted a captain implies that they know the entire work that I put in and it makes me proud to be a captain on this staff due to the place I am from, the place I got here from, particularly, and the journey that I’ve taken to get right here,” O’Connell stated. “So it is fairly particular to be named a captain, particularly for the Montana Grizzlies as a result of rising up that is all I needed to do.”

The street to success in sports activities is not straightforward, or one with a common blueprint, and O’Connell’s message to these dealing with adversity is one in every of perception and laborious work.

“I might simply say do not put a cap on your self,” O’Connell stated. “Do not let different folks let you know who you’re, and in the event that they do let you know, then show them incorrect. Exit and work as laborious as you may each single day, push your self in addition to pushing others too, and get higher and higher each single day.”

However for now, his senior season will march on, with life off the sector additionally treating O’Connell effectively because the Griz linebacker grew to become engaged to his long-time girlfriend, Madison Rauthe, again in August.

O’Connell lengthy knew he needed to suggest, however timing, was the important thing.

“I had the ring for fairly some time, really, and I might convey it with me to those locations so we might go to the lake, we might keep on the lake, and I might be like alright I will do it, after which we might go all through the week and I would not do it as a result of I received too scared,” O’Connell stated. “It simply lastly got here to the time the place I used to be like, ‘oh my gosh, the season is beginning, I’ve to get it achieved.’

“So it was the final day of fall camp, and after that we have been happening a stroll after dinner one evening and I took her as much as the highest of the stadium so you may see the L and the M (on the mountains) with the river in between, and he or she knew I had a birthday current for her however she did not know what it was so I used to be like, ‘I am simply going to provide you your birthday current right here,’ and I dropped down on a knee and I requested her so it was fairly particular.”

On the sector as a pacesetter on top-of-the-line defenses within the nation, O’Connell is all about having fun with the second, and persevering with to enhance, because the Griz dive into the second half of the common season.

“It is simply plenty of laborious work and dedication,” O’Connell stated. “Quite a lot of assist for positive from my household, my fiancé now, her household, the neighborhood of Missoula and Kalispell, after which simply the brotherhood that we’ve got right here. Everybody’s protecting me up and supporting me however I could not do it with out the staff and my coaches particularly.”