‘Life goes fast’: Four Rock Hill High School NLI signees reflect amid celebration
Maylen Mitrovich admitted the moment still hadn’t sunk in.
The All-Region volleyball player wasn’t talking about the moment she committed to North Carolina. She’d accepted that — and she was excited for her future trips to Yaya Tea on Franklin Street and for the chance to learn under UNC head coach Joe Sagula.
The moment she was talking about, instead, is one that many high school athletes can relate to: her final points in a Bearcat uniform.
“I really thought we were going to do it up until the last three points, and then I was like, ‘This is it. This is the last game that I’m going to play in high school,’” Mitrovich said. “It was hard. It was sad. I don’t think it has hit me yet.
“It’s probably going to take a while because life goes fast, you know what I mean?”
Mitrovich was one of four Rock Hill High School athletes who were celebrated for signing national letters of intent in the school’s media center Wednesday morning. She was joined by Nick Petit, the baseball player who committed to USC Sumter; Zachary Reuland, who’s headed to College of Charleston to play golf; and Manning Sloop, who’ll play golf at South Carolina.
And each one, in different ways, mentioned how their lives after high school feel more real now than ever before.
Imagining life after high school
Nick Petit, a pitcher, called Wednesday “crazy.” After all, he still remembers when he used to sit next to his Dad on the couch watching the Yankees and Red Sox play, well before he owned his own pair of spikes. He recalls later playing T-ball, circling the bases while the other kids chased down his hits.
The first time he realized he could play baseball in college was when he was in ninth grade, he said, when he saw his brother, R.J., commit to play at Charleston Southern. R.J. graduated from Rock Hill High School in 2018.
“A lot of people always say ‘R.J. Petit’s brother...’” Nick said and then laughed. “I was like, ‘Wow, if he can do this, I have a shot to do it, too.’ I kind of just went for it, and here I am.”
Like Petit, the pair of 5A state golf champions also reflected on where they came from. Manning Sloop mentioned how two years ago, the team stayed in a house during its championship run in the state playoffs. He said the teammate camaraderie is what he’ll miss most about his time in high school.
“Just being around people that play golf, and kind of joking around with your teammates,” Sloop said. “It was so fun.”
His teammate, Zachary Reuland — who also won an individual state championship last year — recalled attending these signing events as a spectator, back when the future was merely a phrase to him.
But on Wednesday, like the other athletes with him, he said the event was different.
“I’ve been playing golf here since seventh grade, and being able to hold a signing day here is really cool,” he said.
Toward the end of the Wednesday morning meeting, well after he’d taken the commemorative pictures with his family and friends, Reuland was patted on the back.
When he turned, he saw a man with a big smile on his face who Reuland knows as “Mr. Sloop,” the father of his teammate, Manning. They shook hands and Mr. Sloop offered his congratulations.
“I remember seeing you when you were this tall,” Mr. Sloop said, sticking his hand toward his kneecap. They both laughed and shook their heads in part-delight, part-disbelief — as if neither one could discern when life started moving so fast.
This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 2:13 PM.
.jpeg)