Meet William Perrotto
Meet William Perrotto, a senior at Holy Family High School and Water Polo Player with CHSWP (Coloraod High School Water Polo)
Who Am I?
My name is William Perrotto. I have been involved with the Big Waves Foundation for about 7 years and have participated in Colorado High School Water Polo all four years of high school. I am currently a senior at Holy Family High School and, sadly, just finished up my last season as a CHSWP player with the Adams 12 Lava Sharks.
My passion for water polo ignited when I was introduced to the sport via the Bigelow family in 2017. My parents were done with recreational soccer and were wondering if my sister (Elena Perrotto) and I would like to try a different sport.
The first thing that came to my mind was water polo. I heard the Bigelow boys had been playing the sport for a while and absolutely loved it. With feedback and support from Vaughn Jr., Meghan, and Vaughn, I began practicing with the Rocky Mountain Neptunes club team.
'The years flew by as I was having such an enjoyable time playing the sport I quickly fell in love with. I saw some incredible success as our 12U team in the Platinum division of the Junior Olympics in Irvine, California, took 3rd place in 2019. Third place isn’t first, but for the only team in Colorado to fly out and compete in SoCal against teams who had such an upper hand in the game, third was incredible.
Years continued to fly by as I competed in many Olympic development programs and tournaments around the nation. My club water polo career began to slow down when I started High School, but the year prior, CHSWP had been started and was growing.
Holy Family High School fell under the district of Adams 12, which meant that my assigned team was the Adams 12 Lava Sharks. At the time, I was playing football for Holy Family, and so was Cooper Bigelow. As soon as Cooper and I finished football practice, we had to run inside, grab our water polo bags, and head straight to practice. Playing both sports at the same time was exhausting, but at the same time, very entertaining and exciting.
My freshman year of CHSWP was a building year for our team, but the next year, Cooper's Senior year and my Sophomore year, we were able to win third place at state for water polo. Conveniently, that same year, Holy Family High School Football won the 3A state Championship. My Junior and Senior years were winning seasons for the Lava Sharks, but they would never compare to my winning sophomore year. In the end, the most rewarding part of CHSWP was being able to build friendships and reunite with prior club teammates, whether they were on my team or another team. CHSWP is a community where everybody, regardless of the team they play for or support, has each others’s back.
I am so blessed to have had the ability to play water polo and participate in the BigWaves Foundation for part of my childhood and all of my teen years.
Remember, Lock Your Guns!
William