'I always wanted to make it here': Aurora's Sam, Sarah, Sophie Petrash share dugout, bond

JEFFERSON — This is the story Sam Petrash wasn't sure he wanted told. The Aurora softball coach is as humble as he is affable.

A story about the Petrash family? Sam Petrash hemmed and hawed about that idea.

When told it would focus on his daughters, not him, he was a little more receptive.

"I'm really goofy," Petrash said. "I'm shy about stuff like that."

It's a story that's impossible to ignore.

His older daughter, Sarah, went 12-2 in the circle as a senior to guide the Greenmen to their first district championship in 2013. She was also in the dugout for their second district title — which they secured in May — as an assistant coach. His younger daughter, Sophie, was one of Aurora's leading hitters this season.

For Sophie, comparing regional runs is nearly impossible given she was in preschool when her older sister was leading the Greenmen to their first district championship.

Sarah, however, said she saw plenty of parallels between the 2013 and 2024 Greenmen.

"I think ever since they were young, they have had that thought, like, we're going to make it far," Sarah Petrash said. "And that's kind of how they grew up, and just their chemistry reminds me of the chemistry from when I played, how close our team was. I think chemistry has a huge role in how a team performs."

Sarah, Sophie Petrash develop longstanding connection with the game

Sarah Petrash's softball career started the summer between third and fourth grade.

"[My younger brother] started playing baseball and I was, like, I want to play softball," Petrash said. "I was really bad when I first started, but I kept practicing and I started having success with it. And I think just the success and I love the feeling of competing and I just kept wanting more, so I kept practicing more until I got better."

Sam Petrash wasn't coaching at Aurora yet but he did coach his older daughter outside of school and encouraged her love of the game.

"He didn't really force anything on me," Sarah Petrash said. "It was, 'If you want to do it, go ahead.' And then I told him that I wanted to be a pitcher, and he's, like, 'OK, well, if you want to be good, you got to practice.' So [we] practiced, what, like five times a week with 200 pitches every time."

By the time Sophie Petrash got into sports, they were a full-fledged softball family.

"He said you could play whatever sport as long as you keep playing softball," the rising senior said of her father. "But more recently it was, like, 'I'm happy with whatever you choose to do.'"

Sophie Petrash, like many of the standouts on the 2024 Greenmen team, was raised in the Aurora Raptors program. This past season, Petrash hit .475, including nine doubles, and scored a whopping 37 runs (second on the team). As she began to draw college interest, Petrash decided she wanted to play for a smaller program.

"I kept my options really wide," she said. "I didn't want to go Division I, I knew that, and I just talked to coaches and I kept building on that and made a short list and then I made my decision."

She made her decision in the midst of Aurora's district run, with the Clarion University coach coming out to talk to her after one of the Greenmen's games in Jefferson Township.

"We've been talking ever since she honestly could reach out to me and talk," Petrash said. "We've been just talking all throughout fall, winter and now here."

Sharing big dreams and a dugout

Three members of the Petrash family reside in the Aurora dugout. It's a neat fact, but it's become old hat.

"Since my dad's been my coach ever since I've been playing, it's just I don't know anything else separate from that," Sophie Petrash said. "With my sister, it's a little different, but she was also one of my coaches when I first started."

Sam and Sarah Petrash just completed their seventh season of coaching.

Sophie, of course, is entering her senior year.

Aurora's North Star has long been clear. Indeed, Sarah Petrash remembers sharing big dreams with Aurora's parents when she first became an assistant coach.

"I said, 'I know what it takes to get there,'" Petrash said. "Every single year, we've had what it takes, and it seems like we just fall apart almost. And this year I think the girls are so focused and it just feels good to finally know, finally they know what it takes because we've been saying this for seven years now, like, 'We have the potential, we have it.' And now this group finally is embracing that."

They embraced it in 2024. Why would 2025 be any different as Sam, Sarah and Sophie Petrash look forward to one more year together in the Aurora dugout?

"I always wanted to make it here," Sophie Petrash said. "We've been battling ever since freshman year and now we got farther last year and now we finally won the championship this year and I want to keep going and keep building on that."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: 'I always wanted to make it here': Aurora's Sam, Sarah, Sophie Petrash share dugout, bond