Tales of a Triathlete

By Angie C.

Class of 2024’s Spencer Kitzerow is a well known figure here at Yerba Buena High School. As an athlete, he participates in water polo, basketball, and swimming. 

But where did Spencer’s involvement in athletics begin? 

This may come as a surprise to some, but Kitzerow did not grow up with a fascination for sports. On the contrary, he kept to himself and stayed in his room as a kid.

Kitzerow: “I started playing sports my freshman year. I started with waterpolo then went to swimming. Of course freshman year was covid season so it was mainly do online schooling, then build up the courage to head over to school to play water sports” 

Kitzerow’s driving force behind stepping out of his comfort zone and playing sports is his family. His brother, Montgomery, was already in water polo when he encouraged Spencer to join him.

Kitzerow: “Really, it was like my brother egging on the coaches that like, ‘Oh, my brother's so tall. He's gonna do wonders for your team.’ Of course, my parents also endorsed me stepping out of my comfort zone, which is a good thing”

Kitzerow’s experience as an athlete during his underclassmen years proved difficult for two reasons. Covid-19 was at its peak when he started high school, introducing its own challenges to his academic and athletic career alike. 

Spencer: “Covid definitely put a dampener on what we could do. We had to get covid checks at the beginning of practice. Some players would be out sick. Come swim season, I was also pretty out and about. All in all, it's just like a very big dampener. A lot of the games we could not play as well.”

Additionally, Kitzerow struggled with anxiety, both in everyday life and in sports. But as he continued to play, he found himself enjoying the team bonding created by all the practices and games. Sports provided him a break from school work, and a way to keep himself busy after school.

Kitzerow: “It helped me get over a lot of worry or helped me get over that. Be it that it was a couple of years ago when I first started initially getting over anxiety from games. I really, personally, I do not know why I was such a nervous Nelly. After school, it took up a lot of my time. It was very much a dedication, to say the least, for extracurricular activities. I've been with it so long, it feels like it's part of just daily life.”

Out of all the sports he plays, Kitzerow’s favorite sport is swimming. Yerba Buena’s swim program under Coach Kilfduff and Mr. Love is infamously known for being rigorous and intensive. As a part of the swim team, Kitzerow is able to focus on his own training. He is still part of a team, but here, his traits as an individual athlete can shine. 

Kitzerow’s dedication to the sports community at Yerba Buena does not stop at his athletic participation. 

Currently, Kitzerow is serving as the Associated Student Body’s Sports Commissioner for the second year in a row. His decision to run for ASB cabinet his sophomore year sprung from the encouragement of the ASB and Interact president at the time, Linh Buu, whom Kitzerow had been working with as an Interact board member.

Despite her encouragement, Kitzerow had his doubts. The night before his candidacy speech, he texted Buu, expressing his doubts. In turn, Buu urged him to keep going, to give it a try, but ultimately understood if he truly did not want to continue.

Kitzerow: “So I just caved in and said, okay, and finished up a very rough speech and gave it that day, which had a very impactful… which gave me a very impactful moment and made me think I could do a lot more than just be a student in school. From there are a lot of learning curves. I've never been a social butterfly, so getting to acquaint myself with people I work with and the job I was doing was a little bit difficult”

After becoming sports commissioner, Kitzerow faced many challenges. Feeling unprepared for the responsibilities and expectations of being an ASB officer made it difficult for him to navigate the position while maintaining a balance between his extracurriculars and his academics.

Despite his struggles with balancing his athletic career, academics, and responsibilities to ASB and extracurriculars while navigating his anxiety, Kitzerow has stuck it out and continues to move forward in order to provide a space for athletes to be recognized for their talents and skills. 

Kitzerow: “I've been trying to find more efficient ways to appreciate our sports players. Ms Jenny Pham in terms of appreciating sports players, we’re planning on sending out a how you want to be appreciated link or questionnaire on the athletics page… we’ve been trying to think of ways to appreciate the seniors for our sports other than just yk goodie bags, player cards, and uh appreciation notes and senior night posters. Even though it's pretty swanky, I think we’ve been doing it for the past 3 or 4 years. So um if the players have any ideas on what they wanted, we’ll be down to read from them.”

Balancing sports, academics, and leadership is no easy task. It requires time management, tenacity, and the will to strive. Kitzerow has all those qualities. 

Through all the challenges he has faced, he has persevered. He’s come a long way since his freshman year of high school, when he was just a boy who would stay in his room, unaware of how sports would shape the next four years of his life.