Kevin O’Brien is a mental performance coach and educator with 25 years of experience working with boys and young men in independent schools.
Kevin teaches American Literature and coaches lacrosse at University School, an all-boys JK–12 school in Hunting Valley, Ohio. He has also spent over a decade teaching and coaching in boarding school environments, living in dorms and working with students.
Kevin is a graduate of Phillips Academy Andover and the University of Pennsylvania, where he played Division I lacrosse and served as a captain. He holds an M.A. from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College.
After losing his younger brother Conor to suicide in 2000, Kevin began a long personal journey through grief, mindfulness, and meaning-making. That experience — combined with more than two decades in classrooms and locker rooms — now shapes everything he does as a coach, speaker, and educator.
He developed the COMPETE framework, a four-pillar mental performance system (Recognize, Reset, Lock In, Lead) designed to give coaches and athletes a repeatable process for handling pressure, failure, and high-stakes moments. COMPETE is a system to elevate performance through daily training.
Kevin speaks and coaches on mental performance, leadership, and education.