Bates Scholarship: Wooster's Pettorini keeps perspective in balancing sports, academics

Perspective.

It's something that's easy to lose as a high school athlete. When the world revolves around school, practices and games 12 months a year, it can be hard to think about what life looks like when playing organized sports is no longer an option.

Wooster's Tori Pettorini has been able to see the importance of life beyond sports while still excelling on the field and court, earning her spot as one of the eight Roy S. Bates Scholarship recipients.

Growing up in a sports-crazed family — her parents Tim and Tina were both standout athletes and her grandfather Tim was the longtime baseball coach at The College of Wooster — it could have been much different. Pettorini's older brother Tyler poured extra time into becoming a high-level athlete, and has seen it pay off, starting for Ohio State's baseball team since his freshman year.

"What most high schoolers need to know is, hey, it's just sports," Pettorini said. "It's not your whole life. Your whole life doesn't reflect on winning and losing. I feel like that's the most important thing. Just having fun."

Pettorini realized that path wasn't for her and made peace with it.

"I've always grown up and everything revolves around sports," Pettorini said. "Even in the beginning of high school, I was like, 'I need to be an all-conference player, an all-district player. I think this year was the moment I realized that this isn't what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life. I'm still going to put 100% into everything but it gave me a little more relaxation that it's OK to mess up. It's OK to have bad games."

And yet the senior has still been a key player in three sports for the Generals — starring for multiple years on the softball diamond and basketball court and playing a key role on the volleyball court as a senior.

As a basketball player, she became one of the area's most dangerous 3-point shooters, earning first or second-team All-Ohio Cardinal Conference honors her final three years of playing. Despite the Generals softball program going through constant changes during her four years, Pettorini has been a consistent bat on a team trying to find its identity.

Volleyball was the biggest challenge for Pettorini, who decided not to play as a junior. However, as a senior, she dedicated the time and effort and saw a lot of action for a Wooster team that went undefeated during the regular season before losing in the district finals.

While playing three sports, Pettorini still managed a 3.99 weighted grade-point average while taking on a challenging course load.

Pettorini hasn't fully decided on her college choice yet but is leaning toward attending Ohio State and going into the medical field — a challenge apart from sports she's ready to take on with her full attention.

"My grades have always come first," Pettorini said. "I've always been that annoying kid where if I get a B it's like, 'Oh my gosh.' ... I know that going into college being an athlete too, it would be really hard on me to want to be really great at that sport but also maintain getting As and Bs. I'm ready to move on with my life other than sports."

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Bates Scholarship: Wooster's Pettorini finds balance in school, sports