Arthur ashe leadership award Charlie Putrino III | Rollins College

arthur ashe leadership award

Charlie Putrino III's accomplishments are numerous, yet his leadership skills, and his selfless attitude is even more abundant. Charlie has battled back from a torn labrum in his hip during the 2021-2022 season, Charlie refused to quit the season stating, "If it helps the team culture to have me out there, I am playing." He was adamant then about doing whatever he could to help the team, even when it meant personally suffering and he is no different now. Charlie played on yet another torn labrum in his other hip this year.

Throughout his first year on the team, it was clear Charlie would become the captain. During that year and to this day, Charlie meets regularly with the coaching staff in leadership meetings. Charlie does what is right for him teammates and always handles conflicting situations with maturity and by doing so, the culture of the team has reaped the rewards of his efforts. His leadership mentality and professionalism shine through no matter the circumstances.

Charlie was internally nominated for both the Rollins Athletic department's Moment of the Year Award and was already named winner of the Teammate of the Year Award for the entire Rollins Athletic Dept. - an award in which he was nominated for and is voted on by his fellow student-athletes throughout all of Rollins College Athletics.

Charlie's Moment of the Year award nomination comes from a match against Barry, the current 4x National Champions, and now 7x SSC tournament Champions, this spring when the team match was tied 3-3, leaving only Charlie on-court vs. Bastian Rieme, a player who only had lost 1 match all season at that point. Being down 2-5, love-40 in the third set, Charlie saved 4 match points in a row. Charlie went on to hold serve but was down love-30 in the next return game, before coming back and winning the game to take it to a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Charlie got down 2-4 before climbing back to win it 7-5, and the match for the team, making it the first win over Barry for Rollins since 2012.

Charlie's accomplishments include being a two year captain of the men's tennis team, President of his graduate school class, Vice President for the School of Crummer Finance Organization, Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society, and Graduate GPA of 3.99 at the Rollins Crummer School, the No. 1 ranked MBA program in the south. He was the President of his graduate school class and graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Charlie lettered during each year of his tennis career at Rollins with marketable improvement each year on the court as his commitment to his game grew. During the 2020-23 season, Charlie went 5-2 in singles and was the Newcomer of the Year in the Sunshine State Conference. He was made All SSC Team. During the 2023-24 season, Charlie went 13-4 in singles and 13-5 in doubles.