Xavier Nation Magazine Feature: Working Overtime
Olivia Jenkins came to Xavier to play soccer. Now she's on the basketball court, too
Bill Thompson, Xavier Nation Magazine
12/23/2019
Olivia Jenkins works hard to be prepared when her moment arrives.
Whether it’s being inserted into goal for the Xavier soccer team during its biggest game of her freshman season. Whether it’s approaching the basketball coach with a proposition.
Whether it’s declaring a double academic major while playing two Division I sports. “I have a scholarship for soccer, so I was just going to go for soccer,” says Jenkins, a sophomore from Plainfield, Illinois. “I didn’t have any intention of playing basketball. I just wanted to help out, but as a practice player I realized how much I missed it. So I talked to the previous coach [Brian Neal] about trying out next season.
And he said, ‘Honestly, how would you feel about joining the team right now?’ I didn’t think it was possible, but it was something the soccer coach [Nate Lie] was very understanding about.”
Lie knew Jenkins had unique athletic skills. She replaced starter Toni Bizzarro in goal and stopped two DePaul shots during penalty kicks after the teams tied 1–1 through double overtime in the 2018 BIG EAST tournament opener, moving the Musketeers to the semifinals for the first time since joining the conference in 2013.
“Olivia is a natural shot-blocker,” Lie says. “She has more length, so she covers more of the goal. Before the game started, I told Toni she was starting and, if we go to penalty kicks, OJ [Olivia Jenkins] is going in. To Toni’s credit, she nodded her head, like ‘Yep, that’s the right call.’”
Jenkins embraced the moment. “I had confidence,” she says. “You have to exude confidence, because it can intimidate the opponent. But it was crazy. It was easily one of the best moments of my life.”
When Melanie Moore replaced Neal as basketball coach in April, Jenkins reached out. “She told me the situation and said she would love the opportunity to do it again,” Moore says. “We talked, and she’s such a great kid, a hard worker. She’ll join us after soccer season. I told her that’s priority No. 1.”
Actually, academics are top priority. One of the lessons Jenkins learned in college is how many hours there are in a day. “I was a double major in biophysics and economics, but I want to go to med school, so I kept the science,” she says, laughing.
“You can’t have it all. You have to have some time for yourself.”
