Staff file photo / Brian Yauger. Mathews’ Ethan Petak puts up a jump shot during basketball season.

This past school year, Mathews’ Ethan Petak was the go-to guy. Not just for the baseball program, but as the football team’s quarterback and the top scoring option on the basketball team.

That’s a lot of pressure for a high schooler to handle, but the Mustang senior handled things well. The quiet, lead-by-example type, Petak helped guide the football team to the playoffs, the basketball team to the district finals and rewrote the record books for the baseball team in their third straight league championship season.

All this after overcoming two nasty injuries in his freshman and sophomore years.

That tenacity, according to Petak, comes from his mother.

“I just think it helped by the way I was raised. My mom kept me motivated. She kept me going. She’s the real reason I’m doing all this. Even though she may be annoying sometimes, telling me to get out of bed and go work,” Petak joked. “It’s helped me just stay tough in the face of adversity really well, even though I’ve put myself in the face of adversity many times. It’s taught me to stay composed under pressure.”

That composure helped him rewrite the record books for the baseball program, finishing as the school’s all-time leader in batting average (.509). He also holds the single-season records for hits, RBIs, doubles and is tied for the record for triples in a single season.

“He was a central offensive figure for our team,” baseball coach Jared Terlecky said. “We’ve been league champions for the last three years and of course, we won a district championship two years ago. Having his bat in the middle of the lineup, that other teams had to account for and be careful pitching to, that’s just huge. …

“I give him a ton of credit because as a hitter, it’s so difficult to be patient. When the other team is just trying to nibble at the corners or maybe pitch around you a little bit, he was like our version of Barry Bonds. He’d just stay patient and when people throw in the strike zone, he’d crack it with very good discipline.”

On the basketball side, Petak shouldered the burden this season as the lone starter returning from the team’s first-ever district title-winning team.

“I really think he took it personally,” basketball coach Michael Weymer said. “Trying to carry on the legacy that he had been a part of for three seasons.

“He was ready, even as a junior, to take on more of a scoring load, and it was harder on that team for him to carve out a role playing with four seniors in that class. But even at some of our more difficult games, last year, were some of his best games. You know the district championship game against JFK, I want to say he was our leading scorer. The one game we lost against Lakeview during that season, he was our leading scorer. As a junior he had, you know, we really saw his ability to score the basketball, especially in tough moments. Even this year as a senior, scoring 30 against Bristol at home. In the most difficult moments, Ethan was there and he was reliable and he’d be able to go out and get us a basket.”

Both coaches agreed that Petak was going to be a difficult kid to replace, and not just for his play or leadership.

On the baseball side, Petak served as one of the Mustangs’ fashion advisors as well. When it was time to order new caps for the year, Terlecky wanted to make sure Petak had a say in what was going to be worn. “Look good, play good” has been a tenet of Terlecky’s ever since he was a player himself.

“One of the things we used to say, and this goes back to like Coach Kennedy before he passed away, even when he was coaching me was ‘You look good. You play good,'” Terlecky said. “(Petak) is one of those kids who always looked sharp. Whether it was like a sweet bat or nice batting gloves. He had a lot of great baseball equipment and he had appreciation for it.

“I always have my seniors help me pick out baseball cap designs. We’d come up with like three or four different possibilities and always let the seniors usually vote over chat about what we were going to go with, but he always helped me design one or show me like ‘Hey, I like this one coach.’ We had a lot of fun picking out uniform designs over the years and baseball caps, not to mention other baseball equipment like catchers’ gear. I’ll miss his input on that stuff. Hopefully there’ll be another youngster coming up with a good style and good taste like him.”

Now a Mathews alumnus, Petak is going to Malone University to continue his baseball career and plans on majoring in business administration.

With his time at Mathews in the books, the two memories that stand out the most are the pair of district titles.

That thrilling victory over Kennedy in his junior season stands out.

“The first one is obviously winning the district against JFK, my junior year in basketball,” Petak said. “I hear from everyone, ‘We don’t win that game without you.’ And that’s nice to hear. I gave it my all. I was diving all over the place. That’s the first district for basketball in school history and I mean it was a buzzer beater. It was out of a movie, honestly. That and winning the district for our baseball team my sophomore year. We lost like that big senior group and we were left with like six freshmen starting, and we just played ball. We weren’t even thinking about it.”

That closeness of the baseball team that season which earned the team a district title is a perfect encapsulation of the school and community itself. It’s a close bond, and to Petak, it was a special four years being a Mustang.

“For being such a small town, we show a lot of heart at every one of our games,” Petak said. “No matter how far we play, there’s always fans there for us. We’re always supporting each other. Everyone knows everybody. We graduated like 55 kids, as a town we’re a really tight group and it was just really special for my four years.”

byauger@tribtoday.com