ERIE, Pa. — Swimming and academics led former Gannon student-athlete Sonya Pyle, now Sonya Whitman, to Erie, but the chance to learn water polo and be part of the first varsity team the Golden Knights saw was a challenge she couldn’t pass up. A 2004 graduate, Pyle helped the Knights establish themselves as one of the first Division II women’s water polo teams on the East Coast when she joined the squad in 2001.
Pyle left her mark on the program and in the record books. She holds the program record for 180 career sprint-offs. Pyle also finished her four year career with 86 goals tying for 17th all-time, 73 assists ranking 11th all-time, and 126 steals to sit 19th all-time.
In her freshman campaign, Pyle scored eight goals, tallied three assists, and finished with 22 steals. She kept improving and more than doubled her some of numbers her sophomore season. She recorded 22 goals, 13 assists, and 14 steals. Her junior season saw 26 goals, 32 assists, and 46 steals. Pyle’s 46 steals still sits at 11th in the single-season books. To wrap up her career, Pyle added 30 goals, 25 assists, and 44 steals in her final year of action.
All four of Pyle’s seasons as a Knight fall on the single-season list for sprint-offs. She holds the top spot after notching 70 sprint-off wins in her senior campaign. Her junior season is just after that in the second slot with 60. Sophomore year sits sixth with 35, while her freshman season is tied for 18th with 15 sprint-offs.
Following her time at Gannon, Pyle went on to get her Masters Degree and then return to Erie to work her career in marketing. Even though she isn’t in the pool with her teammates anymore, Pyle has found away to stay active and in touch with here lifelong friends Gannon brought to her. She took the time to catch up with the media relations staff and here is what she had to say:
Peterson: What brought you to Gannon?
Pyle: I went to Bradford-Central Christian and I was that last graduating class. It was a small catholic school in Bradford, Pennsylvania. As a diocesan school, the valedictorian got a large academic scholarship to Gannon. I was the valedictorian, so Gannon was number one on my list because obviously it’s nice to go to school and not have to worry about money. That was the number one reason I was considering Gannon, but I was also a swimmer in high school and wanted to make sure I was able to swim. When I came to Gannon for my official visit Don Sherman knew my name before I even said it to him. He knew who I was, and I felt at home. The second I met him he wrapped me in that big bear hug and knew I was home. There was no turning back after my visit.
Peterson: How’d you get started in water polo?
Pyle: I swam in high school and little Bradford, Pennsylvania has never seen water polo before. When I got to Gannon, Sherman was also the water polo coach and asked me if I wanted to try it since it was the first year as a varsity team. So I said let’s try it and I fell in love. I did softball, basketball, and volleyball growing up, so water polo was a nice combination of swimming, which I was the best at, and then all the other team sports that I really enjoyed. It was a nice combination of all sports and I was lucky to get to try it and absolutely loved it.
Peterson: What was it like being part of the start of a new program and help build the team?
Pyle: It was awesome. I was mostly made up of girls who were just swimmers and had found this passion of water polo through Sherman bringing it to us. We had a couple of girls with some water polo experience and we followed their lead. We basically learned together, but I think having some speed helped us against other teams who were more focused on strategy. It took us a while to come along, but we were one of the only DII schools that had a water polo team on the East Coast. We were playing teams like Princeton, Brown, Michigan, and Indiana, and we would hold our own for a little while, but it became apparent who was going to win pretty quickly. It was a really cool experience to go up against those bigger teams that were like where the heck is Gannon anyway. I think it was my sophomore or junior season and we ended up beating Villanova and they were the first DI team we beat. To come from just a group of swimmers who were trying to figure out the game to get that far was a really cool thing to be a part of.
Peterson: What are some of your favorite memories from your playing days?
Pyle: When we played against Michigan their goalie was actually Betsey Armstrong who was the goalie for the USA Olympic team. It was pretty cool. Anybody who actually scored during the Michigan game hangs their hat on that. That’s something really cool we always like to look back on and remember. Every practice, every road trip riding in the little vans with nine or ten of us, long trips to Boston and Philadelphia, led to us having so much fun together. That was the best part of it. As far as practice and games go, all the memorable things revolve around Sherman. He was our dad and he put up with so much. He was so good a coaching a group of girls and finding that fine line between tough love and compassion to bring the best out of all of us. His favorite thing to do was make us do in-and-outs when we did anything wrong or yell “what are you doing!” Anytime any of us get together today, those are still the comments and the things we remember and talk about.
Another one of my favorite memories was breaking the school record in the 200 freestyle during my senior year at our GLIAC championship for swimming. At that meet, I slipped getting out of the pool after my 100 freestyle prelims race. I split my knee open and had to get stitches, but I still competed in finals with my best time later that night.
Peterson: Do you still talk and keep in touch with your teammates today?
Pyle: Oh yeah. Three of them were in my wedding. I do an annual Zoo-Boo trip with two of them and all of our kids. We’ve grown from one of us having one kid to all three of us having two kids each. These are people I’ve made lifelong friendships with and have done really big things with. One of them, Steph Rossi who was my roommate, did the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon in San Francisco with me. It was a really big deal for us. She lives in Michigan now but she was living in Canada then. Even though we’re far apart, we stayed together and kind of trained together virtually asking what each other did that day. Another one of my best friends, Tara Skasik, was with me when I swam across Lake Erie. She kayaked next to me for most of the day.
Peterson: I actually talked to Elliot Spaeder last week who told me about his swim across Lake Erie, so that’s pretty cool to now talk to you who has done it. How was your experience doing that?
Pyle: Spaeder was always a distance swimmer, so that isn’t too surprising that he did it. He and I were in the lanes a lot together because we both swam the 200 free, and he was definitely one of my favorite people to train with because he always pushed me. He was a good training partner. I did it on Aug. 6, 2007. Like I said, my friend Tara was with me and Jamie Haines, who was actually who I stayed with on my recruiting trip, was a big part of my training because her husband had done it as well. It took me 14 hours and nine minutes. At the time, I was the fastest woman. I should also include my husband, who is a Gannon alum, as a kayaker by my side. He was there the whole day cheering me on.
Peterson: What was the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon like?
Pyle: They take you out on a boat in the Pacific Ocean near the Alcatraz Prison. You dive in off the boat and swim to shore. Then you do a 25-mile bike ride up and down the hills of San Francisco. I almost felt like I didn’t deserve to be there at that point because it was really, really rough. The run at the end wasn’t too bad. The cool part was is that it’s a lottery. You have to be chosen to do that triathlon because so many people want to do it. They have three or four rounds of picking and I got picked in the first round while my friend Steph got picked in the second one. It was kind of crazy that we both got picked in the same year and then we dove in together. We got lost from each other and when I went to get out of the water she was actually right behind me. It was awesome because once we started we never thought we’d see each other again.
Peterson: What have you been up to in your career and personal life since graduating in 2004?
Pyle: I went to Syracuse University for graduate school and while I was there, I actually played club water polo for another year. That was nice because it was just club and didn’t have to worry about eligibility but got to have more fun with that. When I graduated I moved back to Erie and worked at Saint Vincent for about seven years in their marketing department. All of those coworkers are the ones that really helped me plan my swim, which was amazing and such a fun group to work with. Now I work for Hertel and Brown Physical Therapy. I do all of their marketing and human resourcing and help with the stuff they do not have time for. I wear many hats. They’re both Gannon graduates as well. I still feel like I’m a part of a really close family, which all stems from my time at Gannon. I am also the head swim coach at Villa Maria. This is my 10th year doing that. In 2019, we actually won the State Championship, which was the first time that a female team from District 10 had won the AA swim state championship.
In my personal life, I am married. My husband’s name is Brad. Like I said earlier, he is a Gannon graduate. He graduated in 2004 and was a football player. I did work study in the football office. Sherman, Bill Elias and Dee Smith think that they’re the ones that led us to each other and we should be thankful to them for our happy life. It’s kind of funny that they always like to take credit for it, but we’ll give it to them. We have two kids. Our son Jack is 11 and our daughter Brooke is three.
Peterson: What do you like to do in your free time?
Pyle: I don’t really have much free time but there are several other things I like to do. I just taught a public speaking class at Gannon this semester. It was kind of fun. It was the first time I ever taught and I enjoyed it. Public speaking was a little bit difficult to teach in an era of wearing face masks, but we made it through and it was a fun experience. The other thing that I do is cross-fit. I don’t swim or do triathlons anymore, but I’ve done a lot of local cross-fit competitions. I still feed my own personal competitive streak with it.
Peterson: One final question, what advice do you have for current student-athletes?
Pyle: In regards to the current situation they’re in now, this craziness is temporary. I would also tell them to take full advantage of every opportunity to go as hard as you possibly can because you are going to miss it so much when it’s gone. Never hold back. Go 100 miles an hour at every opportunity you can because you will never get those opportunities back. Embrace your coaches, embrace your teammates, and let them know how much you appreciate them being there for you.
Release courtesy Gannon University Athletics Communications
