Excels at three sports, No. 1 in her class, Rubright does it all

Here is the type of story that you don't hear nearly enough about in sports.

In this story there are no tales of overbearing parents or coaches boxing a kid into playing one sport. Nothing about sacrificing love of the game for the elusive college scholarship.

You won't hear about a student skating by high school social studies to stay eligible for regionals. Not even close.

If you want to hear about the good side of high school athletics, let me tell you about Samantha Rubright.

Like most boys and girls, Rubright dabbled in several sports growing up. Basketball was always her first love, but Rubright wasn't comfortable unless she kept busy.

"I always played as many sports as I possibly could," she said. "If I didn't have sports to go to, I don't know what I'd do with myself."

Rubright is an athlete who only comes along so often at Fenton High School. Any coach there would love the chance to work with her. If she could hone her skills in a particular sport 12 months out of the year, who knows what would happen?

Rubright took the road less traveled. She went "old school," if you will. She didn't part ways with her second and third sports. The ultimate rarity these days, Rubright played three sports - volleyball, basketball and softball - all four years at Fenton.

Cutting corners, or cutting a sport, was never a consideration.

Rubright scored 1,000 points in basketball at Fenton and is second all-time in points and rebounds at the school.

Fenton basketball coach Tim Anderson said Rubright might have missed a practice or two over four years to make college visits. But that's it.

"She runs on high octane," Anderson said. "(Not missing practices) is easily overlooked, but I don't overlook it."

But sports only tells half the story.

Then there's Rubright the academic, a student of whom Anderson, also her chemistry teacher, said "is one of the best I've ever had at Fenton."

No. 1 in her senior class, Rubright carries a 4.35 cumulative GPA out of a 4.0 scale with a schedule this semester of AP Calculus, AP World History, AP Chemistry, AP Spanish4 and a career internships class that takes her to Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park. There the future pre-med major shadows a nurse.

"It's interesting, I get to go behind the scenes," she said. "It's nice to have that experience and see that I do like medicine."

"In any profession," Anderson said, "but especially in educuation it's all about taking advantage of opportunities. And it doesn't happen nearly enough. She takes advantage of every opportunity put in front of her."

Three sports and an all-honors course load sounds like a full load. But everybody who knows Rubright says she is a wiz at time management. She takes it in stride.

"I do most of my homework during the day," she said. "Honestly my nights are pretty free. I'm not up until midnight doing homework."

That could change next year.

Rubright recently committed to play basketball and softball at Illinois Wesleyan. She will join a basketball program that went 30-1 last year and advanced to the Division III Elite Eight.

All her plans have fallen into place.

As a fifth-grader Rubright wrote a paper outlining the plans for her future. The then-aspiring architect bumped those career goals for medicine.

But playing college basketball was in that vision.

"She is just consistent in everything she does," Anderson said. "I'd like to think that that's what people are looking for in the real world, too."

jwelge@dailyherald.com