Tristan Rostagno moved with his family to Pewaukee in the spring of 2011 and wasted no time in making a name for himself at Arrowhead HS. 

The Arkansas native was named to the Classic Eight All-Conference First Team, along with the honor of Arrowhead defensive MVP. He scored 14 points (6g-8a) in his freshman campaign for Coach Mike Watt.

That was just the start of good things. Two months after the high school season ended, Rostagno was tabbed by the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the fifth round (70th overall) of the USHL Futures Draft.

"My family and I were following the draft in our living room," he said. "We were all sitting there waiting to see my name pop up."

Pretty heady stuff for a 15-year-old (Tristan turned 16 on September 25), but Rostagno would have one more event happen during the summer--a verbal commitment with Michigan Tech on a full hockey scholarship.

"I loved everything about it--the coaches, the environment, everything," said Rostagno in a recent phone interview. "Everything about it was great."

Rostagno will play for Team Wisconsin U16 this fall before playing at Arrowhead, and then plans to spend two years at Muskegon before moving to the Houghton, MI campus in the fall of 2015. 

Almost amazingly, this will just be Rostagno's third year on defense.

"You have to do a lot of homework," noted Rostagno, referring to the steep learning curve needed to succeed after a short time at the tough position. "I watched Nik Lidstrom alot. He was very smart, hard-working, and efficient. I learned to quit thinking and just play and it became instinctive."

The 6'2, 185# sophomore listed getting stronger and quicker among things to improve upon, along with working on skating skills and learning to make quicker plays.

Rostagno plans on studying mechanical engineering.

"It comes kind of fast. It's weird...I'm just a sophomore and already thinking about college."

Life does move fast and it certainly has for Tristan Rostagno, who goes from being a Warhawk to a Lumberjack to a Husky in three short years.

Arrowhead coach Mike Watt comments:
 

"Tristan has worked extremely hard for this opportunity and he has been rewarded for that hard work. It says a lot about his character and the sacrifice that needs to be made to get to that level. Tristan's commitment on and off the ice, as well as in the classroom, is second to none. In speaking with the coaches at Tech, they told me that they were excited to have Tristan as a future Huskie. The Arrowhead family is proud of Tristan and I hope that this leads to many others in Wisconsin High School hockey to be afforded the same opportunities for D-I scholarships."