Around the country, high school seniors are entering college in record numbers. As acceptance letters roll in, students are faced with a decision: where to go?
For three FDR High School seniors, however, the decision was easy.
“I’ve learned so much from my coaches; they taught me how to row,” said FDR senior Arielle Tillou. “I’ve loved it from Day 1, and I can’t imagine life without rowing,” she said.
“My sister was on the crew team, and she told me not to join. She told me horror stories,” said Tillou.
Heeding her sister’s advice, Tillou tried out for volleyball – and didn’t make the team. Next, she tried out for basketball, but failed to make that team as well. Next up was soccer – she failed to make the cut there, too. Finally she settled on rowing, and said she loved it immediately.
Tillou met with a recruiter from Oklahoma’s Tulsa University last summer, and signed her letter of intent with the school in the fall. She plans on majoring in elementary education with a minor in Spanish, and will join the Golden Hurricanes’ Division I swimming program at the end of August.
“She made coaching a pleasure and has probably motivated a lot of young ladies on the team to accomplish a lot more than they thought they ever could,” said girls varsity crew coach Frank Baldascino.
Unlike Tillou, fellow seniors Corrin Sternberg and Korin Ditulli are staying on the East Coast.
Sternberg began swimming in a summer recreation league when she was just 7 years old, and in the fall she’ll head to Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, where she’ll continue to swim competitively.
“It’s one of the closer schools she looked at,” said Sternberg’s mother, Mary Pat, who teaches at Hyde Park Elementary. Mary Pat and her husband, Eric, plan on attending their daughter’s swim meets. “She’s such a hard worker. We’re so proud of her,” Mary Pat said.
Sternberg will study communications at Bloomsburg, whose swimming program is Division II.
According to physical education teacher and girls varsity swim coach Christine Berg, Sternberg is virtually five seconds faster than any of the breaststrokers at Bloomsburg.
“She’ll arrive at Bloomsburg as the fastest breaststroker,” said Berg, “Our loss will be Bloomsburg’s gain. She has not only represented her family, she’s represented Hyde Park,” she said.
Korin Ditulli, an outfielder on FDR’s girls varsity softball team, plans on attending Caldwell College, in Caldwell, N.J. She signed her letter of intent this past week.
“She wanted to quit numerous times when she was younger, and I wouldn’t let her,” said Ditulli’s father, Dave. “I said, ‘You’re too young to know what you want,’” he said.
According to Ditulli, a Yankees fan, baseball runs in the family. He was a second baseman for John Jay High School.
The FDR girls softball team, ranked No. 16 in the state in Class AA, is currently 20-1 this spring and is still alive in the Section IX playoffs, with a semifinal scheduled for June 5 against Minisink Valley, after the Beat’s press time.
“Korin is a big part of how we got where we are,” said girls varsity softball coach Pat Moshier. According to Moshier, she’s also carrying on an FDR tradition.
“Counting Korin, we currently have 11 students actively playing college ball,” he said, “That kind of tradition continues because of students like Korin.”