Tori Nigro knew she would have to think about choosing a school this year.
She just assumed it would be a college.
But now a little more than a quarter of a way through her first year at St. Basil’s High School, the junior has the task of finding a school for her senior year since her current school is closing in June.
It’s exactly what she wanted not to happen.
“It was my first month here when we found out it was closing, so it was hard for me, but I felt a lot worse for the girls who were here the whole time, they were really upset,”said Nigro, who went to St. Matt’s but now lives in St. Jerome’s parish. “I really like it here. The main reason I left (Archbishop Ryan, where she went as a freshman and a sophomore) was because I wanted to go to a small school and an all-girls school. Coming out of grade school I never thought about going to an all-girls school, but I think for me, that’s the best.
“I love Basil’s, but when I heard it was closing, I didn’t want to go to three high schools. I wanted to graduate from Basil’s, but now that’s not an option. They aren’t even looking to keep it open. Now they’re just telling us to find another school. They’re helping us, but they’re not even thinking about keeping it open.”
Nigro is now starting to worry about where she’ll go next, although she likes what she sees out of Villa Joseph Marie in Holland. Along with her parents, she’ll pick out a school for next year, but now she’s fully focused on academics and athletics.
Nigro was a three-sport athlete, but she’s given up lacrosse to focus on her other two sports, soccer and basketball.
This fall, she enjoyed a great soccer season, becoming one of the leaders for the Panthers soccer team.
“I did pretty well,” said Nigro, an outside midfielder who scored five goals this year. “I never really described myself, but I’m pretty fast. I’m left footed so I play on my strong side. I’m not a scorer, but I can score. When I’m inconsistent with scoring, I try to get a lot of crosses. We struggled finishing in some games, but I had a few assists.
“We had a good year. I felt really bad when it ended because that was the end of our soccer program. It’s hard when a season ends, but when the program is done, you feel really bad. So we wanted to have a good year for everyone, and we did.”
Nigro had a strong season in her secondary sport, but make no mistake about it, Nigro is a basketball player. And this year, she joins a Panthers team that already had a lot of firepower. Now they have a point guard who can run the show.
Basil has been successful in recent years, finding much success in the Catholic Academies League, District One and the state playoffs. Last year the Panthers won the league, their district, and fell short in an entertaining first-round game to Catholic League power Neumann-Goretti. Denae Carter, an Oxford Circle resident, comes in as one of the top players in the area, so Basil’s should once again be one of the best teams in the area.
Nigro hopes she can keep the train headed in the right direction.
“I know how good they are, there are a lot of good players on the team, so I’m excited about playing with them,” said Nigro, who is penciled in as a starter at point guard. “I just want to go out and play. I want to make sure to get everyone involved and help them continue to be one of the better teams around.
“We haven’t had a lot of time to play together, but we did have some open gyms before everything was shut down, so we started to get comfortable playing with each other. I knew a lot of them before I got here, and I think we’ll start to play well together pretty quickly. We seemed to have good chemistry in the little time we had.”
Nigro is the kind of player the Panthers need.
She can score when needed, but that’s not her game. She’s the leader on the floor who makes those around her better.
Nigro knows her role, and that’s exactly what she likes to do.
“I know how to play with talented players, there’s some nerves to it, but I got a lot of talent around me,” Nigro said. “I want to make an impact and help the team. They have so much talent, I want to be a positive influence. And if that means running the offense and making sure everyone gets their shots, I like doing that.
“I know they’ve been very good. I want to make sure they do as well as they did last year, and go even further if we can. I think we can have a great year if we ever get started. Right now it’s looking like next year, but I’m not sure what will happen.”
Nigro still hopes to find a good high school, and after that college, while continuing to stay sharp in both her sports. But, as a student-athlete, she’s more concerned about what she does in the classroom.
“I got first honors at Ryan and I got them this year, too,” Nigro said. “I didn’t know how hard it would be, but I’m doing well, so that’s good.
“I did a lot of activities at Ryan, and I would have here, but I really haven’t had much time. We’ve been virtual, so I haven’t had a chance. If we get back, I definitely want to join things. It’s just been so different because it’s my first year here and I haven’t gotten a chance to join things. I hope I get a chance to.”
