Regardless of its elaborate schemes and formations and Xs and O’s, soccer isn’t rocket science.
However Claremont-Mudd-Scripps kicker Alessandro Maiuolo is, primarily, a rocket scientist, one in every of his many spectacular tutorial and athletic achievements at a faculty that prizes math, science and engineering research but leaves room for college students to nourish physique and soul.
As a member of Harvey Mudd Faculty’s Beginner Rocketry Membership, the senior from the Bay Space metropolis of Mountain View heads the superior rocketry group’s restoration subteam, whose job is to get a rocket up and down safely and in a single piece. The duty requires a whole bunch of hours of exact planning and detailed calculations. Nothing is left to probability.
However in rocketry, as in life, typically probably the most cautious plans go astray.
“We had our first launch shortly final June. It blew up in 5 seconds,” mentioned Maiuolo, who was named to the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Convention’s all-academic group in every of his first three seasons and was the second-team all-conference kicker final season.
“It wasn’t our best, however that’s a part of being a youngster. We’ve bought to be taught from errors. I wouldn’t say it was time wasted simply because the rocket didn’t fly. Issues don’t normally work on the primary strive, and that’s one of many first classes you be taught as an engineer.”
Maiuolo, chosen the SCIAC specialist of the week for the third time this season after he kicked a career-best 54-yard discipline objective within the Stags’ 41-3 rout of Cal Lutheran on Oct. 15, has realized that the persistence, endurance and problem-solving required in engineering apply, in numerous kinds, to soccer.
“They each have life classes in them, so possibly they intersect on the next degree,” Maiuolo mentioned throughout every week off for the Division III Stags, who're 3-0 in convention play and 5-1 general heading into Saturday’s sport at Whittier.
“Teamwork, and with the ability to adapt to alter, with the ability to overcome adversity. Issues don’t work our approach at first and that’s true in engineering: The primary prototype just about by no means works, and also you’ve bought to get used to that. And in soccer, typically the primary few issues we strive towards a group received’t work and we've got to adapt, whether or not that’s all through the sport or at halftime, making huge changes. There’s quite a lot of overlaps in that sense.”
As a freshman in 2018, Maiuolo kicked three discipline targets to assist the Stags beat Chapman and clinch the convention title. After his freshman and sophomore years he did bioengineering analysis; when COVID-19 canceled the group’s 2020 season he took a spot yr and immersed himself in semiconductors and metrology engineering with Lam Analysis.
“There’s no NFL desires or semi-pro. The largest factor is it’s one in every of my key faculty experiences.”
— Claremont-Mudd-Scripps kicker Alessandro Maiuolo
“Intellectually he’s all the things you need. He’s bought the athletic instruments,” coach Kyle Sweeney mentioned. “You don’t usually discuss a kicker being a pacesetter, however even each inside the different kickers and specialists he’s simply that reliable man that everyone appears to be like to and form of leans on. He’s simply been nice for us.”
Maiuolo, who’s listed at 5 toes 9 and 180 kilos, is the son of a Taiwan-born mom, Tingting Wu, and Italian-born father, Antonio, who met in San Francisco. Alessandro — nicknamed Ale — took courses in Mandarin from age 4 by way of 17 and is accustomed to Italian.
He received a Division 2-A state soccer title in highschool and likewise wrestled, performed soccer, and reached second Dan in taekwondo. He may have gone to a small Division I faculty soccer program, he mentioned, however selected Harvey Mudd (over MIT and Carnegie Mellon) due to its tutorial emphasis and closeness to dwelling.
He performs for the pure love of the sport, for the camaraderie and the satisfaction of pushing his physique as strenuously as he pushes his thoughts. There’s one thing uplifting in that.
“There’s no NFL desires or semi-pro. The largest factor is it’s one in every of my key faculty experiences,” he mentioned. “I get pleasure from these 20 hours. It’s not like 20 hours of homework after which I get one thing out of it. Doing the soccer actions is my getting stuff out of soccer.”
He has tried punting and final season added lengthy snapping to his repertoire. A buddy persuaded him to compete within the discus, hammer and javelin throws within the SCIAC monitor and discipline championships final season only for enjoyable, and he completed fifth, seventh and 13th, respectively.
By all of it, with a heavy schedule that this semester contains engaged on a diagnostic instrument for Tesla’s manufacturing line, serving as a head proctor within the machine store and filling a analysis place beneath the Clay-Wolkin engineering fellowship, he has maintained a 4.0 grade-point common. College officers say solely 14 college students have graduated from Harvey Mudd with a 4.0 since 1955.
Maiuolo downplayed his unblemished GPA. “Your grades aren’t an ideal reflection of how efficient you’re going to be in a sure place,” he mentioned. “I do know many individuals who possibly they've decrease GPAs than me however within the fields that they’re concerned with they’re a lot smarter than me. It’s not very indicative of who I'm as a scholar.”
However it hints at who he's as an individual — clever, analytic, an attentive listener who’s wanting to collaborate for the success of the group.
“He doesn’t simply fear about his half. He’s pondering of the larger scheme, each after we’re kicking the ball and as a group,” Sweeney mentioned. “He’ll say, ‘Right here’s a sport state of affairs that would come up.’ He’ll say, ‘What would you like me to do right here? What ought to we do there?’
“I believe he’s an excellent consultant of what our guys are, what our people are, as a part of our group and what we’re striving to be. You could be aggressive on the sector and the educational facet of it.”
His faculty soccer profession is nearing an finish, with three regular-season video games, probably a convention championship sport, and a sport in Italy in Might remaining. His pursuit of rocketry is winding down, too. He accepted a post-graduation job at AMD in pc engineering, which isn’t associated to rocketry.
However he’s planning yet one more strive at getting a rocket up and flying in a contest subsequent spring. It doesn't matter what occurs to that venture, this outstanding rocket scientist, dreamer and soccer participant will soar.
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