Accomplished Flynn lets
her Benet family do the talking
By Matt Le Cren
Kate Flynn might be the most unassuming high school sports star you will ever find.
The Benet senior has a resume of athletic and academic achievement most teenagers can only dream about, but she is much too modest to bring it up in conversation.
So, others do it for her.
“The thing that stands out the most about Kate is that from an outside observer, just watching the demeanor of our players, you would never know that she is one of the best players that we’ve ever had,” Benet coach Gerard Oconer said. “You would never know how smart she is because she is probably the most humble kid that we have on our entire team.”
Indeed, Flynn speaks softly but makes a huge impact on the field. As a junior, the defender was the East Suburban Catholic Conference Player of the Year and a Chicagoland Soccer All-Stater, scoring three goals and passing out 10 assists to lead the Redwings to the Class AA state championship, the girls program’s first state title.
Flynn also became just the third Benet girl to earn IHSSCA All-State honors, joining Stefanie Foley (2004) and Liz Dudek (2009).
Oconer compares the impact Flynn had to one of the most accomplished soccer players to ever come out of DuPage County.
“Back when I was working at Waubonsie (Valley), what really stood out to me about Vanessa DiBernardo is that she would let her play do the talking, and she never put herself above anybody else,” Oconer said of the current Chicago Red Stars standout, who was also recently named to join the University of Illinois Hall of Fame. “She was better than anybody, but she just went about her business and led by example, and that’s what Kate does.”
That team-first attitude endears Flynn to her teammates.
“She’s amazing,” senior forward Sarah Bozych said. “She’s so humble about it.
“We’ll compliment her and she’ll be like, ‘Stop it, you guys are doing great.’”
The Redwings have done well during Flynn’s four-year varsity career. The roster has been packed with talent, including Flynn’s older sister, Erin, who is now starring for Division III power Washington University in St. Louis.
But something Erin said during an interview during the 2018 season proved prescient. When a reporter expressed amazement over Erin’s athletic and academic resume, she told him that Kate was even smarter and more talented.
Turns out she might have been right. Flynn, who will join her sister next year at Washington, scored 35 on the ACT and has been a straight-A student at Benet, which has one of the most rigorous curriculums of any school in the state.
“She’s one of the top students in the senior class at Benet,” Oconer said. “The substantive part about Kate is everything looks so easy for her.
“If you watch her when we do our conditioning sessions, it doesn’t even look like she’s breaking a sweat. The reason why that is she works so hard on her own, and that’s why it looks so easy for her, because she puts in the work.
“It doesn’t just happen for her, but she kind of makes it seem like it does.”
Flynn was already one of Benet’s top players as a freshman, when she supplanted Erin as the starting left back, with Erin moving to forward. But she has steadily improved since then.
“Obviously, she was a top player as a freshman and a sophomore, but she’s kind of taken her game to the next level in the last two years,” Oconer said. “Playing on the top Eclipse team does it to you, when you’re defending every day in practice the top players in the state like Megan Burling and Emma Weaver.”
But the best soccer players are the ones who can excel all over the field. Flynn has that capability. She is renowned for her attacks up the left wing and comes up big in important matches such as last year’s state semifinal, when she recorded a goal and an assist in a 3-1 win over Triad.
“She can play anywhere,” Oconer said. “I think she functions best at an outside back, because she’s able to see the whole field. She’s such a smart player.
“Defensively what really sets her apart is her ability to read the game and her anticipation. She doesn’t have to necessarily defend forward off the dribble, because she’s already in a spot where they’re not even getting that opportunity to dribble at her.
“And when they do dribble at her, she’s so good at using her body, just waiting for them to take that bad touch. She’s always under control.”
In doing so, she keeps the Redwings in control. Midfielders and forwards are willing to be more aggressive, because they’re not afraid of making mistakes.
“It’s really nice to know that she is behind you,” Bozych said. “Obviously, making a mistake in a varsity game is hard, but it is heartening knowing you have players like Kate behind you who will support you and make up for your mistake.
“It’s very comforting. It makes the game a lot better. Just having Kate as a personality and a leader on our team makes the team stronger, and we connect so much better.”
Yet Flynn was without her deepest connection for the first time last season. Never before had she played a high school match without Erin at her side.
“I think it was a real growing year for me personally,” Flynn said. “It was very different playing without my sister on the field and not driving to school with her every day, not going to practice every day with her.
“But I think it’s important that I had that experience, because it helped me step up and fill the role that I needed to file for the team. And that’s all that I ever try to do. I try to do the best I can for the good of the team.”
Flynn obviously has done a great job of that. The Redwings had several solid senior leaders last year but none as esteemed as Flynn, who put a team with the highest expectations over the top.
“She has a bond with her sister that is unlike almost anything that I’ve ever seen, so it was a little challenge for her junior year to forge her own identity without her sister,” Oconer said. “But I think what she really got out of it was she really started to develop leadership ability.
“Because she didn’t have her sister there to lean on, people were kind of looking towards her to be that leader, where maybe the first two years people would look toward her sister. So, she kind of took over that role.”
When the Redwings won state, it gave Flynn some family bragging rights, though she would have loved it if Erin had been on the field, too.
“That was an experience like no other,” Flynn said. “I’m never going to forget it.
“Mr. Oconer always tells us that no one can take that day away from us. It was such a cool experience to share with my coaches, to share with my teammates.
“It’s just incredible. And Benet’s done so many incredible things this year with all the state championships that they had, and we credit ourselves with starting that trend.”
Indeed, the Redwings’ triumph kicked off the greatest calendar year in Benet’s history. In the fall, the boys soccer, girls cross country and girls volleyball team all won state titles, with the first two teams doing it on the same day. The girls tennis team finished second in state, and the football team made the playoffs.
Last winter, the girls basketball was ranked no. 1 in the state and finished 29-3 after losing in the sectional final, and the boys basketball team won 24 games and reached the sectional semifinals before the season was cancelled by the coronavirus pandemic, which also threatens to wipe out the girls soccer season.
“It goes without saying that missing out on the season, seeing the girls every day, is very crushing, but I’m doing my best to stay positive with it and we’ve been doing a lot of team bonding from afar,” Flynn said. “We took a team picture via Zoom.
“We had so many returning (players) and we had such great new young talent coming in. I was really excited to see where it was going to go. Coming off such a great season last year, winning state, we were really pumped to see what we could do again this year.”
The Redwings are working out individually at home as the wait to see whether schools re-open. Flynn and her sister have been doing ball drills in their backyard and going for runs through their neighborhood.
“Me and the seniors have really been realizing since this whole situation has happened is how lucky we are to go to a school with as good of athletics as Benet and a place that builds such great community,” Flynn said. “We’re really missing it.”
Flynn, who is active in campus ministry, also misses going to church and said staying home on Easter Sunday was surreal.
But she knows that the crisis eventually will pass and is looking forward to college. Flynn passed up Division I schools to attend Washington, an elite academic school that requires a 33 ACT, among other credentials.
“I’m very much looking forward to it, because Wash U. has great programs in whatever field of study you choose, and they have really good research opportunities,” said Flynn, who is undecided on a major but leaning toward biology or pre-med. “Academics were a huge factor in my decision to go there, and obviously the soccer team is also very talented.”
Indeed, the Bears reached the NCAA Division III national semifinals in 2018 and the Sectional Final (Elite Eight) last fall.
“I’m excited to join them,” Flynn said. “I’m excited to play with my sister again.
“She loves it, and she tells me about it all the time. It gets me very excited.”
her Benet family do the talking
By Matt Le Cren
Kate Flynn might be the most unassuming high school sports star you will ever find.
The Benet senior has a resume of athletic and academic achievement most teenagers can only dream about, but she is much too modest to bring it up in conversation.
So, others do it for her.
“The thing that stands out the most about Kate is that from an outside observer, just watching the demeanor of our players, you would never know that she is one of the best players that we’ve ever had,” Benet coach Gerard Oconer said. “You would never know how smart she is because she is probably the most humble kid that we have on our entire team.”
Indeed, Flynn speaks softly but makes a huge impact on the field. As a junior, the defender was the East Suburban Catholic Conference Player of the Year and a Chicagoland Soccer All-Stater, scoring three goals and passing out 10 assists to lead the Redwings to the Class AA state championship, the girls program’s first state title.
Flynn also became just the third Benet girl to earn IHSSCA All-State honors, joining Stefanie Foley (2004) and Liz Dudek (2009).
Oconer compares the impact Flynn had to one of the most accomplished soccer players to ever come out of DuPage County.
“Back when I was working at Waubonsie (Valley), what really stood out to me about Vanessa DiBernardo is that she would let her play do the talking, and she never put herself above anybody else,” Oconer said of the current Chicago Red Stars standout, who was also recently named to join the University of Illinois Hall of Fame. “She was better than anybody, but she just went about her business and led by example, and that’s what Kate does.”
That team-first attitude endears Flynn to her teammates.
“She’s amazing,” senior forward Sarah Bozych said. “She’s so humble about it.
“We’ll compliment her and she’ll be like, ‘Stop it, you guys are doing great.’”
The Redwings have done well during Flynn’s four-year varsity career. The roster has been packed with talent, including Flynn’s older sister, Erin, who is now starring for Division III power Washington University in St. Louis.
But something Erin said during an interview during the 2018 season proved prescient. When a reporter expressed amazement over Erin’s athletic and academic resume, she told him that Kate was even smarter and more talented.
Turns out she might have been right. Flynn, who will join her sister next year at Washington, scored 35 on the ACT and has been a straight-A student at Benet, which has one of the most rigorous curriculums of any school in the state.
“She’s one of the top students in the senior class at Benet,” Oconer said. “The substantive part about Kate is everything looks so easy for her.
“If you watch her when we do our conditioning sessions, it doesn’t even look like she’s breaking a sweat. The reason why that is she works so hard on her own, and that’s why it looks so easy for her, because she puts in the work.
“It doesn’t just happen for her, but she kind of makes it seem like it does.”
Flynn was already one of Benet’s top players as a freshman, when she supplanted Erin as the starting left back, with Erin moving to forward. But she has steadily improved since then.
“Obviously, she was a top player as a freshman and a sophomore, but she’s kind of taken her game to the next level in the last two years,” Oconer said. “Playing on the top Eclipse team does it to you, when you’re defending every day in practice the top players in the state like Megan Burling and Emma Weaver.”
But the best soccer players are the ones who can excel all over the field. Flynn has that capability. She is renowned for her attacks up the left wing and comes up big in important matches such as last year’s state semifinal, when she recorded a goal and an assist in a 3-1 win over Triad.
“She can play anywhere,” Oconer said. “I think she functions best at an outside back, because she’s able to see the whole field. She’s such a smart player.
“Defensively what really sets her apart is her ability to read the game and her anticipation. She doesn’t have to necessarily defend forward off the dribble, because she’s already in a spot where they’re not even getting that opportunity to dribble at her.
“And when they do dribble at her, she’s so good at using her body, just waiting for them to take that bad touch. She’s always under control.”
In doing so, she keeps the Redwings in control. Midfielders and forwards are willing to be more aggressive, because they’re not afraid of making mistakes.
“It’s really nice to know that she is behind you,” Bozych said. “Obviously, making a mistake in a varsity game is hard, but it is heartening knowing you have players like Kate behind you who will support you and make up for your mistake.
“It’s very comforting. It makes the game a lot better. Just having Kate as a personality and a leader on our team makes the team stronger, and we connect so much better.”
Yet Flynn was without her deepest connection for the first time last season. Never before had she played a high school match without Erin at her side.
“I think it was a real growing year for me personally,” Flynn said. “It was very different playing without my sister on the field and not driving to school with her every day, not going to practice every day with her.
“But I think it’s important that I had that experience, because it helped me step up and fill the role that I needed to file for the team. And that’s all that I ever try to do. I try to do the best I can for the good of the team.”
Flynn obviously has done a great job of that. The Redwings had several solid senior leaders last year but none as esteemed as Flynn, who put a team with the highest expectations over the top.
“She has a bond with her sister that is unlike almost anything that I’ve ever seen, so it was a little challenge for her junior year to forge her own identity without her sister,” Oconer said. “But I think what she really got out of it was she really started to develop leadership ability.
“Because she didn’t have her sister there to lean on, people were kind of looking towards her to be that leader, where maybe the first two years people would look toward her sister. So, she kind of took over that role.”
When the Redwings won state, it gave Flynn some family bragging rights, though she would have loved it if Erin had been on the field, too.
“That was an experience like no other,” Flynn said. “I’m never going to forget it.
“Mr. Oconer always tells us that no one can take that day away from us. It was such a cool experience to share with my coaches, to share with my teammates.
“It’s just incredible. And Benet’s done so many incredible things this year with all the state championships that they had, and we credit ourselves with starting that trend.”
Indeed, the Redwings’ triumph kicked off the greatest calendar year in Benet’s history. In the fall, the boys soccer, girls cross country and girls volleyball team all won state titles, with the first two teams doing it on the same day. The girls tennis team finished second in state, and the football team made the playoffs.
Last winter, the girls basketball was ranked no. 1 in the state and finished 29-3 after losing in the sectional final, and the boys basketball team won 24 games and reached the sectional semifinals before the season was cancelled by the coronavirus pandemic, which also threatens to wipe out the girls soccer season.
“It goes without saying that missing out on the season, seeing the girls every day, is very crushing, but I’m doing my best to stay positive with it and we’ve been doing a lot of team bonding from afar,” Flynn said. “We took a team picture via Zoom.
“We had so many returning (players) and we had such great new young talent coming in. I was really excited to see where it was going to go. Coming off such a great season last year, winning state, we were really pumped to see what we could do again this year.”
The Redwings are working out individually at home as the wait to see whether schools re-open. Flynn and her sister have been doing ball drills in their backyard and going for runs through their neighborhood.
“Me and the seniors have really been realizing since this whole situation has happened is how lucky we are to go to a school with as good of athletics as Benet and a place that builds such great community,” Flynn said. “We’re really missing it.”
Flynn, who is active in campus ministry, also misses going to church and said staying home on Easter Sunday was surreal.
But she knows that the crisis eventually will pass and is looking forward to college. Flynn passed up Division I schools to attend Washington, an elite academic school that requires a 33 ACT, among other credentials.
“I’m very much looking forward to it, because Wash U. has great programs in whatever field of study you choose, and they have really good research opportunities,” said Flynn, who is undecided on a major but leaning toward biology or pre-med. “Academics were a huge factor in my decision to go there, and obviously the soccer team is also very talented.”
Indeed, the Bears reached the NCAA Division III national semifinals in 2018 and the Sectional Final (Elite Eight) last fall.
“I’m excited to join them,” Flynn said. “I’m excited to play with my sister again.
“She loves it, and she tells me about it all the time. It gets me very excited.”