Age 29 Place of Birth East Northport, NY Where you live North Bergen, NJ. First Job Soccer coach What it taught me While in high school I was hired to train eight-year-olds to play soccer for one of the children's teams on Long Island. It taught me how to get an unruly group of children to work to common goal, and that I loved to work with elementary school-aged children and that led me to pursue a career in elementary education. Status Single Family Daughter of Hugh and Maureen. Seventh youngest of eight children: Hugh Jr., Patrick, Eileen, Brendan, Margaret, Sean, and Michael. My paternal grandfather, Hugh O'Rourke, is from Stewartstown, Co. Tyrone, grandmother Nora Fitzgerald, is from Waterville, Co. Kerry. On my mother's side, my great-grandfather, Martin Dillon, hailed from Glenamaddy, Co. Galway and great-grandmother, Margaret McDermott, from Garrison, Co. Fermanagh. Best advice you could give someone starting out "You can never have too much education." My father never gave up urging his children to continue college. Between the eight siblings are eight college degrees, five masters and two law degrees. My father, a member of the New York Police Department, has a Ph.D. in criminal justice.
Mary T. O'Rourke taught for four years at PS 76 in the Bronx and is currently teaching Kindergarten students in North Bergen, NJ. She has had a lifelong passion for soccer and now GAA football. She received an athletic scholarship to Iona College (BA 2002 and MS 2003) and played for four years on the women's soccer team. While pursuing her masters at Iona she was appointed as the assistant coach. She was also the president of the Gaelic Society for two years at Iona. Currently, she is the JV coach for the women's soccer program at the North Bergen Schools in New Jersey. She has played with the Bronx Irish Soccer League since 2000. O'Rourke plays Gaelic football for the Sean Faherty Cup Champions Na Fianna. O'Rourke is the registrar for the ladies GAA and the Child Protection Officer for the Gaelic girls. She also coaches the U-14 Feile team and has coached the U-18 girls for CYC in San Francisco. Most recently, she took up adult Irish dancing - her eight hand reel group won first place in the North America Dance Championship in Memphis in 2008.
