Caroline Orcutt

Simply Unstoppable

Limitations, injuries, and setbacks are givens. Getting back up, and digging back in, are the keys to excellence.

Just before the pandemic cut the season short for many high school teams, Caroline Orcutt won the youth event at the 2020 USA Pentathlon National Selection competition. It was not her first time competing and winning at the Olympic level. She represented the United States as a member of the Pentathlon National Team at the 2019 Youth World Championships, and she won an individual bronze medal at the 2018 Youth Pan American Championships. She has also been a member of the Florida Olympic Development Program state soccer team. With 15 varsity letters earned across multiple sports, Caroline is a born competitor. While losing a season to COVID-19 has been demoralizing for many athletes at all levels, Caroline simply found a way to continue enjoying her love of sports. She volunteered as a swim coach, an experience she says allows her to share the value of hard work and perseverance with other athletes.

Caroline didn’t let COVID-19 stand in the way of her commitment to community service, either. She has 1,074 service hours to her name. But she is most proud of the Viking Welcome program she founded at her current high school. “Growing up in a military family, I’m intimately familiar with being the new student adrift in a sea of nameless faces,” she says of her experience attending nearly a dozen different schools as her family has moved across the globe to accommodate her father’s service to our nation. Caroline created the program to welcome new families with a variety of student-led events. When the pandemic threatened to shut down her work, she took the program online, partnering with other volunteers to “bridge the isolation of COVID-19 by reaching out individually to over 150 new students and families through Zoom orientation events, email, phone calls, welcome folders, and a video school tour. “Easing their transition brings me more joy than any accolade.”

School and sports have resumed for many student-athletes. But Caroline now faces a personal challenge that could sideline her once again: She suffered a grade three sprain during a soccer game that could impact her training and ability to compete in her senior seasons of swimming of cross country. “Although devastating, this experience has taught me the value of character in the face of adversity,” she says. And whether or not she can be on the track or in the pool, as a team captain, she is committed to staying involved by motivating and supporting her fellow athletes however she can. Caroline says, “The only concept that remains certain is the uncertainty in life.” But she will continue doing all she can, in any way she can, to ensure her own success and that of those around her. “We are not promised tomorrow, but we can live for today.”