Bella Juozapaitis named Tecumseh's Scholar-Athlete of the Year

TECUMSEH — Tecumseh softball isn't a program used to having losing seasons.

But when the 2024 senior class were freshmen, they had to go through some growing pains. There was no 2020 season due to the pandemic and with a handful of strong freshmen, they made up the bulk of the lineup while the others didn't have a ton of experience.

"Freshman year was a down year," Bella Juozapaitis said. "Most of us were freshmen and we were young. But as we got older, we got better and our senior year we had a lot of fun."

Tecumseh quickly returned to its winning ways and one of those leaders was Juozapaitis behind the plate as a catcher, earning all-county honors each season. She was also part of the state qualifying girls golf team and up until her senior season, was part of the strong Tecumseh girls basketball squad.

She also posted a 4.2 GPA in the classroom and was Tecumseh's salutatorian.

"It's hard," Juozapaitis said of balancing sports and studies. "Especially if your in honors and AP classes. But you can't stress yourself too much."

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Helping young adults like herself deal with stress is something she wants to focus on long term. Juozapaitis will be heading to Bethany, West Virginia, located in a sliver of the northern part of the state sandwiched between Ohio and Pennsylvania, not far east of Pittsburgh.

There she looks to major in psychology.

"Long term, I want to help young adults deal with their mental health," she said. "My junior year I was at the tech center doing a health class and we had a session on mental health and it kind of evolved into something more from there."

While at Bethany, she'll join the Bison softball team, which enjoyed one of their best seasons this past year as it looks to be a program on the rise in NCAA Division III.

Juozapaitis has long wanted to attend college out of state and quickly fell for the campus and the program.

"I never wanted to go to a big school," she said. "Last fall I was reaching out to schools and Bethany reached out to me and invited me out and I loved the campus and the team."

TECUMSEH'S HONORABLE MENTIONS

Max Bledsoe, 3.8 (football, wrestling, baseball)

AJ Bryan, 3.71 (football, basketball, track)

Owen Williams, 3.596 (bowling)

Taylor Carlson N/A (track)

Grant Fahle N/A (swimming, cross country, track)

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Bella Juozapaitis named Tecumseh's Scholar-Athlete of the Year