On a cold and rainy day, the Ball State coed Water Polo team travelled up to Akron for a one-day tournament. Graduate Riccardo Pivetta played in the last tournament of his college career.
Before arriving to BSU, Pivetta was a kickboxer. He had been kickboxing since 2010. As compared to water polo, Pivetta said both the cardio and preparation are the same for each sport.
“It’s really a cardio sport,” Pivetta said. “It’s not like running a marathon, when you’re actually spread the effort along a long period of time. Like kickboxing, it’s really about giving your best for that couple of minutes and rest for 10 seconds and go back to fight or whatever.”
In Spring 2017, Pivetta won a kickboxing tournament. He said he was pleased with winning the tournament.
“It was kind of crazy,” Pivetta said. “I didn’t know what I had in my arms that weekend.”
Pivetta first arrived at Ball State in August and has enjoyed every moment of it.
When Pivetta arrived to BSU, he had some hard weeks because he didn’t know a lot of people. Pivetta said after those weeks it wasn’t hard for him.
“I’m a pretty friendly person and adaptable,” Pivetta said. “But I have made many friends, so it’s fine.”
And most of those friends came from the water polo team. One of those friends was senior Keaton Osborn.
Throughout his months playing water polo, Pivetta could always count on Osborn. Pivetta said it was great to know Osborn.
“I think he’s actually the leader of this group,” Pivetta said. “Because he was already trained in swimming, he’s experienced and is the oldest on the team.”
From when he first arrived to campus, Osborn thought Pivetta would succeed in this sport.
“Especially with the effort that he put into practice and what I have seen at the tournaments,” Osborn said. “I knew he was going to do really well with the sport and he has. He has shown a lot of improvement.”
For Osborn, he said he enjoyed the friendship with Pivetta.
“I just want to say how great he was to have as a teammate,” Osborn said. “He was very encouraging and he always gave his best and pushed the limit.”
Pivetta enjoyed traveling to new states and playing on the water polo team. In the end, Pivetta said he will remember the fun he had with the team.
Patrick Murphy 