Vina’s Schmittou making plans for future
Editor’s Note: Franklin’s Future is a regular feature spotlighting a high school senior in Franklin County and what they have planned for life after graduation.
High school senior Nick Schmittou has only spent three years as a Vina Red Devil but he made up for lost time by getting involved in school clubs like Students Against Destructive Decisions, Fellowship of Christian Students and the Building Technologies program that he was president of this past year.
Schmittou has also been a member of the football and basketball teams, but if you ask this 18-year-old what the best part of high school has been, he’ll tell you without hesitation it has been his time spent playing his favorite sport – baseball.
Schmittou said baseball is as natural as breathing in his home and it’s a sport he has played his entire life.
When he transferred to VHS after his freshman year of high school, he knew he wanted to be part of the school’s baseball team.
“Some schools in the area are really known because of a particular sport they are always good at,” Schmittou said. “At Vina, we’re really known for our baseball. It’s something we really take pride in.”
Schmittou said, naturally, some of his favorite memories from high school have taken place on the baseball field.
“The first year I went to school here we won the area championship in baseball and won our first playoff game ever,” he said. “That will always be a great memory but some of the best memories happened at practices when it was just us out there. Our funniest moments were during practices. We had a good time and I’ll definitely miss my teammates.”
Even though it may not seem like there would be a lot to miss leaving a place you’ve only been for three years, Schmittou said there are other things he will miss about Vina once he graduates this month.
“Everyone here pretty much talks to everyone,” he said. “There isn’t just one group of people you hang out with or two or three people you do stuff with on the weekends. At a smaller school, you all just hang out together and get close.
“It will be sad not seeing my friends everyday because we’re all going in different directions, so you don’t really know when everyone will all be together again.
“You just have a different bond with your high school friends than you have with friends you make in college.”
Even though the transition into a new school his sophomore year wasn’t all that hard, Schmittou said there were still some things he had to adjust to.
“I played baseball here in the summer before I ever moved here so I knew some of the guys already,” he said, “but I wasn’t used to being in such a small school where there are little kids in the same place as the older ones.
“I’ll never forget walking down the hallway on my first day and seeing 18 year olds walking next to 11 year olds. I got used to it though and the smaller school atmosphere really grew on me.”
As much as he enjoyed high school, Schmittou will soon be leaving the small halls of Vina behind and heading off to college, although exactly which college he’ll be attending is still to be determined.
“I really want to be able to play baseball in college so I’m still seeing about that,” he said. “I’m really leaning towards Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss., but we’ll just have to see how it goes.”
Schmittou said his college major depends on which college he ends up at in the fall, but he sees his career options ending up in one of three options: culinary arts, machinist, or teaching.
“Culinary arts is really my first choice and I think that shocked a lot of people,” he said. “I had to cook something for my friends before they would believe I was serious.
“I grew up cooking with my mom and I enjoy doing it so I figure it won’t feel so much like work if I have a job doing something I like. I’m the best at doing desserts.”
Schmittou said he was also pretty good with the building technology class’ CNC router, which is what a machinist would use.
“The router we have is for wood and a machinist would use one on metal, but it’s basically the same,” he said. “For the past two years we’ve made the football, basketball and cross country plaques and other things for the campus. I like doing it and machinists make pretty decent money so I thought it might be a good career.”
He also got good experience this year being part of a group of carpentry students who have made four sets of cabinets for tornado victims in Phil Campbell who lost their homes and are having to rebuild.
“That has been a good experience because we have learned a lot and really have a sense of accomplishment for the cabinets we made and we helped people at the same time.”
Last but not least, Schmittou said he was also considering becoming a teacher and a coach.
“I’m sure that doesn’t seem surprising that I wouldn’t mind being a coach,” he said. “I just like that a lot.”
Schmittou has actually had some experience being in that sort of a position over the years helping with Vina’s little league team.
“I just know I’d like being a coach,” he said.
Whatever career he ends up choosing will ultimately decide where he chooses to settle down in the future, he said.
“If I do culinary arts, I won’t be able to live in Franklin County because there won’t be a lot of options for me here,” he said. “But if I was a machinist or a teacher, there would be some options for me here, so you never know.”
Schmittou is the son of Cindy and Steven Orrick and he has two older brothers, Cody Beard and Skyler Schmittou.
