Valentino Poto '24 Recruiting Profile

During the winter of my freshman year of Highschool I was walking home from school on what appeared to be a normal day until I noticed smoke coming out of the roof of my house.  At first,  I wasn’t phased until I opened my front door and saw my house engulfed by flames.  At that moment, I realized that no one was home except my dog, who was nowhere to be found upon first opening my front door.  The smoke in the house was so heavy that I was unable to see 2 feet in front of my face unless I knelt down on the ground.  I knew that I had to find my dog, but I also knew this was a life or death situation for me as well as for my dog.  Also, I knew the fireman wouldn’t be arriving for 10 more minutes and by that time my dog would be dead.  So, I bent down and ran room to room to find him and by the time I found him the firemen were carrying us both out of the house as we both were critically sick and unconscious from carbon monoxide poisoning.  We would both wind up in the icu to receive high flow oxygen therapy and thank God we lived to tell about this tragedy. I have been told by many people that the decision I made to sacrifice my life for my dog was the wrong one as I almost died in the house with him.  However, I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I just sat outside my house while watching him and the house perish in flames. This tragedy has had long lasting effects on my life as for the following 2 years my family and I were forced to live in motels and were stripped of everything we ever owned.  However, I knew that I still had my dreams of someday becoming a student athlete in college despite not having my own bedroom, desk or house to help me, but I knew that my will to survive and succeed at the next level were stronger after this tragedy than ever before in my life.

Prior to the house fire, I first learned about my competitive nature and team first mentality to help whatever team I was playing on or classroom I was learning in, to be the best during my elementary school years. Since then, I have strived to help make other teammates and myself to become the best possible version of ourselves while on the football field or in the classroom.  This is clearly evident in my highlights from Highschool and middle school and is usually the first thing coaches, teachers and teammates comment on when asked about me.  My future plans are to continue helping other student athletes and myself at the collegiate level to become the best version of ourselves in the classroom, on the field and in the community. This will be accomplished by hard work, empathy and compassion for others.  Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of your program, family and school.