Mike Pichette
“At the end of the day, you’re only going to be an athlete for so long.”
Mike Pichette is a former University of Pittsburgh swimmer. He grew up in Strongsville, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. He started taking baby swim lessons at his local YMCA at the age of just one or two. At age five, he joined a summer league swim team with his friends and it was here that he started to truly develop a love for swimming. Four years later, his coaches encouraged him to start swimming competitively on club teams. By age twelve, he was making zone meets, breaking local records, and getting his first taste of success.
Mike attended Strongsville High School and swam all four years, setting records in the 100 backstroke, 100 fly, and 200 medley relay. He knew as a freshman that he wanted to swim Division 1 in college and one day swim in the Olympics. He worked toward this goal, qualifying for states and All-Ohio selections during all four years of high school. During his junior year, Mike was named The Post News Swimmer of the Year. He received a leadership award from the SwimStrong club team and was named MVP and “hardest worker.” In the spring of his senior year, he swam the ninth fastest time in Ohio State history.
During his senior year, Mike committed to swim at the University of Pittsburgh. When he got to Pitt, he primarily swam the 100 and 200 fly, and he made it to the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships at the end of his freshman year. Following his freshman year, the swim team underwent a head coaching change, which proved to be a huge culture shock for Mike and the other swimmers. Suddenly, the intensity was heightened to a level that no one had ever experienced before, but Mike rose to the challenge, recording top-ten finishes in the 100 and 200 fly in the first two meets of his sophomore season.
He did not know it at the time, but these meets would be his last. The night before the first dual meet of his sophomore season, Mike was hit by a car while on his way to a night class. The accident left him with a broken right ankle, torn tendons, and numerous back injuries, ending his sophomore swimming season. He took a redshirt year and spent the winter focusing on his road to recovery.
As he recovered from his injuries, he began to experience new health problems - he had numerous stomach issues and began rapidly losing weight. In the spring, he started training more intensely, but one day while in the weight room, he reinjured his ankle. This was Mike’s Moment of Truth, as this second injury ultimately led him to the decision to end his professional swimming career.
After deciding to stop swimming, Mike was lost - swimming had been his life for nearly twenty years. During swimming, he served on the Student Athletic Advisory Committee, which was very important to him, so, now, he did not know what to do in school without swimming, and he says he was “Just going through the motions.” This continued until Penny Semaia from Pitt’s Life Skills Program referred him to Shawn Robinson and his organization, Orange Arrow.
Mike credits Shawn and Orange Arrow with getting his life back on track by giving him a sense of normalcy and something productive to do outside of class. Even though he could no longer participate in athletics, he knew he still wanted to be involved with athletes, and Shawn’s story and the Orange Arrow mission hit close to home. Mike says he wishes someone had told him when he was younger to have a backup plan in case his athletic dreams did not work out because it would have made his transition from athlete to non-athlete easier.
Today, Mike is in his junior year at Pitt studying communication. He serves as a Head Coach for Orange Arrow, working with young student-athletes at the Pittsburgh Arsenal Middle School every Wednesday. When he talks to the students, he tells them to “Always have a backup plan - never put all of your eggs in one basket.” He discusses the importance of being a good, well-rounded individual, and he puts a lot of emphasis on looking at the bigger picture of life, rather than just the individual pieces, such as athletic dreams.
Mike’s final words of advice for all young student-athletes...
“Be a sponge, take in as much as you can, and always have a backup plan because, at the end of the day, you’re only going to be an athlete for so long.
