Lofty Aspirations

From Reptiles To Mountains To MTV, Grasso Tech Senior's Climb Continues

By Karin Crompton ,

Published on 6/1/2007

North Stonington -- THE PYTHON, “OZ” — AS IN GREAT AND powerful — is in its aquarium, napping. The gecko, “Gecks,” is sunning in its (separate) aquarium by the window. The frog, name unknown, hangs out in another cage.

Keith Sidle, a senior at Grasso Southeastern Technical High School, was going to be a herpetologist, someone who deals with reptiles and amphibians, once upon a time. His bedroom wallpaper is grass and leaves and frogs with snakes on the borders. Oz and Gecks and the frog live here.

Admittedly, Sidle says, the wallpaper went up when he was 5 years old.

Eventually, the visions of making a career out of reptiles faded.

“I can always keep reptiles as a hobby,” said Sidle. Instead, he pictures himself as an outdoor adventure guide or perhaps even the next Ed Viesturs, the world-famous mountaineer.

By Suzanne Ouellette

• Keith Sidle, a senior at Grasso Southeastern Technical High School in Groton, says he wants to scale peaks and set trails where no one else has successfully trekked before.

“That's what I want to do — climb, have sponsors ... set new routes on unnamed peaks in the middle of nowhere. Stuff people think can't be climbed, go climb it,” he said during an interview at his house earlier this week.

Sidle, 18, graduates from Grasso on June 15 and will attend Unity College, an environmental college in Unity, Maine, this fall. He lives in North Stonington with his mother, Karen; father, Warren; and brothers Wayne, 20, and Glenn, 15.

At Unity, Sidle can earn credit for doing what he loves: spending time outside. That's a big reason he chose to attend Grasso Tech, where he has studied bio-environmental technology.

“I hate sitting behind a desk,” he said. “It's a hands-on school; I'm a hands-on person.”

Sidle credits Pete McDevitt, a class advisor and carpentry teacher, with introducing him to climbing. McDevitt and Alex Pesarik, the department head of the school's bio-environmental technology department, formed an outdoors club at the high school a couple of years ago and took the students to the former Ollie's Rock Gym in Mystic.

By Suzanne Ouellette

• Grasso Tech senior Keith Sidle poses with his mountaineering equipment in his bedroom Tuesday. Sidle hopes to become a professional mountaineering guide after graduation.

Sidle was hooked and also forged a friendship with his teachers. This past winter break, he hiked Mount Washington with a group that included McDevitt and Pesarik.

“I think Keith is a special kid,” McDevitt said. “Teachers have certain kids that are very mature for their age and students that you would trust to do just about anything. If you had met them outside of school, you would probably become friends ... I think Keith is one of those kids; he can strike up a conversation with just about anyone.”

“He's a very gifted student in the fact that he has a high level of intellect combined with high mechanical ability,” Said Pesarik. “It makes him a very good problem-solver and very good to have on any team at the school.”

McDevitt and Pesarik each mentioned Sidle's interest in fitness. It was Sidle's muscles, not to mention the dirty jeans, flannel shirt and boots, that caught the attention of MTV producers who interviewed students at Grasso last year for a reality show called, “MADE.”

He wanted to be a ballroom dancer, the beefy Sidle told them. At the time, he was hauling trash when not in school.

MTV pounced.

Crews spent six weeks following him around school and home, plus putting him in other situations like dinner with his dance partner (they probably hoped for a budding romance, Sidle says) and sending him to a salsa club.

In November, he appeared in Episode 45 of the show, taking first place in a ballroom dancing competition that he thinks was likely rigged.

The whole show was rigged, he says. The producers re-shot conversations that didn't go the way they had envisioned — they filmed his first meeting with his dance instructor seven times, Sidle said — and put captions on scenes and inserted made-up conversation. They sent him to acting class to learn how to show more emotion, he said.

No matter. Sidle said he couldn't stop laughing when he watched the show.

“He's a great, well-rounded young man,” Pesarik said. “His potential is through the roof, and he's definitely taking advantage of the fact and knows that he can go far with it.”