Feb. 27, 2025, 9:00 p.m. – I’m exhausted, nursing a headache and in dire need of getting under the covers and calling it a night. I barely spent one day following along with Marissa Sciotto’s busy life, and I don’t think I could ever do it again.
Marissa, meanwhile, will return to her apartment and set her alarm for another early morning wake-up; she has another day just like this one awaiting her tomorrow.
Of 5,062 traditional undergraduate students on the Marist University campus, there are few quite like Marissa Sciotto. Majoring in childhood/special education and psychology, Sciotto lives a double life. Perhaps even a triple life.
Sciotto is a member of the Marist track and field team who made it to the 2024 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials. She’s also on the Marist University dance team, a squad that won the school’s first dance national championship.
Between those two teams, she has multiple practices each day, a full class slate and a part-time gig as a substitute teacher. How does she do it? Her answer is simple in theory but complicated in execution: an inspirational work ethic and compassion for everyone she comes across in each action-packed day. I followed her around for a day in hopes of beginning to understand it all.
I – In the Classroom
My day with Marissa starts around 8:30 in the morning. As I put the finishing touches on my preparation for the day, I’m anxious—a feeling I don’t often experience ahead of interviews. I’ve written countless feature stories about a wide variety of Marist athletes, but never once in this magnitude.
I had met Marissa in passing, where she had been nothing but nice to me, and I had only heard positive things about her from her teammates. I had an abundance of questions for her prepared, so much that I thought it would be better to split the interview up into three sessions: ahead of her class, then before track and field practice and lastly before performing at a Marist women’s basketball game – each session pertaining questions to the event to come. We start in the Dyson Center at around 10 a.m. for the beginning of a long day together.
Sciotto grew up with a brother, Tommy, and three sisters, Tina, Brianna and Victoria, her fraternal twin. She spent much of her childhood wishing she and Victoria were identical twins and often took an interest to similar things as Victoria. She even wanted to dress the same.
“I was obsessed with Mary-Kate and Ashley (Olsen),” said Sciotto. “I would look in and see what clothes she had laid out for the next day and I’d go and find the same exact clothes so that we could match and then she’d end up changing the next day.”
Sciotto’s interest in teaching comes from years spent looking up to her mother, who taught science classes while Sciotto was growing up. Seeing her schedule–which pales in comparison to her current loaded agenda–that included summer breaks and plenty of time to be spent with their family, initially piqued Sciotto’s interest in one day becoming a teacher.
“It’s the closest thing to being a stay-at-home mom without being a stay-at-home mom, so I quickly realized that that’s really what I wanted to be doing.”
Aside from her teaching aspirations, Sciotto’s second dream in life is to be a mother. She wanted to be just like her mom while growing up, including both her job as a teacher as well as the role she played in raising Sciotto and her sisters.
“In elementary school, I had an American Girl Doll that I would carry around, and I would literally pretend it was my own baby,” she said. Any time I’d go to school, I was pretending I was going to work… I always knew I wanted to be a mom.”
While motherhood is distant, Sciotto’s work with kids in the Poughkeepsie City School District sparked an interest in potentially fostering or even adopting a kid down the line. She became close with a boy who was looking for a foster home, which opened her eyes to the possibility.
“If someone had come up to me last year and asked me if I could foster him, I would have taken him in immediately,” Sciotto said.
“I just know that there’s more kids like him out there,” she added. “They deserve a loving family. and they deserve parents that love them. I want to be able to give that to someone.”
Sciotto’s decision for her career choice is simple: “I can make an impact on someone before they go out into the real world.”
Sciotto currently works as a substitute teacher in the Hyde Park Central School District, a position she started during the fall of her junior year. It’s a flexible gig for Sciotto’s jam-packed schedule.
During the fall semester of her junior year, Sciotto completed her student teaching requirement in the Poughkeepsie City School District, helping teach a third-grade class. The semester gave her a good look at what the rest of her teaching career might look like–for better and worse.
“That was my first experience of the Sunday scaries,” she said. “Obviously I loved doing it, but it was just very long.”
Sciotto spent her time student teaching as one-on-one support for a girl who moved from Honduras to the United States a few weeks into the school year. She had only spent three months in school before immigrating and was placed in third grade due to her age, despite being developmentally at the education level of a kindergartener or first-grade student.
The student had a vague understanding of addition and subtraction, but was tasked with learning advanced math, such as multiplication times tables. Sciotto had to teach the girl curriculum at a slower pace; the long days consisted of hard work and collaboration, but sometimes the feeling of little to no progress.
“What hurt me more was that she was trying so hard every day,” said Sciotto. “She would cry, only because she was getting frustrated that she didn’t understand it, which obviously hurt me even more because I wanted her to get it so bad.”
One day, it finally clicked for the student while working on a math problem. The sheer jubilation on the student’s face made the tough times worth it for Sciotto, marking one of her most rewarding days as a student teacher.
Sciotto has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity waiting for her when she graduates: a full-time teaching job in Hawaii. The Aloha State is often desperate for teachers, and Sciotto will be following a similar path of two of her former track and field teammates.
Samantha DeStefani and Rebecca Walters, both seniors when Sciotto was a freshman, moved to Hawaii to teach after departing from Marist. After two years as a special education teacher at Solomon Elementary School in Wahiawa, Hawaii, DeStefani plans on returning to the continental United States after this school year ends, while Walters will continue working in Hawaii.
While nerve-wracking, Sciotto is ready for the leap. One of the hardest parts of the move will be the distance she will be away from her family. Sciotto often goes home on weekends while at school but the 11-hour flight will limit her frequent visits.
“I know that when I’m there, I’m not going to be able to just hop on a plane and say ‘oh let me just go home for a few days’,” Sciotto explained. “That’s sitting with me a little bit more now.”
Although she’s excited for the opportunity in Hawaii, at this moment, Sciotto thinks it will be more of a short-term experience, similar to DeStefani.
“If you ask me now – maybe I’ll change my mind – I definitely want a year, maybe two, tops,” said Sciotto.
II – Around the Track
Marissa and I go our separate ways for classes, hers at 11 a.m. and mine at 12:30 p.m. We pick back up in the McCann lobby at 1:40 to talk about her racewalk career.
Sciotto originally had no interest in track and field when she got to Sachem East High School on Long Island. One of her friends convinced her to at least give it a shot, so she reluctantly went to the first week of conditioning where returning members of the team taught interested students about the events the school offered.
Four days into the week, Sciotto had not softened her stance. She liked pole vaulting and hurdles, but not enough to want to commit to trying out for the team. Then came Friday.
“Finally, last day of conditioning week, it’s over,” she thought.
At Friday’s conditioning practice, Sciotto was introduced to racewalking. After learning the basic fundamentals, her instincts took over. In just her first day trying it, racewalking came like second nature to Sciotto.
She was a natural. The racewalkers on the team taught her the form and she promptly outpaced them, much to the surprise of herself and the upperclassmen.
Just like that, Sciotto was hooked.
“I just love being good at something,” she said. “I think everyone does, but if I’m not good at something, I will not waste my time.”
As Sciotto progressed through high school, she fell in love with the sport and knew she wanted to continue competing in college. However, she fell victim to tough timing. During her junior year, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down high school sports, but her coaches helped them through the recruiting process.
Sciotto first reached out to the Marist coaching staff in April of 2020, hoping to follow in the footsteps of Sachem East High School alum Lauren Harris, junior racewalker at Marist at the time. Sciotto did not hear back from her initial email but followed up in the summer and the following January.
After a few follow-up emails, she heard nothing. The May 1 college decision deadline forced Sciotto to weigh her options. Racewalk is more common on the West Coast, but she felt a strong pull to remain closer to home. The only other feasible choice for her was Mansfield University, a Division II school in Pennsylvania.
As she anxiously awaited word from college coaches, her high school coach offered Sciotto advice that helped her come to a decision.
“Where would you go if racewalk was not an option?”
The answer was easy for Sciotto: Marist.
Sciotto committed to Marist without even hearing back from the coaches and consulted with Harris, who recommended she try and join the team as a walk-on at the start of the fall semester.
Hoping to stay in racewalk shape during the summer, Sciotto got in contact with a racewalk coach online, who offered to send her videos that were part of a training program. After telling him her plans to walk on at Marist, he quickly dialed up Chuck Williams, who was the head coach of Marist’s women’s cross country and track at the time.
“He then calls Chuck, and he’s like ‘Hey, I got a girl that’s looking to racewalk at your school. ’ And then that was that.”
She initially slipped through the cracks, but as she got situated on the team, she set her sights on her ultimate goal: competing in the U.S. Olympic Trials.
“I knew I would kick myself for the rest of my life if I didn’t work at this or push myself,” said Sciotto.
Following the conclusion of her senior year, Harris–alongside Kayla Shapiro–competed at the 2021 U.S. Olympic trials in Springfield, Oregon. They became the first Marist Athletes to participate at a U.S. Olympic trial, setting a new bar for the racewalking team at Marist.
Sciotto and junior Mia Priore joined the elite company of Marist athletes to compete at the Olympic trials at the following Olympic cycle last summer. Sciotto qualified on June 2 at the Elliott Denman New Jersey International meet, winning the 35,000-meter race–which converts to nearly 22 miles–with a time of 3:42:38.47, good for a new meet and school record.
Despite comfortably qualifying under the required time of 4:00:00, the race and training process was by no means easy for Sciotto. Getting set to start a 35,000-meter race is a battle itself; just seeing the number of laps around the track she had ahead of her – 87.5 – was incredibly daunting.
“That race was so mentally tough, to the point where I stopped even caring how fast I was going. I just needed it to be over,” Sciotto said.
Sciotto punched her ticket to Eugene, Oregon – “TrackTown USA” – to compete in the women’s 20,000m Racewalk trials championship race on June 29. As she did her best to enjoy living her dream of competing at the Olympic trials, it was hard to push aside her nerves.
“In preparation to a big event like the Olympic trials, she was bubbly, you see she was a little nervous, but she was still kind of anchored,” said Billy Poole-Harris, assistant coach of men’s and women’s cross country and track and field at Marist.
Placing 12th, Sciotto posted a time of 1:55:21. She had reached the country’s peak of racewalking, but still had her senior year ahead of her.
“I felt I had accomplished everything in my racewalk career,” Sciotto said.
Admittedly, Sciotto felt burnt out heading into the school year. While most athletes spent their summer resetting and preparing for the year ahead, Sciotto was focused on competing in the biggest races of her life.
She told her coaches what she was going through, and they understood. They allowed Sciotto to continue practicing with the team but doing so at her own pace until she felt comfortable racing again.
Sciotto had no immediate plans to compete last semester, but when Williams, her racewalk coach, left the program last December, the racewalk team at Marist left with him. In his place, Poole-Harris stepped into his role.
“I knew already from talking to Billy his intentions with our team. There’s no bad blood there at all. I know he wants to make the Marist track program something special, which he’s clearly already done. It’s proof just from this past weekend,” Sciotto said, in reference to Marist’s men’s and women’s teams both exceeding expectations at the 2025 MAAC Indoor Track and Field championships.
The news of the racewalking team being cut from the track and field came at a fitting time for Sciotto last fall, who is still finding her footing after her historic summer. Though she has raced her last racewalk competition in her career, Sciotto is appreciative of Williams and Marist.
“I kept saying how grateful I was regardless, that Chuck even allowing us to race walk here,” said Sciotto. “He was using the Marist track money to help bring us to these meets. He didn’t need to be doing that, so I was just grateful for how generous he was, and I’m fortunate enough that I am a senior and I was able to do all that.”
With racewalk out of the picture, Sciotto is referring to herself as a “free agent,” waiting to find a new event to potentially compete in. In the meantime, she attends practices and at meets acts as a team manager, helps with food orders and records races.
“She didn’t even care where she was put, she just wanted to be a part of the program,” said sophomore Megan Hoffman, a fellow racewalker-turned-manager.
The role has been perfect for Sciotto, whose natural care for her teammates has made her a unifier amongst the team.
“There’s a lot of different personalities on this team, but she’s just someone that can get along with anyone,” said Hoffman. “Even in the worst times, she really can lift people up. Someone else is gonna have to step up in that position because those are big shoes to fill.”
Up we go to join the rest of her team, some preparing to compete at the Last Chance Invite on Staten Island that weekend. There, I talk with Poole-Harris and a few of Marissa’s teammates while she starts her workout on the treadmill. After conducting a few interviews, I walk back to my dorm room, catch my breath and listen back to all the interviews I’ve recorded so far.
III – On the Floor
Marissa tells me to get to McCann before 5 p.m. for the 7 p.m. tip off for women’s basketball. Though the dance team doesn’t take their position in the north end of the McCann bleachers in front of the band until around 20 minutes before the opening tip-off, the team arrives an hour and a half before game time to go over the night’s dances and the spots each of them will be taking.
I walked back to McCann and took a seat near the corner of the lobby. She got there soon after, and I promised her this would be the last time I bug her with a long one-on-one session of questions.
“I do not mind. As you can tell, I love to talk,” she said with a grin.
Sciotto had a passion for dance from a very young age, as long as she could remember. However, she did not start dancing competitively until she reached sixth grade, doing so at the same studio as her older sister, Tina.
When she added racewalk in high school, Sciotto’s schedule turned hectic. Track and field practice took place right after school and lasted until around 5 p.m. Sciotto then had to hurry home to eat dinner before dance practice at 6:30, which went until 10 p.m. After that, it would finally be time for homework.
“I’d probably go to bed at like 3 a.m. every night,” Sciotto said. “I think back to it now and I don’t know how I had the energy. I was never sitting down just to relax. Obviously I was exhausted every day, but I was still able to do it.”
Sciotto’s chaotic high school schedule undoubtedly prepared her to juggle responsibilities between classes, the dance team and racewalk at Marist.
During the summer, the Marist dance team sends out polls to incoming freshmen, inviting them to ask questions regarding the team ahead of tryouts at the start of the semester. Sciotto explained her predicament, asking if it was possible to manage being both a Division I athlete and a member of the dance team. Their answer: No.
However, at the club fair at the start of the fall semester, one of Sciotto’s friends picked up a dance team flyer, which showed that none of the practice times would interfere with her track and field practices. While Sciotto knew challenges were bound to arise at some point, she figured it would work out in the long run.
“I kind of assumed they would understand if I couldn’t go to a game because I had to go to a meet,” she said.
Sciotto earned a spot on the team despite nervously making her way through tryouts. Months later, her coaches at the time told her they almost did not take Sciotto in on the team because she seemed “scary and serious” when trying out.
As she got acclimated to the team, her true, happy-go-lucky personality began to show. Sciotto now is a key member of the dance team, not just for what she brings as a dancer but for the atmosphere she creates with her attitude.
“She is such a ray of sunshine in practice,” said Jillian Ciccarelli, one of two captains of the dance team. “She’s never down, she’s never disappointed, she’s never upset.”
Sciotto’s teammates gravitate to her. Earlier this year, the dancers took part in a questionnaire with fun questions about certain aspects of the team. One question asked each team member to answer who they would most likely want to stand next to at a game.
The overwhelming favorite? Sciotto.
“Maybe you had a bad day of classes, and you come to practice and Marissa’s there. You know you’re going to leave laughing and smiling, and your day will be better just because Marissa was at practice,” said junior Gia Cappetti.
Though often bubbly on the outside, Sciotto uses her silly reputation as a way to casually give meaningful talks to the team ahead of big events, including the dance team’s national championship competition at The College Classic last April.
Before her teammates dismounted from the bus after arriving at the competition in Orlando, Florida, Sciotto stood up and delivered a passionate speech about staying grounded in each moment of the week. She reminded them that in five days, they would want to relive the week again, motivating them to stay in the present.
“Her delivery is so funny, but it’s so deep and motivational and sincere that it unites us a little bit more,” said Ciccarelli.
Her inspiring words paid dividends, as the team captured the national championship in the Division IA/1 Hip Hop competition.
As the dance team bus departed from Marist’s campus en route to Atlantic City for the 2025 MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships, Sciotto delivered her most memorable speech yet. As she finished, she pulled a harmonica out of her backpack and played “Piano Man” by Billy Joel, prompting the team to sing along.
Sciotto’s heartfelt, powerful speeches are not her only beloved bit on the team. Each member of the dance team remembers their first interaction with her for one distinct reason.
“My first practice with the team, Marissa introduced herself in a British accent,” said Cappetti. “She introduced herself as literally from England.”
“I went up to her and I asked her if her accent was real, and she goes ‘Of course it’s real.’ So I was terrified, but then a week later I found out it was fake,” said freshman Brigid Licata.
Hm. And I thought I was special when she broke out her British accent when I was first getting to know her.
“I did not believe it,” laughed Cappetti. “But it definitely was telling of her as a person.”
As Sciotto has taken a lessened role on the track and field team, she has made a conscious effort to make the most of her final year on the dance team.
“I think actually it was the best-case scenario, because truthfully, I think I put all my energy and love into racewalk that I almost forgot about how much I love dance,” she said. “I wanted this year to be the year that I’m more present at dance.”
While focusing on living in the present, Sciotto has still been thinking about her future and how she will reflect on moments spent on the team. For her 22nd birthday on Feb. 25, Sciotto received a video camera, which she started taking to practices and games to digitally document her final few months at Marist on her personal YouTube channel.
Instead of asking for gifts for her 22nd birthday, Sciotto asked 22 of her closest friends to write a brief letter to her sharing their favorite memory with her, as another way for her to be able to physically look back at the connections she forged at Marist.
What was originally meant to be a touching gift for herself had the same effect on the gift-givers. Non-seniors like Cappetti, who was brought to tears while writing her letter, were prompted to start to think about what the team will be like without her next year.
“She is genuinely one of the best people I’ve met at this school,” said Cappetti. “It’s going to be hard not seeing her every day.”
The team will miss her positive energy next year, but Sciotto will still leave a lasting impact on the group.
Throughout her four years on the teams, scheduling conflicts arose. Sciotto would occasionally miss games, practices or team bonding events, but her teammates have no ill will toward her.
“The team is so supportive of what she does, and I hope she sees it because we’re very proud of her,” said Mackenzie Lewis, a captain of the team.
Ahead of her freshman year, Sciotto was unsure if she would ever have the opportunity to be on the dance team due to her massive commitment to track and field. Now, four years later, her teammates in both dance and racewalk have molded her into a better, happier and more confident person.
“I’ve really found myself from being here these past four years,” Sciotto said.
“I think everybody needs a Marissa in their life. The world needs more Marissa’s too,” Cappetti added.
The horn sounds, ending a 69-61 Marist women’s basketball victory over the Sacred Heart Pioneers. Marissa and her teammates trot out onto the court, dancing to Marist’s fight song. After the song plays twice, they exit the court and huddle up, talking briefly about their performance throughout the game.
“M-U-D-T Woo!” the team chants in unison, breaking the huddle.
They then grab their bags and return their poms to the multipurpose room upstairs in the McCann Center. Marissa returns, and I thank her for giving me her time throughout the day. She’s more gracious than I am.
While tired from hours of interviewing and walking around campus with my yellow legal pad in hand, my day with Marissa was exactly what I hoped it would be. It just took a day with her to understand the full picture. Marissa has such a profound effect on those around her, whether that be teammates, coaches or her students. Her future after graduation may remain uncertain, but one thing is for sure: Marissa is prepared to tackle it and leave a lasting impact on those she encounters along each step of her journey.
It was only one day, but I felt it too.
Edited by Dan Aulbach
Graphic from Quinn DiFiore
Photos via Marist Dance Team and Marist Athletics
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