Tristano Pitetti '22 Recruiting Profile

During COVID quarantine, my coaches did their best to provide our team with as close to a normal rowing experience as we could get. They loaned the ergs for the rowers to use at home. We continued training six days a week using creative virtual methods, including heats against other teams, yoga, and weight training. During the fall season of 2020, we had permission to practice with other local teams to maintain our competitive spirit.

I have learned so much about patience, discipline, and ways to improve techniques from my team. I have also served as a role model to my team because of my dedication, my desire to exceed requirements, my desire and ability to perfect my technique and continually improve my speed. I foster cohesiveness within the team, help to build an environment where we grow as a team, and develop individual skills and character.

Rowing has transformed me in ways I never thought possible. Before rowing, I could not find my passion or my motivation. Rowing just clicked for me and helped me to build my confidence from the ground floor. I started to develop a healthy sense of self, emotionally, intellectually, and physically. As I began to master this new sport of rowing, I began to overcome the things I once thought I couldn’t. My anxiety, which was debilitating in my childhood and an actual roadblock for me to achieving good grades in school, accepting new challenges, and enjoying social situations, began to fade away. With my newfound self-esteem, my brain knew I was stronger than I thought, I began to see myself in a positive light. The way I thought and felt began to shift. I began to take care of my physical self, only nourishing myself with healthy, nutritious foods instead of seeking the junk food that tasted good and seemed to fill a void. I rarely miss a practice, and I will often complete additional training sessions. The most critical transformation rowing has given me is it boosted my dedication to my education and grades. My anxiety and low self-esteem got in the way of me being the best student I could be. As I sharpened my rowing skills, my commitment to my education and grades dramatically improved with every quarter. I began to see a possible future based on my real intelligence and abilities, not the substandard ones I thought I had. I could ponder a real career and begin to blaze my trail to get there. 

I can’t imagine my life’s trajectory without the discovery of rowing; I have my eyes on my future. As I near the end of my high school rowing career, I look forward to beginning my college career with rowing as an integral part of that experience. I know being on a college crew team will help me to hone my rowing skills as well as help me to achieve my other life goals. I also know that I can contribute to a college crew team in so many ways because of what this sport has contributed to me.