Everything O’Bric Touches Turns to Gold for Edison

Never underestimate Kerry O’Bric’s work ethic.

The multitalented two-sport athlete--only because there aren’t enough hours in the day to participate in 10 sports--has given the Edison High athletic program a boost with her combination of talent and devotion.

“There are a lot of better athletes running around California, but she’s the hardest working of them all,” said Dave White, who coached O’Bric on the basketball team. “That’s not a slight to her athletic ability, it’s just that nobody works harder to get where they are.”

O’Bric competes in four events at every Edison track and field dual meet. She is a nationally ranked heptathlete who also excels in the classroom, where her 4.2 grade-point average ranks 21st in her class of 459.

“I just try to fit [studying] in when I can,” the senior said. “I’m always catching up with my homework and classes on the weekend.”

That is, when she’s not competing in athletics.

One of the most respected track and field publications, Track and Field News, cited O’Bric as the country’s best high school heptathlete after she finished third in the USA Track and Field Junior National Championships last June at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut. Her point total of 4,791 was the best among high school participants.

“I was just going into that to get a [personal record] because that was my first heptathlon of the year. I didn’t know what to expect,” said O’Bric, who is 5 feet 9 and 130 pounds.

Her hard work in basketball helped her earn first-team All-Sunset League honors.

Variety, O’Bric says, is the spice of her life and the key to her athletic success.

Last spring, she competed in the triple jump and long jump, where she finished second and third at the Southern Section Division I finals, as well as the 100-meter low hurdles and 300-meter intermediate hurdles.

This year, she’s looking to do even more.

“I have been talking with [Karen O’Bric, the Edison girls’ track coach and Kerry’s mother] about letting me high jump or run the 200 or throw the shot in a dual meet,” O’Bric said. “That would be a good opportunity because I don’t get many in those events. We’ll see if it comes through or not.”

Karen O’Bric, who has been the Chargers’ coach since Kerry was a freshman, sees dual meets as good opportunities for Kerry to participate in different events and hone her heptathlon skills.

“I think she’s reached the point in her career where that’s going to have to happen,” Karen O’Bric said. “That’s the absolute ideal situation for Kerry to have; to be able to do some other events.”

And the Chargers wouldn’t lose any dual-meet points by having O’Bric compete in a multitude of events. She has run 200 meters in 26.19 seconds, put the shot 36 feet 11 inches and high jumped 5-3--all marks that would place her among the top 10 for returning Orange County athletes this season.

As a sophomore, O’Bric was a three-sport athlete. That year, she finished 18th at the Orange County Cross-Country Championships, helping Edison win the title. The Chargers went on to win the Division II title at the state championships.

“I just decided before my sophomore year that I wanted to get good at cross-country,” O’Bric said. “But when I was a junior, I got bigger and stronger. I realized [cross-country] was not helping with the other two sports, so I stopped running. In basketball and track, you’re always sprinting, and cross-country is just the opposite.”

O’Bric counts among her proudest moments in sports when she helped the Charger basketball team finish atop the Sunset League standings for the first time in nine years this past season and the track team upset Esperanza last year, its first dual-meet loss in 15 years.

O’Bric will attend Baylor, where she accepted an athletic scholarship last fall.

“They are committed to her as a student and as an athlete,” Karen O’Bric said. “They are going to take good care of her there.”

Said Kerry: “The campus is so pretty and the people there [Waco, Texas] are all so nice. The atmosphere was right and the facilities are great. . . . Everything just clicked.”

Things have a habit of doing that when O’Bric is involved.

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Girls’ Track and Field at a Glance

Top sprinters and hurdlers: Carla Battle, Anaheim, Jr.; Ashley Bethel, Mission Viejo, So.; Ebony Dozier, Western, Jr.; Karine Inoue, Laguna Hills, Jr.; Maika Nelson, Brea Olinda, So.; Kerry O’Bric, Edison, Sr.; Heather Perrin, Esperanza, Sr.; Susan Pettus, Marina, Sr.; Marie Philman, Edison, Sr.; Erin Reed, Huntington Beach, So.; Taylor Stokes, University, Jr.; Erin Stovall, Woodbridge, Jr.; Alejandra Torres, Woodbridge, Jr.; Heaven Yoshino, Woodbridge, Sr.

Top middle- and long-distance runners: Jessica Corbin, Irvine, Sr.; Heather Cuthbertson, Marina, So.; Jessica Dahlberg, El Modena, So.; Heather Garritson, Buena Park, So.; Peggy Hall, Trabuco Hills, Sr.; Kristin Hawking, Esperanza, Sr.; Laura Kroninger, Dana Hills, Sr.; Allyson Marquand, University, Fr.; Katie Nuanes, Santa Margarita, Jr.; Mandy Schwecherl, Laguna Hills, Sr.; Summer Shaw, Huntington Beach, Jr.; Misha Wilson, University, Jr.; Angie Winkler, Fountain Valley, Sr.

Top jumpers: Ashley Bethel, Mission Viejo, So.; Erica Dickson, Mission Viejo, Sr.; Darnesha Griffith, Trabuco Hills, So.; Tayyiba Haneef, Laguna Hills, Jr.; Kerry O’Bric, Edison, Sr.; Kelly O’Conner, Esperanza, Sr.; Shemica Perkins, Tustin, Jr.; Deidra Segura, El Toro, Jr.; Jennifer Thompson, Woodbridge, So.

Top throwers: Carrie Acton, Los Amigos, Jr.; Sonya Bryant, Marina, Sr.; Marie Philman, Edison, Sr.; Lea Roussett, Newport Harbor, Sr.; Jenny Schutt, Edison, Jr.; Tofi Togogae, Los Amigos, Sr.; Crissy Tolson, Fountain Valley, Sr.; Laura Wilson, Newport Harbor, Sr.

League favorites: Century: El Modena; Empire: Katella; Freeway: Troy; Garden Grove: Pacifica; Golden West: Saddleback; Olympic: Orange Lutheran; Orange: Brea Olinda ; Pacific Coast: University; Sea View: Woodbridge; South Coast: Mission Viejo; Sunset: Edison.

1996 preseason poll: 1. Edison; 2. Mission Viejo; 3. Woodbridge; 4. Huntington Beach; 5. Esperanza; 6. Marina; 7. Trabuco Hills; 8. Newport Harbor; 9. El Toro; 10. University.

Key dates: Katella Relays, March 15-16; Cal Poly Pomona Bronco Invitational, March 16; Tustin Relays, March 22-23; Trabuco Hills Invitational, March 30; Irvine Invitational, April 6; Arcadia Invitational;, April 13; Mt. San Antonio Relays, April 19-21; Orange County Championships, April 20; Southern Section preliminaries, May 10-11; section finals, May 18; Masters Meet, May 24; State Meet, May 31-June 1.

Notes: El Modena, always strong in the distance events, showed a strong sprints crew at the Los Angeles Invitational earlier this spring. Expect Laguna Hills and University to battle for the Pacific Coast League crown.